Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 4/6/1964 to 4/12/1964

The week began with a strong spring storm on April 6th that dumped 2" of rain in slightly over an hour, followed by heavy, steady rain for the rest of the day--but it was the 60 mph wind gusts that caused most the damage to roofs, as well as some downed trees that took out power in many parts of West Rome. The rains continued through Tuesday, April 7th, pushing the Oostanaula to flood stage and threatening to overflow the flood gates at Allatoona Lake, which forced engineers to open the floodgates and send more water down the Etowah towards Rome. Floodwaters finally began to recede on Thursday afternoon. Because of the heavy rains, all high school sports were cancelled for the first half of the week.

Thanks to clearing weather at week's end, the 4th Rome Relays began on time on Friday, April 10th. It wasn't West Rome's year, however, as Darlington won the relays with 53 total points, while the Chieftains came in fourth with 26 points.

West Rome's baseball team delivered a win, however, defeating Darlington 12-6. West Rome controlled the game from the first inning, when they scored four runs; pitcher Jimmy Brewer went the distance for the team.

Western Pioneer Day was held at West Rome on Wednesday, April 8th. Students and teachers wore Western attire; those who failed to wear some Western garb were jailed by "Sheriff" Donald C. Undsworth, the driver's training instructor. To get out of jail, students had to purchase a ticket to the assembly program, which included a play as well as musical performances by a jazz combo, a barber shop quartet, a percussion ensemble, and more.

Rome launched a push (to no avail) to have the route for I-75 relocated to the West side of Cartersville, where it would have intersected with US 411. Unfortunately, the plan went nowhere and Rome continues to fight for I-75 access to this very day...

Radio commentator and ABC news analyst Paul Harvey (voted radio's Man of the Year in 1962) spoke at the Rome City Auditorium on Thursday, April 9th; prior to his program at the City Auditorium, he was guest of honor at a Civic Night dinner held at the General Forrest Hotel.

Just in time for spring and summer, Murphy's began their truckload sale of American-made bicycles, with 26" boys and girls bikes for $28.88 each and 20" bikes with training wheels for $19.77. There was a $2 charge for assembly if you didn't want to put it together yourself. There were no complicated components like handbrakes, shift gears, or the like—these were the plain old "pedal forward to go, pedal backward to stop, pedal harder on hills" bikes that most of us grew up with.

Piggly Wiggly offered a special "ten cent sale," with frozen french fries, frozen waffles, Libby potted meat, Mayfield Corn, canned spaghetti, and much more on sale for a dime each. Big Apple had Pepsi Cola for 19¢ a carton (plus deposit), apples for 15¢ a pound, and sliced pork steaks for 39¢ a pound. Kroger had pork chops for 49¢ a pound, five pounds of Ballard flour for 39¢, and Spotlight coffee for 55¢ a pound. A&P had Allgood bacon for 39¢ a pound, ten pounds of russet potatoes for 49¢, and a two-pound can of Armour Treet for 45¢ (and I don't believe I have ever eaten Armour Treet in my life...). Couch's had chuck steak for 59¢ a pound, Bama jelly in ever-popular drinking-glass jelly jars for a quarter each, and Cornfield hot dogs for 49¢ a pound.

The week began with a cinematic choice of Captain Newman MD (with Gregory Peck & Tony Curtis) at the DeSoto and Dead Ringer (with Bette Davis, Karl Malden, & Peter Lawford) at the First Avenue. The weekend brought Walt Disney's A Tiger Walks to the DeSoto and The Ceremony (with Lawrence Harvey & Sarah Miles) to the First Avenue; the West Rome Drive-In continued their weekend-showings-only with a double feature of 13 Frightened Girls and Sword of Lancelot on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Beatles made history by taking the top five positions in Billboard's Hot 100 with "Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "Please Please Me," in that order. Other top ten hits included "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford (#6); "Hello Dolly" by Louis Armstrong (#7); "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" by Betty Everett (#8); "My Heart Belongs to Only You" by Bobby Vinton (#9); and "Glad All Over" by the Dave Clark Five (#10).

And getting in on the Beatles trend was Sherwin-Williams, who offered Beatle Wallpaper, complete with pictures of the group and printed autographs. I don't know of anyone who convinced their parents to re-do a room in the house in Fab Four, however.