Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 6/29/1970 to 7/5/1970

Jesse C. Laseter officially assumed his new role as superintendent of Rome City Schools this week in 1970. His number one priority was improving the school facilities. "We probably have the most outdated buildings in the state," Laseter said. "You can't have a quality program without adequate space for libraries and the like." Roy Goolsby joined the system as assistant school superintendent, while George Kemp signed on as director of maintenance.

Traffic on Shorter Avenue was moving slower than usual thanks to Southern Bell's efforts to expand the telephone cable network in West Rome and West Floyd County. Plans called for the work to be completed in less than a week, but Southern Bell warned West Romans that one lane of Shorter Avenue would be closed in each direction every afternoon until the work was finished.

The Big K Sunday Opening War continued. The store manager, Montie Rasure, was convicted of violating Georgia's Sunday closing laws, but Big K responded by opening once again on Sunday. When Sheriff Joe Adams paid them a visit, they chose to close at 2pm rather than face another arrest. Sheriff Adams said that his visit was prompted by a request from Floyd County District Attorney Larry Salmon, who in turn said that he made the call after Broad Street merchants called him to complain. In the meantime, Big K filed an appeal of the conviction, hoping to have the case heard by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Floyd Hospital employees were given a 6% raise effective June 29th; to pay for the raise, the hospital announced plans to raise the cost of hotel rooms by $4 a day, pushing the lowest-cost hospital room to $35 a day and the best private rooms to $46 a day.

Oh, how lucky we were back in 1970: Citizens Federal was offering 6% interest on certificates of deposit with a $5000,00 minimum. Home Federal matched those rates--but they also offered 5.75% interest on a CD of only $1000!. Sure, $5000 equals about $32,000 today and $1000 equals about $6400--but 6% is also about 6 times what most CDs are paying today!

Piggly Wiggly had ground beef for 49¢ a pound, Duke's mayonnaise for 49¢ a quart, and whole watermelons for 69¢ each. Kroger had round steak for 98¢ a pound, Morton pot pies for 19¢ each, and plums for 33¢ a pound. A&P had shank portion hams for 39¢ a pound, milk for 89¢ a gallon, and nectarines for 49¢ a pound. Big Apple had turkeys for 48¢ a pound, Stokely catsup for 19¢ a bottle, and corn for 7¢ an ear.  Couch's had pork roast for 59¢ a pound, Bounty paper towels for 29¢ a roll, and bananas for a dime a pound.

The cinematic week began with The Hawaiians (starring Charlton Heston) at the DeSoto Theatre,  The Libertine (starring Catherine Spaak) at the First Avenue, 1932: The Moonshine War  (starring Patrick McGoohan) at the Village, and the "terror-rama" of Guess What Happened to Count Dracula, Curse of the Stone Hand, The Crawling Eye, and Terror of the Blood Hunters at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switch out brought A Boy Name Charlie Brown to the DeSoto Theatre, The Boys in the Band (starring Cliff Gorman) to the First Avenue, M*A*S*H (starring Donald Sutherland & Elliott Gould) to the Village, and True Grit (starring John Wayne, Glen Campbell, & Kim Darby) to the West Rome Drive-In.

The number one song this week in 1970 was "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" by Three Dog Night. Other top ten songs included "The Love You Save/Found That Girl" by the Jackson 5 (#2); "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today): by the Temptations (#3); "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image (#4); "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne (#5); "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" by Melanie with the Edwin Hawkins Singers (#6); "They Long to be Close to You" by the Carpenters (#7); "The Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles (#8); "The Wonder of You/Mama Liked the Roses" by Elvis Presley (#9); and "Hitchin' a Ride" by Vanity Fare (#10).

The first episode of Casey Kasem's "American Top Forty" aired on radio stations across the country this week in 1970.

Neither Friend Nor Enemy

Death is not my enemy.

Death has shown me kindness. Didn't keep me, back in April 2000. Things to be done, so death sent me back after seven minutes. Not yet, death murmured.

Death didn't take my mother right away. Nor my father. Nor my beloved Susan. Nor Anna, or Tisha, or Mischa. I give you one more good day. One more good night. One chance to say goodbye.

An evening of family photos and shared stories. A hearty meal and plans for a home recuperation. A loving smile, a gaze that saw all the way into my heart, and whispered words of love. An hour of affection that transcended weariness. A contented nap beside me. A weary head resting on my arm.

Take these moments. My time comes soon. I can wait a little longer.  I have eternity.

Sometimes it takes a while to see what death gives. Too busy raging against what death takes.

Discomfort. Fear. Confusion. Anguish. Pain. Death takes those, too.

Not entirely, though. Death leaves a bit of those feelings in us so that we can comprehend what those we love endured before they were taken.

What you feel now? They felt it, too, only so much more. I ended their discomfort. Their fear. Their confusion. Their anguish. Their pain.

That's not the action of my enemy. I can see that now.

Someday death will be my final friend. Not yet, I murmur.

Take these moments. My time comes soon. I can wait a little longer. I have eternity.

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 6/22/1970 to 6/28/1970

Rome City Schools and Floyd County Schools announced the fall opening of the Coosa Valley Vocational High School, which would be open to tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade city and county students. The Vocational High School would be located on the Coosa Valley Tech campus. The school would begin in August with classes in electrical repair, construction, metal working, drafting, transportation, and cosmetology. Students would be enrolled at their regular city or county high schools, but would be transported to the Coosa Valley Tech campus for two hours of instruction each day. West Rome students would attend classes from 10:30 to 12:30 each day.

Armed robbers decided that the Dari-King was a major retail center, so they targeted it for robbery on Wednesday night, June 24th. The robbers took almost $300 from the Dari-King's register and from the wallets of four employees inside the restaurant, then forced one of them to drive the pair of thieves to their getaway car on Selman Road, not too far from the Dari-King.

Columbia Records country music star Stonewall Jackson came to Gibson's Discount Center in Rome on Wednesday, June 24th, signing records and offering an impromptu acoustic performance. Gibson's said that this would be the first of several signings planned for their new record department.

Piggly Wiggly had chuck roast for 89¢ a pound, cantaloupes for 33¢ each, and milk for 89¢ a gallon. Kroger had fresh whole fryers for 28¢ a pound, whole watermelons for 89¢ each, and Morton frozen cream pies for 23¢ each. Big apple had sirloin tip roast for 99¢ a pound, Coca-Cola/Tab/Sprite/Fresca for 33¢ a carton plus deposit, and bananas for a dime a pound. A&P had taken hens for 29¢ a pound, Farmbest ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon, and yellow or white corn for a dime an ear. Couch's had pork steak for 69¢ a pound, Nabisco saltines for 43¢ a box, and fresh locally-grown tomatoes for 19¢ a pound.

The cinematic week began with Paint Your Wagon (starring Lee Marvin) at the DeSoto Theatre, Women In Love (starring Jennie Linden & Alan Bates) at the First Avenue, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (starring Charlton Heston) at the Village, and 100 Rifles (starring Rquel Welch & Jim Brown) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switch out brought The Hawaiians (starring Charlton Heston) to the DeSoto, the X-rated film The Libertine (starring Catherine Spaak) at the First Avenue, 1932: The Moonshine War (starring Patrick McGoohan) at the Village, and a low-budget horror film fest of Guess What Happened to Count Dracula, Curse of the Stone Hand, The Crawling Eye, and Terror of the Blood Hunters at the West Rome Drive-In.

The Jackson 5 took the number one slot this week with "The Love You Save/I Found That Girl." Other top ten hits included "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" by Three Dog Night (#2); "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" by the Temptations (#3); "The Long & Winding Road" by the Beatles (#4); "Hitchin' a Ride" by Vanity Fare (#5); "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image (#6); "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne (#7); "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" by Melanie with the Edwin Hawkins Singers (#8); "The Wonder of You/Mama Liked the Roses" by Elvis Presley (#9); and "Get Ready" by Rare Earth (#10).

This was a busy week for album releases in 1970. New titles available this week included Marrying Maiden by It's a Beautiful Day; Changes by the Monkees; Ecology by Rare Earth; On Stage by Elvis Presley; Runt by Todd Tundgren; and Vehicle by the Ides of March.

A Life in Four Colors Part Fifty-Nine

September 1975 to March 1977 was perhaps the most idyllic, perfect time of our marriage--and of our lives.

Susan had never really believed that she would get to go back to school. We had talked about it so many times during our engagement and our early married years, but Susan always assumed that something would come along to prevent it from actually happening. She was the first person in her family to graduate from high school and was convinced that she would never actually be able to go beyond that.

But she did. And she thrived at Coosa Valley Tech.

Susan took data processing at a time when punch cards were still common. She loved the classes, she loved the technical aspect of data processing and programming, and she loved the cutting-edge aspect of her chosen field. She felt like she was moving so far beyond the poverty that had defined her childhood that nothing could ever pull her back to those impoverished roots. That was a fear of hers in the early days--that we would somehow suffer setbacks that would take us back to the lifestyle she had so struggled to escape.

Susan had worked since before she graduated from high school. That was the family norm--get a job when you turned sixteen, quit school soon after, then keep doing whatever jobs you could find for the rest of your life. She refused to quit school, which already made her an exception in her family. And in the fall of 1975, she was able to quit work and focus on school full time.

When we came home after her first day of class, she wept. I feared that something had gone wrong at school, and started to comfort her. "No--these are happy tears," she said. "It's like a dream, but I don't want it to end."

And it didn't... add least , not for a year and eight months. She completed her course work at CVT--almost. She actually didn't finish he last six weeks of her final quarter there because she was hired at Management Science America in Atlanta in March of 1977. The school had helped her find the job, and they gave her credit for that final course figuring that she was getting on-the-job training that was far more valuable than anything she could ever get in the classroom.

While Susan was in school, I was beginning my teaching career at East Rome High School. I loved the school, my fellow English teachers (Sandra Jackson, Monte Sue Howell, Willie Mae Samuel, and Lynne Mitchell, all of who had been at East Rome for years when I joined the faculty), and I loved my students. I felt that I belonged in the classroom. I had a job that inspired me, and I was good at it.

We had more money than ever before in our marriage. While Susan wasn't working, she qualified for a form of unemployment that paid her a modest sum to attend technical school. And teaching, while it didn't pay a fortune, provided us with more money than we had previously earned when both of us were working at hourly jobs. So we were able to pay our bills, put money into savings, make double payments on Susan's VW, and still have extra money for fun spending. We were even able to afford to buy a new car for me to replace my 1964 Volkwagen with 247,000 miles on it--my first new car ever, a 1976 yellow Honda Civic.

Most importantly, though, we had the gift of time together. The school day ended for me at 4pm. Susan's school day ended at 4 as well. So we would often take one car to Rome, and I would drop her off at CVT on the way to East Rome, then pick her up shortly after four (it was only a five to ten minute drive from East Rome to CVT). For the first four years of our marriage, our lives had us going in different directions, not seeing one another until 5:45 to 6pm every weekday. But now we were able to commute together, then to see each other eight hours later.

Since we were in Rome, we would often spend the afternoon at Riverbend Mall, which was directly across Turner McCall Boulevard from East Rome High School. My classroom, which was in a more recently-constructed wing of the school, had a door that opened directly to the parking lot; I could see Riverbend Mall when I opened that door. Rather than going home to prepare dinner, we'd often eat at Morrison's in the mall, then walk around and window-shop at Miller's or Belk's and dream of a future wen we could buy anything we saw in those windows. We felt like we weren't that far away from that point, either--not because we were that wealthy, but because we didn't have particularly exorbitant tastes. Years living within a budget had trained us well.

After four years of not seeing each other for eleven to twelve hours a day due to differing work schedules and commutes, we were together for two hours in the morning and seven waking hours in the afternoon and evening, five days a week. Susan had homework and I had papers to grade, but we could be together, and we could take breaks together and listen to music together and talk to each other.

Susan flourished once the stress of her job in the payroll department of the Arrow Shirt Factory was lifted from her. She was almost exuberant about being a student again, and she and our dear friend Gary Steele (who was also at CVT, although in a different technical program) would talk to one another about classes and teachers and school events almost as if they were in high school again. I can't remember any other time when she was so continually happy, so joyful, so carefree.

We found time to do more work on our fanzine, Future Retrospective. We increased the frequency of  our trips to Cumberland Mall in Marietta (a much larger mall than Riverbend) from once a month to every other week, regularly visiting our friend Larry Mason at his apartment near the Buford Highway-Clairmont Road intersection (in 1975, this was a thriving area for young professionals). We would make the rounds of used bookstores and record stores, bringing home a fresh haul every time. We made regular forays to the twin musical meccas of Peaches and Oz, two supermarket-sized record stores that were metro Atlanta icons. We even began looking at houses--not ready to buy quite yet, but ready to find the kind of house we liked so that we would know what to look for when we were ready to buy.

It couldn't last forever. In early 1977, with graduation just a few months away, Susan began looking for a job. She had hoped to find something in Rome or Cedartown, but she found her opportunity in Atlanta with the aforementioned Management Science America, whose office was directly across the street from another mall—Lenox Square in Atlanta. A commute was out of the question, so in early March of 1977, we spent a weekend checking out apartments in Marietta (a half-hour commute for Susan and a fifty minute commute for me to East Rome, where i continued to each).

In retrospect, I wish that wonderful time had never come to an end--and I sometimes wonder how different our lives might have been had she never taken a job in metro Atlanta, allowing us to remain in Rome and Cedartown instead.  But 1977 wasn't a year for what-ifs. It was a year for opportunities and new experiences and a new career--and for the first time in our six-plus years of marriage, both of us were working full-time not just in hourly jobs, but in careers. The idyllic years gave way to two exciting years that marked the next chapter of our lives.