Big Events Back Then
Those of you who grew up in towns with more than a thousand residents won’t understand this. Neither will those born after 1965. Small town, Alabama had big events when we were growing up.
At least they were big to us.
The North Alabama State Fair in Florence doesn’t count. That event was off-the -chain special. We worked extra to save enough to go to the fairgrounds in north Florence, every September. The World’s Fair wasn’t any bigger to us. When our little singing group, the In-Betweens, entered and won the talent show in 1968, we thought Ed Sullivan would be calling us next. We finished second in the Mid-South Fair in Memphis.
Back to the “Big” events back in the sixties. Here are a few that were special which come to mind:
Womenless Weddings: One of the fundraisers for the school was a goofy “tongue in cheek” event where all members of the wedding party were men. This was pure comedy as we knew it. Seeing successful men in the school and community dressed as women was funny in itself. Nobody got their feelings hurt and had to go to therapy.
You couldn’t say that the teachers and coaches let their hair down because all of them had flattops. But, seeing the hard-nosed-no-nonsense coaches wearing high heels, dresses and make-up were side splitting. Naturally, the wedding never came off without a hitch with a well ‘meaning family member showing up with a shotgun to contest the nuptials.
Sock Hops: Before the days of DJ’s, we had friends who would show up after a football game in the old gym and play 45’s for dancing. Shoes weren’t allowed on the gym floor, hence the name “sock-hops.” When I was in the 8th grade and told my Dad I wanted to go to the sock hop in the gym after the Russellville football game, he asked me how much it cost. I told him a quarter. His priceless quote: “H*ll. For a quarter, you could buy 2 pairs of socks.”
Times never changed. The boys sat on their hands while the girls danced together to Frankie Valli, Sandra Dee and Bobby Vinton. Finally, some guy got the nerve to ask for a slow dance to Ricky Nelson and he was the talk of the school on Monday. You would have thought it was Sandy and Danny from Grease going steady.
Sadie Hawkins Dance: This event was a spin-off from the comic strip “Lil Abner.” It symbolized girls chasing eligible bachelors for a date or wedlock. In our day, it was a simple time where everyone dressed in hillbilly clothes where the girls asked the guys to the dance. It was a big deal since the girls finally had permission to step out and make the call. When you grow up in a small town where cotton was king, the Sadie Hawkins dress code wasn’t much different than our normal outfits.
Women’s Lib should have a special statue for Sadie Hawkins since she was one of the first to show that all of us are equal.
Halloween Haunted Houses: Many church youth groups sat up haunted houses as a fun time and fund raiser. I can remember our MYF group converting the Sunday School building next door to the Methodist Church. We borrowed a casket from Felton’s Hardware with a real “body” inside. Someone had a Sears chain saw (minus the chain), strobe lights, taped screams and another room reserved for the witches.
The house had very few rules except to scare kids to tears. Often, it was the moms who ended up in tears. The teenagers left there and headed downtown for the harmless pranks of soaping windows and moving cotton wagons. Since October was cotton-picking time, cotton wagons were all over Leighton. One would be selected to be pushed to the high school, disassembled, and lifted up on the ledge at the high school to be put back together. All for the next day shock at school.
Mr. Newman, the principal, usually knew who did it and was called in the office, told to take it down and take it back to either Hughes, Fennel or Uhlman Gin. No punishment. Just part of growing up in small town, USA.
Annual Rodeo: In late March, as soon as spring training football was over, the football field was plowed and converted into a rodeo arena. Preston Fowlkes Rodeo from middle Tennessee, brought his rodeo production team to Colbert County High School. It was a full weekend event, including a rodeo parade through town.
The largest chicken stew cooking my Dad ever led was at the rodeo. He had 3 cast iron pots (two 30 gallons and one 20 gallon) for a total of 80 gallons. That’s a bunch of stew. It sold out right after lunch. In those days, it sold for $1 a quart/ $4 a gallon. There are infamous stories about cowboys from Texas, buying jars from Felton Supply to take some with them on the road.
Friday Night Football: This wasn’t unique to Leighton, it’s just that Leighton perfected it. The gates opened at 5 for a 7 pm kickoff. The stands were full by 5:45 and you were left standing around the fence if you didn’t get there early, When CCHS played Russellville, Deshler, Sheffield, Muscle Shoals or Cherokee, the standing room only was at least two-deep. There was a picture in the Times-Daily of the fence collapsing due to fans leaning on it to see the game better.
Everything about Leighton revolved around football games. The band, cheerleaders, students, alumni, and fans. Everybody was on the team, not just the players.
If you weren’t at the game, neighbors called the police to see if you were dead. The only problem? The cops were all at the game. Pep rallies, parades, pregame meals and the Indian tradition was in your DNA. And remains there.
The players that survived football camp remain part of a brotherhood that could never be replaced.
Big events in small towns.
Nothing was bigger.