Friday, September 07, 2018

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 9/9/1968 to 9/15/1968

It was midterm primary time this week in 1968, but apparently no one noticed: the vote turnout was estimated at only 8%. Local officials blamed the poor turnout on the fact that there was nothing particularly newsworthy about the election, so most people chose to stay home. (Isn't that the excuse that most people give every year?) Romans voted for Senator Herman Talmadge almost 4-1 over newcomer candidate Maynard Jackson.

The Chieftains took on their west-side-of-town rival Coosa on Friday, September 13th, in a non-region football matchup. The Chiefs were the odds-on favorite to win the game, and that's just what they did, posting a 10-7 victory over Coosa. That gave West Rome two wins and no losses for the fledgling 1968 football season, but Coach Nick Hyder warned that the team shouldn't let it go to their heads, because "the toughest games of the season are coming up, beginning with next week's game against Carrollton."

Local news was in short supply this week in 1968 due to a problem at the Rome News-Tribune's printing and processing facility. According to the newspaper, "Local news coverage remains light while the Rome News-Tribune staff tries to restore its photo processing and typesetting equipment to full working order. Until that time, the paper will offer very little local news."

Showing how unpredictable local shopping could be, Star Jewelers was running a special on (get ready for it) a Martin 12-gauge shotgun for only $49.99--and that included a padded gun case and a 20-piece cleaning kit!

Rome City Schools budgeted a study to determine the feasibility of purchasing their own school buses. For many years, the Rome school system had relied on the Rome City Bus system to provide bus service for students, The meant that Rome was one of the few systems where students did not ride "big yellow taxis." Instead, they rode the same city buses that were used for city-wide transportation the rest of the day (and that meant that the buses actually were slightly more comfortable than typical school buses).

Big K made its first push into cornering the music market in Rome, lowering the price of new albums to $2.97--and they were charging the same  price for mono or stereo records. The going price at Redford's, Murphy's, and most other department stores was $3.49 (mono) and $3.99 (stereo); the Record Shoppe on Broad Street generally charged $3.99 (mono) and $4.99 (stereo). Likewise, Big K was advertising 77¢ singles, while most other stores were charging 99¢ for singles.

Piggly Wiggly had Cudahy Bar S ham for 49¢ a pound, Double Q salmon for 49¢ a can, and white grapes for 19¢ a pound. A&P had chicken breasts for 49¢ a pound, Eight O'Clock Coffee for 49¢ a pound, and Marvel ice milk for 45¢ a half-gallon. Big Apple had sirloin steak for 87¢ a pound, Banquet 12 ounce chicken pot pies for 15¢ each, and cantaloupes for 33¢ each. Kroger had center cut pork chops for 89¢ a pound, Hormel potted meat for 12¢ a can, and bananas for 11¢ a pound. Couch's had Chuckwagon sliced bacon for 59∞ a pound, winesap apples for 12¢ a pound, and Van Camp's chili with beans for 33¢ a can.

The cinematic week began with The Secret Life of the American Wife (starring Walter Matthau) at the DeSoto Theatre, Gone with the Wind (starring Clark Gable & Vivien Leigh) at the First Avenue Theatre, and Hang 'Em High (starring Clint Eastwood) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switch out brought Five Card Stud (starring Dean Martin) to the DeSoto Theatre and Valley of the Dolls ·(starring Susan Hayward) to the West Rome Drive-In, while Gone With the Wind continued its hold on the First Avenue Theatre.

Jeannie C. Riley shot to number one this week in 1968 with the soap-opera-turned-song "Harper Valley PTA." Other top ten hits included "People Got to Be Free" by the Rascals (#2); "Hey Jude" by the Beatles (#3); "Hush" by Deep Purple (#4); "1,2,3, Red Light" by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. (#5); "Light My Fire" by José Feliciano (#6); "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf (#7); "The Fool on the Hill" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 (#8); "I've Gotta Get a Message To You" by the Bee Gees (#9); and "The House That Jack Built" by Aretha Franklin (#10).

More Saturday morning rollouts this week in 1968. First, Archie and the Riverdale gang came to TV in The Archie Show (known by most viewers simply as The Archies); then Bugs Bunny teamed up with Wile E. Coyote's perpetual prey for The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. Both shows were part of the CBS lineup; Bugs Bunny came to CBS in 1968 after several years on ABC-TV.  CBS had aired Road Runner episodes since 1966, but 1968 marked the first year that the two animation favorites were joined in one hour-long program.

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