tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41684420677213608282011-11-08T20:28:54.153-06:00Growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi in the 50's and 60'sJohn Nailnoreply@blogger.comBlogger411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-72863727775448554732009-08-23T17:30:00.007-05:002009-08-24T08:42:59.815-05:00

Imagine telling someone in the 1950s that we would one day hang flat-screen television sets (color, of course) on the wall. Such an idea would have been totally incomprehensible in an era when televisions were huge console models, built to accommodate picture tubes that were two and a half feet in length. And of course, they were almost all black and white..Unlike modern televisions with buttons

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-54596972167106832612009-07-18T12:30:00.006-05:002009-07-18T12:46:51.323-05:00

A red Volkswagen Beetle similar to the one in the following storyWhen I was growing up automatic transmissions were pretty common, but from time to time my dad would buy a car with a manual transmission. I remember sitting in the backseat when my dad tried to teach my older siblings how to drive a straight shift. That old car bucked like an unbroken

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-82867891472291788852009-07-03T20:30:00.006-05:002009-07-03T22:40:26.146-05:00

"Apples with rosy cheeks grow in September.Also the golden rod so tall and slender…"These were the opening lines, and really all I remember, of a song we learned in public school music. Our teacher was the young and lovely Miss Betty Duvall who made everyone want to learn, just to please her. Joyner shared Miss Duvall with the other elementary schools, so we only had music about once a week. We

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-80207237971754363232009-07-03T12:47:00.006-05:002009-07-03T12:56:31.854-05:00

Step outside after dark this time of year in the deep South and you will be greeted by a wall of heat and humidity. I walked out of the air conditioned comfort of the house the other night and my bifocals fogged over, blinding me enough that I paid attention to the sounds of a Mississippi summer night. On a low and nearby level, I heard crickets rubbing their hind legs together or whatever it is

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-6591741491757166962009-06-28T14:32:00.003-05:002009-06-28T14:48:39.214-05:00

I remember like it was yesterday standing in line in the lunchroom at Joyner. While most of my classmates had a lunch ticket in their hands, I always had a quarter. My mother never wanted to pay for lunches in advance on Monday morning. Mrs. Tucker, the lunchroom manager, stood halfway down the north wall, waiting to take our tickets – or quarters. I always asked Mrs. Tucker what we were having,

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-6617828171592431222009-06-18T21:15:00.004-05:002009-06-19T06:19:56.969-05:00

I’ve been wearing bifocals for years, and I’ve never had the first problem adapting to them. Lots of folks do, however. For many it is a nuisance to have to think about which lens to look through: nearsighted correction or farsighted correction. My eyes are so bad that they naturally seek out the right correction..What do you see when you look at this picture of Mrs. Megginson’s 1957 morning

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-37113462693787002042009-06-18T20:41:00.007-05:002009-06-20T09:48:58.822-05:00

Entry No. 18 on Fair Day mentioned the memorable Long's Laundry sign on the corner of Main Street and the little street that led to the fairgrounds years ago. After dark this neon sign was a thing of beauty as the washerwoman's arms moved back and forth, scrubbing her clothes on the washboard propped inside her washtub. .I assume the sign came down when the laundry closed. The building was one of

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-78071045144260622952009-06-15T07:12:00.005-05:002009-06-15T09:24:47.971-05:00

A fifth grade was added at Joyner after my class completed the fourth grade. Prior to that time, Joyner students moved on to Milam Junior High for the fifth grade. We were saddened by not getting to move on to Milam, but we did have the opportunity to be the big kids at Joyner for two years. That meant that we got to serve two years in those important jobs that were reserved for the oldest and

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-15720534599236689852009-06-05T17:45:00.004-05:002009-06-05T17:54:15.142-05:00

The Enemy .I remember my dad coming home from work in the middle of the day once in the early 1960s. It had to have been in the summer because I was at home. After he quickly changed clothes, he asked if I wanted to go with him to the co-op. Now I might have heard of a co-op, but I’d certainly never been there, and I’m not sure he had either. Nevertheless, I always enjoyed it when he asked me

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-24557627896269089272009-06-01T21:32:00.016-05:002009-06-10T13:21:40.248-05:00

Did you ever make one of these woven gum wrapper chains? They were a pretty big item in Tupelo at least once or twice that I remember. Of course ours were usually made with Wrigley flavors -- Juicy Fruit, Spearmint, and Doublemint. If you were going to make a really long chain, you had to chew a lot of gum, or you had to have a lot of friends who didn't know how to make a chain. They were

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-44115926999461495412009-05-31T16:02:00.004-05:002009-06-01T17:13:03.140-05:00

“Not-it...Not-it... Not-it...”.Almost before we got out of the door at recess, we sang out the ritual start of our games of chase. It may have been “tag” to most of the rest of the world, but to us it was “chase.”.“I called not-it.”.“No, you didn’t.”.And on and on it went until someone accepted the fact that he was indeed “it.”.”Only one person ‘on base’ at a time” and other rules were subject to

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-72121572201398004182009-05-23T17:52:00.009-05:002009-05-31T14:45:43.481-05:00

Polio had been around a long time before we were born. A serious outbreak occurred in 1950, however, followed by an even more serious outbreak in 1952. For years the March of Dimes had funded research for a vaccine that would eradicate this plague of childhood. Finally in 1955, Jonas Salk announced a vaccine that he believed would do just that, and children all over the country began to be

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-11413500381026105982009-05-23T13:28:00.003-05:002009-05-27T13:42:44.587-05:00

Learning to write has never been easy. It all began for my generation with having the right supplies. Little fingers have to learn to manipulate a pencil, a skill that is apparently unnatural. First graders were supposed to overcome this unnaturalness with oversized pencils the size of a grown man’s index finger. The other necessary supply item was lined tablet paper. In the first grade, our

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-80252625315150845202009-05-16T17:34:00.005-05:002009-05-16T17:55:26.724-05:00

The ice house isn't much to look at now, but then it never did look as special as it was.Today we buy our ice in plastic bags at convenience stores all over town. Back in the day, Tupelo residents visited the ice house on the south end of Broadway and bought ice in double-walled brown paper bags. The ice house crew used huge tongs to drop blocks of ice into the crusher. The crushed ice emptied

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-15302326058071264772009-05-16T12:00:00.012-05:002009-05-16T14:30:28.562-05:00

When I found this April 1965 hit chart on EBay the other day, it led to some serious eye strain and some research to figure out the Top 10 on this random date. First of all, notice the DJs pictured on the left. I can make out Charlie Brewer, Wayne Coleman, and Dave Hall. Maybe someone else will recognize some of the others. Nevertheless, let's countdown the hits:Coming in at No. 10, Gary Lewis

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-91374548885948201072009-05-15T08:48:00.014-05:002009-05-16T17:59:41.227-05:00

This picture reminds me of the Coke machine at the barber shop where I went for hair cuts as a child. The Broadway Barbershop had a machine like this one that dispensed 6 ½ ounce bottles of Coke for 6 cents. Deposit a nickel and a penny, turn the crank, and a classic green, contoured glass bottle tumbled noisily down the innards of the machine to the little knee-level door below. The purchaser

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-65223957472006460242009-05-10T15:22:00.000-05:002009-05-10T15:45:06.528-05:00

These days many people are foregoing land-line telephones in their homes in favor of cell phones. Think about how far we've come. Before there were answerring machines, before there were portable phones, before push-button phones, before phones even came in colors, all phones were black and had to be dialed. You didn't buy them, you rented them from the telephone company -- Southern Bell. If

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-69436111300986187822009-05-10T14:25:00.000-05:002009-05-10T15:16:40.275-05:00

In the days before skyrocketing oil prices made consumers decide to pump their own gasoline, gas stations were known as service stations. You could pull into a service station, roll your window down, and ask the owner or his teenage surrogate to "Fill 'er up." While he was filling your tank, he would clean your windshield, offer to check under your hood, and check the pressure in your tires. When

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-39792659613119167042009-05-09T08:21:00.001-05:002009-05-11T08:46:49.889-05:00

1960 Topps Baseball CardsBaseball cards are a big business today for serious (way too serious) adult collectors. In my childhood, however, they were a wonderful diversion for little boys. They provided hours of fun debating whether a Mays was better than a Mantle or how to pronounce Yastrzemski. And we learned useful bargaining skills trading “doubles” or “unknowns.” These trading sessions could

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-8117812452219299332009-05-03T18:19:00.000-05:002009-05-10T14:14:45.578-05:00

We were children of the Cold War.One of the memorable impacts of historical events on our generation was the appearance around Tupelo of “fallout shelters” during the early 60s in response to a wide-spread concern about the build-up of Soviet nuclear capacity. I remember seeing signs like this one at Milam where the school’s basement became a Civil Defense fallout shelter. Somehow the tension of

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-4291454082634154462009-04-17T23:00:00.001-05:002009-05-10T14:14:15.442-05:00

Children of the 50s and 60s, in Tupelo and elsewhere, learned to read with Dick and Jane. They were the stars of the Scott, Foresman basal readers of that era, with a supporting cast that included their baby sister Sally, their dog Spot, their cat Puff, and Sally’s teddy bear Tim. Mother and Father appeared in cameo roles.We learned by reading such exciting sentences as: “See Jane. See Jane run.”

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-62045386245252599932009-04-17T21:54:00.000-05:002009-05-10T14:13:55.660-05:00

"a-Good Eeevening. I am Sivad, your Monster of Ceremonies"In the 1960's Sivad began appearing on WHBQ-Memphis as the host of Fantastic Features, a late night (Saturday, I think) showing of old B movies of the "horror" genre. Tupelo adolescents of this era spent a lot of time discussing the most recent Feature, assuring one another that it wasn't all that scary, and laughing about how hokey Sivad

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-63227589306459635572009-04-13T22:09:00.001-05:002009-05-10T15:19:51.027-05:00

Did you ever have one of these? In the low-tech era that was my childhood, when the people who would later invent video games were still children just like I was, every boy had to have one -- an electric football game. The fascination with this quaint marvel was a sort of precursor of the gadget fever that strikes some of us these days. Maybe you saw one of these in an ad and imagined hours of

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-65969955672603357912009-04-09T20:42:00.005-05:002009-05-16T17:52:10.436-05:00

Children enjoying a game of chance at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show.Every year in mid-September, schools in Tupelo and Lee County dismissed for Fair Day. Children who marched in the fair parade were admitted free of charge to the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. The Fair was a big event in Tupelo in my childhood and youth. Downtown stores gave away tickets for chances on

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-75335666793547261512009-04-03T22:16:00.000-05:002009-05-10T14:13:01.776-05:00

Until it was replaced by the pool at City Park on Joyner, this was THE pool in Tupelo. It was located on Madison, behind Church Street School and just south of Robins Field. Swimmers entered through a white clapboard bathhouse, guys to the left and girls to the right. Everyone was supposed to shower before leaving the bathhouse, but the water was cold and often avoided. What you couldn't avoid

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-49956731242715108772009-04-03T18:44:00.000-05:002009-05-10T14:12:30.907-05:00

Do you remember "test patterns"? These days television stations, and particularly cable channels, are 24-hour operations. But when television first arrived in Tupelo in 1957 in the form of WTWV, most stations ended their broadcast day at midnight and didn't resume until something like 7:00 am. If you fell asleep watching The Late Show, you woke up to the test pattern. Young children were known to

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-35789835216560635122009-03-30T13:13:00.000-05:002009-05-10T14:12:01.720-05:00

In the mid-1960s Tupelo went absolutely crazy over high school basketball. In that era the Mississippi High School Activities Association divided high schools into 4 classifications: AA, A, BB, and B. State basketball champions in each classification met in the Grand Slam Tournament in Jackson. While Tupelo High School had won AA championships before, the 1964-1965 team was the first to win the

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-37679466418095773382009-03-04T17:22:00.000-06:002009-05-10T14:11:39.212-05:00

Graduates of Tupelo High School found on the Web include:Bryan Hawkins, Class of 1970, hasn't left Tupelo, but he's come a long way. He's the founder and president of Hawkeye Industries, "one of the most technologically advanced contract sheet metal fabrication companies in the South."http://www.hawkeye.ws/http://imagestupelo.com/index.php/site/articles/business/

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-71217895308849018922009-02-28T19:17:00.001-06:002009-05-10T14:11:11.954-05:00

Milam Coaches: Jerry Clayton, Bubba Thompson, and Walker WoodJerry Clayton was the head basketball coach at Milam until he succeeded Kermit Davis as the basketball coach at the high school. Davis left to become the head basketball coach at Mississippi State after winning back-to-back Grand Slam titles in 1965 and 1966 (I think). Clayton left coaching a year or two later when he was elected Lee

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-38011993235237096882009-02-28T13:37:00.001-06:002009-05-10T14:10:49.358-05:00

Built originally as an "opera house" for use by traveling vaudeville acts and other entertainers, the Lyric is now the home of Tupelo Community Theatre. But in my day, it was a grand movie theater. As young children we sometimes went there on Saturdays for matinees that lasted all afternoon. Later on it was the primary destination for dating couples. It seems strange to think of it now, but in

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-45523201821011291092009-02-28T13:02:00.000-06:002009-05-10T14:10:28.428-05:00

Some will remember this Tupelo landmark better than I do. I'm not sure I ever ate there, but people always talked about Dudies Diner, Home of the Dudie-Burger. I believe it may have been at one time a Memphis trolley car that was moved to Tupelo to become a diner. In my memory, it was parked just south of Crosstown on the east side of Gloster. Dudies Diner has been restored and is now found at

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-6976767609521139432009-02-28T09:00:00.001-06:002009-05-10T14:09:41.188-05:00

In the early 1960s, Tupelo and Lee County students began to experience what is now known as "distance learning." Today's distance learning is via the Internet. In our day, the innovation was "educational television." Channel 9 (WTWV, now known as WTVA) in Tupelo began broadcasting educational programming during the school day at the request of Tupelo school superintendent Charles Holliday. Some

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-45335242655278600342009-02-27T22:08:00.000-06:002009-05-10T14:09:14.049-05:00

(Photo courtesy of S. Byrd)The 1968 Tupelo High School Band is pictured above with their director Jim Scott. As I look at the faces in that picture, it seems the band would have been very small indeed had it not been for the sophomore class.Did you ever wonder why the band wore red and blue uniforms when the school colors were blue and gold? I think I remember someone telling me years ago that

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-496555664479826332009-02-23T21:25:00.000-06:002009-05-10T14:08:45.192-05:00

This 1968 newspaper photo shows D. Adams, J. Reed, Coach Purvis, D. Cruse, and B. Worthen. Coach Purvis came to Tupelo along with Coach Cheney and other staffmembers Coach Waite, and Coach Thompson in the late 1960s. They brought option football, isometric exercise, and wrestling mats to Tupelo. The football uniforms in the late 60s were a washed out yellow and the white helmets had a large T on

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-5498306746325156532009-01-19T19:05:00.004-06:002009-05-21T18:46:13.290-05:00

The Hotel Tupelo was THE hotel in Tupelo in the 50s and 60s (and before). All the civic clubs met there and formal events were held there. It was the only place in Tupelo with an elevator until the new four-story federal building that housed the post office was built in the 60s. The THS Key Club met at the Hotel Tupelo when I was in high school. I remember one meeting when one of our members

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-37579995085657138822009-01-19T19:04:00.002-06:002009-06-02T08:57:52.016-05:00

Back in the day, the Tupelo High School Band led the way for each year's Homecoming Parade through Downtown Tupelo. (They still do.) Each class constructed a float by covering someone's truck with a chicken wire frame stuffed with toilet paper. I remember working on our sophomore float at the Coca Cola Bottling Plant.High School students met for pep rallies in the gym on the afternoon of home

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-43109811272186693952009-01-19T19:03:00.003-06:002009-05-21T18:35:02.120-05:00

McGaughy's, a women's department store, was one of many retail establishments in downtown Tupelo when my generation was growing up. Other women's stores included Westbrook's, Pryor's and several others that came and went during my childhood. Men shopped at MLM and Hinds Brothers and of course, Reed's and Black's were department stores for the entire family. As a child, Woolworth's and Ben

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-70565213239083691952009-01-19T19:00:00.001-06:002009-05-16T18:26:48.278-05:00

Tupelo High School moved to this site on Varsity Drive on the north end of Lee Acres in 1961. This early picture dates to the time when my generation was in high school and shows just how sparsely developed the area still was in the late 60s. The Civic Auditorium had been added by our time at the high school.Before we were in the 10th grade, they removed the permanent walls between some of the

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-80437491628184547452009-01-11T11:59:00.000-06:002009-05-10T14:06:15.951-05:00

This old postcard shows Tupelo High School and Milam Junior High School in the 50s. By the early 60s, the "new" high school was constructed in the north end of Lee Acres on Varsity Drive, allowing the junior high to expand into both of these buildings. By the time I arrived at Milam, the transition was complete. The sixth and seventh grades were housed in the old junior high building (left side

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-85810882928109104442009-01-11T11:43:00.000-06:002009-05-10T14:05:32.144-05:00

Church Street Elementary was one of only four elementary schools in Tupelo when I was a child -- the others being Joyner, Rankin, and Lawhon. Joyner was my alma mater. When I started there, Joyner went through the fourth grade, but a fifth grade was added before I was that old. Mary Frances Beard (Miss Mary) was our principal. Looking back, I remember her fondly. At the time, however, she seemed

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4168442067721360828.post-13892594307429669512009-01-11T11:05:00.000-06:002009-05-11T08:57:18.692-05:00

Many of my generation began their lives in Tupelo at the Tupelo Community Hospital which looked as it was pictured in this postcard from the 1950s. You'd never recognize the place nowadays. The structure shown above is now completely enclosed (but still existing, I think) within a series of more modern building additions that have taken place through the years. It is one huge place now, and

John Nailnoreply@blogger.com1