Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott

Memories of growing up in a small town during the 1950"s!

Life was much simpler in a small town during the 1950's. Money was tight but life was uncomplicated without all the trappings of the modern day. Iuka had appoximately 2500 living in the city limits. We had no red lights and the major highway from Memphis to Chattanooga, Tennessee ran right through the middle of town along side the railroad track that ran from Memphis to Washington, DC. There were several freight trains and two passenger trains that came though each day and that was how we received our mail. My sister lived in Memphis and I would get on the train and ride to visit her and her family. My husband or kids have never had the pleasure of enjoying riding through the countryside and seeing the country like you did from a train.
We had two drug stores in town and both had soda fountains with soda jerks (mostly boys) just like the shows on TV. Going to Baskin-Robbins will never compare to going to the soda fountain and having a milk shake, malt, or sundae in a real glass. They were the meeting places after school when all the teens would meet to flirt and gossip. Awww, those were the "Happy Days" with a jukebox but without the Fonz!
Our town had a cafe called "Claude Curtis Hamburgers". We called the burgers "slug burgers" and all kind of rumors were told about them. They were greasy and you got them with mustard, pickle, and onion only. I don't think anyone knew exactly what he put in them but today's version uses soy in the beef. He also made hotdogs with kraut and a watered down homemade chili. Most times you could not find a table or stool to sit at. They sold for five cents!
We had a movie theater named the Majestic. On the week end it was the place to be. They would show westerns (Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Randolph Scott, Lash LaRue) along with news and all the latest movies. When they showed "Love me Tender" with Elvis I think I saw it at least ten times, and cried each time!! The first run movies were at night and the westerns were mostly matinees on Saturday afternoon. You could go to town get a hamburger and coke at Claude's, go to the movie and get popcorn for a quarter! Try doing that today!!!! Later we got a Drive In movie which is still in operation today, one of only three left in the State of Mississippi. I actually met Lash LaRue at the Memphis Fair when I was about thirteen and he kissed me on my cheek. To me this was the almost as good as meeting Elvis!
All the stores were in the "downtown" area. On Saturdays it was hard to find a parking space. That was when everyone did their shopping at small family owned grocery stores, clothing stores, barber and beauty shops and the 5 and 10 cent store. We had two, one was named Elmore's and was actually a chain store out of Alabama. When I graduated from high school in May of 1959 I worked for them that summer until I could decide what I wanted to do with my life. I worked six days a week and I don't remember how much I made an hour but we were paid in cash on Saturday and my pay was eighteen dollars and a few cents after they took out taxes!

My girls!!!!!

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Do You Remember These?

Do you remember these? Statler Brothers

How have things changed in your lifetime? (Technology)

When I first saw this question, I thought to myself that this is one question that can not be answered in a short blog! So I plan to answer this one in several different areas. Today I am going to talk about changes in technology. Kids today would find it hard to exist without all the modern conveniences, things that they think were always around and they can't believe that we could and did enjoy life without them. I was about six when I remember our first telephone and it is hard to compare it with the I-Phone and Blackberry of today's society. It was a big black box that hung on the wall. You picked it up and a voice would say "operator" and you would simply say who you wanted to talk too and she would connect you. Not long after that they actually put a dial on the box and you dailed numbers but you could still dial O and talk to a real person. At one time all three of my sisters were operators at Southern Bell in Sheffield, Ala. One of my sisters, Gladys Brewer, worked her way up to Chief Operator and had 25 operators working under her. This was a great job for a woman to have and she worked there for over twenty years until she passed away. I would go to the office with her and it was fascinating to see how they worked. It is a far cry from the phones that everyone carries around today.
Televisions had been around for a few years but most people didn't have them. My Dad always liked new things so when his friend, Clyne Taylor, a radio repairman decided to sell TVs, we had one of the first ones in Iuka. We had an antenna on the roof since the closest station was in Memphis. You were at the mercy of the weather if you could watch or not. We would have lots of friends that would come over to watch. Everything was in black and white and Friday Night was my Dad's favorite night so he could watch boxing sponsored by Gillette razor blades! Of course, I liked Howdy Doody, Long Ranger, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Mickey Mouse Club with Annette! My Mom liked the soap operas and later I watched Bandstand and anything the rock stars were on. There was no MTV then!!!! The stations would go off each night around midnight and they would play the National Anthem with flags flying and then show a "test pattern".
Computers hadn't been heard of, and when you bought something at the store they had cash registers with buttons to push. We had no adding machines and I took a course using a comptometer and it took me three months to complete and they called it the "first mechanical calculator". The first computer I ever saw was when I worked at First National Bank in Memphis. It took up almost an entire floor and the temp had to be around 68 at all times. Everyone had to wear sweaters to work on it and it was behind glass doors! It took us so long to get all the records ready to be put online, that I told my husband that if I ever worked for another company that went on computer I would quit!!!! Now we hold in our hands machines with more records. It is amazing.
Computers and televisions have probably changed the world more than any thing else in my life time. Cars and airplanes have succeeded in making the world shrink, but Tvs and Computers have changed from simple inventions to things we cannot live without. Some of this is good and some is bad, but I always say there are five things I would find it hard to live without, my cell phone, computer, microwave, cell phone, and most of all my internet!!!!

Can you describe your father and mother as you remember looking at them when you were young?

Since I was the baby of eight kids and my oldest sister was seventeen years old when I was born, I always felt that my parents were old. When I was five years old, my Dad went into business for himself running an auto repair shop. He was one of the best, if not the best mechanics in our town. I still have people tell me that they wouldn't let anyone else work on their cars. It seemed to me that he always had grease under his fingernails. He was also a born car salesman. He would trade cars at the drop of a hat and always made money on them. I can remember when I was old enough to get my driver's license, he always made sure I had a car to drive but I never knew what kind it would be or how long I would get to drive it. I have had him to meet me on the road and stop me to swap cars because he had sold the one I was driving. He was tall and always skinny, but for some reason his nickname was "Biggon" and most people didn't know his real name. I never knew who gave him the name or why. I was his pet and I knew it and used it to my advantage. But he could be strict. I never remember him raising his voice to me or spanking me but when he told me to do something I did it with no questions asked. He loved fishing and would go early in the morning before he went to work. Every year in October he would start working jigsaw puzzles and would work them until Christmas Day, then he would wait until the next year. He would work on the bottom of the puzzle and I would work on the top! I was thirty one when he died and I still miss him today.

My mother was almost forty when I was born. By the time I was a teenager, my older siblings were already married. My youngest brother married when I was fifteen so my mother and I spent a lot of time together. She was older but she was cool when other mothers weren't. This was during the early days of rock and roll and she loved music and Elvis as much as I did. She would let me buy 45 rpm records, listen to rock music all day, would even watch Dick Clark and Bandstand with me every day! I was so lazy and spoiled, and she waited on me hand and foot! She would cook my breakfast, make my bed and have me something to eat everyday when I got off the school bus. She was without a doubt the best mother anyone could have. She would get mad at me sometimes but she had the softest voice and sweetest smile and all my friends loved her too. My mother lived to be 96 years old and when I look back now, I regret that I didn't visit her more, call her more and tell her I loved her more.

I always knew I could count on my mother and daddy to be there when I needed anything. I loved them so much!

Where did you attend Elementary School? Describe? Who were your favorite and least favorite teachers?

In Mississippi in 1946 children could start school if you turned six before the first of January of the school year. Therefore I was able to start when I was five. We lived at the intersection of Hiway 25 and Hiway 72, which is now Battleground Drive and Quitman St. Being only about two blocks from school meant that we had to walk to school, rain, shine, hot, cold or snow! Iuka Elementary was the only one in the area. Each little community had their own schools, mostly one to three rooms. Iuka was the largest in the county. The building called the Howard Memorial Auditorium had just been completed and for the first two years we only went for half days while they completed the Gym which would have the classrooms for the fifth and sixth grade. I loved school. My mother had always read anything she could and I got my love of reading from her. I can't remember when I didn't go to the library and everyone always said I had a book in my hand. I really think I would have been happy to go to school all year around! The entire school system was in the same area. We had three buildings, the first, second, third, and fourth grades were in the auditorium, fifth and sixth grades were in the new gym and seventh through twelfth were in the high school building. The auditorium and gym were new buildings but the high school building was old-old-old! It was a large brick two story building, with huge stairs. The floors were wood and there was so much noise. And it was hot in the spring and fall and cold in the winter! We had a football field but it was located across town.

Like all kids I had teachers I liked and those I didn't like. Most of the teachers I did like but there was one in particular that I didn't. Mrs. Rhoda Stephens was my first and second grade teacher and she was a neighbor and a wonderful lady and teacher. When I got in the third grade my teacher was Mrs. Brown and I can honestly say that I hate her today as much as I did in 1950! It is amazing how much someone can leave an impression on you. She embarrassed me in front of other teachers and kids and my mother even went to see her about some of the things she did. At the time I thought I was the only one that she treated this way but after talking to some of the others in my class I know that she was just an unhappy, grouchy, woman. I thought she was old but now I know that she wasn't old at all. Another teacher I loved was my sixth grade teacher, Miss Lela Graham. She was an old maid and didn't drive. She lived about a mile from school and walked to school and back everyday. Some days my nephew (who lived with us) and I would walk home with her. She was a really good person and a wonderful teacher. So that is my Elementary School days memories. There are some bad memories but all in all I would not want to trade them for anywhere else. I think small towns and small schools are the best of all!

How old were you when your Grandparents died?

Henry Jackson and Annie Rebecca Jane Kidd Fell

Lena Bell Davis Frederick

William Penn Frederick

I love my grandchildren and I even have two great grandsons! I have been so fortunate that God has allowed me to live long enough to see my grandchildren grow into the fine young people they are today and to allow me to know my great grandchildren. I was not blessed enough to know all of my grandparents. I was a late in life baby and my grandparents were older when I was born.

I never knew my mother's mother. Her name was Lena Bell Davis Frederick and she died of cancer in 1927 when she was 40 years old and 14 years before I was born. I do have a picture of her and my mother and uncle that was made in 1907 when she was very young. Looking at this picture she already looks so sad, even though I think she is beautiful! I can only imagine what a hard life she must have lived as she made a home and gave birth to 14 children! My grandfather. William Penn Frederick, didn't remarry until 20 years later so I can remember him staying at our house a lot. After he remarried I would stay with him and his new wife and she became the grandmother I never had and her name was Betty and that was what I called her. One night in 1958, he and Betty were visiting Betty's sister and watching TV. My grandfather loved wrestling and during the wresting match he excitedly jumped up and had a heart attack and died at the age of 74 years.

In 1953 we moved from town to the country and when we did my Dad's parents moved across the road from us. My grandmother (Annie Rebecca Jane Kidd Fell) was a little tiny woman who now reminds me of Granny on "The Beverly Hillbillies". She believed in old wives tales and didn't mind letting everyone know. I was 14 when she died and I can remember several clashes we had about the things we didn't agree on. I was named after her, my middle name is Jane. My Dad's father, Henry Jackson Fell, lived to be 100 years, 2 months. He was a large jolly man. He had very little health problems until he was a hundred and until he was a hundred he would sit on his daughter's front porch and wave at all the people driving by. He loved soap operas and believed everything they did and felt like they were his friends, but you could not convince him that a man really landed on the moon. He would always say it was on a desert in California! On his 100th birthday he was featured on the front page of the local paper. When he was in his 90's he went to the store and bought a special suit that he wore to his birthday party and was buried in.

Do you remember your family discussing World Events and politics?

The most important thing in world events during my early life was WWII. I was born just weeks before the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Even through I was too young to remember the war it was bad for my family, because my oldest brother joined the Navy. He was stationed in the Pacific on a ship. I can barely remember when he would come home. He would bring me presents. Once he brought me a grass (actually yarn) skirt and grass shoes from Hawaii. I was about 4 0r 5 and I remember going to a friend's house and playing in a sawdust pile. The skirt was ruined but I still have the shoes. My Dad was a Democrat through and through. I never remember him even considering voting for anyone else. I have always considered myself to be an independent person. To me the party did not mean anything, I always supported the person's views that were closest to mine. My Dad would say, "If you lived through the Great Depression like we did you would feel the same way I do." I remember once voting for a local area candidate running for Governor who was a Republican and he was so upset with me! After that I just refused to tell him who I voted for! I loved him dearly but I guess we were both stubborn and didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things!

The pictures are of my brother, Elgen Berry Fell, Jr. and myself, made in the early 1940's.

Where were you born and when?

My birth certificate states that I was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and my mother showed me where the house was when I was a little girl. However it was in the country and over the years the best I can remember the area would now be in the city of Muscle Shoals, Ala. The house was an old house that actually looked like a "shack". I was the the youngest of eight children and my mother actually gave birth to all of us at home. My father had been in a bad wreck while my Mom was pregnant with me and was unable to work. In those days there was no government help and everyone had to fend for themselves. When I was about 18 months old we moved to Sheffield, Ala. to a much nicer house and neighborhood. I was born October 28, 1941, just weeks before the Pearl Harbor bombing, in the coldest part of the year and I can only imagine how hard times must have been with seven children ranging in age from birth to 17. (One of my brothers died of colitis at age 3 several years before I was born. All basic goods were rationed because of WWII and each person received a ration book, even me. When the rationing ended my mother saved the book with the stamps left and today it is one of my prized possessions! The

picture is of my brother Billy and me in front of the house.

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