Page From 1955 Diaty Gtyes Preview of Seniors’ Future
Dear Diary,
Last night was rainy. I—a gay old
bachelor who wasn’t that way on pur
pose—not having anything else to do,
decided to take in a movie. Naturally I
had to do my bit of house cleaning before
I went, not being able to as yet afford
a house boy. As my hands sank into the
velvety white suds of the Ivory (and
greasy dishes), I wished I could meet up
with Mary Eleanor Taylor, Rebecca Col
lins, Elizabeth Gophert, or Gaynell Odom,
who all had had the ambition to get
married. I wish that I were satisfied to
remain single as does the well-to-do
bachelor. Dr. Benton.
As I unfolded the paper left by the
carrier, George Stenhouse, Jr., the farm
er’s son, I saw that he had left a note
for me to be sure to pay my bill or he
would have to go to his lawyer, Tom
Parker, for collection. Upon opening
the pages I saw that he had left the
wrong paper, The Longest Gossip Sheet.
Then I noticed that Hilda had hired
Sally Sanborn and Dolores West to sup
ply the dirt. The headlines screamed
out that Letha Carter was getting rid of
her tenth husband on the charge of
mental cruelty. Then, down in the left
hand corner, I saw a little statement
that the war was still going on with
Benito running harder than ever to get
away from the U. S. airmen, Robert
Rountree and Donald Herring, the fam
ous transport pilots who had been draft
ed. The army had added on air stew
ardesses to the army planes and Virginia
Stith, Gertrude Sandford, and Virginia
Strickland had gotten the first appoint
ments. Hitler was playing hide-and-
seek down in the South Sea Islands with
Admiral of the Navy, Tom Dameron, and
his men, Charlie Wiggins, Clyde Swin-
son. Bill Triplett, Burgess Radford and
Claud Rutledge. I was surprised to see a
newspaper praising the work of radio
commentator, Luke Montz, and engineer,
Billy Brown, for their excellent coverage
of the recent floods. Up on the second
page I saw a picture of John Holmes,
furnished by courtesy of Life photo
grapher, William Futrelle, saying that
he had gotten six lessons from Adam
Lazonga. These famous models, Betty
Michaux and Ellen Lee Lovelace, said
that he’s easily Adam’s equal in wooing
Dog Patch style.
When looking at the advertisements,
I saw that I could get a facial at Majorie
Smith’s beauty salon which would just
tear the lines right out of my face, as
it would be administered by Julia Thomp
son, Jeanne Denmark, Ellen Summerlin
Smith, or Shirley Holland. The rival
beauty shop across the street, owned by
Miss Alice Toler, said it would tear
around to give you prompt service and
that the famous hair dresser, Louise Mc
Dowell, and beautitian, Christine Smith,
would make you look as you had never
looked before. Alma Prince and Samuel
Bass, rival florists said “to say it with
better flowers.” At last I came to the
entertainment section and found that Wil
liam Wallace announced the open
ing of his new Underjippers Theatre
with a double feature. I knew that I
couldn’t afford the Dizzy nightclub, run
by that playboy, Izzy Ormond, whose
many girls were managed by John Ro
berts (he got the needed experience
with his “femmes” (plural) in high
school.) Like James Jeffreys, who has
amassed a fortune in real estate, I was
all for saving my kail; so I dashed out
the front door to hail a bus.
On the way down town I passed
Andrew Smith’s new wholesale grocery
and saw him out front being pestered by
Bob Mooring, who is the best implement
salesman in the world; and can he wear
you down, Thomas Thigpen’s picture
was plastered in front of the Navy re
cruiting station as the sailor who had
really seen the world; and it had caught
the attention of J. B. Garris, the traveling
salesman, who is beginning to want to
travel out of the U.S.A. In the slums
district, on one of her errands of mercy
as a social worker, Bertha Shaver was
instructing some men how to take furni
ture (which I hope had been purchased
from John Little) into a tenement. I
also passed the respective offices of the
opthalmologists, John Faison and Henry
Stenhouse. When we stopped at the
hospital corner crowds of nurses piled
in. Among them were some of my old
classmates, Hilda Smith, Lula Mae Van
Hoyt, Ethel Massey, Kathleen Grimes,
Elizabeth Willis, Mabel Selby and Grace
Jennette. Feeling the need for some
cheery songs, to the discomfort of the
other passengers, they blended (?) their
voices to one of the nation’s latest song
hits, which had been written for Tommy
Dorsey by Bobbie Helms. Thankful that
I could see the theatre’s light, I piled
out and nearly bumped into a lamppost.
I was thinking up some choice expletives
when Robert Denmark, the best highway
patrolman in the state, nearly ran me
down.
Strange to say, I safely arrived in the
lobby and was buying my ticket from
that mathematical genius (ask Mr. Free
man if he’s still tottering around), Kath
leen Davis, when I saw Norwood Rouse
arrive with about 20 telephones he had
just sold to that manager (they were
Southern Bell Norwood said to tell you.)
I had heard that he was “that” way about
a certain telephone operator. I knew
though it couldn’t be Hilda Jennette, Doris
Mae Benton, or Virginia Rose, as they
were still going with their “steadies.”
When I opened the door of the theatre
I saw the Wallace touch as six beautiful
girl ushers were inside in formation,
and shorts, ruled by their captain, Martha
Zealey. She looked hard at them and I
smiled my beautiful smile to persuade
someone to help me to a seat, but would
you believe it? Not a one of the group,
composed of Evelyn Ginn, Helen Rogers,
Betsy Modlin, Hortense Liles, Juanita
Buck, and Mable James, would help me
—until the manager came walking in.i
It was an awful humiliation a few min-^
utes later to see them all fight to escort
the big league ball players, Vernon Sou
therland and Willie Rogers who came-
with their coaches Russell Nickens and
David McCormick. There wasn’t quite
so big a fuss over the famous football
coaches, Thomas Edgerton and Shoeball
McClenny, but I guess that was because
football was out of season. It being"
Sunday night and not quite 9:00, the
movies had not yet begun, which gave me
time to look around. I saw two teachers
from the high school, Edith Massengill
and Elizabeth Mayo, and I wondered if
they had succeeded in becoming like
their ideals, Mrs. White and Mr. Free
man respectively. I remember thinking
that Lillian Jenkins, the interior decora
tor, had done herself proud with this-
theatre, and Buddy Crone’s commercial
art pictures drawn all over the walls as
an oddity weren’t half bad! I heard
some beautiful music, transcribed of
course, with Dot Harris’ orchestra. The
warblers were Annie Mae Duke, Gwen
Malpass, Marjorie James, Evelyn Den
ning, Thomas Bland, and George Wil
liams. A recording by Susan Mooring,
metropolitan opera singer, brought down
the house. The audience began to get
restless and wonder if anything wa&
wrong after waiting about a half-hour for
the picture to begin, but they were calm
ed by the electrician, Ray Carr, who said
there was a little trouble but that the
machine would be fixed in just a minute.
When the news reel finally began I
received quite a shock to see that it had
been filmed by Norris Sutton. Approxi
mately the whole thing was on national
defense, and among the government
workers in Washington I recognized
Doris Wilson, Minnie Stith, Christine
Quinn, Margaret Waters, Ida Bell Ben
ton, and Olivia Shumate. I knew that
Deane Powell and Shirley Lancaster were
stenographers in Washington, but I
wasn’t sure whether it was they I saw
in the government office or not. Speeches
were given by three skilled laborers
Spencer Rackley, Royal Typewriter re
pairman; Lenwood Benton, ship fitter;
and Billy Spiron, naval machinist; on
how many more men were needed to;
work with their hands. Special recogni
tion was given Raymond Bradshaw, the
contractor, for his splendid record on
army construction jobs. Three army
physical ed teachers, Elizabeth Hawley,
Dorothy Grant, and Hope Pate, stated
that the U. S. as a whole still needed to
watch their vitamin “P’s and Q’s.” The
next scene showed a great tragedy which
had struck the city. The large 5 & 10
owned by Buddy Boykin and managed
by Walter Jackson had caught fire and
burned completely up. Shelton Elks,
one of the directors of the board, said
that a great deal of help in caring for the
injured had been given by James Ken-
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