Forty-five years ago, in 1973, there were some interesting things going on in Atmore and the surrounding area.

Ronald Rhoads of Atmore was featured in The Atmore Advance. The story was about his collection of ancient artifacts he has found while digging. He found part of an 80-foot Basilosaures and he even had a mummified Indian woman dating back 1400 years who died of syphilis. He said that was surprising because syphilis was thought to be of European origin.

Atmore merchants were planning something new to bring business to town. They were planning a sidewalk sale where the merchants would be wearing casual clothing such as shorts. Customers were invited to come and dress casually. Ben Cooper said that people in big cities had to dress up to come to town, but people from Atmore could come as they were.

I don’t know if casualness helped sell more, but I bet it was hot weather. In July that is a given.

The Atmore City Council gave Mayor Davis permission to apply for a grant from the state for a computer to be used by police to connect with other law enforcement agencies to fight crime.

The Atmore Public Library celebrated 50 years of service to the community.

There were photos and history of the library system in Atmore.

There was an ad for the telephone company to get people to “spice up their kitchen with a phone. It would be convenient and fun to have.”

A representative from cable television spoke to the Rotary Club and told them that cable tv was on its way.

These last items tickled me because of just how much change there has been in the world of televisions and telephones. Nobody back then would have dreamed that we all would be walking around carrying a phone in our pocket. And we knew nothing about cable television. I remember seeing little ads in the newspaper advertising something coming from the sky. No one knew what it meant, but that was our

introduction to cable TV.

I knew a little bit about cable. I had lived in the California desert and because of the mountains, everyone had to have cable to watch TV.

So when it finally did get to south Alabama I signed up and have had it ever since.

Speaking of televisions; Helton’s had televisions with “giant screens.”