In 1976, Escambia County State Representative Brooks Hines was to introduce a “Home Rule Bill,” which would allow county commissioners and municipalities to rule themselves. He said Alabama was one of the few states not already doing it. He also said the 1976 legislature was “unproductive.”

Rep. Hines was a resident of Brewton and was very well liked. It was a great shock to the county when he was fatally shot in a hunting accident.

Sarah Manry of Flomaton and Mary Kay Coale of Brewton were shown in photographs. Manry was the Farm Bureau Queen and Mary Kay Coale was the Maid of Cotton.

They were still having problems with the inmates at Fountain Prison. One inmate, age 19, was stabbed to death as he was taking a shower.

An inmate, Donald Thigpen was sent to the electric chair for the murder of Henry Lambeth of Brewton. Thigpen was one of 11 prisoners who escaped from the prison in April of 1975. Lambeth was killed as he worked on fence posts. Thigpen then stole Lambeth’s truck and was later picked up driving that truck on I-65 south of Evergreen.

The Atmore Chamber of Commerce endorsed that the city limits should be extended. The matter was discussed, but no action was taken at the time.

The American Legion donated three swing horses to be used in the North 8th Street Park. There was a photo of children swinging away on the ponies.

Now, I will get to the prices of things 40 years ago. TG&Y was having a big fabric sale with all kinds of bargains.

I am sure that the younger generations don’t have any idea of how hard it used to be to get new clothing. There were stores selling clothing made in a factory, but I was from a family that made our own clothes.

I remember well the first “store bought” dress I had. It was probably at least 60 years ago and I got it to wear to my cousin’s wedding. I was so proud of that dress and remember it well all these years later. For many years, to have a new dress, my mother would go to my cousin’s country store and search through the cow feed sacks and find one that looked pretty good. Then she sewed it into, what I thought were, beautiful dresses, and incidentally a pair of bloomers to match, for me. That worked very well until I got so big it took two feed sacks to make me a dress. I turned into a “two-sack” dress and it got harder to match those sacks.

Now days it is getting harder and harder to find a store that sells fabric. In fact we have to go all the way to Pensacola to find it.

Piggly Wiggly had two pounds of frozen French fries for 39 cents and a 12 ounce box of Kelloggs Corn Flakes for 38 cents. Just this past week-end I paid $2.98 for a box of cereal.

Here is the topper though. In 1976, there was an ad for Cablevision. Just in case you don’t know, that was the name of the first television cable company in our area.

Anyway, they were having a big sale and offering 12 channels for only $6.95. I bet you pay a lot more now. We got cable when it first came to town so one would think they would let me have a special price on it, but alas, it is not so.