50 Years Ago This Week in West Rome (10/15/62 to 10/21/62)

 (This installment of Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome appeared in Deb Joyner Denneman's Drumbeat newsletter for 10/16/12; I'm posting it here for people who don't see the newsletter but might be interested. If you didn't grow up in West Rome, odds are this will have no appeal whatsoever, so just move along... nothing to see here...)

The Chieftains varsity football team faced off against Dalton in an away game on Friday, October 19th. Alas, they may have wished they had stayed away, since Dalton won the game 21-7. "We just weren't ready for them," Paul Kennedy told the Rome News-Tribune's Don Biggers. "The coaches didn't work hard enough and the players didn't work hard enough." Coach Kennedy never was one to mince words, was he?

The JV team was having a much better week, defeating the Darlington Tigers 25-6 for their seventh straight victory, putting them in good standing for the next week's JV season-ender against East Rome. Steve Holland and Donnie Hill were the outstanding players in this game, with Holland scoring two touchdowns and Hill scoring one.

Ready for a large-screen 23" console TV with a deluxe 8" full fidelity speaker?  It'd set you back $249.00 at B&L Appliances on West 3rd Street for this week only (and they gave S&H Green Stamps, too!). If your budget didn't allow for a full-sized black and white TV, you could have a Quality FM tabletop radio for only $29.95, courtesy of the Rome Radio Company.

Rome held Satellite Days in from October 19th through 22nd. They had parachutists from the United Sates Army Parachute Teamdropping onto Russell Field, along with musical performances and missiles on display (no, we're not making this up!).

We didn't know how good we had it: Citizen's Federal Bank was paying 4% interest on savings accounts, while Rome Bank and Trust was paying 4.25%.  And you could open a new account with as little as $5!

Hardee's was holding a Treasure Chest contest this week in 1962; even if you lost, you got a free soft drink (and you could add a Hardee's Charco-Broiled hamburger for only 15 cents, with fries an extra 10 cents).

Owens Hardware was selling West Rome 100% all-wool fully lined jackets with leather inserts for only $15.96.  If you wanted to add full leather sleeves instead, the cost went up to $17.95.

IF you wanted to catch a movie, you'd had a couple of scary choices: for the weekend The DeSoto was showing Night Creatures with Peter Cushing, along with the short feature The Race to Space; the First Avenue brought in The Phantom of the Opera; and the West Rome Drive-In was running a horror double feature with Hand of Death along with 20,000 Eyes. And since kids were out of school on Friday 10/19/62 because of the Seventh District Teachers Annual Convention being held in Rome, the DeSoto Theater presented a special Friday morning "No School Today" show starting at 9:45 am, with a Bugs Bunny Revue and The Three Stooges Meet Hercules. Midweek movies included The World of Suzie Wong and Elvis Presley's GI Blues at the DeSoto; Jessica and Hell Is for Heroes at the West Rome Drive-In, and Phantom of the Opera held over at the First Avenue.

The West End Enloe's Rexall Drug Store made sure we didn't run out of school supplies: a twelve-pack of No. 2 pencils was on sale for 27 cents, while a 59-count pack of notebook paper was marked down to 37 cents.  In case you needed it, St. Joseph's Aspirin was on sale for 24 cents, while Rexall Aspirin could be had for 11 cents per 100-count bottle, and Tums were only 9 cents.  One of those trendy new Scripto Ball Pens was on sale for only 33 cents--"Just Press the Top and Write!" the ad touts.

If you wanted to dine out on a budget, Redford 5 & 10 Cent Store was offering a Friday Chicken Breast dinner with three vegetables and rolls for only 50 cents; alas, the West Rome Redfords didn't offer this fine dining special, so we'd have to head to Broad Street to take advantage of the four-bit feast.

Nancy Ryer of 100 Coosawattee Avenue competed in the Rome Junior Miss pageant on Saturday, 10/20/62.

Rome Printing Company was taking orders for your 1962 Christmas Cards; orders had to be placed by the end of October in order for you to get your customized cards by Thanksgiving.

The Big Apple Supermarket had a special on Hormel Ham for 29 cents a pound, while "US Good Heavy Beef Steaks" (can't find that cut in today's grocery store, can you?) were on sale for 99 cents a pound.