Fifty years ago, in 1968, prices on everything from new cars to groceries were shocking.

Kwik Chek had chuck roast for 39 cents a pound, ground beef $1.29 for three pounds and a 10 pound bag of potatoes for 59 cents.

A&P had bacon for 45 cents a pound, chopped beef steaks for $1.29 a pound and blueberry pie for 49 cents.

Have you bought a new car lately? Well, in 1968, Friendly Ford was selling Mustangs for only $2,444. That works out to be a yard full of cars that could be bought for what one car costs today.

It was about the time we were in the market for a house. We had been married for 10 years and always rented everywhere we moved. When we came to Brewton, we started testing the market and I will never forget when a lady offered to sell us her nice home on Belleville Avenue for $17,000. That sounds like a good price, but compared to what other things cost in those days, it might as well have been $1 million.

Needless to say, we waited until we got a better offer a couple of years later.

Southland Telephone Co. was advertising a flat rate one-party service with no party lines. All the new one-party systems had prefixes of 368, 369 or 327.

Remember party lines? We did not have a telephone at our house until much later than most. We didn’t even have a party line. My cousin, who lived with her grandmother, had one at her grandparents’ house. There were four parties on the same line and they had no secrets. Some people listened to every conversation. My friend had a boy friend and they talked all the time. When I say talked, I mean they kept the lines open saying nothing for hours. The three other people on that party line would get mad at her all the time. I thought it was all so silly. Maybe it was because I didn’t have a boy friend at that time.

No, I still would not have stayed on the phone even if I did.

Geneva Baker was chosen Miss Ernest Ward High School and Sherry Robinson was to star in “Bye, Bye. Birdie” a musical production by the Fine Arts Department of Yancey State College.

Tom Byrne and Oris Davis had qualified to run for the office of Mayor of Atmore.

A Davisville man was shot and killed following a card game.

Here is a good one. Watson Hardware had a Lemon sale. This was furniture and appliances that had some scratches and dents. They actually gave out free lemons to shoppers.

Pepsi Cola was running a contest “Jack Tops” where one could win by peeling away the cork from the bottle to see if they had a winning Pepsi.

How long has it been since you saw a cork in a Pepsi bottle?

A nine-year old boy from Perdido died from his injuries sustained in a vehicle accident.

Lastly, Atmore received two inches of snow, the first in four years.