Forty-five years ago, in 1972, a young man with dyslexia worked hard to overcome his reading handicap and signed a scholarship to play football for Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama.

Vanity Fair announced that plans were being made to expand their Milton, Fla. plant, adding 22,000 square feet to its existing building.

Who knew that just a few years later, Vanity Fair would no longer have the monopoly on lingerie manufacturing in this area?

I remember traveling to the plant in Monroeville to buy items in the past. They really carried a good line of lingerie as well as lounging clothes such as nightgowns and robes.

The fire station was dedicated to retired Chief R.L. Brown who had served 25 years as fire chief and retired in 1962.

A 23-year old young man was charged with embezzlement from the service station he had managed. It was first thought that the store had been hit with a thief, but it was later believed that the manager took the items himself.

Direct distance telephoning was the way to go. After all those years of having to share a party line with others, and had to be connected by an operator, users were now able to dial the number themselves.

I remember the party lines very well. That was all we had in our neighborhood for a long time. We did not have a phone, so if we needed to make a call, we went to my great uncle’s house. I’m sure they loved that. It was the same with the first television in the community. How annoying it must have been for my great uncle and great aunt.

The Red Cross Bloodmobile collected 162 pints of blood at their last visit, even though 229 volunteers showed up. Sixty-seven of those volunteers were turned away for medical reasons.

Escambia County High School was celebrating the 55th anniversary of Vocational Industrial Education week in the United States.

There were lots of sales going on and those that are now called President’s Day sales were then known as Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday Sales. I guess someone thought we had too many at one time and changed it so we would celebrate them all on one day.

There was an announcement in The Atmore Advance telling of the rodeo coming to Montgomery. In addition to the rodeo, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were set to be there along with the Sons of the Pioneers.

Now many of you won’t remember these names but back in the day, they were well known. I loved the Sons of the Pioneers. They could sing like nobody’s business.

For your information, I checked the cost of a copy of The Atmore Advance and it was selling for 10 cents a copy. Not bad.

A long-awaited four-lane highway was about to begin. It was 4.7 miles long, from Atmore to I-65 and would cost $1,227,644 to complete.

The city dump was being closed and the county landfill was to begin shortly.

According to the Atmore Police Department, public drunkenness was at the top of the arrest reports for Atmore.

This would have been before so many drug related charges were made. My guess would be that it has changed quite a bit over the years.