Fifty years ago, in 1966, the Atmore Lions Club was getting underway with its annual broom sale and the Girl Scouts were preparing to begin their cookie sale.

Farmers were being urged to plant more cucumbers. Apparently the market was in short supply. Pickle manufacturers used 300 bushels of cucumbers grown by Alabama farmers in 1965 and expected to need up to 750,000 bushels in 1966.

Fifty years ago the newspapers carried a lot of farm stories as there was much more farming than there is today. I noticed another sign of the times too. Believe it or not, there were ads for home delivery of milk. Woodhaven Country Charm Milk announced its intention to deliver milk right to your front porch.

Now, many of you cannot relate to that. Let me tell you I am old enough that I well remember when we had our own cow and drank a lot of milk. My mother milked the cow and she taught my brother to milk, but I was a dismal failure at it. Sometimes I think I was the smart one because I never had a regular job milking the cow.

Later we moved to town (which happened to be Headland in Henry County). Not only did we get milk delivery, we got grocery delivery right to the door.

Recently we had a conversation at the office about this and made me remember it. Milk was left on the doorstep in glass bottles. We paid for the milk by leaving the money with the empty bottles that were picked up and recycled. When we needed groceries, my mother called the store and ordered what she wanted. Later that day, someone would bring the groceries and leave them at the front door. This was also the same time that I was probably the only kid in school who rode a taxi to school. My dad’s cousin ran a taxi service in Headland and he volunteered to take me to school, bring me home for lunch, tale me back to school and then pick me up after school. Times have certainly changed since then.

It seems as if it couldn’t have been so long ago for some of these things.

Atmore welcomed Governor George Wallace and his wife, Lurleen, who was running for the Governor’s office.

County wise, Glen Holt of Brewton was running for election to be sheriff of Escambia County, Ala.

There was an article about the Reserve Champion at the annual Market Cattle Show and Sale held by the Escambia County Cattlemen’s Association and Atmore Truckers’ Association. The steer was bought by the Swift Packing Company for 28.30 cents a pound.