FIFTY & 100 YEARS AGO CONTINUED

Thursday, November 18, 1971 Santa Bowl games slated Saturday

The annual Santa Bowl football games will be held Saturday at the Boys’ Club field. Advance tickets are on sale at 75 cents for adults and 25 cents for students. Prices at the gate are $1 for adults and 50 cents for children.

Pee Wee AFL and NFL All-Stars will kick off at 1 p.m. and Mite All-Stars will kick off at 3:30 p.m. All proceeds from the games will go to Cheerful Givers. There will be 132 all-stars from both leagues.

A king and queen of the Santa Bowl will be crowned at half time.

Friday, November 19, 1971

Darlington, Thornwood officials decide against merging schools

The boards of trustees of Darlington and Thornwood schools announced today that they had decided not to merge the two schools “at this time.”

The boards began discussing the possibility last year, and a study was conducted by the boards, faculties and student bodies of both schools.

The merger was defeated when the Board of Trustees of the Darlington School voted “nay.” The boards of both schools had to approve.

Charles Hight, chairman of the Darlington board and Harold Storey, chairman of the Thornwood board, issued the following statement: “The thoroughness of our study of the proposed merger plan will add immeasurably to the quality of our educational programs. Our commitment is to provide the best education possible for our students.”

The chairmen added that “although Darlington and Thornwood will not merge, the studies pointed out that closer cooperation between the schools will benefit both student bodies. The two schools will continue to work together in many areas.”

Darlington and Thornwood are currently conducting surveys to determine the interest in establishing a jointlysponsored independent elementary school. The establishment of such a school would presumably create a foundation for a later merger of Darlington and Thornwood. George Kirkpatrick, headmaster at Thornwood, and Gordon Bondurant, president of Darlington, said “the initial response to a pilot survey” of the need for “private elementary education” in the area “has been encouraging.”

Rome area parents interested in such a school may obtain more information by calling either Darlington or Thornwood.

100 years ago as presented in the November 1921 editions of the Rome TribuneHerald

A peculiar suit was filed in Floyd Superior Court against the Southern Railroad by two little girls, each asking damages of a thousand dollars. The girls are Dixie Wilder, aged 12, and Sallie McConnell, aged 14. The suit states that they were going to the North Rome station of the railroad last August 30 and when near the station saw a train pulling out. Thinking it was the Gadsden train, which they wanted to catch, they ran toward it and the flagman and conductor called to them to hurry.

They boarded the train and after riding a mile and a half, when the conductor asked for the fare, they learned that they were on a train going to Chattanooga. They were put off and had to find their way back home in the dark and became frightened, cried and screamed. They were heard by a woman who accompanied them back to the depot but the Gadsden train had gone.

The damages are asked to recompense them for their fright and agony of mind. The Wilder girl declared she had suffered infantile paralysis and her physical condition was therefore not good.

The suit also declares that the girls, in returning to their home, had to pass through a “section infested with tramps and criminals.”

--The publication of the story of the Lindale man who killed 15 squirrels — the big limit — in less than two hours, and on emptying them from an old coat found a $10 bill that had been lost therein for a number of years, looks insignificant when another man comes forward in this land of honesty and truthfulness and declares that once upon a time he killed 35 squirrels in 30 minutes or 30 squirrels in 35 minutes.

But when reporters whispered to the man who ventured the first story he exclaimed, “Why, by the way, if I’d known you’re going to publish my story I would have told you the balance of it — I forgot to tell you that on my way home with those 15 squirrels and on the day I found the $10 bill I killed two rabbits, and would have killed several more but ran out of ammunition.” --

The brief days of “medical beer” were considered numbered when the Senate in Washington, D.C., voted, 56 to 22, to adopt the conference report on the anti-beer bill. Besides prohibiting beer with more than one half percent alcohol, the bill would reduce the amount of wine which positions might prescribe.

The measure, the constitutionality of which was questioned in the Senate debate, now goes to the president, who is expected to approve it.