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1 WAY BACK WHEN: LOOKING BACK IN HISTORYH appenings in the Cookeville area as recorded in the pages of theHerald Citizen Newspaper, Cookeville, Bob McMillian1950 s(Compiled by Audrey J. Lambert) (January 5, 1950) Music lovers of this Upper Cumberland area have got something exciting to lookforward to next week when a young piano team Vera Apple and Michael Field plays at are two wizards of the keyboards who play and think as one, according to a recent review in theNew York World Telegram. They studied together at Julliard, went their own ways, and then met bychance and formed a piano duo. Their concert is the subject of a major page-one story this week other entertainment news, the Central High School Cavaliers will meet Crossville in a basketball gameset to be played in the school s new gymnasium (now Cookeville Junior High).

2 The new gym was part of a $217,000 renovation and expansion of the school. It is larger than the old oneand boasts fold-up bleachers.(January 12, 1950) An advertisement for Citizens Bank reads: There s a tribe in South Africa that requiresa prospective bridegroom to milk a lioness as proof of his bravery. You needn t be brave to open anaccount with us. Our friendly staff makes even widows and orphans feel at ease. (January 19, 1950) Cookeville s Postmaster F. P. Moore says he s seen a lot of changes in postal servicehere since he became postmaster in 1939. That year, postal revenues here totaled $24,913. This year theywere $40,000. In 1939, there were five rural carriers covering 234 miles.

3 Today, there are five carrierscovering 288 miles.(January 26, 1950) Coming to the Victoria Theatre in Algood this week: Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and theFoggy Mountain Boys. With them will be Cedric Rainwater, the South s Funniest Comedian. Admission is 30 and 60 cents.(February 2, 1950) They ve released the Cookeville City School honor roll for the last six weeks. Amongthose who made it are Betty Davis, June Derryberry, Billy Frazier, Patsy Fox, Elizabeth DuBois, JeanBennett, Carole Webb, Douglas Pippin, Henry Frank Carlen and Muriel Cowan.(February 9, 1950) Students at the Brotherton School have organized a 4-H club with help from assistantextension agents A. Q. McDonald and Louise Cox.

4 Officers for the new club are Mac Henry, president;Mildred Benson, vice-president; Betty Jenkins, secretary-treasurer; Doris Moran, song leader; Robert Judd,game leader; Sue Bilbrey, reporter; and Mrs. Edith Brewer, adult leader.(February 16, 1950) The Southern Continental Telephone Co., in what it says it hopes will only atemporary measure, announced this week that it was laying off all but one of its construction crews inTennessee. It can t borrow any more money, the telephone company says, because it is making no profitson its previous capital expenditures.(February 23, 1950) Over at the Buford Motor Co. on West Spring Street, you can buy a new 1950 Hudson,the car with several special innovations.

5 It s called the car with the step-down ride because it has arecessed floor that you step-down into to sit. It also boasts a fluid-cushioned clutch, a weathercontrol and heating and air system and super-cushion tires with the new safety-type wide rims. Thecar also features supermatic drive, which gives you America s best and safest ride. Telephone 306-Wtoday for more information.(March 2, 1950) All large industries here in town are participating this month in a mass X-ray program inan effort to eliminate tuberculosis, the disease of the day. State health officials this week will be bringingtheir portable X-ray machines to Wilson s Sporting Goods, Cookeville Planing Mils, Tennessee HandleCo.

6 , Atlas Boot and other plants.(March 9, 1950) The Marvin A. Bilbrey Singer Sewing Machine center in Algood will convert your old,foot-operated treadle machine to an electric sewing machine for only $25 this week, according to an t be fooled by the competition. Singer stores are the ones with the big S on the door.(March 10, 1950) The Putnam County Chamber of Commerce has created a new Industrial Committee tohelp attract new industry here, create more jobs and fight the trend of people leaving the region for work inthe north.(March 16, 1950) TTU s Golden Eagle football team began spring training this week and on the coachingstaff was a new face, freshman coach George Watts. He s completing his graduate work at Peabody.

7 He splayed at Appalachia State College in Boone, NC and later for the Washington Redskins. He s welcomedto Cookeville in a page-one story.(March 17, 1950) Interest is rising here in attracting new industry to create more jobs and to reverse thetrend of people leaving the region to find jobs in the the Putnam Chamber of Commerce this month created a new Industrial Committee which has as itsgoal landing a new industry here within the next six , in a page one editorial this week, the newspaper says there's a potentially devastating problemdeveloping here that could set back industrial efforts and hurt existing industries -- labor Atlas Boot plant was on the verge of a 25 percent expansion that would have created 150 to 175 newjobs here when labor problems cropped up at the plant.

8 The expansion has now been tossed altogether andthe company says if the troubles aren't resolved, it will shut down here when its lease expires next newspaper says the lack of organized labor is what makes the South attractive to industrial scouts andit notes that Cookeville's workers have repeatedly rejected efforts to unionize here in years editorial says that failure to continue that practice could ruin the fledging campaign to convince newplants to locate here.*Showing this week at the Princess Theater, Leo Gorcey and the Bowery Boys in "Feuding Fools."(March 30, 1950) The newspaper prints a full-page business page each week and this week, it lists anumber of local businesses, including: Hub City Natural Gas Co.

9 On Walnut; the Midway Lunch Room on206 E. 9th St.; Woodbine Dry Goods Store on the Square; W. H. Stamps Key and Battery Shop at 17 ; the J. O. Paris Electric Co.; Thrasher s Dry Cleaners on the Sparta Highway and the Alva HallGrocery at 104 N. Algood man has just seen three continents. He's Ira M. Robbins, a pipe fitter 3rd class in the US on maneuvers in the Mediterranean, his destroyer, the US MacKenzie, dropped anchor forliberty in Italy, Saudi Arabia and at Tripoli on the North African coast.*Looking for a luxury ride? McReynolds-Nash Motors here advertises the 1950 Nash, which has "airlinerreclining seats" that have no less than five "comfort positions." "You've never seen anything like it in anautomobile," boasts the ad.

10 (April 2, 1950) The Tennessee Central has filed papers with the state to drop the Double Springs depot asan agency station. (April 6, 1950) City police say that they ve been getting quite a few complaints from motorists who saythey ve gotten nasty notes from someone upset over their parking at the curb in residentialneighborhoods. The police remind the note writer as well as the general public that it is legal under citycodes to park a the curbside anywhere in the city unless it is specifically prohibited to do so by a postedsign.(April 10, 1950) Don t plan on using the Nashville Road Highway 70 North from Cookeville toNashville during the daytime over the next 60 days.