MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
Elkmont, Ala. – Convicts linked by leg chains shuffled along a busy highway Wednesday, chopping weeds and picking up trash, as Alabama became the first state to bring back chain gangs. Passing motorists blew horns and students on school buses shouted at the inmates. There were several near-accidents as drivers slowed down to gawk. Gov. Fob James reinstituted chain gangs in an attempt to make prison life so unpleasant that no one will want to return. The 12-hour workday started with shotgun-toting corrections officers standing watch while about 320 prisoners were made to kneel in the dew-covered grass to have shiny steel chains clamped to their legs.
50 years ago — 1970
“Sesame Street,” the educational television program for preschoolers, was an instant and huge success throughout the nation from the first day it went on the air. It is now acclaimed as one of the best teaching aids ever developed for the child — rich or poor — who has not started to school. By a 3-2 vote of the Mississippi Commission for Educational Television, the popular series will not be shown on Mississippi’s new educational television network. A commission member said opposition was based on the “highly integrated cast of children.” Objections were voiced, he said, that “we are not ready for it.”
75 years ago — 1945
Because of the limited meat supply and to give clerks extra time off, most Memphis grocery stores are now closing Wednesday afternoon and there is a tendency toward all-day closing, Joseph R. Hyde Sr., president of Malone & Hyde, Inc., wholesale grocers, said yesterday. There are still a few grocery stores remaining open all day Wednesday, Mr. Hyde said, adding “there’s been a good deal of discussion among grocers about uniform closing hours, but no definite agreement has been reached.” Grocers in many other Mid-south towns close Wednesday or Thursday afternoon during the summer, Mr. Hyde said. 100 years ago — 1920
Washington – Warning that prohibition “is here to stay,” Federal Prohibition Commissioner Kramer told the American Pharmaceutical Association to keep the druggists of the nation free from the name of “retail liquor dealers.” “Prohibition has been written into the Constitution and it will never be taken out of it in the history of the country,” Mr. Kramer said. He said unless the druggists are careful, they will become in name and fact liquor dealers.
125 years ago — 1895
It affords the undersigned great pleasure to call the attention of ladies and gentlemen to Madame Yale’s Excelsior Hair Tonic, which turns hair back to its original color without dye and eliminates baldness immediately. Madame Yale is an eminent chemist and gives her solemn word that the product is as set forth. T.R. Fortune’s Gayoso Pharmacy, J.S. Robinson, Masonic Temple, Jones & Campbell and A. Renkert.