Days Gone Bye: Seventy years past recollections By Tom Boggs
Published 5:02 pm Friday, January 31, 2025
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There was a big papermaking outfit up around Wisconsin taking a look see at a spot called Naheola just across the river from Myrtlewood, and here came Marathon Southern Corporation to change the complexion of things in this area back yonder around 1955.
The Grove Drive-In was in full swing in Demopolis, and one of the flicks was Tarzan and the She Devil for those who went there just bent on watching a picture show.
Earl Pritchett bought a 1955 Chevy upon which he painted the word, “Lemon,”, and parked it in front of Little Drug Store. Also, the Demopolis Lock and Dam was dedicated that year, and “Everything Made for love” Congressman, Frank Boykin, was on hand for the dedication.
Pete Carter retired as rural mail carrier in Myrtlewood, and was celebrated with Pete Carter Night. George Rentz was MC, and probably did as well as Frank Boykin had at the dam. Other news from Myrtlewood was Fred Adams reporting he was on a dove shoot near Moss Hill, and he saw Lindy Lindsey shoot down a flying dove with a 22 rifle. I never heard of anybody owning up to seeing that bullet hole in the bird, but I’ve always accepted that piece of history as a fact.
Oh, yeah, that was the year of advanced modern communications when Miller and Octagon got brand new telephone lines for the first time in history.
You know the entire teacher corps at Faunsdale was Mary Ennis, and Margaret Carter made up the full contingent at Myrtlewood. Ermon D. Etheredege held down the Dixons Mills school house, but up at the Faunsdale Black school they had nine whole teachers, including my old friend, Harrison Lenyard.
Now, we Linden Red Devils were set to have the best football team since 1945, but first pop out of the box Greensboro whupped us the first game. We did put it on Thomaston 45-12, back when the Tiger quarterback, Don Crocker, backed up to the center, so he wouldn’t trip on his feet handing off.
Well, here came Coach Chink Lott and his Demopolis Tigers, bringing fellows like Alan Koch, Riddell Abrams, the Brooker brothers, Bob Williams, Jimmy Crawford, Billy Cobb, Spanky Harris, and a host of others to finally put it on the Devils 19-12.
As always, we ended up playing the Sweetwater Bulldogs for the last game of the season. Coach Fred Ramsey and his bunch had beat us up 41-0 the year before, so we got some determination in 1955, disallowing them any points atall, while we Bobby Golden coached Devils racked up 20 points of our own.
I don’t have any idea what team Mr. Pete Carter might have been pulling for that year, but he’d done his part, and had a night of his own to prove it.