In 1966, the city of Atmore school system was the only one to show an increase in enrollment in this area. It had risen by 490 students in the last four years. Most of the school systems were down in numbers.
Another sign of the times was the fact that stores, especially grocery stores, tried to entice customers into their business by either giving away items or selling them cheaply. These things were not necessarily food items. A&P was running a special on Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedias. They were also featuring their store brands, which was a fairly new idea. Store brands were cheaper than well-known brands, but the public had to get used to buying them and seeing that the quality was also there.
West Brothers had a big sale going on, in which they sold 20-gallon, metal garbage cans for $1.77 each and room-sized rugs for $9.88. They also ran a “back-to-school courtesy” sale, which would run from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Signs of the season were the many ads run in The Atmore Advance for local cotton gins. New advances were being made all the time to make this job a little easier.
When I was a young girl, my brother would go visit my aunt and uncle near Dothan and pick cotton to raise money for new school clothes. He was very good at it. One time, I decided to do the same thing, but about three hours in, I was piled up on a bag of cotton in the shade of a nearby tree. Needless to say, I did not pick much cotton and never tried to again. I felt that never learning to pick cotton was on the same scale as never learning to milk the cow or learning to clean fish. As long as I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t be asked to do it. Pretty smart, huh?
An accident occurred on Interstate 65 when an 18-wheeler, driven by a man from Atmore, jack-knifed, injuring four people.
A big meeting was to be held at Poarch School to discuss legislation of reimbursement of monies owed members of the tribe.
The Atmore Jaycees established a checkpoint on Highway 21 North to remind people to slow down and be more careful. At the stops, drivers were given a free Coke and a pamphlet on places to visit in Alabama. They gave away 2,000 Cokes to people they stopped. Now, that’s better than just being stopped at a checkpoint.
Several county agencies were meeting to move some offices into city hall. At the same time, the chamber of commerce was seeking funds for new Christmas lights. It seems that what they had was in pretty bad shape. I’ll have to keep up with this one and see what happened.
Dr. C.S. Crawford caught a 86-pound marlin winning first place in the Pensacola Bill-Fish Tournament. The fish was 10.5 feet long.