Fifty years ago seems so long ago, but in 1968 I had already been married for nine years.

The first thing that caught my attention in The Atmore Advance was a picture of James Earl Ray. He was listed as being on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List for the shooting death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968.

Speaking of The Atmore Advance, there was a full-page announcement that subscription rates were going from $4 a year to $6 a year. Over the years since 1968, the prices have continued to rise, as everything else. No wonder it’s so hard to get by these days.

Everything has gone up and salaries have not gone up far enough to cover the expenses.

I saw where a crop duster airplane had crashed and burned near Lottie.

The pilot was severely injured.

I have watched those planes dip and turn in the air as they dusted the crops and have often wondered how they did it without crashing. I remember being on the road from Jay, Fla. to Pace, Fla. one time when one of them dumped its load almost on the top of my car. It made a mess and I was afraid that it was going to take the paint off my care.

Although it was all over my car, it came off with a good wash.

Prices were different in 1968. A&P had roast on sale for 39 cents a pound; a dozen oranges for 49 cents; and two apple pies for 79 cents.

They were also selling ironstone dishes for almost nothing. You could get one spotlighted dish for 22 cents and add a set of four bowls for $1.99.

Rachel Patterson Elementary School had its May Day Festival. There was even a picture of a May Pole at the festival. I haven’t seen one of those since I was in junior school.

A good rain fell ending a two-month dry spell, helping the crops. One of the crops was cucumbers and another crop being tried for this area was sunflowers being grown on two farms near Atmore and at the Brewton Experimental Farm.