Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 6/1/1964 to 6/7/1964

Most millennials have no idea what the Selective Service was, but all of us who grew up in the 1960s are quite familiar with "the draft," as we knew it. Fifty years ago this week, the Georgia Selective Service System announced that they had implemented new procedures to more quickly inform potential draftees if they had qualified for military service or had been found unacceptable for physical, psychological, or educational reasons.

Rome Police Chief Nelson Camp warned out-of-school students looking for fun that BB guns were outlawed in the Rome city limits. "It is strictly against city ordinances to shoot a BB gun in the city," Chief Cap said. "In case of an accident, the boys' parents are responsible and cases can be made against them for this infraction of the law." Notice that he assumed that all BB gun shooters were boys! I have to admit that I was a regular lawbreaker as far as this ordinance was concerned—but so was my good friend Rhonda, who often went BB gun shooting with me when we were kids.

My family never made the drive to Chattanooga to spend the day at Lake Winnepesaukah, but I nevertheless knew of it because of their relentless advertising on Chattanooga television. They must have felt like Rome was in their audience market, though, because they were advertising regularly in the Rome News-Tribune, promoting the fact that they were "Chattanooga's complete amusement park," with a large lake for swimming and boating, an arcade, 16 rides, miniature golf, and more. For the summer, they rolled out their Teen Time promotion every Friday night from 6pm to 11pm: for only $1.50 per person, teenagers could enjoy unlimited rides and swimming.

If you didn't want to travel that far to go swimming, then Saturday, June 6th was a day worth marking on your calendar, because that's the day that the city of Rome opened the municipal pool near Barron Stadium. I remember spending many a day getting waterlogged in that pool, and I know I saw many of my friends there, too.

Another sign that the economy in Northwest Georgia was improving: Arrow Shirts announced plans to open a 500-employee facility in Cedartown. The company had conducted a site study in 1963 and determined that Northwest Georgia offered the skilled labor it needed. Plans called for the plant to open in 1965. And while this plant was 22 miles away from West Rome High School, many Romans would be hired on at Arrow once the facility opened.

Piggly Wiggly had pork chops for 35¢ a pound, bananas for a dime a pound, and Borden's sherbet for 49¢ a half-gallon. Kroger had T-Bone, porterhouse, sirloin, or cubed steaks for 79¢ a pound (cubed steak really did cost as much as porterhouse!), strawberries for 33¢ a pint, and Kroger catsup for a dime a bottle. Big Apple had smoked ham for 39¢ a pound, Bailey's Supreme coffee for 59¢  pound, and cantaloupes for 29¢ each.  A&P had chuck roast for 29¢ a pound, whole pineapples for 29¢ each, and Blue Bonnet margarine for 29¢ a pound (and as you know if you grew up in the 1960s, "Everything's better with Blue Bonnet on it"). Couch's had large eggs for 35¢ a dozen, fresh whole fryers for 23¢ a pound, and Pillsbury biscuits for 8¢ a can.

Forget what the calendar says: when you're in school, summertime officially begins on the first day that you don't have to get up and go to class! Apparently the folks at the West Rome Drive-In realized that, too, because they went from weekends-only to seven-days-a-week screenings beginning this week in 1964. Oh, the movies weren't very good on weeknights—they were showing a double feature of 55 Days in Peking (with Charlton Heston & Ava Gardner) and Summer Holiday (with Cliff Richards) for the first part of the week. Things got a little better on the weekend,with a  double feature of PT109 (with Cliff Robertson) and Spencer's Mountain (with Henry Fonda & Maureen O'Hara), the film that later gave birth to the television series The Waltons. The drive-in realized that their money was in concessions, as they ran a 25¢ a carload special every Tuesday night for the summer. As for the regular theaters—well, they started off with Tom Jones at the First Avenue Theater and The Thin Red Line at the DeSoto, but the mid-week switch brought James Bond back to Rome as From Russia With Love, the second Bond film (with Sean Connery, of course), came to the DeSoto Theater, while Tom Jones continued for a second week at the First Avenue.

The number one song this week in 1964 was "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups. Other Top Ten hits included the Lennon-McCartney tune "A World Without Love" performed by Peter & Gordon (#2); "Love Me With All Your Heart" by the Ray Charles Singers (#3); "Love Me Do" by the Beatles (#4); "My Guy" by Mary Wells (#5); "Walk on By" by Dionne Warwick (#6); "Little Children" by Billy J. Kramer (#7); "Hello Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#8); "People" by Barbra Streisand (#9); and "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys (#10).

Meanwhile, another British music group set out to make its mark in the States as the Rolling Stones began their US tour on June 5th. It wasn't a rousing hit, and they never came any closer to Rome than San Antonio, Texas, but the group was destined become a major hit maker in less than a year.

And for those of us who were hooked on comic books, the first week of June was quite eventful. DC recognized the value in their back catalog, leading them to launch their 80 Page Giant series with a Superman-themed first issue. Dell recognized the monster movie boom, releasing a second printing of The Creature, which featured a Creature-from-the-Black-Lagoon cover reminiscent of Aurora's monster model kit. Archie brought back the 1930s pulp hero The Shadow in an all-new comic series, pitting him against his long-time adversary Shiwan Khan. The singing chipmunk was so popular that he ran for the highest office in the land in Dell's Alvin For President. Vincent Price made the jump from film to comics in The Masque of the Red Death, also from Dell. Giant-Man battled the Hulk in Tales to Astonish #59—and at the end of the issue, Marvel gave us the good news that the Hulk would return to comics every month starting in the next issue. And all that was released in the first week of the summer... I was really going to have to mow some lawns if I wanted to afford all those great comics every week!

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 5/25/1964 to 5/31/1964

West Rome High School announced that 104 students would participate in graduation ceremonies as the 1963-64 school year wrapped up this week in 1964 (although graduation ceremonies didn't actually take place until Monday, June 1st, at West Rome High School).

West Rome marked the end of the school year with Class Day on Friday, May 29th. Senior class president Trish Tompkins presided over the event, which began with a Class Day luncheon at the General Forrest Hotel and continued through the evening's Class night presentation, at which historians Scott Callan and Camille Baker presented the record of the class history. Afterwards, Cheryl Panter and Lewis Schuessler presented the class prophecies, followed by a reading of the class poem by Jenny Stewart and a presentation of the Seniors' Last Will & Testament (presented by Laurie Coker and Patt Jarrard). At the end of the event, the class president presented Principal Dick McPhee and West Rome High School with a large silver punch bowl engraves with Class of 1964.

Otherwise, it was a very quiet week in Chieftain land—no sports events, no big news (good or bad), and absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

Piggly Wiggly had a case of Tab for $1.09 plus deposit, Wellesley Farm ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and ground chuck for 69¢ a pound. A&P had round steak for 69¢ a pound, lettuce for 15¢ a head, and whole watermelons for 95¢ each. Kroger had full shank hams for 39¢ a pound, Kroger coffee for 49¢ a pound, and a five-pound bag of Colonial sugar for 39¢. Big apple had pork & beans for a dime a can, Swift baton for 49¢ a pound, and a three-pound can of never-popular Hormel canned hams for $2.29 (is there anyone who actually wanted ham from a can?). Couch's had pork steak for 49¢ a pound, bananas for a dime a pound, and Aristocrat ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon.

The cinematic week began with The Best Man (with Stuart Miler) at the DeSoto and America America (by Eliza Kazan) at the First Avenue. The Wednesday movie switchover brought Tom Jones (with Albert Finney) to the First Avenue and The Thin Red Line (with Keir Dullea & Jack Warden) at the DeSoto. The West Rome Drive-In offered a double feature of 55 Days at Peking and Summer Holiday... supporting the theory I've presented here before that no one was going to the drive-in to watch a movie.

The number one song this week in 1964 was "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups. Other top ten hits included "Love Me Do" by the Beatles (#2); "My Guy" by Mary Wells (#3); "Love Me With All Your Heart" by the Ray Charles Singers (#4); "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#5); "A World Without Love" by Peter & Gordon (#6); "Walk on By" by Dionne Warwick (#7); "Little Children" by Billy J. Kramer (#8); "(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet" by the Reflections (#9), and "PS I Love You" by the Beatles (#10).

A Life in Four Colors (Part Forty-One)

It's amazing how compact our world is when we're young.

I've mentioned a variety of important places in my life in prior installments of A Life in Four Colors. As I got to thinking about those places, I realized how close to one another they were. That's probably normal; when we're kids, our world is pretty much limited by how far we can walk or ride a bicycle. Anything further than that requires that our parents take us somewhere, and that often requires planning.

Today I began plotting many of those locations on a map of West Rome (not even a complete map of West Rome, mind you—it only covers the distance from West Rome High School in the west to Division Street in the east), and I realized that I could walk from one side of my everyday childhood world to another in about a half-hour or so, if I didn't stop for snacks or comic books.

 The map that I'm sharing here doesn't depict a reality that ever existed. That is, there was never a time when all of these people and places occupied this space on the map at the same time.  There wasn't a Village Inn or a Pizza Inn when I first became friends with Phil Patterson, or with John Ball, or even at the beginning of my friendship with Gary Steele. Sven Ahlstrom didn't move to Rome until 1969, I believe. John Ball obviously didn't live in his first house and his second house at the same time. House of 10,000 Frames, where I worked while in college, didn't exist until 1971, and Mr. & Mrs. Peacock didn't move it to its second location until 1973.  I mention this because a map of this sort can only delineate place, not time. Each of these places on the map was destined to become important to me at some point in my life, which is why I include them.

Many of these places don't exist at all today. Everything changes. Sometimes the changes come fast, sometimes they're so slow that you don't realize that it's all different until you stop and ask yourself, "What happened? How did it change so much?"  None of the friends live in those houses any longer. In some cases, the houses don't even exist any longer. My school is gone, most of the businesses are gone and replaced by something else. "It seems like my past is running away from me," I wrote once, and my Mom quoted that  in the most poignant Christmas gift she ever gave me: a meticulously prepared scrapbook of my early life, put together to help me to hold on to my past. I was given that gift on Christmas 2002... ten days after Mom died. It was her final loving statement to me, reminding me just who I am and how I got here.

And at some point in the near future, I'll have to create a second map, this one of Broad Street, to show the other places that meant so much to me when I was a child and a teenager—places like Coosa Valley Bookshop, the Rome News-Tribune office, Liberty Hatworks & Newsstand, Reader's Den, Wyatt's, Norwood-Griffin, and more. Only one of them exists today, and its in a different location... and is a very different place than it was before.

Everything changes.

Each chapter of A Life in Four Colors is an attempt to pin down a specific four-dimensional point in my life, I guess. Not only is it important where I was, but it's equally important when I was. Change the place or the time, and my life might have been radically different. But the places and the times converged in just the right way, and thus the myriad events of my life unfolded.

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 5/18/1964 to 5/24/1964

Romans were spending more money in 1964, and the local economy was booming as a result. Merchants reported that charge account balances were 17% higher at the end of the first full quarter of 1964 than they were a year earlier. That's not bad news, though, because consumers were, on average, paying off their local charge balances in 67 days, which was two days less than the 69-day average for 1963. Department store sales were up 11% over 1963 and grocery sales were up over 5%; the only retail area that saw a slight decline was furniture, where 1964 sales dropped by 2% over the prior year's numbers. In every category, this put Rome ahead of the region as a whole (and that region included metro Atlanta!). So if Rome seemed like a great place to live in the mid-1960s, that's because it was: our economy was growing, unemployment was low, and there were all sorts of opportunities for students who chose to stay in Rome after graduation.

Cindi Blaylock represented West Rome in the Dairy Princess competition, sponsored by Rome's dairy farmers and bottlers The Dairy Princess competition was a big thing in 1964, with Rome's largest parade serving as a lead-in to the event, which was celebrated with a two-hour program and a gala Coronation Ball.

Sleep was cheap in 1964: a brand new queen size Simmons mattress and box spring set was bargain-priced at $88 at Sterchi's, while an accompanying maple bedroom suite (including headboard, dresser, chest of drawers, and nightstand) could be had for only $169 more. Of course, this was in a time before we could choose between memory foam, sleep number, deluxe pillow-topped, and/or no-flip mattresses--what you got for your money was metal springs, cotton padding, and a durable quilted outer cover, just the way all mattresses were made back then.

Alas, 1964 wasn't West Rome's year as far as baseball was concerned: after making it to the final game, West Rome lost to our arch-rivals, the East Rome Gladiators, 9-4. this was East Rome's second win in a row--and it's even sadder for the Chieftains when you realize that West Rome was actually ahead 4-0 in the top of the third inning.  Alas, it all went wrong from there...

Piggly Wiggly had round steak for 69¢ a pound, Lady Alice ice milk for 19¢ a half-gallon, and bananas for a dime a pound. Kroger had ground beef for 33¢ a pound, Kroger bread for a dime a loaf (forget that whole wheat stuff... it was a white bread world as far as groceries were concerned back then!), and Hydrox cookies for 25¢ per package. (Remember Hydrox? They were to Oreos what Pepsi was to Coca-Cola...) Big Apple had 5 pounds of Dixie Crystals sugar for 49¢, chuck roast for 29¢ a pound, and an 8 ounce tube of Crest toothpaste for 53¢. A&P had porterhouse steaks for 83¢ a pound tomatoes for a quarter a pound, and yellow corn for a nickel an ear. And West Rome's favorite, Couch's Super Market, had spareribs for 39¢ a pound, lettuce for 12¢ a head, and their very own Couch's country sausage for 39¢ a pound.

The cinematic week began with The Comedy of Terrors (with Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, & Peter Lorre) at the DeSoto and Dark Purpose (with Shirley Jones) at the First Avenue. The weekend saw the Rome premiere of two radically different films: the charming film The Incredible Mr. Limpet (with Don Knotts) at the DeSoto Theater, and the powerful and troubling 8 1/2 (directed by Federico Fellini) at the First Avenue. Meanwhile, at the West Rome Drive-In, John Wayne was taking part in the wildest showdown the West ever saw in McLintock!

The Beatles had the number one song in America this week in 1964 with "Love Me Do." Other top ten hits included "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups (#2); "My Guy" by Mary Wells (#3); "Love Me With All Your Heart" by the Ray Charles Singers (#4); "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#5); "(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet" by the Reflections (#6); "A World Without Love" by Peter & Gordon (#7); "Little Children" by Billy J. Kramer (#8); "It's Over" by Roy Orbison (#9); and "Walk On By" by Dionne Warwick (#10).

And the Beatles collectibles market continued to expand with the release of The Beatles Flicker Rings, produced for the US by Vari-Vue. There were 24 flicker rings in total—6 for each Beatle—and sold for the then-lofty price of 29¢ each.

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 5/11/1964 to 5/17/1964

One of Rome's largest employers in the 1960s was General Electric, located just a mile or so down the road from West Rome High School on Redmond Circle. To those of us in school in the 1960s, it seemed like GE had been a part of Rome forever, but this week in 1964 they were celebrating their tenth anniversary in Rome. "When we decided to build the plant in Rome, we knew we were making a wise choice," plant manager D.B. Lawton said. "I am proud of the almost 1200 employees who are a part of this business.They deserve much of the credit for our success of the past ten years." As part of the tenth anniversary celebration, the GE plant was upgraded with its first-ever computer, a massive half-million dollar GE-225 with two work stations that filled a 10' x 12' office. (Alas, GE's time in Rome was destined to end at about the same time that West Rome High School ceased to exist... a dual loss for Rome, which could use more quality employers and more community focused schools.)

One of the ten "most wanted" in the United States was captured in Floyd County after a high-speed chase that began at Conn's Grocery in West Rome. The fugitive, Sammy Earl Ammons, was wanted for his role in the death of two children; he was arrested with his wife on Alabama Road after police were called when he attempted to cash a forged check at Conn's. The police pursued the couple at speeds up to 105 miles an hour before police shot out the fugitive's tires and forced him off the road.

West Rome teachers James Finley and Eugene Mann were chosen to take part in a contemporary economics course held at the University of Georgia in July and August. The purpose of the course was to assist teachers in economics education and a changing economic model of the 1960s, which was moving more into technology and away from an agrarian society (you can say that again!). The Rome-Floyd County Chamber of Commerce, which covered the tuition for both teachers picked these two educators from a number of area teachers who applied to participate in the program.

And speaking of technology, Rome benefited from upgraded technology at the local Weather Service office: for the first time, Rome's office began getting weather updates via teletype after a special teletype line was installed from the main office in Atlanta to the local office in Rome. Until that time, Rome had relied on a manned weather station office that received telephone updates four times a day.

West Rome's baseball team faced off against the highly-ranked East Rome Gladiators on Wednesday, May 13th. Alas, the Gladiators won the game 12-8 after being behind 6-1 at one point in the game. The Chieftains fared better against Darlington on Friday, May 15th, pummeling them 16-2 in a game that set up a second West Rome-East Rome face-off early the next week, with the 1964 City-County Baseball Tournament Championship on the line. (How did it turn out? We'll tell you about it in next week's column!)

The West Rome Honor Society elected its officers for the 1964-1965 school year. Jackie Lupo was elected president; Chris Lawler, vice-president; Barbarie Helie, secretary; Yvonne Housch, treasurer; and Charlene Lamb, chaplain.

The Future Teachers of America elected new officers for the 1964-65 school year. Barbara Keith was chosen as president; Alice Jeffries, vice-president; Ginny Burnett, treasurer; Gwen Otts, historian; and Jackie Lupo and Judi Burns, reporters.

Apparently home decor was significantly cheaper in 1964: Penneys was advertising a wide selection of drapery fabrics for 15¢ a yard. Even adjusting for inflation, that would be just over a buck a yard at today's prices!

I don't even remember Silver Dust Blue laundry detergent, but Mom must have used it, because I immediately recognize the Libbey's Silver-Leaf design drinking glasses that were included in every box. We had a full set of four of the large size glasses and a couple of the smaller glasses, which means that Mom must have bought at least six boxes of Silver Dust detergent back then!  Unfortunately, the idea of free drinking glasses in a box of detergent fell by the wayside a long time ago; as frequently as I manage to chip glasses nowadays, it would be helpful if the concept was resurrected today!

Piggly Wiggly had Roxey dog food for a nickel a can, Morton's frozen cream pies for a quarter each, and a case of Coca-Cola (6 ounce or 10 ounce bottles) for 89¢ plus deposit. (A lot of readers may not even remember the day of deposit bottles, but back in the 1960s, all soft drink manufacturers encourages recycling and reuse of the heavy glass bottles by charging 2¢ per bottle deposit. If you returned the empties with your next purchase, you got the credit towards the deposit on that case; if you didn't, you got charged an extra 48¢ for a 24-bottle case. I know I'm not the only person who made extra spending money by picking up discarded empty bottles along the side of the road and taking them back to Couch's Grocery or another store to get the deposit cash!) Big Apple had sirloin steak for 79¢ a pound, eggs for 39¢ a dozen, and sliced pineapple for 12¢ a can. A&P had baking hens for 29¢ a pound, corn for 6¢ an ear, and watermelons for 89¢ each (and these were the kind filled with seeds; I don't recall anyone offering seedless watermelons in the 1960s or early 1970s, so we all developed our seed-spitting skills during melon season)/ Couch's had Blue Plate mayonnaise for 39¢ a quart, large heads of lettuce for 15¢ each, and ground beef for 33¢ a pound.

For the first half of the week, cinemagoers had pretty slim pickings: Muscle Beach Party (with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello) at the First Avenue and Tamahini (with Nancy Quan) at the DeSoto. The weekend choices were slightly better, with The Comedy of Terrors (with Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre) at the First Avenue and The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (with Tony Randall & Barbara Eden) at the DeSoto. The ten-year-old me couldn't have asked for a better choice of movies than this: a light-hearted horror film with some of my favorite actors at one theater and a special effects-laden fantasy at the other! The West Rome Drive-In's weekend offering was The Young and The Brave, with no one you care about.

Mary Wells scored the number one song this week in 1964 with "My Guy." Other top ten hits included "Love Me Do" by the Beatles (#2—and this was their only song on the top ten this week in 1964... well, at least the only one they recorded...); "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#3); "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups (#4); "Love Me With All Your Heart" by the Ray Charles Singers (#5); "Bits and Pieces" by the Dave Clark Five (#6); "(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet" by the Reflections (#7); "Ronnie" by the Four Seasons (#8); "It's Over" by Roy Orbison (#9); and "World Without Love" by Peter & Gordon (#10--and while this song is recorded by Peter & Gordon, it's written by Lennon & McCartney, giving the Beatles a second appearance of sorts in the week's Top Ten).

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 5/4/1964 to 5/10/1964

Rome certainly had its share of big-dollar burglaries back in the mid-60sBurglars broke into Elliott Sales Company on May 4th and stole more than $6000 in merchandise, including watches, pistols, hair dryers, a cash register, a television set, and more. Detective Bill Terhune said that the police had no suspects, although they did have evidence that two people were involved in the theft.

The Chieftains Club fundraisers paid for several purchases for West Rome in May of 1964, including five sets of World Book Encyclopedias (I loved these encyclopedias, but we couldn't afford a set of them at home, so we settled for a set of "grocery store encyclopedias" purchased a volume each week from Big Apple on Shorter Avenue), two overhead projectors, one set of mathematics overlays for the overhead projectors, and mathematics film strips. (I don't remember any mathematics film strips... did I miss out?)

Dalton's baseball team defeated West Rome 6-5 on Wednesday, May 6th; the game was tied until late in the 9th inning, when Dalton scored the winning run on an infield error.

"How did we ever get by?" department: Floyd Outlaw Sales had a 12 cubic foot frost-free Hotpoint regrigerator/freezer on sale for $260. (How could a full family possibly store everything they needed to keep cold in only 12 cubic feet?)

Piggly Wiggly had tomatoes for a quarter a pound, lettuce for 15¢ a head, and sirloin steak for 79¢ a pound. A& P had large eggs for 39¢ a dozen, chuck roast for 33¢ a pound, and fresh corn for 6¢ an ear. Big Apple had T-bone steak for 69¢ a pound, 32 ounce cans of pork & beans for 25¢, and winesap apples for 17¢ a pound. Kroger and Coca Cola for 89¢ (plus deposit), for a 24-bottle case, ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon, and pork chops for 49¢ a pound. Couch's had chicken breast for 49¢ a pound, a 16-ounce bottle of Stokely's tomato catsup for 29¢, and bananas for a dime a pound.

The cinematic week began with Advance to the Rear (with Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, and Melvyn Douglas) at the DeSoto and A Global Affair (with Bob Hope) at the First Avenue. The weekend brought One Man's Way (with Don Murray) to the DeSoto and Muscle Beach Party (with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello) to the First Avenue. The West Rome Drive-In continued its weekends-only screening schedule with Friday and Saturday night showings of Mutiny on the Bounty (with Marlon Brando & Trevor Howard).

The Beatles relinquished a bit of their control on the Top Ten this week in 1964, as only two tunes by the Fab Four listed in the top Ten: "Love Me Do" (#3) and "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" (#5). The number one song this week in '64 was "My Guy" by Mary Wells. Other top ten hits included "Hello Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#2); "Bits and Pieces" by the Dave Clark Five (#4); "Ronnie" by the Four Seasons (#6); "Don't Let The Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" by the Serendipity Sings (#7); "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan & Dean (#8); "White on White" by Danny Williams (#9); and "It's Over" by Roy Orbison (#10).

I know I spent many a nickel on those at Couch's, Hills, Conn's, and the EZ Shop: Topps' first series of black-and-white Beatles Trading Cards was released this week in 1964. Each nickel pack included five cards (out of a sixty-card set) and a piece of bubble gum. Each photo card had a blue printed "signature" of one of the Beatles added to give it "faux-thenticity."

The Yelp Protection Racket Redux

I've never had as many hits as I got on last night's post about Yelp's business practices. I've heard from dozens of businesses who've had the exact same problem, although most of them are reluctant to go public with their businesses names for fear of further retaliation on Yelp's part. 

In the slightly more than 24 hours since my first post, several customers of Dr. No's have attempted to post positive reviews of the store; five of the seven reviews posted since last night have already been moved to the not recommended section, where they're rarely seen and do not count towards the store's overall rating. I fully expect that same thing to happen to the other two positive reviews in the next 24 hours; keep checking our Yelp reviews to see if reviews by Carrie B and Cynthia A remain on the main page.

 

And here's one more bit of proof that this policy of deleting positive reviews of out store is deliberate and retaliatory on Yelp's part: a 5-star review of Dr. No's written by Sam W of Woodstock in January of this year was moved into the not recommended section. However, Sam W's 5-star review of Raven's Nest, another gaming store in the Marietta area, remains the first review you see on their Yelp page, where it has appeared since it was posted in January of this year. Sam has the exact same rating/number of reviews, so Yelp can't possibly claim that this is based on the number of reviews the writer has produced thus far, or the ratings he gave. One 5-star review for another store counts, but a 5-star review from the same customer for our store gets buried and negated in our totals.

 

Unless there are major changes in Yelp's business practices, I won't write about this regularly. Should anything of significance occur, I'll mention it here, of course, but I think I've made the scurrilous nature of Yelp's policies pretty clear by now..

Fifty Years Ago This Week in 1964: 4/27/1964 to 5/4/1964

Spring thunderstorms hit Rome Tuesday evening, April 28th, bringing brief heavy rain, 35 mile per hour wind gusts, and quarter-inch hailstones to some parts of Rome. Much of Shorter Avenue was without power for a while as a result of the storms.

The West Rome track team defeated Cedartown and Calhoun in a three-way meet on April 27th, winning 65 1/2 to 63 1/2 to 30.  Chieftain Steve Rush set a school record in the low hurdles with a 20.95 second time. Alas, the Chieftains fell to the Gladiators on Wednesday, April 29th; East Rome posted 86 1/2 points to West Rome's 40 1/2.

West Rome's baseball team defeated Berry Academy 4-1 on Thursday, April 30th.

McDonald's held an official grand opening party for its Turner McCall Boulevard store on Saturday, May 2nd; the highlight of the program was an appearance by WSB's Officer Don himself as Don Kennedy flew into Rome on the WBS Skycopter. To celebrate the grand opening, McDonald's offered their All-American meal—a hamburger, a milkshake, and french fries—for 47¢.

WSB ran a half-hour Salute to Rome as part of its Today in Georgia program on Wednesday, 4/29; the half-hour feature included a brief segment on West Rome.

Piggly Wiggly had fresh whole fryers for 23¢ a pound, fresh squash for a dime a pound, and a one-pound bag of Lay's potato chips for 39¢. Big Apple had Peter Pan tuna for 29¢ a can, whole cantaloupes for 29¢ each, and all meat bologna for 39¢ a pound. Kroger had 3 pounds of Crisco for 49¢, sirloin steak for 79¢ a pound, and lettuce for a dime a head. A&P had  Eight O'Clock coffee for 67¢ a pound, cubed steak for 79¢ a pound, and honeydew melons for 49¢ each. Couch's had center cut pork chops for 39¢ each, Aristocrat ice milk for 39¢, and large tomatoes for 19¢ a pound.

A week at the movies began with Sunday in New York (with Rod Taylor, Jane Fonda, & Cliff Robertson) at the DeSoto and Lilies of the Field (with Sidney Poitier) at the First Avenue. The last half of the week brought Advance to the Rear (with Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens) at the DeSoto and Summer Holiday (an eminently forgettable rock-music film with Cliff Richards and Lauri Peters) to the First Avenue. For the weekend, the West Rome Drive-In ran a double feature of Showdown and Kiss of the Vampire on Friday and Saturday nights.

Once again, the Beatles held three spots in the Top Ten this week in 1964 with "Can't Buy Me Love" (#1), "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (#3), and "Twist and Shout "(#7). Other top ten hits included "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong (#2); "Bits and Pieces" by the Dave Clark Five (#4); "My Guy" by Mary Wells (#5); "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" by the Serendipity Singers (#6); "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford (#8); "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan & Dean (#9); and "Ronnie" by the Four Seasons (#10).

And this week in 1964, the Beatles second Capitol Records album, appropriately entitled The Beatles Second Album (although it was actually their third album if you count the VeeJay Introducing the Beatles... which Capitol would prefer you didn't), was released. Naturally, it instantly went to number one on the album charts. And on this same week in 1964, the Beatles completed filming on A Hard Day's Night, their very first feature film.

Late Night Listening: A Letter Home

I've been a Neil Young fan for forty-five years now.

But I have to confess I'm still shaking my head after multiple playings of Neil Young's new album A Letter Home, thus far available only on vinyl.

The album is comprised entirely of cover songs, including "Crazy," "On the Road Again," "Reason to Believe," "Girl from the North Country," "If You Could Read My Mind," and "My Hometown," among other songs.  Okay, the concept sounds interesting: one of the most distinctive voices and stylists in music offering his take of songs by other songwriters. Hey, his versions of  "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Four Strong Winds" were brilliant, so this should be great, right?

Should be, but it isn't.

Neil decided to record the entire album in a restored 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth that Jack White has in his record store. This device wasn't state of the art in 1947, and it most certainly isn't state of the art now; the sonic quality is inferior to most 1970s bootlegs, and it makes those early 1970s 8-tracks we barely tolerated back then seem like the epitome of audio technology in comparison. I can't figure out how the man who can ask his fans to spend hundreds of dollars to support his Pono pipe-dream (yet another file format that is supposed to offer high-resolution audio quality, but is incompatible with existing players) while displaying such disrespect for his fans by putting out this sloppy album recorded in absolutely the worst way possible (and yet he still charges a premium price for it, of course).

And it's not just the sound quality that is disappointing. The performances themselves seem like throwaways. I'm reminded of all those sloppy cover versions the Beatles did during the Let It Be sessions--songs that really weren't intended for release as finished pieces of music. Apparently Neil Young decided that this was good enough for his fans, though.

Ultimately, A Letter Home is an audio train wreck--badly recorded, poorly performed, and inadequately reproduced. This letter should be marked "return to sender."

The Yelp Protection Racket

 Most businessmen don't make a habit of calling attention to negative reviews, but I'm about to do that very thing. Let me explain why.

 

As most of you know, I have a comic shop, Dr. No's Comics & Games SuperStore, in Marietta GA. The store has been around for 37 years, and I've owned it for 32 years; it's quite successful for a small business, and we have hundreds of dedicated, loyal, and happy customers, many of whom have shopped with us for 20 or more years.

On Facebook, Dr. No's has a 4.5 (out of 5) star rating.

And we used to have a 4.5 rating on Yelp. Then it dropped to a 4. It's now a 3. 

Why?

 

Because we refused to advertise with Yelp when they called and told us that if we advertised, they could see to it that more of our five-star ratings were factored into their overall rating. Employees were present for the call and are aware of its content; Yelp didn't even try to hide the fact that they were offering me improved ratings for ad payments. When I said no, our ratings began to drop.

 

You see, Yelp has two totally different groups of ratings: the recommended ratings, which are the ones that they place on their front page and factor into their overall rating, and the not recommended ratings, which can only be found through a small, almost hidden link at the bottom of the store page, and which are not factored into our overall rating.

 

In the past week, two positive reviews posted by our customers (Darlene and Gerald) were included in our ratings--and then they were suddenly removed. This has happened again and again. If you check the not recommended section, fifteen positive reviews of Dr. No's have been removed. In some cases, customers whose reviews of other comic shops were included on the front page had their reviews of Dr. No's moved to the not recommended section. Meanwhile, negative reviews that contain deliberation misinformation, or negative reviews that are written by employees of other stores, are allowed to stand.

 

Remember those old protection rackets you see in noir films and television shows? You know--a shop owner gets a visit from a thug who tells him that this bad things could happen to his business, but if the shop owner will just pay a protection fee to the thug, then his store will be protected.

 

Well, Yelp is a cyber version of a protection racket. A Yelp rep contacted us and offered to improve our positive ratings if we would commit to monthly Yelp advertising for a year. Isn't that pretty much the same as the old racket of paying a "protection fee" to stop your business from suffering harm? That's exactly what Yelp is doing to us, and I refuse to be blackmailed for positive ratings.

 

Yelp posts claims of that their system is designed to protect consumers, that "businesses can't pay to alter or remove reviews." That may be the case, but if businesses refuse to pay, Yelp is willing to skew the system of recommended and not recommended reviews to punish them, apparently.

To be clear, not every business with a positive rating on Yelp has paid an advertising fee. For years, we had a very high rating and did not advertise. But once Yelp contacted us and asked us to advertise--and we declined--our rating began to drop. Now it's obvious that the fix is in, and that Yelp has a deliberate policy of removing positive reviews to skew our ratings lower than they would otherwise be.

Research indicates that we are far from the only business suffering from this sort of treatment. There are hundreds of businesses who have made the same discovery, and there have even been class action suits; so far, none of them have gone anywhere, but I keep hoping... If a guy with a baseball bat did what Yelp is doing, he'd be arrested; but because Yelp does it with a website and a computer system, their protection racket is allowed to continue...

Now I'm curious to see how long Yelp will continue to block any positive reviews from being posted about Dr. No's Comics & Games SuperStore. My guess is this will go on for a long, long time, but I hope I'm proven wrong...