MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1996
It’s a typical evening at The Summer Avenue Social Club. People sip iced tea and munch hot dogs as the featured speaker keeps his audience enthralled with some fast talking. ”Ten, 10, bid 10, go 10, 10, bid 10, who’ll give $5 for the little knife? Who’ll bid 3?” Gene Elder calls out. Some guests hold up their hands or nod. Others chat with friends or check out newcomers. The Summer Avenue Social Club is what the regulars call Gene Elder Auction at 3449 Summer. That’s because three nights a week — Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 6 p.m. — the auctions turn into parties. The regulars enjoy each other so much that the Saturday before Christmas, the auction becomes a potluck complete with home movies from previous Christmas dinners. “It’s almost a sin to take money for doing something you enjoy so much,” said Elder, 66. The business resembles a church with its rows of wooden pews and the large framed print of The Last Supper on a rear wall. In fact, the auction house doubled as a church for awhile. Elder’s son, a nondenominational minister, held services there.
50 years ago — 1971
The 300 parents who attended last night’s meeting of Citizens for Neighborhood Schools, held at Brownsville Road School, came with thee basic questions in mind: How will my child know if he is getting on the correct bus? What happens if the bus becomes involved in an accident because it’s overcrowded? How do we stop busing? None of those questions was answered fully, although CNS officers from four schools — Brownsville Road, Bartlett Elementary, Raleigh-bartlett Meadows and Elmore Park — and the group’s attorney Frank Byrd tried.
75 years ago — 1946
ALAMO, Tenn. – Amid a barrage of charges of fraudulent election practices in Crockett County, war veterans who were victorious against a common foe on foreign battlefields resolved here Monday night to smash machine politics in Tennessee and throughout the United States. With the predominantly Crockett County crowd of some 500 voicing approval, an array of speakers urged veterans to join in bringing honest and clean elections to every community in the state and nation.
125 years ago — 1896
Captain Bunk Harrison will resign as deputy sheriff of Shelby County and Hugh White will be appointed to succeed him. Captain Harrison resides at Germantown.