I have started this story 2 or 3 times and have never gotton very far. So I will try to get more than 2 sentences this time. I was born. How familiar is that to another story but I guess everyone is because they are not hatched. So I was born on the fourth day of February, 1944 at Floyd Hospital about 10:00 am. My mom and dad lived on Avenue A in West Rome and dad worked for the Georgia Power Company. We rented an apartment from Mrs. Agnes Giles. She owned a house and rented a small apartment to provide for herself and daughter after her husband died. The daughter's name was Sybil. She later married Quillan Mills. They became good friends with my parents and sometimes Mrs. Giles would watch me so they could all go to the movies. A young girl lived with her mom on this street and her name was Mary Francis Burnes. She was in high school but she took notice of me. She would take me to the parades on Broad street. Now I don't know if I remember this or I was told so many times over the years that it just sunk in my memory.
After my mom became pregant with my brother, Dad bought a house in front of the City Clock-411 East Second Street- and I lived there until I married. I just found out that my dad was one of the first to buy a house on the GI bill after World War II. He didn't want to pay rent the rest of his life. Now this house was 2 blocks off Broad St. We could walk anywhere we wanted and did most of the time because we didn't have a car. It was about 4 blocks to the garage where dad worked, so he came home for lunch everyday. People were not afraid for their kids to walk anywhere in the good old days. No one ever bothered them. There were 3 movie theaters in Rome- Desota, Gordon, and the First Avenue. We didn't like the First Avenue much because it was down by the cotton block close to the river and a train track. It was always dark so we saved it for Saturday matinees. Could stay all day long for $ .10. Larry and I would go through the neighborhaood gathering up Coca-Cola bottles and take them back to the stores for the deposit. Also coat hangers-Liberty Hat Works on Broad Street would pay a penny for 2 hangers so that's how we got money. Larry was born on September 10, 1945 so our ages were close. We were always together. We had friends who lived in the neighborhood. Some didn't stay long because they were renters. But our next door neighber, Mrs. Lytle, owned her home and she was always there helping us raise money for the movies. When her grandchildren came over, we would take them with us. We were always going to the movies. Dad got paid every 2 weeks and that Saturday night, it was the movies. We didn't own a TV. I never could stay awake when we were at the movies on Saturday. I called them adult movies, but they would probably be rated "Family" today. They contained no blood, no sex, no nudity, and no violence.
In the summer, we would go swimming. The city pool was just across the river, about 2 blocks down from 5th Avenue on West Second Street. It was open every day from 2pm to 6pm so in the mornings, we were gathering money to swim. If we didn't get enough money then it was play ball on the playground across the street. Beside the City Clock was Neely School. The first school estanlished in Rome, GA named for Benjamin Neely, it's first principal. There were 8 rooms, 4 upstairs and 4 downstairs. Daniel Sullivan was the principal when I attended in 1955-1957. After they closed the school, he taught at East Rome High School. He was my algebra teacher my freshman year.
There was no lunchroom in 1950 at Central Primary which is where I started the first grade. It was just down the hill from Neely. I went home for lunch everyday since it was only a block. Then low and behold, when I started in the seventh grade, a lunchroom. But where did they put it, you guessed it, down the hill at Central Primary. By then, I still went home for lunch unless they had something good like their meatloaf or spaghetti. We did not have a big variety of foods like they do today. And the playground was always there for us. Swings, sliding boards, see-saws, and monkey bars, we could play all day. When all the neighborhood kids showed up, it was chase, kick-the-can, softball, or hopscotch. Even jumping rope, my favorite was double Dutch. That is all for this chapter in my life. Catch me again another time. RHONDA
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