Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 8/26/1968 to 9/1/1968

The last week of August 1968 in West Rome was a slow one. Summer (well, what students call summer--not the meteorological season, but the time between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next) was over, school was back in session, TV was still in reruns, football season hadn't started yet, and the fair was still a few weeks away... Rome in August was a town with too little to do and too much time in which not to do it, apparently.

Rome's late-summer heat wave continued, with temperatures hitting the upper 90s for the first half of the week and lows in the mid-70s. Not only was it hot, it was also quite dry, without even a popup thunderstorm to break the heat. Thankfully, cooler air moved in by the last part of the week, with Thursday highs in the mid-80s and lows in the upper 50s.

School started back on Monday, August 26th. Unfortunately, the late-summer heat wave we were just talking about made for a very uncomfortable first week of school, since West Rome was not air conditioned. While each classroom was designed with a bank of windows that could could open at both upper and lower levels, that didn't do much to cool a classroom down when the air coming in through those windows was in the mid to upper 90s. Even worse, the school system did not provide fans for the classrooms, so it was up to teachers to bring in their own fans if they wanted to keep the air moving in their rooms. (Making it a little worse for me was the fact that the first day of school was also my birthday. Starting school on your birthday is never a fun thing. Not only do you not get to have a lazy day off, but you also are in the company of friends and acquaintances who—even if they knew when your birthday was—have no memory of your birthday because there’s so much first-day-of-school stuff going on.)

Head football coach Nick Hyder was looking ahead at the upcoming season, and he was concerned bout what he saw: the Chieftains were saddled with an incredibly challenging schedule, beginning with a game against prep powerhouse Westminster on September 6th, with Carrollton (who held a record for making it to region playoffs more than any other school in the state) following two weeks after that and Triple-A champion Marietta two weeks after Carrolton. "We just hope we can lean some football from these folks," Coach Hyder said. "A schedule like this should make the fans happy,, but it sure means that the players have a lot of work to do to get ready. Hyder was most concerned about the line of scrimmage. "If the line holds up, we'll play respectable football. But that's the big question mark."

Six more Romans, including two in West Rome, were arrested for selling illegal alcohol. Authorities said that all of the recent arrests grew out of information gathered a month earlier when an illegal still operation was busted up; the operators of the still had records that indicated who some of their dealers were.

Piggly Wiggly had spare ribs for 49¢ a pound, grapes for 19¢ a pound, and Lady Alice ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon. Kroger had fresh whole fryers for 27¢ a pound, Campbell's tomato soup for a dime a can, and a ten-pound bag of potatoes for 49¢. A&P had chuck steak for 49¢ a pound, honeydew melons for 79¢ each, and an in-store baked apple pie for 39¢.  Big Apple had turkey for 29¢ a pound, bananas for a dime a pound, and Banquet 16 ounce chicken pot pies for  19¢. Couch's had pork chops for 59¢ a pound, Van Camp's chili for 33¢ a can, and locally grown tomatoes for 19¢ a pound.

The cinematic week began with Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (starring Robert Morse & Terry-Thomas) at the DeSoto Theatre, Gone With the Wind (starring Clark Gable & Viven Leigh) at the First Avenue, and A Time to Sing (starring Hank Williams Jr.) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switchout brought Hang 'Em High (starring Clint Eastwood) at the DeSoto and The Shakiest Gun In the West (starring Don Knotts) at the West Rome Drive-In, while Gone With the Wind hung around for another week at the First Avenue.

The Rascals took number one this week in 1968 with "People Got to Be Free." Other top ten hits included "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf (#2); "Light My Fire" by José Feliciano (#3); "Hello, I Love You" by the Doors (#4); "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream (#5); "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by the Vanilla Fudge (#6); "Harper Valley PTA" By Jeannie C. Riley (#7); "You're All I Need to Get By" by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (#8); "I Can't Stop Dancing" by Archie Bell & the Drells (#9); and "Stay In My Corner" by the Dells (#10).