Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 7/15/1968 to 7/21/1968

In the aftermath of the prior week's drag race in Summerville Park that resulted in an accident that took out power to a portion of West Rome, the Rome City Commission voted unanimously to impose stiffer fines on speeders and drag racers, and the order officers to increase patrols on Oakwood, Charlton, Elm, and the portions of Redmond Circle located within the city limits.

Three Garden Lakes boys found an unexplored hand grenade in a wooded area near their homes on Wednesday, July 17th. The police were called, who took possession of the grenade and then drove to the Coosa River, where they pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the water; it failed to explode, presumably due to age and condition. (It's interesting that this was how the police dealt with unexploded weapons war in 1968--just chuck 'em into the river and see if they blow up or not!)

This week in 1968, the US government increased the Savings Bonds interest rate to 4.5%. Not to be outdone, Citizen's Federal Savings & Loan increased their interest rate on passbook savings to 4.75%, while Rome Bank & Trust raised the rate on 12-month certificates of deposit to 5.25%. (And today, most banks pay much less than 1% interest for savings accounts and less than 2% interest on CD's...)

Rome's burglars were back in action this week in 1968, hitting Waddell's Service Station on Broad street, where the broke into vending machines; Scott's Service station, here they stole money from the register; Hall's Cleaners, where they s stole an undetermined amount of cash; and Coosa High School, where equipment was stolen and offices were vandalized.

Rome postal officials warned residents that federal postal service budget cutback would impact Rome residents. Unless Congress came up with more funding, the Rome post office would not be able to offer home mail delivery service to any new subdivisions (which would most definitely impact West Rome, the fastest-growing area in the county). The cutbacks, if not reversed, would also require the main post office and the West Rome post office to close on Saturdays. If budget cutbacks increased any more, postal deliveries would have to be cut back to four days a week and residents who were currently receiving at-the-door delivery (common in some of West Rome's older subdivisions) would be required to put up a roadside mailbox instead.

This was a particularly hot week in 1968, which may be why Kay's Kastles decided to cut the prices of their ice cream sundaes to 37¢ each, their pints of sherbet to $19¢ each, and their half gallons of ice cream to 89¢ each. (I must have eaten about a hundred pints of Kay's Kastles sherbet over the years--their sherbet was a bit smoother and less grainy than other brands, and I particularly loved their pineapple and strawberry sherbets. Makes me wish that there were still Kay's Kastles around right now!...)

Piggly Wiggly had sirloin steak for 79¢ a pound, Fab detergent for 59¢ a box, and grapes for 33¢ a pound. Kroger had ground beef  for 49¢ a pound, watermelons for 79¢ each, and a nine ounce can of Planter's peanuts for 63¢. A&P had chuck roast for 37¢ a pound, Eight O'Clock coffee for 49¢ a pound, and cantaloupes for 29¢ each. Big Apple had Hormel franks for 49¢ a pound, Chicken of the Sea tuna for 29¢ a can, and strawberries for 25¢ a pint. Couch's had Swift's premium bacon for 69∞ a pound, home-grown squash for a dime a pound, and Showboat pork & beans for 21¢ a can.

The cinematic week began with Rosemary's Baby (starring Mia Farrow) at the DeSoto Theatre, A Man and a Woman (starring Anouk Aimee) at the First Avenue, and Texas Across the River (starring Dean Martin) at the West Rome Drive-In.  The midweek switchout brought How Sweet It Is (starring James Garner) to the First Avenue and The Savage Seven (starring Robert Walker) to the West Rome Drive-In, while Rosemary's Baby hung around for another week at the DeSoto.

Hugh Masekela  took number one this week in 1968 with "Grazin' in the Grass," a cowbell-driven masterpiece. Other top ten hits included "Lady Willpower" by Gary Puckett & the Union Gap (#2); "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones (#3); "This Guy's In Love With You" by Herb Alpert (#4); "The Horse" by Cliff Nobles & Co. (#5); "Stoned Soul Picnic" by the 5th Dimension, which posed the musical question "can you surry?" (#6); "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan (#7); "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams (#8); "Hello, I Love  You" by the Doors (#9); and "Indian Lake" by the Cowsills (#10).

The soap opera One Life to Live made its debut on ABC TV on July 15, 1968. The soap opera would run for more than four decades; it was also one of the first series to jump from network TV to online/streaming television when it left ABC and moved to Hulu for almost a half a year in 2013 before finally being cancelled in August of that year.

DC Comics did something almost unheard of this week in 1968 when they  had Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani kill the Doom Patrol in the pages of Doom Patrol #121. This is the first time that a comics publisher ended a series in sales decline by killing the book's stars. Of course, death in comics is no more permanent than death in soap operas, and the Doom Patrol would eventually return...