Front page news 40 years ago was not earth shattering, but was interesting.

In 1976, there was talk about the possibility of closing the U.S. Post Office at Canoe. A nice little article in the paper told some of the history of the little building along side the railroad tracks that had been in use since 1864.

Talk had been going on for some time about the closing of the office but no official word had come down yet.

There was a record of a soldier in the Confederate Army having addressed a letter to his wife, which was post marked Canoe Station. The postmistress, Mrs. Lemmon, had been her office for the past 10 years.

So many small communities once had a post office, but time has erased so many of them. Canoe was once a thriving community and according to the article, larger than nearby Atmore, but time has moved on.

In another article, discussions were going on about building a new county jail. One problem was the location and there was to be a study of the area because of the flood zone.

In related news in 1976, prison officials were given support by the state Board of Corrections. There had been many things to be addressed by the board.

The Girl Scouts were observing its 64th anniversary.

This would make them 104 years old as of 2016, a long time for any club’s history.

In 1976, The Atmore Advance carried a column looking back at old news articles much as these are today. There was one account of the local county schools having to shut down because of a lack of funds 40 years ago in 1936. There were to be some exceptions. I don’t know how that worked out.

Just imagine, 80 years ago lack of funding for education was threatening our schools. And we think we have problems today.

There was an article about an Atmore native, Jerry Hatfield, who was a member of the Alabama Department of Public Safety. He was the pilot of a helicopter with the department. He was a graduate of Escambia County High School.

As part of the bicentennial, a wagon train was crossing the country from west to east, a reverse of the actual pioneer wagon trains. It was on a pilgrimage sponsored by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission and the Bicentennial Commission of Pennsylvania. This was an innovative program highlighting our country’s first two hundred years.

In 2016, committees all over the state of Alabama are gathering to discuss ways to commemorate the last two hundred years since our becoming a state in 1819. From now through the next three years, events are being planned all over the state and the citizens of Escambia County are hoping to be a big part of the celebration.