Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 10/24/1966 to 10/30/1966

On Tuesday, October 25th, the Rome News-Tribune recognized Benny Padgett as the number one scorer in Rome football. With seven touchdowns, ten points after, and one field goal, Padgett had racked up 55 points for the season thus far, was six points ahead of his nearest region competitor.

The Chieftains took on Calhoun in a non-region game on November 28th.
Coach Kennedy took the game as seriously as any other, however, as did the team, racking up a 39-6 victory.

West Rome’s Oaknoll Cemetery (located on Alabama Road just a bit past West Rome High School) had to deal with mercenary cemetery thieves this week in 1966. 78 bronze urns were stolen from the cemetery early Wednesday morning. “We want to find the kind of ghouls who go to a cemetery and rob the dead,” Officer Doyle Sutherland said. “This is one of the most macabre and morbid thefts I have ever seen.” Each urn weighed about five pounds, leading police to believe the thieves brought a pickup truck and loaded it up. (In the years since, urn thefts at Oaknoll have become far too common--and it's not just Oaknoll who has to deal with metal thieves, as cemeteries all over the country report the same sort of problems.)

The second phase of the East Rome Interchange was ahead of schedule this week in 1965. The first phase, which opened up in the fall of 1966, brought the road from Cartersville to Rome; phase two would take it from East Rome to US 27 near Six Mile (not too far from the eventual site of Floyd Junior College). Plans called for phase two to be completed by late 1967.

In an era of text messages and terse emails, the art of letter writing has largely fallen by the wayside, but the Rome Chamber of Commerce was doing its part to help people become better letter writers: they hosted a seminar on Writing Better Business Letters on Tuesday evening. More than a hundred people showed up at the Georgia Power Company Auditorium to learn how to write effective, precise letters.

McDonald’s began promoting its new “twice as hearty” doubles in 1966. “These man-sized hamburgers—with or without cheese” are double the size and satisfaction,” the ad touted, “made with double patties of ground chuck plus choice cuts of beef for flavor.”

Piggly Wiggly had sirloin steak for 89¢ a pound, Libby’s corn for 16¢ a can, and a one-pound jar of Shurfine peanut butter for 33¢ (which explains why I ate so many peanut butter sandwiches as a child!). Kroger had fresh whole fryers for a quarter a pound, vine ripe tomatoes for 20¢ a pound, and a one-pound bag of Bailey’s Supreme coffee for 65¢. Big Apple had the never-popular Swift’s premium two-pound turkey roll for $3.49, eggs for 49¢ a dozen, and bananas for a dime a pound. (Put those bananas together with that Piggly Wiggly peanut butter and you have one of my favorite sandwiches.) A&P had beef liver for 35¢ a pound, red delicious apples for 15¢ a pound, and a five-pound Jane Parker fruitcake for $3.99. Couch’s had center cut pork chops for 65¢ a pound, Coca-Cola (or Tab or Sprite) for 99¢ a case plus depict, and a pound of Durkee’s flaked coconut for 49¢,

The cinematic week began with The Fighting Prince of Donegal (with Peter McEnery) at the DeSoto Theatre, Khartoum (with Charlton Heston & Laurence Olivier) at the First Avenue, and The Group (with Candice Bergen) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switch out brought Return of the Seven (with Yul Brynner) to the DeSoto, Mister Buddwing (with James Garner & Suzanne Pleshette) to the First Avenue, and Don’t Give Up the Ship (with Jerry Lewis) at the West Rome Drive-In.

The Monkees took the number one slot for the first time this week in 1966 with “Last Train to Clarksville.” Other top ten hits included “96 Tears” by ? and the Mysterians (#2); “Poor Side of Town” by Johnny Rivers (#3); “Reach Out I’ll Be There” by the Four Tops (#4); “Dandy” by Herman’s Hermits (#5); “Hooray for Hazel” by Tommy Roe (#6); “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” by Jimmy Ruffin (#7); “If I Were a Carpenter” by Bobby Darin (#8); “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?” by the Rolling Stones (#9); and “Walk Away Renee” by the Left Banke (#10).

A Halloween tradition was born on Thursday, October 27th, 1966, when CBS premiered It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The network called on Coca-Cola (who sponsored the Peanuts Christmas Special) to sponsor the Halloween special; when Coke passed on a solo sponsorship, CBS approached Dolly Madison to co-sponsor the show. Both Coke and Dolly Madison would become primary co-sponsors of many more Peanuts specials over the years. CBS aired the special every year from 1966 through 2000; ABC bought the rights and began airing it annually in 2001.