A look back

By By Dr. Bill Stewart
July 31, 1958-Roy Groover is working as a summer trainee in the Chemstrand Company’s research and development center.
July 31, 1958—Mayor John Burleson was in Huntsville tonight to attend a farewell banquet for Maj. Gen. H. N. Toftoy, retiring commander of Redstone Arsenal. Redstone has, in the last few years, become the lifeblood of this area’s economy.
Aug. 1, 1958-Mary and Joe Denison starred tonight in the first play to be put on by the new Hartselle Players group. The farce is entitled “Pure as the Driven Snow.”
Aug. 1, 1958-Hal Butler returned today from Fort Benning, Ga., where he attended a six-week ROTC camp.
Aug. 1, 1958-Most economists feel that the current recession is bottoming out and should be over before too much longer. This is good news to those who are currently jobless and to those who have work but have had their hours cut back.
Aug. 2, 1958-Stone Lumber Co. and Hugh F. Penn Lumber Co. announce that they will be closed this afternoon and all future Saturday afternoons.
Aug. 2, 1958-Mr. and Mrs. Herman McKee and daughters, Alma, Betty and Judy, are currently enjoying a seven weeks’ vacation in Old Mexico.
Aug. 2, 1958-Robert Carlton Francis Jr., has been awarded a prestigious U.S. Steel fellowship for the ‘58-’59 school year. The good news for the outstanding Hartselle young man was contained in a press release from Auburn President Ralph B. Draughon.
Aug. 2, 1958-Coach Herman Myers is rejoining the MCHS faculty effective with the soon to start 1958-59 school year
Aug. 3, 1958-Mr. and Mrs. Cline Thompson and children, Carol and Glenn, are in Auburn today visiting their son Joe who has been attending summer classes there.
Aug. 4, 1958-If Morgan County residents who reside in the now unincorporated area of revenue district four come into the city, they need to be aware of the fact that they will be paying a 5-mill higher property tax than they now do. This authoritative view was expressed by county Tax Assessor J. T. Burch. This whole matter is still in its early stages of discussion.
Aug. 4, 1958-Betty Palmer returned to Hartselle tonight from a two-week tour of several European countries and a visit to the World’s Fair at Brussels.
Aug. 5, 1958-Morgan County farmers who harvest more cotton this year than they were allowed to by law will pay a 19.3-cent penalty per pound.
Aug. 5, 1958-Hartselle’s Mitchell Industries currently has a payroll of 60 workers and is ranked among the leading manufacturers of stage curtains and equipment. The local firm also makes church furnishings.
Aug. 5, 1958-Falkville’s Mars Theatre has been closed permanently by its owner R. D. Gibbons. Too many people are glued to their television sets and not going to the movies.
Aug. 6, 1958-Joy Sue Gibson and Craig Rausa have about two more weeks left in their seond-term summer school studies at UA.
Aug. 6, 1958-Hartselle builder Virgil Bailey has two new homes about completed on Nelson Street. He expects the final cost of each project to be bout $6,000. W. R. Patterson is nearly finished with a three-bedroom home at 521 East Hickory Street valued at about the same amount.
Aug. 6, 1958-James Ledbetter, towering 6 feet, 8 inches, center of the 1958 MCHS basketball Tigers, was signed today to a four-year scholarship at UA today.
Aug. 6, 1958-As a result of the recent successful revolt in Iraq, it is now feared that the young King Hussein’s Jordanian throne is also threatened. This is the opinion of. U.S. Sen. John Sparkman.