Romans awoke on Wednesday morning, June 5th, to the news that Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the leading Democratic candidate for President, had been shot and killed shortly after midnight Pacific time. Coming just two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, this killing left Romans (and all Americans) voicing shock at the brutal killing, and wondering what could be done to stop this sort of senseless violence.
School was over, but baseball continued as the Chieftains won the Floyd County High School Baseball Championship with a 4-3 win over Pepperell. Pepperell was ahead 3-1 in the second inning before the Chiefs scored three runs in the third inning; from there on, neither team scored again, which was perfectly fine as far as West Rome was concerned.
The Rome City School Board finalized its plans to close Main High School in order to totally desegregate Rome schools for the first time in history. 199 9th and 10th grade students black students would be transferred to West Rome and East Rome, along with ten teachers, beginning in the 1968-1969 school year, leaving Main High with just 11th and 12th grade students. The board still had not decided whether to keep East and West Rome open for the 1969-1970 school year; they were still considering plans to build a single high school near Berry College (in neither East nor West Rome, so that neither school could claim that it had outlasted the other) or to move all students to the two existing high schools. (As we know, the latter plan was the one that they ultimately followed, although a little more than two decades later, they would sell out to Walmart and Kmart and build that equally-inconvenient single high school not too far from Berry.)
The arrest of two men in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee brought an end to a multi-state crime ring that had included an "untold number" of home break-ins and burglaries in 1967 and the first half of 1968. "The value of the merchandise we confiscated amounts to as much as $50,000," Murray County Sheriff Charles Poag said. Authorities could not even begin to speculate how much stolen merchandise had already been sold, but they were securing warrants to seize bank accounts and any financial records that might help them to determine what had been sold, and to whom. Because the burglaries involved interstate criminal activity, the FBI was also called in to investigate.
Police shut down a major still in the Wilkerson Road area of Rome on Monday night, shutting down four "cookers"--three capable of producing 1,000 gallons of bootleg liquor and the fourth a massive 1,500 gallon device. Bootleg alcohol, mash, and hundreds of pounds of supplies were seized and destroyed. The same night, police also hit a large operation near the Floyd-Bartow County line and another still off Georgia 1000 between Cave Spring and Cedartown. More than 12,000 gallons of illegal alcohol was destroyed in the three raids.
Following the prior week's raid on a Shorter Avenue gambling den, Rome police carried out another gambling raid on June 6th--this one at the Forrest Hotel on Broad Street. Six men were arrested, including two West Rome residents, Their crime? Playing poker for money, which was apparently close enough to serious gambling to stir the interest of Rome authorities.
Piggly Wiggly had chicken breasts for 49¢ a pound, Maxwell House coffee for 79¢ a pound, and eggs for 29¢ a dozen. Kroger had round steak for 89¢ a pound, Kraft mayonnaise for 39¢ a quart, and Morton frozen cream pies for 19¢ each. A&P had corned beef for 63¢ a pound, V8 vegetable juice for 45¢ a half-gallon, and strawberries for 39¢ a pint. Big Apple had center cut pork chops for 69¢ a pound, seedless grapes for 39¢ a pound, and five pounds of Dixie Crystal sugar for 29¢ with a $5 purchase. Couch's had lamb chops for 89¢ a pound, Van Camp's chili for 33¢ a can, and Aristocrat ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon.
The cinematic week began with Yours, Mine, & Ours (starring Lucille Ball) at the DeSoto Theatre, PJ (starring George Peppard) at the First Avenue, and Thunder Alley (starring Fabian) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switchout brought The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (starring Bob Hope) to the DeSoto Theatre, Live for Life (starring Yves Montand & Candice Bergen) to the first Avenue, and The Cincinnati Kid (starring Steve McQueen) to the West Rome Drive-In.
Simon & Garfunkel held on to number one for another week with "Mrs. Robinson." Other top ten hits included "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells (#2); "This Guy's In Love With You" by Herb Alpert (#3); "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly" by Hugo Montenegro, His Orchestra, and Chorus (#4); "Mony Mony" by Tommy James & The Shondells (#5); "Yummy Yummy Yummy" by the Ohio Express (#6); "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris (#7); "A Beautiful Morning" by the Rascals (#8); "Think" by Aretha Franklin (#9); and "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro (#10).
Simon & Garfunkel had an amazing three albums in the top five this week in 1968. Bookends held on at #1, The Graduate soundtrack held on at #2, and their album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme leapt to #5--the first time one group held three of the top five albums since the Beatles did it in the early days of Bealtemania. (The Monkees took third with The Birds, the Bees, and the Monkees and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass took fourth place with with Beat of the Brass.)
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