Looking back: A&P opened a new type of grocery store

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The first item in this week’s column made me sit up and pay attention to what I was reading. In 1972, 45 years ago, I saw a picture in The Atmore Advance and it took me by surprise. A couple was holding what I first read as being a bunch of grapes, big grapes.

Well, my eyes opened and found what had caught my attention.

A couple of people had returned home to the Atmore area from a trip to Haynes City, Fla. The “grapes in their hands” turned out to be grapefruit. Even grapefruit don’t grow like this usually. The man said he was told that that area of Florida always had a bigger harvest than anyone else. Anyway, ten of these grapefruits weighed 23 pounds. That is a lot of grapefruit to eat.

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Police Chief James Dixon was having some problems he wanted to end. Firstly,  people were upset around town because of the noisy mufflers. Dixon said that the police were going to start cracking down on the offenders.

In another instance, Chief Dixon was concerned with people dumping garbage in public areas of the city. He was ready to begin making arrests.

I don’t know if it was just the right time of the year or what, but I saw several pictures of fish that people were catching. There were three or four photos of big numbers of fish in one newspaper.

Helton’s was having a sale on color televisions. One they advertised was a “big” 16 inch color television. Now it may have been a good price back then, but today you can buy a flat screen for less than that much.

A Bratt young man was killed in an auto accident. A 16 year old who was driving lost control of the vehicle and it flipped several times before it stopped. The driver was killed on impact and the others were sent to the hospital. Some thought that the boy had fallen to sleep at the wheel.

A&P opened a new type of grocery store, one of only a few. Where Economy Originates (WEO) was just opening. There were some good prices but nothing too great. Evidently, some people thought it was going to be a good a big rival for business, because Kwik Chek ran a two-page ad with a lot of comparable prices.

I should know about this, as my husband worked almost his whole life with A&P, but this one was new to me.

Brooks Memorial Baptist Church was planning an “old-fashion” day at the church. People were to dress in their old fashioned clothing.

That would have been easy for me because all I have are old-fashioned clothes.

The Strand Theater was showing “Song of the South.” Do you remember that? It was a really cute story but it was politically incorrect so it must go. Remember the “laughin” place?