Here’s a fond thank you to Charlotte Boyle for the outstanding work she does for our town, county and state.

You may find her in various locations in our 66th district offering advice and solutions to its problems. Distance and time of day or night is no concern for her as you may find her anywhere or anytime performing her duties in a dedicated manner.

The retired school teacher finds time to fill roles within countless organizations. This includes girl scouts, Christian care, emergency 911, Atmore Hall of Fame, Destiny TV and countless other organizations. In addition to all this, she finds time each week to teach Sunday School at First Baptist Church.

Having received awards from the Escambia Retired Teacher’s Organization, Atmore Hall of Fame and Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce, she serves as scribe to the local Employers Support For The Guard (ESGR).

The sister in law of the late Hugh Rozelle, she works parallel with the Poarch Creek Indians.

Hats off to you Charlotte. Keep up the good work.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Monty Bell last week. He and his brothers grew up with my sons and were active in little league sports.

I am also reminded of Monty’s dad, Fern Bell, when his family lived in Huntsville.

Fern was very active in Huntsville youth sports and served as president of the Huntsville American (youth baseball) League from 1967-1969. In fact, Madison County city erected a prominent ball field and monument in Fern’s honor. You can see that park today which is located not too far from the Redstone Rocket complex on Whitesburg Drive at Byrd Spring Road.

Our Atmore Little League teams have a warm spot in our hearts for the Huntsville area because we played so many state and regional tournaments up there back then. It was especially meaningful for me and Steve, my oldest son. It was in one of those tournaments that a baseball scout from UAB noticed Steve on the playing field and later resulted in his being given a baseball scholarship by renowned baseball coach Harry (The Hat) Walker.

Now, let’s take a look at some nostalgic happenings from 1955.

Atmore began a “housing boom” that year as people moved here, bought homes, and had a much shorter drive to work in nearby towns, especially to Monsanto and the “paper mill” in Cantonment

Many times at the close of our broadcast day I could see new homes under construction there at the end of East Craig Street. Only a year or so before this, looking out the WATM windows, I could see swaying tall pine trees everywhere. No hospital, no doctors office, no drug stores and just “woods. “

Bubber Bowab became affiliated with his mother, Mrs. L.F. Bobab, at the “Economy Shop”. This was one of several family operated clothing businesses in those days.

Johnny Hoehn at “Hoehn’s trading Center” introduced a new tubeless tire. This firm was the Firestone Store and also carried home appliances.

Leroy Wiggins, through Perdido River Soil Conservation Department, presented a unique program to help Northwest Florida farmers better utilize their farmlands. Jack Liles and Langley Bell were two recipients of Leroy’s program.

S.Y Bagley was named new manager of Bedsoles Dry Goods Store. Bill Gordy, the former manager was transferred to a store in Clarke County.

W.C. Howell was cited for his outstanding sales with Hines Realty Company and Dr. Cecil Thornbloom received an award for “helping those with nervous conditions” in his chiropractic practice.

The First National Bank celebrated 40 years of outstanding service to the community.

Those football bowl games were watched on TV this past week in record numbers. That Alabama-Washington game drew the most viewers according to pollsters. The main reason, of course was the Tide’s lofty standing at No. 1 in the nation and the fact that so many anti-Alabama viewers were pulling for a Huskie upset over the Crimson Tide.

Those same anti-Alabama prognosticators are trying to come up with methods for Clemson to beat the Tide in the National Championship game next Monday. I think it is safe to say that probably 50 percent of the ESPN announcers and panelists are right now down on their knees hoping for a Tide loss. This includes all Southeastern Conference teams, too. They find it difficult to handle the fact that the SEC outshines the Big 10 teams. Of course, they had very little to say this week when Ohio State and Michigan went tumbling at the hands of Clemson and Florida State, respectively. One wonders how in the world were the Ohio State Buckeyes ever considered a worthy top four opponent. Their inept performance actually made Clemson look better on the field.

The Auburn-Oklahoma game was also listed as one of the most-watched games. And, that game should serve as a springboard for the Tiger’s having a great season next year.

Here’s a question for you. Who had the telephone number 230 as their business phone number back before Southland Telephone Company introduced the automated phone system?

I’ll have the answer and more nostalgic news next week.

Contact Lowell at exam@frontiernet.net.