by Ronald Brantley
The Coffee Breaker
I used to advertise my shop in the Talla-Hi News, and they’d send me a paper. I let the cheerleaders and majorettes paint their ballgame paper banners at my sign shop, across the street from the barbershop. Anywhere that many pretty girls congregate you’ll find boys nearby. I got to know a lot of the teenagers really well. The boys got their hair cut by me, and I enjoyed having them around. A lot of the boys wore flattops in many varieties. This was the days of bands, and there were about three bands that hung-out at my place.
I bought an interest in a restaurant in Carrville where Britt’s Veterinary is now. It was called Tiger Restaurant. That was the days of carhops, jukeboxes, white sport coats, and penny loafers. This was a fun time of ’49 Fords and ’55 Chevys; everything from Studebakers to Hudsons, and the drive-in theatre was full of these cars on the weekend.
Class ring day came; homecoming queens were Lois Cowan, Carole Roye, and Dale Hays. People shopped at Mance’s Dept. Store in East Tallassee Shopping Center, Skinner Furniture, and M & M Shoe Box, to name a few.
Football called on Butch Davis, Andy Baker, Jimmy Dale Goodman and more. The smart ones that year included Louise Whatley, Spencer Morgan, Rebecca Holley, and Mary Gandy. Everyone knew Miss Alice Sims, Miss Mildred Gibson, and Miss Gladys McNair. Everybody loved Alvin McCraney; he was a friend and a teacher to all students.
The six cheerleaders were Amy Bowen, Anna Patterson, Ethel Milner, Carol Harris, Lois Ann Cowan, and Diane Weldon.
A lot of this class died early. A few names that come to mind are Howard Harrison, Dean Golden, Robert Britt, Starr Knowles, Shelby Hornsby, and Dovard Taunton. Back then the student council sponsored some of the dances; to the best of my knowledge the going price for a ticket was ten cents. Think back to the class of ’61-’62—that means at Homecoming the class of ’41–’42 was honored. Now the class of ’61–’62 seems quite a while ago, but there wouldn’t be too many 1941-42 graduates left to read this article.
If you get to read any of the old Talla-Hi papers you’ll notice that our local churches were able to put coming events in the paper. How horrible; that’s almost as bad as leaving God in the Pledge of Allegiance.
When I think back to these days I picture these people at about the same age as they were then. Some years back, a man came into my barbershop; I hadn’t seen him since high school. No one was in the shop except the two of us. Recognizing him, I shook his hand and said “How’re you doing, and what’re you doing?”
“I’m back in town,” he said, “and I decided to go to all the places I enjoyed as a teenager; the places I felt comfortable and at ease in.”
“Well, how’s it been?” I asked.
“A little disappointing,” he answered. “A lot of the places are gone, the people have changed, and the teenagers are no longer teenagers.”
“What about me?” I asked.
He thought for a moment and said, “You’re one of the few things that are the same, older but the same.”
I thanked him and finished cutting his hair.
“I started to give you a flattop,” I told him.
“I don’t have enough hair for a flattop,” he said with a laugh.
Going back is a hard thing to do. I haven’t seen the man since that day, and I wonder if he got closure in what he was doing. Maybe if he or you or anyone reads this article and you lived in 1961, you’ll at least find some enjoyment in what you’ve read.
Ronald Brantley
