A Life in Four Colors Part Fifty-One

I have been blessed with a great memory. I remember moments from my childhood so precisely, so vividly that I can almost experience them anew. I remember a thousand thousand thousand tiny events from my adolescence, from my years in school as a student and later as a teacher, from my marriage with Susan, from my myriad walks, from my conversations with friends... It would sometimes amaze Susan that I would remember details from our Cedartown years that she had totally forgotten until I told her about them--and then those moments once again became our memories and we would cherish them together.

Somehow, though, neither I nor Susan were ever able to remember exactly when, where, or how we decided to get married.

I do remember when I actually proposed to her, of course--but that's a different thing. By the time I proposed to Susan just before Thanksgiving in November of 1970, we had already decided that we were going to get married. But even in the fall of 1971, just a few months after our wedding, Susan and I weren't quite sure when we made that decision.

I can narrow the time down to late September or early October 1970. In our letters to one another from mid-September, Susan and I are both talking about dreaming of a future together (in my mind, those notes are accompanied by a soundtrack that includes "Never My Love," "Cherish," "Love Can Make You Happy," and "Wouldn't It Be Nice"). By mid-October, we're talking about how our parents and friends might react if and when they find out that we want to get married.

And yet, even with the likely date narrowed down to three-week period, neither of us could remember the fateful conversation when we decided that it was going to happen.

As I said, though, by mid-October, we were already talking about getting married soon after I graduated from high school. We didn't have a date in mind at that time, but we knew it would happen sometime between graduation from high school in early June 1971 and the time I started college in September of 1971. Since I had an academic scholarship, we didn't have to worry about the cost of tuition, so we were making plans to find our own place so that we could be together when we weren't working or attending class. We knew that I would work part-time while I went to college and Susan would work full-time at her job in the Arrow Shirts payroll department in Cedartown. Once I graduated, I would work full time while Susan would go back to school. (Yes, Susan and I were detailed in our planning.)

And in early November 1970, I did something that I would have dismissed as inconceivable a couple of years earlier: I sold my comic book collection.

That wasn't as easy a process in 1970 as it might be today. There were no local comic shops that could purchase a collection. There was no Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide filled with ads from shops eager to buy old comics.

But there was The Rocket's Blast/ComiCollector, an advertising fanzine that offered oodles of comics and fanzines for sale by fans and dealers across the country. And a few of those dealers also included a line informing readers that they also bought comics.

One of those dealers was Howard Rogofsky.

Howard Rogofsky had a reputation as being one of the priciest dealers who advertised in RBCC--but he had an incredible assortment of comics, he added more every month, and he was willing to buy collections. So I wrote him and included a list of the books in my collection, which included complete runs of all Marvel superhero titles from Fantastic Four #1 up, complete runs of all DC superhero series from the time of Brave & Bold #28 (the first appearance of Justice League) forward, and lots more.

These books had been my life up until November of 1970. My friendships had come about because of comics. I read and re-read my comics continually. I produced my own amateur comics. I produced a-apazines about comics and wrote for comics fanzines. I read novels written by comic book writers who also wrote science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mysteries. I even dreamed of becoming a professional comic book creator someday.

But for Susan, I had no qualms about selling all those comics to make my dream future possible.  I had assembled that collection once; I knew that, at some time in the future, I could assemble that collection again if I decided that I wanted to do so. But for now, it was time for me to exchange the collection.

I wanted to buy an engagement ring. And the only way I could get the money to buy the sort of ring with which I would propose to my current and forever love was to sell the books that had once been so important to me.

Howard Rogofsky's offer came less than two weeks from the time I shipped the collection to him (shipped by LTL truck line--it was too extensive and heavy to ship via the post office). While it was less than what I had dreamed it might be, it was still enough to buy the 3/4 carat diamond ring that Susan had fallen in love with when we saw it at Norwood-Griffin in Rome and to still have some money in savings to help us get through the early expenses of marriage and setting up our own home.

I took the offer, and Howard Rogofsky sent the check to my by air mail. From that day on, I had new-found respect for Mr. Rogofsky. He may have charged more for his books than some dealers, but he proved to me that he was a man of integrity.

And because of him, I was able to buy that ring and officially (and, I hope, romantically) propose to Susan on Friday night, November 21st, 1969 as we parked on the remote dirt road south of Cedartown that we begun referring to as "our place." She said yes. And by Saturday, November 22nd, 1969, we had decided on the date in 1971 for our marriage: June 15th, the same month and day when we first met back in 1968 after I had called a girl whose letter of comment appeared in Batman #199.

Susan would be twenty at that time; I would be seventeen (I wouldn't turn eighteen until August), so I would have to have my parents' permission to get married.

Susan and I told my parents about our plans the Friday after Thanksgiving. I was apprehensive, but I shouldn't have been. I think my parents had seen marriage in our future already. Mom and Dad asked a few questions, then Dad smiled and said, "Well, it looks like by this time next year we'll either have three people living here [referring to Mom, Dad, and my sister Kim] or five people living here." And with those words, Susan and I knew that Mom and Dad would back our decision--and that meant that the only potential obstacle in our getting married had been overcome.

Christmas Time Is Here

For several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I put together a Christmas listening list each holiday season. The rules were simple: the songs had to be songs that I thought were exceptional, and the entire list had to fit on one compact disc (because I would always burn a copy to listen to during the season--this was in the pre-MP3 days when a CD player was pretty much the only listening option).

When my dear friend Danielle Herritt began talking about assembling a list of ten Christmas favorites, I thought about it and decided that, rather than limiting myself to ten, I'd limit myself to one CD. This time, however, I decided to make it two CDs: one CD for instrumentals, another CD for vocals.

First, Cliff's Christmas 2019 (Instrumentals):

1 - "Adeste Fideles," Second Hearing, The Christmas Album - This is an album of music box recordings, and every time I hear this song, it reminds me of the music boxes that my relatives would play; the song takes me back to my earliest Christmases.

2 - "What Child Is This?" Vince Guaraldi Trio, Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi was a genius, pure and simple, and his soft jazz arrangement of this classic remains unsurpassed.

3 - "O Holy Night," David Lane & Paul Speer, Narada Christmas Collection -- Simply the best version of this song I've ever heard. Lane had released a piano version without Paul Speer's guitar work, but Speer's understated, moody guitar makes this a haunting piece.

4 - "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," California Guitar Trio, Ten Christmas Songs - I lowe guitar work, and this song features a lot of it. Great guitar interplay here that never loses the sense of the song.

5 - "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel, Narada Christmas Collection - Individually, these musicians are superb, but put 'em together and they make magic. This is a tender and moving version of one of my Christmas favorites.

6. "O Little Town of Bethlehem/The Holly & the Ivy, Michael James, The Best of Narada Christmas 2 - This beautiful piano pieces merges two songs into an almost dreamlike medley.

7 - "We Three Kings," R. Carlos Nakai & Wiliam Eaton, Winter Dreams - Nakai plays the Native American flute so skillfully that you almost forget that this type of flute doesn't play the full range of notes used in most contemporary music, so Nakai interpolates as needed, working with guitarist William Eaton to capture the song in a whole new way.

8 - "Ave Maria," Steven Pasero, Christmas Classics for Guitar - Pasero's acoustic guitar version of this classic is one of the most powerful and moving versions of this song I've ever heard.

9 - "I Wonder As I Wander," various artists, Smokey Mountain Christmas Memories - This song was playing at a small shop in Blue Ridge, GA, in 2005, and as soon as I heard it, I knew I had to have this CD.

10 - "Little Drummer Boy," Ottmar Liebert, Poets & Angels - An energetic flamenco-guitar-influenced version of one of my favorite songs. Liebert is an amazing guitarist, and the punchy bass line really complements his performance.

11 - "Christmas Time Is Here," Geoger Winston, The Carols of Christmas - You can tell that George Winston loves Vince Guaraldi's music as much as I do. This instrumental version captures the childlike wonder of Guaraldi's composition but brings a wistful feel to the song.

12 - "Winter Wonderland," Tuck Andress, Hymns, Carols, and Songs About Snow - I've never heard anyone play like Tuck Andress. His fretwork is amazing, and this song is done in one take with no overdubs--absolutely amazing.

13- "Carol of the Birds," Mannheim Steamroller, Christmas - I love almost every Mannheim Steamroller song, but the ones that have a medieval/Renaissance feel always captivate me. This is one of the best in that style.

14 - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," Anna Maria Mendieta, Enchanted Christmas - How can anyone entice so much beauty from a harp? She gives the song all the majesty and grandeur it deserves.

15 - "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," Will Ackerman - The Carols of Christmas - The guitar work here is so solemn and introspective that this has been on my favorites list since the first time I heard it.

16 - "Carol of the Bells," George Skaroulis, Season Traditions - My friends Brett and Allison Brooks got this CD for me when they crossed paths with Skaroulis at a local Greek festival. As soon as they heard his moody electric piano, they knew I'd love it. They were right.

17 - "In the Bleak Midwinter," The Players, Christmas - This is one of the first Christmas CDs I ever bought, in the days when CDs were new and choices were sparse. I consider it one of my greatest finds; the song has a British/Celtic feel, but isn't pushy or ostentatious int he way that so many Celtic recordings are . Haven't seen this in stores in twenty years, which his a shame.

18 - "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," Chip Davis, Renaissance Holiday - Remember what I said about loving Renaissance-influenced instrumentation and arrangements? Well, that holds true for this song as well. (And yes, Chip Davis is the man behind Mannheim Steamroller, although this comes off one of his solo albums.)

19 -  "The Coventry Carol," Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel, Christmas: The Gift - This is one of my favorite carols, regardless of who performs it, but this is the quintessential version of the song as far as I'm concerned.

20 - "The Christmas Waltz," Mantovani, White Christmas - My parents had a Mantovani Christmas album with this song on it, and I played it to death when I was a child. Ever since then, Mantovani has been a part of the Christmas season for me.

21 - "Stille Nacht," Mannheim Steamroller, Christmas - The most beautiful version of this classic ever recorded. It makes my eyes mist up every time I hear it, and it's often the last song I hear as I go to sleep. The first time we heard it, I looked at Susan as the song ended and realized that we both had tears running down our cheeks from the sheer beauty of the song. As soon as I began thinking about this compilation, I knew it had to be the last song because nothing else can really follow this performance.

And now, Cliff's Christmas 2019 (Vocals)

1 - Christmastime Is Here," Vince Guaraldi Trio, Charlie Brown Christmas - The children's voices are perfect for this song. In just under three minutes, Guaraldi captures all the innocence and wonder of Christmas as seen through the eyes of children.

2 - "In the Bleak Midwinter," Dan Fogelberg, The First Christmas Morning - No one has ever recorded a more earnest, heartfelt version of this song than Dan Fogelberg--and just listen to that amazing guitar work!

3 - Someday at Christmas," Stevie Wonder, ,Someday at Christmas - For my money, this is one of the best contemporary Christmas originals ever. Stevie Wonder is a genius, and this song captures our hope for true peace and joy at Christmastime.

4 - "Here Comes Santa Claus," Gene Autry, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry didn't write this one, but his performance is the stuff of my childhood. I played this album so many times my parents began hiding it because they didn't want to hear it for the seven hundredth time...

5 "If Every Day Was Like Christmas," Elvis  Presley, If Every Day Was Like Christmas - Another contemporary classic, and like Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas," it captures our hope for a world in which all of our Christmas dreams of peace and joy could be true forever.

6 - "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," Bing Crosby, The Voice of Christmas: The Complete Decca Recordings - This song, based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, perfectly captures the essential battle between cynicism and faith, negativity, despair and joy. No one gives the song more gravitas and power than Bing Crosby.

7 - "What Child Is This," Gypsy Soul, Sacred - I just love the beauty of Cilette Swann's lead vocals, and the instrumentation perfectly complements her performance.

8 - "The Christmas Song," Nat King Cole, The Christmas Song - From the opening notes, this song pretty much defines Christmas for me. What an incredible talent, and what a perfect match of singer and song.

9 - "Joy to the World," The Roches, We Three Kings - The Roche sisters make beautiful harmony sound so easy and natural. Listen to each sister's voice--just perfect. Put 'em together, though, and it's a musical miracle.

10 - "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)," John Lennon, Yoko Ono, & the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir, John Lennon Signature Box - I'm a Beatles fan. This is the finest Christmas song ever written or performed by any of the Beatles. And once again, it's a song whose idealism speaks to me.

11 - "The Coventry Carol," Alison Moyet, A Very Special Christmas - Moyet's rich, throaty vocals are the highlight of this recording. Every time I hear someone else singing it, I measure their performance against hers.

12 - "It's the Most Wonderful Time Of the Year," Andy Williams, Andy Williams Christmas - This song just exudes joy and happiness, doesn't it? Andy Williams' smooth vocal performance make this holiday classic for me.

13 - "O Holy Night," John Berry, Holy Night - This song requires a skilled singer who can handle its musical range, and John Berry is up to the challenge.

14 - "Pretty Paper," Willie Nelson, Pretty Paper - Willie Nelson's Christmas album has been a holiday staple for me ever since its release. This is my favorite song on the album; he seems to feel every word that he sings.

15 - "White Christmas," Bing Crosby, The Voice of Christmas: The Complete Decca Recordings - If there's any song that rivals Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" as the quintessential Christmas song, this is it--and there's no performance better than Bing's.

16 - "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Frank Sinatra, Christmas Dreaming - If you want to know why Frank Sinatra is considered such a masterful singer, just listen to this song. He brings the lyrics to life with his delivery. And I love this performance, since it includes the "we'll have to muddle through somehow" original lyric.

17 - "Iesus Ahotonnia (The Huron Carol)," Bruce Cockburn, Christmas - This song dates back almost four hundred years, yet I had never heard it before Bruce Cockburn recorded it. Written by a Jesuit missionary in 1642  to share the story of the birth of Jesus with the Hurons, it uses Huron lyrics and imagery to convey the story. There is an honesty in Cockburn's voice that makes this performance.

18 - "Home for the Holidays," Perry Como, Perry Como: The Complete Christmas Collection - A great performance of this upbeat song about our common desire to share the holidays with family and old friends.The real magic of Perry Como's vocals is that he makes it sound so easy...

19 -"Jingle Bell Rock," Bobby Helms, Christmas Classics - Another one of those songs that's recognizable from the opening notes. A lot of rock Christmas songs don't work. This one does.

20 - "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," Johnny Mathis, The Complete Christmas Collection 1955-2010 - There are so many great vocalists from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, but few of them are more distinctively recognizable than Johnny Mathis, whose rich vibrato distinguishes every performance.

21 - "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," Loreena McKennitt, A Winter Dream - McKennitt gives an exotic, almost Middle Eastern feel to this holiday classic, but her vocals are the most memorable thing about this recording. McKennitt's voice is sheer beauty, but this song is a great example of just the right song for just the right singer.

22 - "Silver Bells," Dean Martin, Making Spirits Bright - The ultimate crooner, Dean Martin needs the right songs to play off his vocal style. "Silver Bells" is the perfect choice, allowing him to show off his vocal mannerisms and make the song his.

23 - "I'll Be Home for Christmas," Linda Ronstadt, A Merry Little Christmas - What a shame that Parkinson's has left Linda Ronstadt unable to sing. This performance, full of dreams and hopes and wonder, demonstrates just what a remarkable talent Ronstadt is.

24 - "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy," Bing Crosby, David Bowie, & the London Symphony Orchestra, Bing at Christmas - Another idyllic dream of what we would all love to see--true peace on Earth. The two voices on this song prove that talent transcends musical generations.

A Life in Four Colors Part Fifty

My childhood and teenage years were marked by friends who were also kindred spirits. I've mentioned David Lynch, John Ball, and Gary Steele, all of whom were my best friends at various periods in my life. In early 1970, I met someone who was destined to be a dear friend to both me and Susan over the next few years.

Sven Ahlstrom was a Rome transplant, having come to West Rome from Menomenee, Michigan, with his mother, Dorothea, who was involved in the nursing program at Berry College (the school that had offered me an academic scholarship). I didn't know any of that, though, when I first met Sven. What I did know, however, was that he was the only person in Mrs. Higgins' room reading a science fiction book the morning that our paths crossed. (I sometimes think that science fiction and comics readers have a sort of "fan radar" that alerts when someone shares our interests, but in reality it's probably an example of affinity awareness--just as we are more apt to notice cars that are the same make and model as ours, so we are more apt to notice people who read books or buy music that matches our tastes.)

We began talking and found that we shared other interests--comics, music, television shows, movies. Because we had so much in common, we began talking more regularly. I was also immediately impressed with Sven's quick wit and his enthusiasm tempered with a dash of cynicism. Before too long, we were hanging out together at school and dropping by one another's house after school. Sven made me aware of musicians, albums, authors, and books that I hadn't read (I remember that he had a copy of the Beatles'  White Album, which I heard in its entirety for the first time at his house, and he also had a copy of Jesus Christ Superstar, which I had foolishly dismissed until he convinced me to really listen to it). Meanwhile, Sven was curious about the fanzines that Gary Steele and I were involved with, and was particularly interested in the amateur press alliances Myriad and Galaxy. 

Within a couple of months, Sven was good friends with Gary Steele and me, and soon after he met Susan. By the time the summer of 1970 rolled around, Sven and I had become great friends--and a lot of that was due to the Atlanta Journal.

What did a newspaper have to do with our friendship? Actually, it was  newspaper route that had a lot to do with our friendship. Sven had a part-time job delivering papers for the Atlanta Journal--but it wasn't a neighborhood bicycle route like I had years earlier. Instead, Sven had a far-reaching car route, which took a couple of hours every day. Sven drove a blue 1968 Chevy Malibu that he used for his route, he took the responsibility seriously. Since I didn't have an afternoon job and had some spare time, I began riding Sven's route with him, helping to fold and rubber-band the papers. And we talked... a lot.  We talked about fannish stuff, of course, but we also talked about school and family and life in general. 

Sven was also the first person I knew who had an eight track tape player in his car, so we listened to a lot of music while we were running his route. The first tape he bought was Let It Be, the final Beatles album; I already had a copy on vinyl, but I had become so enamored with Beatles music since I rediscovered the group in late 1969 that I could listen to that album over and over again (and unlike some critics, I thought Let It Be was a great album, almost as good as Abbey Road). Soon we added a few more tapes to the automotive library: we played Simon & Garfunkel's Sound of Silence and Badfinger's Magic Christian Music so frequently that it took me a while to get used to the vinyl sequencing of the songs on those albums, since I had heard them first on 8 track. (In my mind, the album always ended with "Richard Cory," since that was the last song on the 8 track before it circled back around to "The Sound of Silence," while it seemed natural that "Come and Get It"—the best song on Magic Christian Music—should be followed by "Carry On 'Til Tomorrow"—the second-best song on Magic Christian Music—even though the vinyl version has the latter song kicking off side two.) As the summer went along, we added The Rolling Stones' Through the Past Darkly, Crosby Stills & Nash's eponymous first album, Steppenwolf Live, and Iron Butterfly's In-a-Gadda-da-Vida to the playlist, along with more from Simon & Garfunkel. Every one of those albums has become so inexorably linked to the summer of '70 that I can't listen to them without remembering that time, which I still think of as the most wonderful period of my pre-married life.

Soon we noticed another person at school who shared some of our interests in music and science fiction: Ida Hutchings, who was a year ahead of us in school. Ida was a brash free spirit, and her personality brought both contrasted with and complemented ours quite well. It made no difference to any of us that Ida was a senior about to graduate, while we were juniors with another whole year of school ahead of us. I first heard Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" at Ida's house, and I initially thought that the pre-bleed that was a part of the song's sound was a defect in either her record or her stereo system. Ida had been accepted at Georgia Tech for the fall of 1970, but she never seemed enthusiastic about it; her attention seemed entirely focused on the spring and summer of 1970, and not the fall and college. Ida loved talking music and science fiction and comics almost as much as Sven and I did, so she became a member of our group almost instantly.

In my mind, I had thought that Sven and Ida would become a couple in the same way that Susan and I had become a couple. They hit it off well, shared many interests, and at times seemed attracted to one another. Ultimately, though, Ida was another friend in our small but growing group. What had been just Gary Steele and me as "comic book buddies" in early 1968 had gradually expanded to include Susan, then Sven, then Ida. For years, most of my fan friends were people I only knew through correspondence and fanzines but by the summer of 1970 I had a dynamic, intelligent, articulate group of friends I saw on a regular basis, and I was relishing the change.

A Life in Four Colors Part Forty-Nine

As 1969 gave way to early 1970, I felt like my life was nearly perfect--but it was about to get better.

There was no shortage of great comics to read, and I had enough money to afford pretty much all the new comics I wanted. I had gotten to know Mildred Christian, the owner of Liberty Hatworks and Newsstand on Broad Street, who agreed to let the Wednesday afternoon shipment of new comics wait until I could come to her store after school and process them out for her, so I never had to worry about missing a comic--and I was even "paid" with a discount on the comics, books, and magazines I was buying every week.

I was reading a lot more science fiction, and had joined the Science Fiction Book Club for the first of what would be many times.

I had discovered the Mystery Book Club through an SFBC flyer, so I had joined that as well and was discovering the fiction of Ellery Queen, Dick Francis, Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, and others.

I had a driver's license and my parents were willing to let me use one of the family cars fairly regularly.

Oh, and Susan and I were beginning the tentative transition from liking each other to falling in love with each other.

The driver's license was an important factor. Once I got my license, I could drive from Rome to Cedartown to see Susan almost every week. Since my grandmother lived in Cedartown, she was willing to let me spend the night there, which meant that Susan and I could see each other for both days of the weekend if I went down on a Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday. That didn't happen every week, because my parents only had two cars and sometimes they would need both of them on one day of the weekend--but a weekend stay at grandmother's became a pretty common occurrence, which meant that Susan and I soon progressed from good friends to people who dated regularly.

We continued to talk to each other every evening, and we also kept up our habit of writing letters to one another. Both Susan and I were somewhat introverted by nature, and writing came very naturally to us, so it was no surprise that we both felt more comfortable writing about our feelings than talking about them.

I had never actually dated anyone prior to Susan. There were girls I liked as friends, but I had not had a girlfriend since elementary school. I was an oddball--a reasonably intelligent teenager who did well in school, but still loved comic books and spent a lot his spare time writing for these strange fanzines, composing poetry, and drawing. Let's be honest--I wasn't the kind of guy who attracted the attention of the girls at my school.

But with Susan, I could be comfortable with all of that. Even better, I was falling love with someone who enjoyed all of those things almost as much as I did.

Susan also reinvigorated my interest in music. I had been an avid music fan until about the time of Beatles '65; then my growing interest in comics, model kits, monster magazines, and fanzines forced me to make some budget choices. Music fell by the wayside.

Susan, however, loved music. Susan also had a full-time job, which meant that she could afford to buy comics, magazines, books, and still have money left over for albums.

How did Susan have a full-time job? Well, she was older than me by about two and a half years, so she actually graduated from Cedartown High School in the spring of 1969. Soon after she graduated, she got a job working in the payroll department of the Arrow Shirt factory in Cedartown, where she earned (after deductions) a little over $69 a week. Today, that seems like nothing--but to both of us, it was in impressive figure indeed. She meticulously saved $20 a week, contributed some to her family's budget, and still had money left over to buy fun stuff.

I had become interested in the Beatles once again with the release the single "Hey Jude" back in 1968. I owe my mother a debt of gratitude for that; it was Mom, not me, who bought that single because she liked the song a lot. She did not care as much for the flip side, "Revolution," but I played liked it almost as well as the A side. The Beatles had changed in the three intervening years, but the music was still good.

Alas, their 1968 album The Beatles (aka the White Album) was a double album that was well beyond my budget, so I stuck with singles for a while longer. I picked up "The Ballad of John and Yoko" when it came out in the spring of 1969 and liked that one a lot as well. I also bought the double-A-sided single of "Come Together/Something" and liked it a lot.

Susan and I talked about music a lot, and she remembered how much I liked the Beatles. So in late 1969 Susan gave me a copy of Abbey Road as a Christmas gift. I must have played both sides of that album two dozen times during the Christmas holidays of 1969. I asked her what she thought of it, and she told me that she actually didn't have a copy; she couldn't afford to buy two copies of the album, so she had bought just the one copy that she gave to me.

In early January, I cut a few non-essential items from my budget and bought a copy of Abbey Road for Susan. It wasn't a Christmas gift--I had given her a copy of Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land for Christmas. I just wanted her to have a copy, too.

She was surprised and moved by the gift. She said that no one had ever given her a gift for no reason before. As soon as she got home, she listened to the album, and we discussed every song at length. We both loved the album, although we didn't share the same favorites. I loved the medleys on side two, while she preferred "Here Comes the Sun," "Something," and "Come Together."

And I was a Beatles fan again. From early 1970 on, I acquired every Beatles album (group or solo) upon release or soon after. And by the spring of 1970, we didn't have to buy two copies, because Susan and I were spending so much time together that I would just lend her my copy for a week, and she would lend me some of her albums.

Thanks to that album, I told Susan that I loved her. It was a weekend, and we were driving down a country road south of Cedartown, just riding around and talking. I told  her how I thought about her every time I heard the song "Something," and that I felt the same way about her that George Harrison felt about Pattie. Susan wasn't willing to let me get by so easily, though, and she replied, "Oh, really? How's that?"

"Well, I love you just like he loves her," I said.

There was a moment of silence that left me apprehensive that I had said the wrong thing.

There was a dead-end dirt road that led into a pasture about a hundred yards ahead. "Pull over there," Susan said.

Not sure what she was going to say, I pulled over without saying anything further and stopped the car.  As soon as I did, she took my hand, looked at me, and said "I love you, too."

And on February 7th, 1970, I realized that I had found the girl I really wanted to spend my life with.

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 11/10/1969 to 11/16/1969

Seventh District Congressman John W. Davis introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by creating a freedom of choice program that would allow parents to choose which school within their local school system their children should attend, and also ensuring that teachers would be allowed to serve in the schools in which they were contracted to teach. Under the bill, the federal government could not withhold any financial aid from a school on account of racial composition so long as parents were allowed to freely choose any school within their system for their children. It would also make it unlawful for a federal agency or department "to coerce or induce the school board to bus students to alter the racial composition of any student body at a public school."

Talk about rubbing it in: East Rome head coach David Patterson invited West Rome parents and students to attend a showing of the highlights from the prior week's East Rome-West Rome football game, to be shown in the East Rome High School auditorium. I wonder if he would have been so eager to show that footage had East Rome not won the game...

Piggly Wiggly had sirloin steak for $1.09 a pound, Sealtest ice cream for 39¢ a half-gallon, and lettuce for a dime a head. A&P had chicken breasts for 39¢ a pound, apples for 19¢ a pound, and Van Camp's chili with bean for 33¢ a can. Kroger had chicken liver for 49¢ a pound, Eight O'Clock coffee for 65¢ a pound, and grapefruit for a dime each. Big Apple had center cut pork chops for 79¢ a pound, Campbell's tomato soup for 12¢ a can, and collard greens for 19¢ a bunch. Couch's had ground beef for 55¢ a pound, Bama jelly for 25¢ a jar, and bananas for a dime a pound.

The cinematic week began with Last Summer (starring Barbara Hershey & Richard Thomas) at the DeSoto Theatre, My Side of the Mountain (starring Teddy Eccles) at the First Avenue, Sweet Charity (starring Shirley MacLaine) at the Village, and The Chairman (starring Gregory Peck) at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switchout brought  Once Upon a Time in the West (starring Henry Fonda) to the DeSoto, Uncle Tom's Cabin (starring John Kitzmiller & Herbert Lom) to the First Avenue, and Days of Anger (starring Lee Van Cleef) to the West Rome Drive-In, while Shirley MacLaine continued to her Sweet Charity drive at the Village.

The 5th Dimension held on to number one for a third week with "Wedding Bell Blues." Other top ten hits included "Take a Letter Maria" by RB Greaves (#2); "Come Together/Something" by the Beatles (#3 & 4--it's an A-sided single that took both slots), "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat, & Tears (#5); "Smile a Little Smile for Me" by the Flying Machine (#6); "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam (#7); '\"Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday" by Stevie Wonder (#8); "Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley (#9); and "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations (#10).

And what a great week it was for the album charts: The Beatles' Abbey Road took the number one slot, while Led Zeppelin II was in second place, Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival was in third place, Santana's eponymous first album was in fourth place, and I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! by Janis Joplin took fifth place.

This week in 1969, Sesame Street debuted on National Education Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service).

***

And now some bad news: this will be the last installment of "Fifty Years Ago This Week" until early 2020—and this one is totally beyond my control. Apparently, over the years, the Rome News-Tribune has lost its archive copies of all newspapers from November 13th, 1969, through January 2nd, 1970. (That also explains why there is so little local news this week--I only had access to newspapers for the first three days of the week). Without copies of those newspapers, I have no source for information for this column for the next few weeks. I apologize in advance for the absence, but I promise I'll be back as soon as we reach the time period for which newspapers are available once again!

A Life in Four Colors Part Forty-Eight

1969 was the year when I began to stumble across the path to my future.

First off, I really felt like I had found my place with friends who truly understood me. I had a close friend who shared most of my interests (Gary Steele), I had a new friend who also shared most of my interests and who had the advantage of being a beautiful girl (Susan)... and I took advantage of an opportunity that would turn out to lead me to my first career.

Berry College, located just a few miles from my house, had a Summer Enrichment Program that allowed invited high school sophomores to take college courses during the summer between their sophomore and junior years. Somehow, for reasons I never understood, I got one of those invitations.

And I almost turned it down.

It wasn't like I really had anything else on my schedule for the summer of 1969. But like pretty much every teenager, I was looking forward to sleeping late and goofing off for most of June, July, and August. My parents told me that they thought I should consider it, though, since it was an honor to get the invitation. My parents were never pushy or manipulative in any way. That's probably why I took their advice--their reasoning was sound (I could get high school credit for the course I took, and it might make a good impression on someone at Berry) and it was only a couple of classes.

So I accepted the invitation and signed up for the program. And I began what became a college tradition for me: I looked at the schedule of classes I could take and searched out the two earliest classes.

Like I said, I looked forward to sleeping late and goofing off--but I put a higher priority on "goofing off" than on "sleeping late," and I realized that if I could take an 8am and 9am class, I could finish up by 10am, get home by 10:20, and still have the entire day to do what I wanted. Heck, if I hadn't taken the class, I probably wouldn't have gotten up much earlier than 10am anyway, so I really wasn't losing any time at all!

Turned out that I enjoyed the classes, and I liked Berry College. It also turned out that they liked me, I guess, because at the end of my junior year they offered me a chance to take another class in the summer of 1970--and even better, they offered me an academic scholarship contingent on me maintaining my GPA and doing well in my summer 1970 class.

None of that had been in my mind when I took advantage  of the Summer Enrichment Program in the summer of 1969. Had I not participated in that program, however, I probably would have never gotten that scholarship offer, which means that I probably would have never gone to Berry College, which means that I wouldn't have been able to marry Susan a week after my high school graduation because it wouldn't have been financially feasible, which means that I wouldn't have crossed paths with the college professors who guided and inspired me to sign up for the teaching program at Berry, which means that I wouldn't have become an English teacher, which means that  Susan wouldn't have been able to go to Coosa Valley Tech as soon as I began teaching, which means that she wouldn't have gotten the software design certification that got her the job with Management Science America in Atlanta, which means we wouldn't have moved to Marietta, which means that I never would have gone to Dr. No's when Artie Decker owned the shop, which means hat he would have never offered me a job ordering comics for his store, which means that he would have never sold me the store in 1982...

It's amazing how much my life was changed by two little decisions: first, that fateful call to one Susan Hendrix of Cedartown, Georgia, in response to her letter of comment in an issue of Batman; second, my taking advantage of an invitation to take college courses at Berry in the summer of 1969. Put those two things together, and the doors to all the good things in my life were opened for me.

(This also began a lifelong habit of scheduling things in the morning, by the way. Medical appointments, financial appointments, pest control visits, home repairs--whatever it is, I try to schedule it as early as possible. I still value my goofing off time, and I love the feeling of getting those obligations and duties out of the way as soon as possible.)

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 11/3/1969 to 11/9/1969

The annual East-West confrontation took place on Friday night, November 7th—but the outcome wasn't what Chieftains fans were hoping for. East Rome took the win with a 13-yard field goal with just two minutes left in the game, propelling them to a 16-13 victory over West Rome. That brought an end to the season for West Rome as the Gladiators took the 7-AA South region championship for the second year in a row. West Rome's first touchdown came via a pass from David Love to Thomas Crowley, while Alan Carrington ran the ball for the second touchdown. The Chieftains made one final  long pass attempt in the final seconds of the game, but the pass was intercepted by East Rome, securing the win for the Glads.

Ida Hutchings, Janet Webb, and Belinda Rodgers received letters of commendation for their outstanding performance on the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. They were among 39,000 students nationwide who scored int he upper 2% of all students taking the test. (It has been far too long since I last crossed paths with Ida Hutchings, who remained a member of my circle of friends through the 1970s--anyone know where she is now?)

Piggly Wiggly had center cut pork chops for 89¢ a pound, Shurfine tuna for 33¢ a can, and Atlanta Dairies ice milk for 33¢ a half-gallon. Kroger had fresh whole fryers for 25¢ a pound, Heinz ketchup for 25¢ a bottle, and collards for 29¢ a bunch. A&P had round steak for 95¢ a pound, Eight O'Clock coffee for 69¢ a pound, and corn for 8¢ an ear. Big Apple had ground beef for 55¢ a pound, Van Camp's pork & beans for 14¢ a can, and a five-pound bag of Dixie Crystals sugar for 39¢. Couch's had hen turkeys for 43¢ a pound, Ocean Spray cranberry sauce for 29¢ a can, and bananas for a dime a pound.

I don't even remember Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken at 901 Shorter Avenue, but apparently it was a going concern in 1969. Minnie Pearl was offering a free 10" lemon meringue pie with the purchase of any $1.25 fried chicken dinner. "Due to the fact that Minnie only baked 49,734 pies, limit of one per customer per day, please."

The cinematic week began with Battle of Britain (starring Michael Caine) at the DeSoto Theatre, Hell's Angels '69 (starring Tom Stern) at the First Avenue, File of the Golden Goose (starring Yul Brynner) at the Village, and The Longest Day (starring John Wayne) at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switch out brought The Last Summer (starring Barbara Hershey) to the DeSoto, My Side of the Mountain (staring Teddy Eccles) to the First Avenue, Sweet Charity (starring Shirley MacLaine) to the Village, and a double feature of She (starring Ursula Andress) and One Million BC (starring Raquel Welch) to the West Rome Drive-In. (That's quite a double-feature!)

The 5th Dimension held on to the number one slot for a second week with "Wedding Bell Blues." Other top ten hits included the double-A-sided single "Come Together/Something" by the Beatles (#s 2 and 3); "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat, & Tears (#4); "Baby It's You" by Smith (#5); "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations (#6); "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley (#7); "Smile a Little Smile for Me" by the Flying Machine (#8); "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies (#9); and "Take a Letter Maria" by RB Greaves (#10--and boy, would that song stir up controversy if it was released today!).

The Allman Brothers Band released their eponymous debut album this week in 1969. (The Macon band holds a special place in the hearts of many 1960s/1970s Chieftains because of a concert appearance at Berry College in October of 1970--I know that's what made me a fan of their music!)

Rod Serling's second fantasy anthology series, Night Gallery, made its debut on NBC on November 8th. To be fair, this was actually just a special showing of the pilot episode; the show wouldn't return as an ongoing series until December of 1970, thirteen months later.

100 Days of Solitude

One hundred days.

That's how many days have passed since my beloved Susan died. July 22nd, 10:05 AM--that was when I had to say goodbye to the woman who was the center of my world.

I've always had a thing for numbers. That's why I keep track of these things, I guess. One week without Susan. One month. Fifty days. Thirteen weeks—one season. And now one hundred days.

I wasn't sure that I'd be alive a hundred days after Susan's death.

Sometimes I wasn't sure that I wanted to be alive a hundred days after Susan's death.

I'm lucky. This is also a Wednesday, which means I'll be busy at the store most of the day. I'll get to see my close friends who come by the store every day. After the store closes, we'll go to dinner together at El Rodeo, as we do every Wednesday. Those are the things that will help me get through tomorrow.

But I know I'll be sad. I know I'll be lonely. I know I'll shed tears for Susan. In those ways, tomorrow will be like every one of the past one hundred days, I guess--but I suspect the sorrow and loneliness will be more intense.

One hundred days without her. How can that be?

There are other somber landmark days ahead. My first Thanksgiving without her. My first Christmas alone. My first Valentine's Day alone. Next June, my first wedding anniversary that I can't share with Susan. Then the most sad day of all--the one year anniversary of her passing.

Maybe it gets easier after that.

But somehow, I don't think it really does.

I think I'll just get better at hiding it.

A Life in Four Colors Part Forty-Seven

235-9546.

More than fifty years later, I still remember this number.

That was my phone number. My very own phone number. For my very own phone. In my room. Listed in the phone book under my name. Paid for with my money (okay, not totally--my parents offered to pay the first four bucks of the cost, and I paid the remaining almost-five-bucks myself).

So why did I need my own phone?

If you guessed "Susan," you're beginning to figure me out.

By the spring of 1969, Susan and I talked to each other all the time. We continued to write each other as well, but the letters decreased to one a week as the phone calls increased. We talked about comic books (we both liked Spectre and we were both enjoying Teen Titans more by Neal Adams & Nick Cardy than we had liked it when Bob Haney was writing it; I liked Silver Surfer and she couldn't understand why; we both hated to see Legion of Super-Heroes come to an end in Adventure Comics; Batman was getting better; Susan--who didn't like Marvel--agreed that the Fantastic Four was still the best book Marvel published), we talked about science fiction (I liked Heinlein better than Asimov, while Susan ranked Asimov higher, but we enjoyed both), we talked about television shows (we both loved Hawaii Five-0 and Mission: Impossible, neither of us cared for The Mod Squad, and I liked Get Smart much more than Susan did--but I've always had a soft spot for sitcoms)... and we talked about each other.

Problem was, my dad was a sports editor for a local newspaper that covered sports for more than a dozen local high schools. Dad had a staff of one full-time sports reporter and two part-time sports reporters. Do the math and you'll see that there was no way that he could have covered all those games himself, nor did he have the staff to do so. That meant that he used stringers who were paid per game to phone in vital info and stats to him at home on game nights; he would type up the info, then turn it into a story that would appear in the next afternoon's Rome News-Tribune. And that meant that Dad needed the phone line to be open for incoming calls. So while no one else in Susan's family used the phone very much and thus our increasingly long conversations weren't a problem on her end, they were more troublesome on my end.

So I proposed that perhaps I should have a separate phone line in my room. And my parents weren't opposed to the idea, if I was willing to cover part of the cost myself. (I think they weren't wholly opposed to the idea of the phone since I was spending so much time talking to a girl as nice as Susan--my parents liked her a great deal from the first time they met her.) Some quick calculations and I said yes. I was earning more money around the house for mowing the lawn, raking leaves, sweeping the driveway, and other miscellaneous chores, so I could make room in my budget for a dollar and a quarter a week for a phone.

The big advantage, as I saw it, was that Susan and could talk about each other more--and we could do so without others listening to my side of the conversation. There was little privacy when I talked on my family's home phone--and my sister found it particularly amusing to hang out near me when I was on the phone, as many eight-year-olds are wont to do just to annoy their teenage siblings--but with my own phone, I could close the door and talk to Susan as long as we wanted, and we could talk about pretty much anything.

There was one flaw in my logic: while I had my own phone, Susan didn't, and her phone was in the living room where everyone watched television.  Her solution? Buy a long cord for the phone so she could stretch it out to the screened-in porch, where she could at least get some modicum of privacy.

Not the perfect solution, but it worked. So by the spring of 1969, we were not only talking about comics and books and television shows, we were also talking about how much we liked seeing each other. And we were making plans to see each other much more after I got my driver's license in August 1969.

Six months earlier, I hadn't even particularly cared about getting a driver's license right away. But by the spring of 1969, I couldn't wait to get my license.

My own phone. My own license in the not-too-distant future. Might not seem like much, but it was an indication that my life was beginning to change, and Susan was the catalyst for those changes--just as she would go on to be the catalyst for almost every good change in my life in years to come...

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 10/27/1969 to 11/2/1969

The week started off pretty badly for the Chieftains as Nick Hyder announced, "The grave's been dug, but we're not in it yet." What led to such a grim statement? The news that five regulars would most likely miss the Saturday night game against the Pepperell dragons. End-linebacker David Watkins, quarterback Randy Hatch, end Jim Poplin, tailback John Sapp, and end Frank Felker were all on the injured-or-ill list. "I don't ever recall a worse situation with injuries in all my years of coaching," Hyder said. "Right now, we're working with several combinations in practice, trying to find replacements for these boys. Hyder had already called Johnny Thompkins up from the ninth grade team at the recommendation of Coach Wesley Jenkins, who said that the ninth grade team was undefeated in seven games thanks largely to the work of Thompkins.

In spite of those missing players, West Rome managed to rack up a 21-13 victory over Pepperell at Barron Stadium on Saturday, November 1st. That put West Rome in a tie with East Rome for first place in Region 7-AA South--which also meant that the upcoming East-West game would determine the sub-region championship. Thomas Crowley racked up the first touchdown with a ten-yard run; Allen Carrington racked up the second touchdown with an 83-yard run; and Stan Green picked off a Pepperell pass, kicking off a drive that set up David Love for a quarterback sneak that turned into West Rome's third touchdown.

Georgia's Tax Revision Commission continued to look at ways to modify Georgia's tax system. The plan under consideration in October would have exempted groceries and prescription drugs from sales tax, but would raise the tax on other items from 3% to 3.5%. The exemption would cost the state $46 million, but the half-percent increase would bring in $50 million, making the state $4 million richer under the new plan. The Tax Revision Commission also okayed local option income taxes for cities and counties that wanted to add a 1% income tax on those who lived or worked within  their borders.

The Georgia Board of Regents said that (in spite of the fact that they were re-bidding the contract for permanent construction) the new Floyd Junior College should be open for classes by the fall of 1970. They did say, however, that the classes might start in a temporary facility if construction wasn't finished by the time the fall quarter was scheduled to begin. The Board of Regents also revealed that they were modifying the plans to make the initial facilities about 10% smaller than initially planned in order to save on construction costs.

Rome City School Board representatives revealed that they were working on plans to fully desegregate all grades  in the Rome City school system by the fall of 1970 in keeping with new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare rulings. This would require that Rome desegregate all twelve grades one year earlier than their previously approved plan had specified, but Rome said that they were close enough to that level already that the earlier deadline should not be a problem and no education funding should be in jeopardy.

The Rome Pilot Club donated a Baldwin studio piano to the Rome Boy's Club assembly room for use by the Rome Boys Club Choir; the piano would also be available for supervised use by Boys Club members.

Piggly Wiggly had chicken livers for 39¢ a pound, a six pack of Coca-Cola/Sprite/Tab/Fanta in cans for 49¢, and bananas for a dime a pound. A&P had rib steaks for 89¢ a pound, Armour Vienna sausages for 27¢ a can, and corn for 12¢ an ear. Big Apple had smoked center cut pork chops for 99¢ a pound, Mrs. Bell's mayonnaise for 39¢ a quart, and Irvindale ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon. Kroger had sirloin steak for $1.19 a pound, medium eggs for 49¢ a dozen, and oranges for a dime a pound. Couch's had chili meat (which I presume was chunky ground beef) for 59¢ a pound, Bama peanut butter for 39¢ a hard, and cabbage for 9¢ a pound.

The cinematic week began with Some Kind of a Nut (starring Dick Van Dyke) at the DeSoto Theatre, Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (starring Tony Curtis) at the First Avenue, Alice's Restaurant (starring Arlo Guthrie) at the Village, and Romeo & Juliet (starring Leonard Whiting & Olivia Hussey) at the West Rome Drive-In. The end-of-week switchout brought Battle of Britain (starring Michael Caine) to the DeSoto, Hell's Angels '69 (starring Tom Stern) to the First Avenue, File of the Golden Goose (starring Yul Brynner) to the Village, and Kiss & Kill (starring Christopher Lee) to the West Rome Drive-In.

The 5th Dimension moved into the number one slot this week in 1969 with "Wedding Bell Blues." Other top ten hits included "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley (#2); "Come Together" by the Beatles (#3); "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations (#4); "Baby It's You" by Smith (#5); "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies (#6); "Hot Fun in the Summertime by Sly & the Family Stone (#7); "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat, & Tears (#8); "Something" by the Beatles (#9--and I have no idea how they determined the Beatles' placement this week, since "Come Together/Something" was a double-A-sided single); and "Smile a Little Smile for Me" by the Flying Machine (#10).

A Life in Four Colors Part Forty-Seven

I described my initial relationship with Susan as "like at first sight," and that's a fair appraisal. But I wasn't the only person who found Susan appealing...

My best friend in 1969 was Gary Steele; we had known each other since junior high and our shared love of comics made us buddies almost immediately. Our tastes in entertainment were sufficiently similar that we both expanded from comics to science fiction, fantasy, Doc Savage, Conan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and James Bond, among many other things.

I was fascinated to meet a girl who shared my interests, and so was Gary. I told him about Susan soon  after my first conversation with her, and within a few weeks he was writing to her as well. From time to time, all three of us would even talk with one another, with Gary on one extension phone at my house and me on the other.

By late 1968, Gary and I had convinced Susan to join the amateur press alliance Myriad, which was created by our friend and fellow fan Stven Carlberg. (For those who don't know what I'm talking about: an amateur press alliance, or apa, is a construct in which contributors produce sufficient copies of their own individual fanzines for all the members, then mail those copies to an Official Editor or Central Mailer, who collates those fanzines into bundles containing one copy of each contribution from the various members and distributes those bundles to the membership. Those fanzines might contain art, reviews, original fiction, reviews, personal commentary, and "mailing comments"--responses to the various fanzines in the prior mailing.  It's sort of a hybrid of fanzines and correspondence, and a lot of effort and creativity went into producing those apazines.) So not only were we both writing to Susan and occasionally talking with Susan, but we were contributing to the same apa.

Since Susan had no way of getting her Myriad apazine Vendetta reproduced (my apazine was not much'a nothin'--the same title I have now repurposed for this blog site), she asked Gary and me if we could do it. Somehow, we had convinced Mrs. Higgins and Mrs. Armona at West Rome High School to let us use the school's ditto machine if we supplied our own paper and ditto masters, so we provided ditto masters to Susan (since there was nowhere in Cedartown for her to buy them) and she would mail us her contributions, which we would print. A few months later, Gary and I bought our own Heyer mimeo machines, so we could actually print our fanzine at home--and at that point, Susan began doing her apazine on mimeo stencils.

(If you want to know all about ditto machines, aka spirit duplicators, and mimeo machines, there are sites that explain it, but here's a quick, simple explanation: a ditto machine uses a two-layer master that transfers carbon to the back of the sheet on which you type and/or draw. When that master is wrapped around a drum and moistened with an alcohol solution, a little of the purple carbon is transferred to a piece of paper. If you remember those old purple school handouts from the pre-xerox days--the ones that smelled like alcohol--that was a ditto machine. Yeah, I realize that we called them mimeo when we were in school but they weren't. Mimeo machines use a wax-covered stencil; when you type or draw on it, it displaces the wax, which allows ink to pass through that portion of the stencil. Put the stencil on a machine with an ink-covered drum and run paper through it and it makes an ink print on the paper. It's more durable, more permanent, and much more messy. I know of no veteran mimeo fanzine publishers who don't have at least one story about an ink-related disaster involving a spill, a spatter, or a curious cat.)

Sharing an apa with Susan was great--it afforded me one more opportunity to get to know about her, and it allowed me to enjoy her "public writing," which was a perfect complement to the letters that she sent me on average twice a week. I was learning a lot about Susan, her tastes, and her impressive word-crafting skills. The more I read, the more I liked her, even when she made it clear that she had no appreciation for Marvel Comics, finding them overwritten and melodramatic. We would talk about that many times over the years, and I remember her even courteously expressing the same thoughts to then-Marvel-editor Roy Thomas when we met him in New Orleans in 1973. I never did change her mind on that subject.

Susan and I continued to make plans to see one another whenever my family went to Cedartown to visit my grandmother; I would sometimes pick up her stencils when I was there so that I could print her apazine and mail it in with mine. It was during my visit to Cedartown in early 1969 that Susan mentioned that Gary had asked her if it would be okay for him to drive to Cedartown and visit her sometime.

I was surprised, because Gary hadn't mentioned it to me. But then I realized why: in his roundabout way, Gary was asking Susan to go on a date with him. since Gary was a few months older than me, he had his driver's license in early 1969, while I wouldn't get mine until late August of that same year.

I asked Susan if they had made arrangements to get together. "No," she said. "I asked him if you were coming up with him, and he said no, so I didn't talk with him about it any more."

That made me happy.

I had felt vaguely bothered when I learned that Gary might be seeing Susan without me; I now realize that was teenage jealousy rearing its head. But I felt great when Susan indicated that she didn't want to see Gary without seeing me.

And that was the point when, in spite of my teenage blitheness, I realized that my feelings for Susan were more than just feelings of one fan friend for another. And suddenly, I was counting down the months until I could get my own driver's license and make the drive to Cedartown on my own...

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 10/20/1969 to 10/26/1969

Rome City Schools' roller-coaster relationship with the US Department of Health, Education, & Welfare and the US Justice Department took a dip this week in 1969 when the Justice Department filed suit against 83 school systems, including Rome City Schools. The Justice Department's suit demanded that all 83 systems fully implement their desegregation plans by the fall of 1970--one full year earlier than the plans already agreed to by the Department of Health, Education, & Welfare. "The action is intended to try to get the rest of Georgia's school systems that haven't already desegregated moving," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Frank M. Dunbaugh said.

The Chieftains' winning streak came to an end on Friday night when the Cartersville Hurricanes stormed over West Rome for a 20-0 victory. The loss knocked the Chiefs out of first place in Region 7-AA South, putting them behind crosstown rivals East Rome with only two remaining games in regular season play.

West Rome's midget football team defeated Coosa 20-6 to take the senior division midget football championship on Monday, October 20th. Ricky Ramsey scored all three touchdowns with runs of 54 years, 55 yards, and seven yards respectively.

West Rome's JV team pushed its record to 7-0 for the season with a 46-8 victory over Pepperell. Quarterback Johnny Thompkins ran for two touchdowns and threw three touchdown passes to Herbert Sellers in the first three quarters, while quarterback Jimmy Hatch added to the score with a touchdown pass to Sellers in the fourth quarter.

"Don't turn around." Those three words, followed by the click of an armed robber cocking the hammer of a gun, kicked off a nightmarish evening for Dallas Tanner, manager of the A&P on Shorter Avenue. An unidentified armed robber took all the store's daily proceeds shortly after closing on Friday, October 24th. "He told me to put all the money in a bag and that's exactly what I did," Tanner said. Luckily, the robber didn't get all the daily cash, since the assistant manager had already made a bank deposit midway through the day.

Ledbetter Construction announced ambitious construction plans for a site on US Highway 411 near the Ledbetter interchange. The first phase would seethe construction of a 200-unit Ramada Inn with a restaurant that could accommodate 400 people and meeting space that cold accommodate 500 people. The next phase of the construction would include town houses, garden apartments, and a shopping mall. (Needless to say, the latter part of that pie-in-the-sky plan never came to fruition.)

After the first round of bids for construction of Floyd Junior College came in almost a third higher than initially budgeted, the University System Board of Regents voted to reject all bids and to request new bids. Only three companies bid initially, but the Board of Regents was reaching out to other construction companies who had worked on other projects to request that they submit bids for Floyd Junior College in hopes that increased competition might result in lower bids.

Rome returned to Eastern standard time on Sunday, October 26th, giving all of us an extra hour of sleep.

Piggly Wiggly had cube steak for $1.09 a pound, eggs for 49¢ a dozen and oranges for 12¢ a pound. A&P had chuck steak for 59¢ a pound, golden delicious apples for 19¢ a pound, and Ann Page pound cake for 35¢. Big Apple had baking hens for 39¢ a pound, Irvindale ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and Poss Brunswick stew for 49¢ a can. Kroger had pork chops for 77¢ a pound, canned biscuits for 6¢ a can, and apple cider for 77¢ a gallon. Couch's had ground beef for 55¢ a pound, Bama mayonnaise for 49¢ a quart, and Van Camp's chili with beans for 33¢ a can.

The cinematic week began with Run Wild, Run Free (starring John Mills) at the DeSoto Theatre, Ace High (starring Eli Wallach) at the First Avenue, Alice's Restaurant (starring Pat Quinn) at the Village, and Thunderbirds Are Go  at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switch out brought Some Kind of a Nut (starring Dick Van Dyke) to the DeSoto, Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (starring Tony Curtis) to the First Avenue, and Romeo & Juliet (starring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey) to the West Rome Drive-In, while Alice's Restaurant continued to serve moviegoers at the Village Theatre.

Elvis Presley returned to the top of the charts with "Suspicious Minds" this week in 1969. Other top ten hits included "Wedding Bell Blues" by the 5th Dimension (#2); "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies (#3); "I Can't Get Next to You" by the Temptations (#4); "Baby, It's You" by Smith (#5); "Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly & the Family Stone (#6); "Little Woman" by Bobby Sherman (#7); "Jean" by Oliver (#8); "Tracy" by the Cuff Links (#9); and "Come Together/Something" (a double A-sided single that was thus credited to both songs) by the Beatles (#10 & 11--that's the way the charts work for double A-sided singles). Meanwhile, the Beatles album Abbey Road sired to the top of the album charts during its third week of release.

Led Zeppelin released their second album this week in 1969; the first single off that album, "Whole Lotta Love," would go on to become Led Zeppelin's best-selling song until the release of "Stairway to Heaven" wo years later.

A Life In Four Colors Part Forty-Six

I've told you about my 1968 discovery of a Cedartown comics fan named Susan Hendrix (who went on to become my wife three years after our first meeting). But what did Susan think about this strange phone call regarding her letter of comment? I can answer that definitively, because I still have her letter to me in which she discussed it.

(Yes, I said "letter." We may have lived less than twenty miles apart, but we still wrote letters to one another. Part of it was because we both felt very comfortable writing, but another reason was that Susan lived in a two bedroom house with her parents, her grandparents, her sister, and her brother, and there was virtually no privacy.)

Here's what Susan wrote about that conversation in her first letter to me. "I was surprised and apprehensive when you asked me about my letter in Batman. I thought you were probably someone from my high school who had found out about my letter and was calling to give me a hard time. If I seemed a little reluctant to talk, that was why. It took me a few minutes to realize that you weren't going to make fun of me."

Susan still wasn't sure what to think of me, however. We exchanged three rounds of letters with one another between the date of that first letter and the time that we finally agreed to meet, some three months afterwards. (Yes, that means that in two months, we exchanged four letters with each other--four from me, four replies from her. Not the heaviest level of correspondence ever, but we were just casual acquaintances at that time.) We chose something as close to Neutral Territory as we could think of: my grandmother's house in Cedartown, less than two miles from her house.  The meeting date was June 15th, 1968. 

Why did we meet at my grandmother's house rather than at Susan's house? Simple: Susan was 17 and had a driver's license. I was 14 (I would turn 15 in August of that year) and could not drive, so I had no way to get to her house other than to ask my parents to take me, and that seemed both awkward and unlikely to happen. Susan could arrange to borrow her parents' car for a short while, so we agreed to get together at 2pm. (Yes, in spite of the fact that I was almost three years younger than her, she was willing to meet with me. In retrospect, that was pretty amazing.)

I was sitting one one of the wrought-iron chairs under the pine trees in my grandmother's front yard at 623 Olive Street when Susan pulled into the driveway (I had carefully cleaned the chairs to ensure that they were suitable for company). I was nervous (let's just say that I wasn't a very suave and debonair fourteen year old, okay?) as I got up to meet her at her car. She opened the door and got out.

Susan was wearing a blue-and-white-striped dress with a white Peter Pan collar and red buttons (It has been more than 51 years, and I can still see that dress in every detail--and I can still see Susan's face just as clearly.) Susan was smiling a bit stiffly; as I got to know her more, I came to know that as her nervous smile. We introduced ourselves to each other, and I invited her to sit on one of the wrought-iron chairs. She sat, her hands crossed in her lap, and we began to talk. The conversation began with a discussion of that phone call, then some comic book talk, then some music talk. Gradually, Susan began to relax a little bit. She laughed a bit as we discussed television shows we liked, and how our families felt about our entertainment interests. She asked me about the fanzines I had contributed to, and said she'd like to see them. I promised to send her some.

And then we realized the an hour had passed, and she had promised to get the car back to her family that afternoon. That white 1963 Dodge was their only car, and they needed to run some errands that afternoon. I walked her to her car, we said goodbye, and that was the end of our first meeting.

Was it mutual love at first sight? No, but it was mutual like at first sight, which was all I could hope for at the time. The last thing she said to me that day was, "I hope we get to see each other again soon." In a letter soon after that, she wrote, "I hope that didn't sound too forward, but I really had a good time talking with you. I don't have any friends I can talk to about comics or science fiction, and it was so enjoyable to talk about that stuff with someone who didn't think I was stupid for reading it." 

And beginning with that meeting, our correspondence increased. We were writing each other at least once a week, and we actually began setting up a time to talk on the phone--a time usually scheduled around her family's schedule, so that she would have some time to talk without everyone overhearing every word of her side of the conversation.

It wasn't a romance yet, but it was moving in the right direction...

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 10/13/1969 to 10/19/1969

The battle of the band instrument providers continued tis week as the Rome Board of Education announced that, in a private meeting, they had voted to continue to support the Band Advisory Committee's recommendation that they use only the Music Room to conduct its band recruitment programs and offer instrument sales and/or rental to band students. Ken Stanton objected to the decision, saying that if the system wasn't open to all music stores, then none should be allow to participate. The board replied that "parents should feel free to look at instruments of any company and then make their own decisions where to purchase or rent," but that only the Music Room would be allowed to visit the schools, administer the recruitment program, and offer sales and rentals to students at those recruitment programs.

West Rome took on North Georgia powerhouse Marietta on Friday, October 17th, in the second confrontation between the two teams (the first, in 1968, resulted in a 24-0 Marietta victory). West Rome went into the game without two key players, as both Frank Felker and Edward Sellers were still on the injured list. Unfortunately, Marietta posted its second victory in a row as they defeated West Rome 27-7; West Rome's only touchdown came from a one-yard run by quarterback Randy Hatch, followed by Mark Brewer's extra point. Other than that, the game was dominated by Marietta from beginning to end. West Rome racked up a total of 107 yards rushing, of which 100 yards came from John Sapp.

Vicki Duffey was crowned Homecoming Queen at West Rome. The other members of the homecoming court included Sharon Avery, Kay Cormany, Ellen Jackson, and Debbie Shelnutt,

The West Rome Library Club volunteered to help the staff at the Boys Club Library, which was open from 4 until 6 pm every Tuesday and Thursday. Library Club members included Gail Ballew, Pat Branton, Debbie Engle, Debbie Holder, Debbie Johnson, Julia Jones, Virginia Lemming, and Sharon Moore.

Bringing a junior college to the Rome/Floyd County area turned out to be  more expensive than anticipated. Bids for construction of the facility came in almost 50% higher than anticipated; then low bid of $3.732,415.00 was significantly higher than the $2.5 million that the University System had originally budgeted. According to Chancellor George Simpson, the bids were the highest per square foot of any college ever built in Georgia.

A non-profit group, Housing Incorporation, announced plans to build several subdivisions for low and moderate income families in Floyd County. The total cost of the program was estimated at $2.1 million, Rome municipal and business leaders headed up the program, which was designed to make it easier for lower-income families to afford their own homes.

A  major early morning fire nearly destroyed Keith's Walgreen Drug Store at 435 Broad Street, leaving little more than a charred shell of a building. Nearby businesses, including Esserman's Town Finance, Tee's Barber Shop, Wilkerson Real Estate & Insurance, and Coosa Valley Book Shop were affected by the heavy smoke, but suffered no lasting damage.

Piggly Wiggly had pork ribs for 59¢ a pound, apples for 12¢ a pound, and Castlebery chili for 49¢ a can. Kroger had T-bone steak for $1.29 a pound, sweet potatoes for a dime a pound, and a 48-ounce bottle of Gatorade for 49¢. Big Apple had pork roast for 59¢ a pound, Irvindale ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon, and Jeno's pizzas for 63¢ each. A&P had ocean perch for 95¢ a pound, cabbage for a dime a pound, and RC Cola or Diet Rite for 30¢ a carton plus deposit. Couch's had ground beef for 59¢ a pound, Bama jelly for 27¢ a jar, and Duncan Hines cake mix for 33¢ a box.

The cinematic week began with Castle Keep (starring Burt Lancaster) at the DeSoto Theatre, The Rain People (starring James Caan) at the First Avenue, A Place for Lovers (starring Faye Dunaway) at the Village, and True Grit (starring John Wayne) at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switchout brought Run Wild, Run Free (starring John Mills) to the DeSoto, Ace High (starring Eli Wallach) to the First Avenue, Alice's Restaurant (starring Pat Quinn) to the Village, and The Italian Job (starring Michael Caine) to the West Rome Drive-In.

The number one song this week in 1969 was "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations. Other top ten hits included "Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly & the Family Stone (#2); "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies (#3); "Jean" by Oliver (#4); "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley (#5); "Little Woman" by Bobby Sherman (#6); "Wedding Bell Blues" by the 5th Dimension (#7); "Baby, It's You" by the Smiths (#8); "Tracy" by the Cuff Links (#9); and "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" by Lou Christie (#10).

It was an amazing week for great albums as well. Creedence Clearwater Revival took first place with their album Green River, followed by Johnny Cash at San Quentin (#2); Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Volume 2) by the Rolling Stones (#3); Abbey Road by the Beatles (#4); the eponymous Blind Faith (#5); In-A-Gadda-da-Vida by Iron Butterfly (#6); the eponymous Blood, Sweat, & Tears  (#7); Hot Buttered Soul by Isaac Hayes (#8); Best of Cream (#9); and Santana, the group's first album (#10). This was also the week that John Denver made his national musical debut with the release of his first album, Rhymes & Reasons (he had previously released an album on a small regional label).

The Jackson 5 made their television premiere this week in 1969 on The Hollywood Palace, an ABC music-variety program.

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 10/6/1969 to 10/12/1969

Rome became the site of a "battle of the band instrument providers" this week in 1969 as Ken Stanton Music accused the Rome and Floyd County school systems of shutting them out of the band programs in their schools, in favor of Don Everett and his business The Music Room. Stanton had worked with Everett for years; a business disagreement led to Everett's departure from Ken Stanton Music, at which point he started his own company. "We have been excluded from parent meetings and are not listed as a rental site for band instruments, even though our prices are often lower than our competitors," Stanton said. "We've tried to get into the schools, but we never know when band directors have set up their recruitment meetings and can't get a return call." Stanton had even offered to provide sixth-grade music students in the Rome City Schools with free instruments for a year, but when he attempted to deliver those instruments to West End, the principal refused to meet with him or to allow him to leave the instruments. "We have no personal objection to Ken Stanton or his company," West Rome band director Johnny Shook said. "We just believe that The Music Room offers the best recruiting system [for students interested in joining the band]." Shook explained that The Music Room would meet with students and parents and let the student try out every instrument until he found the one that suited him, while Ken Stanton asked that parents and students fill out a form indicating their preferred instrument first.

After the prior week's blowout victory over Cass, the Chieftains took on Cedartown on October 10th. The Bulldogs proved to be much more of a challenge than the Colonels were, but West Rome nevertheless posted a 21-13 victory. Henry Studyvent scored two of the Chieftains' touchdowns, while Randy Hatch's pass to David Watkins gave West Rome their third touchdown.

Rome's burglars were back in action this week in 1969, with break-ins at the Partridge Restaurant (cash was stolen from the register); Williams, Schweitzer, & Barnum Engineering on Redmond Circle, where cash and equipment were taken; the Town House on East second Avenue, where cash and merchandise was stolen; Joyce's Beauty Shop in Central Plaza, where cash ws stolen; Red Ace Petroleum Company on Redmond Circle, were 432 packages of cigarettes were stolen; United Insurance Company on East Second Avenue, where offices were ransacked but nothing was stolen; and Roman Chemical Corporation on East Second Avenue, where offices were ransacked but nothing was stolen. That's a lot of burglaries on one night!

Home Federal pushed interest rates to 5.25% for six month CDs this week in 1969, an eighth of a point higher than any other bank in Rome--and about three times what most banks are paying today.

A morals decency group, The Movement to Restore Decency, was organized in Rome this week in 1969. According to chairman Dr. Richard Gray, their primary goal was to prevent the distribution of adult magazines in the city, but they also expressed concern that "one theater" (which was the First Avenue Theatre--not sure why they didn't say that) had begun showing X-rated films in Rome. Of course, one of the two X-rated films they showed was Midnight Cowboy, which would go on to win an Academy Awards. The group also objected to any plans to bring sex education to the public schools.

Governor Lester Maddox, of all people, spoke out in favor of women in leadership positions in government this week in 1969. Maddox said that he was "all for" a woman President. "I believe that a woman who is used to living on a budget might be able to get our national finances straightened out and reduce our shameful national debt," Maddox said. "And certainly any woman could take control of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and make improvements there." (Of course, Maddox had ulterior motives: it was reported that his wife was considering running for governor when Maddox's term expired.)

Piggly Wiggly had rib steaks for 98¢ a pound, Atlanta Dairies ice milk for 3¢ a half-gallon, and five pounds of oranges for 59¢. A&P had pork sausage for 59¢ a pound, Bartlett pears for 25¢ a pound, and Van Camp's pork & beans for 18¢ a can. Kroger had fresh whole fryers for 27¢ a pound, Maxwell House coffee for 73¢ a pound, and Aqua Net hairspray for 37¢ a can. Big Apple had leg o' lamb for 89¢ a pound, Stokely tomato sauce for a dime a can, and Campbell's tomato soup for 11¢ a can.  Couch's had Oscar Mayer olive loaf or liver loaf for 49¢ a pack, Aristocrat ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and Libby's tomato ketchup for 29¢ a bottle.

The cinematic week began with Thoroughly Modern Millie (starring Julie Andrews) at the DeSoto Theatre, Midnight Cowboy (starring Dustin Hoffman) at the First Avenue, The Lion in Winter (starring Katharine Hepburn) at the Village, and The Love Bug (starring Dean Jones) at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switchout brought Castle Keep (starring Burt Lancaster) to the DeSoto, The Rain People (starring James Caan) to the First Avenue, A Place for Lovers (starring Faye Dunaway) to the Village,  and True Grit (starring John Wayne) to the West Rome Drive-In.

The Temptations took the number one slot this week in 1969 with "I Can't Get Next To You." Other top ten hits included "Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly & the Family Stone (#2); "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies (#3); "Jean" by Oliver (#4); "Little Woman" by Bobby Sherman (#5); "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley (#6); "That's the Way Love Is" by Marvin Gaye (#7); "Wedding Bell Blues" by the 5th Dimension (#8); "Easy to Be Hard" by Three Dog Night (#9); and "Tracy" by the Cuff Links (#10). What interesting here is that singer Ron Dante had two songs in the top ten this week, even though his name didn't appear on either one of them. Dante was the voice of the Archies, so that's his vocals you hear on the lead on "Sugar, Sugar." He's also the voice of the Cuff Links, so that means that it's Ron who's multi tracking all the voices on "Tracy."

The progressive rock band King Crimson released their first album, In the Court of the Crimson King, this week in 1969. This was also the week that the Richard and Karen Carpenter released the first Carpenters album, Ticket to Ride.

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 9/29/1969 to 10/5/1969

West Rome's Chieftains Club conducted its annual membership drive on Monday and Tuesday. Club representatives visited every home in West Rome, encouraging residents to join the group and help support West Rome's academic, sports, and fine arts activities. The Chieftains Club hoped to have the highest percentage of active parent members in the state. Mrs. Wheeler Wood, chair of the drive committee, coordinated the program with help from Mrs. Leila Wilson and Mr. Walter Trimm.

West Rome went into their game with the Cass Colonels with a handicap: Chieftain regulars Doug Reed and Curt Wallace were both on the injured list for the week, leaving West Rome's defense in a difficult position. Coach Larry Parker said that he was moving Billy Faulkner and Thomas Crowley into the slots left open by Reed and Wallace's absence. Thankfully, the defense was able to hold Cass off, while the offense totally destroyed the Colonels to post a 34-0 victory. Coach Nick Hyder admitted that he was surprised, as he expected the game to be much closer since Cass was highly rated and had been predicted to win the game. West Rome had 265 net yards rushing and 164 yards passing, while holding Cass to only 56 yards rushing and 83 yards passing. Randy Hatch and David Love shared quarterback duties in the game, while David Watkins and Stan Green proved to be the team's best receivers. Randy Hatch also had 83 yards on the ground in eight carries, while Henry Studyvent had 71 yards rushing and Thomas Crowley had 70 yards.

Nowadays we're accustomed to local option sales taxes, but did you know that Rome state senator Sam Doss was a member of a committee that recommended that Georgia consider a 1% local option income tax? Had it passed, residents in communities where the local option tax passed would have had to file a local income tax form as well as a federal and state form; Doss said that the income tax would be easier to implement than a sales tax. Thankfully, the income tax idea was abandoned and the sales tax proposal passed (at least it allows out-of-town shoppers who spend money in Rome to help support Rome schools through their sales tax spending).

Fashion designer and former Roman Frankie Welch was honored on September 30th as the Rome and Floyd County governments declared that day as Frankie Welch Day. Welch was given the keys to the city (which unfortunately don't really open anything) at a luncheon in her honor; afterwards she showed off some of the many scarves she had designed, including her new "See Georgia First" scarf.

Piggly Wiggly had sirloin steak for $1.19 a pound, lettuce for 25¢ a head, and grapefruit for 15¢ each.  Kroger had chub packs of ground beef for 53¢ a pound, sweet potatoes for a dime a pound, and Libby's beef stew for 49¢ a can. A&P had chuck roast for 47¢ a pound, Farmbest ice cream for 79¢ a half-gallon, and Viva paper towels for 35¢ a roll.  Big Apple had calf liver for 89¢ a pound, Chase & Sanborn coffee for 55¢ a pound, and Coca-Cola/Tab/Sprite for  33¢ a carton plus deposit. Couch's had Oscar Mayer hot dogs for 69¢ a pound, whole coconuts for 29¢ each, and pork brains for 29¢ a pound (and that's one food I've never sampled).

The cinematic week began with The Italian Job (starring Michael Caine) at the DeSoto Theatre, Midnight Cowboy (starring Dustin Hoffman & John Voigt) at the First Avenue, Popi (starring Alan Arkin) at the Village, and a double feature of The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly and Hang 'Em High (starring Clint Eastwood) at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switch out brought Thoroughly Modern Millie (starring Julie Andrews) to the DeSoto Theatre,  The Lion in Winter (starring Katharine Hepburn) to the Village, and The Love Bug (starring Dean Jones) to the West Rome Drive-In, while Midnight Cowboy continued at the First Avenue for another week.

The Archies held on to the number one slot for another week with "Sugar, Sugar." Other top ten hits included "Jean" by Oliver (#2); "Little Woman" by Bobby Sherman (#3); "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations (#4); "Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly & the Family Stone (#5); "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson (#6); "Easy to Be Hard" by Three Dog Night (#7); "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones (#8); "This Girl Is a Woman Now" by Gary Puckett & the Union Gap (#9); and "Green River" by Creedence Clearwater Revival (#10).

While we wouldn't see it on this side of the Atlantic for several more years, the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus was broadcast in the UK this week in 1969. Here in the US, Love, American Style made its premiere on ABC on September 29th.

Searching for Normal

I was married for 48 years, one month, and seven days.

On July 22nd, 2019, Susan died after suffering through multiple strokes and seizures. The accrued damage was too much; each small stroke and each seizure did more damage to her frontal lobe, until she was simply unable to continue.

I prepared a personal journal, written in a rather terse form, of what happened to her. I considered sharing that account here, and even went so far as to paste it into this post. When I read it once again, though, I realized that I could not do so. The story of Susan's decline was so disturbing that I would not want those who knew her to read of what she went through. Suffice to say that the combination of strokes and seizures stripped away her cognitive ability, her emotional self-control, her physical dexterity, her independence, her ability to read, to write, to speak in meaningful words--and eventually, her ability to even eat and drink. I thought I was strong enough to read it without breaking down. I was wrong. And I don't want anyone else to remember her that way. That is a nightmarish burden I should carry alone. If there is any solace to be found in that account, it is this: re-reading the 64-day chronicle of her decline, I realize that her death allowed her to escape from all of the suffering torment that her life had become at the end. "Just let me go... Just let me go... Just let me go." Those were her last clearly articulated words, spoken to her surgeon, and to me, the day before I realized I had to honor her wishes and move her to hospice.

Now I struggle to figure out what I should do with myself, to determine how to go on. The most mundane things--cooking a meal, doing laundry, getting out of bed in the morning and getting ready for bed in the evening--no longer seem natural to me. Every little task seems empty because Susan isn't here with me.

I married Susan two months before my eighteenth birthday. I went from my parents' home to our home. I never spent a day alone until Susan died. Now loneliness is my constant companion.

Had I not promised Susan that I would take care of Anna and Mischa, our two beloved cats, I am not certain that I would have survived the first two weeks after Susan's death. I spent long nights struggling with thoughts of rejoining her. The night I came closest to giving in to those thoughts was the night that I found a gift from her--a book she had bought for me at some point but had not been able to give to me. Perhaps it was intended as this year's birthday gift, or a Christmas gift. It was a slender volume, an illustrated edition of Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." She knew it was one of my favorite poems. It was if she had wanted to tell me once again that I too still have miles to go before I sleep. That night, she saved me.

I would like to think I am doing better. Nevertheless, there has not been a day thus far when I have not cried. There has not been a day when I have not felt the crushing burden of despair. There has not been a day when I have not missed her. I do not believe that there ever will be such a day. I simply have to find a way to get through each day in spite of the tears, the despair, and the loneliness.

Normal is out there. I just haven't found it yet.

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 9/22/1969 to 9/28/1969

Rome City Schools Superintendent Milton S. McDonald confirmed that on Monday, September 22nd, he receive  a phone call from a representative of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare confirming that Rome's 1969-1970 desegregation plan had been accepted and the system would get its full federal funding. McDonald pointed out, though, that this news was supposed to have been shared with the school system in late July or early August; when they heard nothing, they began implementing cuts to educational programs and staff due to the expected absence of federal funds. Now that the money was forthcoming (including retroactive funds for August and September), McDonald said that the system would look at the feasibility of restoring programs that had been cut, but he warned that some of the staff who had been let go had already found jobs in other systems, so it might not be possible to restart all cut programs. McDonald also said that the school  system's 1970-1971 desegregation plans, which had previously been approved by HEW, were now being designated as problematic and there might be another federal funding issue for the next school year. The plans called for the total elimination of Main High by the 1970-1971 school year, with all students attending either West Rome or East Rome, along with the construction of two new junior high schools large enough to handle a fully desegregated student body. McDonald said that he had no idea what part of the previously-accepted proposal was now seen as problematic.

Georgia Kraft, Georgia Power, Celanese, and Klopman Mills stepped up to sponsor the four Junior Achievement companies set up to teach Rome and Floyd County students the ins and outs of the free enterprise system. Georgia Kraft's student-runs company planned to offer storage containers; Klopman's student-run company, peg games and fire accessories; Georgia Power's, coasters and magnetic bulletin boards; and Klopman's, novelty photograph holders. Student participants were expected to sell stock in their companies to raise operating capital, and then to sell the products once manufacturing was completed.

US Plywood acquired Trend Mills this week in 1969. Trend and US Plywood assured Romans that they had no plans to cut any jobs, and in fact were looking to expand operations in late 1969 and again in 1970.

West Rome's Chatman brothers--Fred, Jimmy, Joseph, and Dennis--were the focus of a feature article on September 24th. Fred and Jimmy played on the varsity football team, while Joseph and Dennis were members of the freshman team. "I don't think we've ever had this many brothers in our program at one time," head coach Nick Hyder said. "They're all really good boys and certainly will help us."

West Rome took on Chattooga in a region game on Friday, September 26th, at Barron Stadium. This would be West Rome's first home game of the season. The Chieftains thrilled the home fans with a 21-0 victory, giving the Chattooga Indians their first loss of the season for the second year in a row. John Sapp scored all three of West Rome's touchdowns, while Henry Studyvent was the Chieftains' top gainer, powering his way to 109 yards rushing. Mark Brewer added three of the team's twenty-one points with a fourth quarter field goal.

Dodge unveiled its 1970 Challenger this week in 1969, promoting it as "the only new entry in the spots compact field... designed to compete with the pony cars." Of course, by today's standard, it doesn't seem very compact at all, but the 60s were a different automotive time...

Piggly Wiggly had fresh whole fryers for 29¢ a pound; four pounds of golden delicious apples for 49¢; and a six pack of Coca-Cola/Tab/Sprite in new no-deposit cans for 59¢ (which was almost 20¢ more than the cost of the bottles, so even if you paid the deposit and never took the bottles back, you'd still save 15% over the cost of the cans!). A&P had beef loin for 89¢ a pound, Cool Whip for 59¢ a tub, and Bartlett pears for 19¢ a pound. Kroger had ground beef for 53¢ a pound in chub packs (even the name makes the product sound fatty, doesn't it?), Morton cream pies for 28¢, and bananas fr 15¢ a pound. Big Apple had sirloin steak for 89¢ a pound, Irvindale ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and JFG coffee for 59¢ a pound. Couch's had young hen turkeys for 43¢ a pound, Bama peanut butter for 39¢ a jar, and sweet potatoes for 12¢ a pound.

The cinematic week began with The Maltese Bippy (starring Laugh-In's Dan Rowan and Dick Martin) at the DeSoto Theatre, Inga (an X-rated film with no recognizable stars) at the First Avenue, Young Billy Young (starring Robert Mitchum) at the Village Theatre, and Around the World in 80 Days (an oldie starring David Niven) at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switch out brought The Italian Job (starring Michael Caine) to the DeSoto, Midnight Cowboy (another X-rated film, but this one a major Hollywood release starring John Voigt and Dustin Hoffman that would go on to win Academy Awards) to the First Avenue, Pop! (starring Alan Arkin) to the Village, and a double feature of The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly and Hang 'Em High (a pair of spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood) to the West Rome Drive-In.

The Archies held on to number one for a third week with "Sugar, Sugar." Other top ten hits included "Jean" by Oliver (#2); "Little Woman" by Bobby Sherman (#3); "Easy to Be Hard" by Three Dog Night (#4); "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations (#5); "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones (#6); "Green River" by Creedence Clearwater Revival (#7); "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson (#8); "Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly & The Family Stone (#9); and "Oh, What a Night" by the Dells (#10).

The Beatles released their magnum opus, Abbey Road, this week in 1969. You have to feel a little sorry for the Guess Who, Al Stewart, Love, the Vanilla Fudge, Savoy Brown, and the Bob Seger System, all of whom also released albums this week only to be totally overshadowed by the most brilliant album of the Beatles' musical career.

The new TV season continued to roll out this week in 1969, with Marcus Welby MD, Medical Center, and The Brady Bunch all premiering (on ABC, CBS, and ABC respectively).