The week began with only three undefeated high school football teams in this part of Northwest Georgia: West Rome, Trion, and Chattooga. That was destined to change, though, since West Rome and Chattooga faced off against each other on Friday night, September 27th, in Chattooga. Turned out that it was West Rome that remained undefeated, as they posted a 21-7 victory, making them 4-0 for the season. Trion also lost, which left West Rome the only undefeated team in the area.
Chieftains quarterback Mike Johnson was named the Rome News-Tribune's Player of the Week for his outstanding performance in the Carrollton game; Johnson's 77-yard touchdown run was pivotal to the team's 10-7 victory.
The Doug Sanders Scholarship Fund benefit golf tournament took place in Rome on Sunday, September 29th; the celebrity golf tournament brought a number of well-known personalities to Rome, including Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Danny Thomas, Pat Boone, Phil Harris, Keely Smith, and (of course) Doug Sanders. The event began on Saturday evening with a benefit show at the Rome City Auditorium, followed by a reception at Callier Springs Country Club, with the 18-hole golf tournament taking place at the Coosa Country Club on Sunday afternoon. (I have wonderful memories of this event. Mom loved to listen to Dean Martin; I can still hear her melodious voice singing along to the many Dean Martin albums that she owned. My mom's full name was Emma Dean Leming Biggers; she sometimes joked about being named after Dean Martin, even though we knew that she really wasn't, since she was born before anyone had ever heard of Dean Martin. We all got to meet him prior to the benefit show, and then Mom and Dad had dinner with him at the reception later that evening--a reception that children were not allowed to attend. I did get to caddy for him for nine holes at the Sunday tournament, though, and remember him as remarkably witty and friendly. Why only nine holes? Because organizers switched out volunteer caddies after the first nine holes to give as many Romans as possible a chance to experience a "brush with greatness.")
The Rome Council on Human Relations, a multiracial local group that emphasized racial harmony in the Rome area, presented a proposal that the Rome City Schools system keep Main High School open as a third city school to serve the community more effectively, but Superintendent MS McDonald revealed that the closing of Main High was mandated by the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. "It is not money," the superintendent said, "but the numbers of students which are involved." HEW said that Main High was too small to provide the educational opportunities available at a larger school like East Rome or West Rome. Further complicating the situation: the actual Main High physical facility was owned by Floyd County, not the city of Rome, and any attempt to revitalize the school as a city school would require the sale of the land and the building by the county. The superintendent was instead in favor of a plan to close all three area high schools and replace them with one Rome High School that was located well away from the site of any of the three schools. (As we know, it took a quarter of a century, but the Rome City Schools system ultimately implemented exactly this plan, to the dismay of Chieftains and Gladiators past and present.)
The Board of Regents finally revealed their choice of locations for the proposed Floyd Junior College. The 200-acre tract was located on US Highway 27 South near Six Mile, almost directly across the street from the Cedar Valley Drive-In Theatre. The existence of a recently-completed four-lane interchange near the property made it a particularly desirable location. The Board of Regents said that it was up to the county to pay for the initial $2 million for site development and facilities construction; once that was done, the state would cover all operational costs, including staff salaries. (Of course, we know that this would indeed become the site of Floyd Junior College, now known as Georgia Highlands College.)
Volkswagen was touting their newest innovation: an automatic transmission. Up until the 1969 model year, VW had offered only manual transmissions--but beginning in September 1968, drivers could purchase an optional automatic transmission on the Volkswagen Squareback and Fastback. The Beetle was destined to remain manual transmission only for a while longer, although beginning in 1968 they did offer an "autostick" transmission (a form of semi-automatic that required the driver to change gears as always, but without a clutch pedal--the car automatically engaged the clutch when the gear shift was moved, and then engaged the transmission when the driver let go of the stick shift).
Drivers who wanted to buy a new Volkswagen (or pretty much any other car) could apply for a car loan at National City Bank's Auto Loan Department, where the going annual interest rate was 4.95% (which was, ironically, almost exactly the same rate that National City was paying on a three year certificate of deposit!).
Chevrolet introduced an offbeat (and short-lived) option on some of its 1969 vehicles as they debuted this month in 1968: "liquid tire chain." If the phrase doesn't explain itself, here's what it means: the car was equipped with a spray bottle "space age polymer solution" designed to increase traction in icy conditions. Press a button on the dash and both rear tires were spritzed with this solution. Sounds great, but it turns out that in practice id did pretty much nothing except encourage people to sue Chevrolet for false advertising, so it was quickly discontinued.
James Franklin DeJournette, one of the founders of Rome's Gibson-DeJournette wholesale grocery distribution business, passed away on September 24th following a lengthy illness. Many of us who grew up in Rome in the 1950s and 1970s are likely to remember the Gibson-DeJournette trucks that made daily deliveries to pretty much every Rome grocery store (with the exception of Kroger and A&P, which used their own distribution system). On Fridays, the Gibson-DeJournette trucks would often run two deliveries to Big Apple and Piggly Wiggly to ensure that their shelves remained full.
Piggly Wiggly had beef brisket for 39¢ a pound, sweet potatoes for 12¢ a pound, and Florida Maid frozen orange juice concentrate for 10¢ a can (add three cans of water to make a quart of orange juice). A&P had smoked hams for 35¢ a pound, Poss Brunswick stew for 49¢ a can, and carrots for 15¢ a bunch. Kroger had Tennessee Pride sausage for 39¢ a pound, and strawberries for 39¢ a pint. Big Apple had sirloin steak for 87¢ a pound, Sealtest ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and red delicious apples for 19¢ a pound. Couch's had Oscar Mayer hot dogs for 59¢ a pound, locally grown large eggs for 59¢ a dozen (a price that sounds pretty high by today's standards, since it would translate to about $4.50 a dozen in 2018 dollars), and a 10-ounce jar of Maxwell House instant coffee for $1.59. (I remember instant coffee being A Big Thing in the 1960s: my best friend Gary Steele always had instant coffee at his house, and we would often make a cup of instant coffee with breakfast when I stayed over at his house on a Friday or a Saturday night. It wasn't all that coffee-like, but we discovered that if you added a half a teaspoon of Nestle's Quik to the mix before you added the hot water, you got a pretty good beverage. I guess we were inventing our own form of mocha, but we weren't smart enough to know it back then.)
The cinematic week began with With Six You Get Egg Roll (starring Doris Day) at the DeSoto Theatre, Gone with the Wind (starring Clark Gable & Vivien Leigh) at the First Avenue, and The Green Berets (starring John Wayne) at the West Rome Drive-In. The lineup stayed the same for the second half of the week at the two indoor theatres, but Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (starring Doris Day) replaced The Green Berets at the West Rome Drive-In.
The Beatles held on to the number one position on the Billboard Top Ten charts for another week with "Hey Jude." Other top ten hits included "Harper Valley PTA" by Jeannie C. Riley (#2); "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (#3); "Little Green Apples" by OC Smith (#4); "Girl Watcher" by The O'Kaysions (#5); "Slip Away" by Clarence Carter (#6); "People Got To Be Free" by The Rascals (#7); "I've Got to Get a Message to You" by the Bee Gees (#8); "1,2,3, Red Light" by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. (#9); and "I Say a Little Prayer" by Aretha Franklin (#10).
The fall season kickoff continued this week in 1968, with several new shows debuting, including:
•Here's Lucy, Lucille Ball's third sitcom on CBS (September 23rd)
•The Doris Day Show on CBS (September 24th)
•The Mod Squad on ABC (September 24th)
•60 Minutes on CBS (September 24th)
•Here Come the Brides on ABC (September 25th)
•Hawaii Five-0 on CBS (September 26th)
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