PIECES OF OUR PAST - THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - STRANGE DRUGS

 THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - VOL. 72 

HIS APPOINTED ROUNDS - Lloyd Dominy was running his normal rural postal route one day when he noticed a raccoon acting very strangely.  As he approached the animal, it began to attack his vehicle.  Dominy, who had heard of rabid animals in the area, got out of vehicle and killed the tortured animal.   Dominy believed in the postal code that “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”   After his finished his deliveries,  Dominy took the animal to a veterinarian, who confirmed that he was indeed rabid. Atlanta Constitution, February 27, 1970. 

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THAT AGAIN - L. H. Thomas, of Dublin, was an avid basketball fan.  His passion for the sport led to his consternation when basketball officials made inevitable bad calls.  He called upon the sport to use the relatively new technology of “instant replay,” many decades before the process became part of most every pro game.  Thomas, who was way ahead of his time, proposed that a third official be placed in front of a viewing screen to review close calls on fast, hectic plays and consult with the court officials to make the right call.  Atlanta Constitution,  April 24, 1970. 

STRANGE DRUGS - Yes, you read that right.  When pharmacist Harvey Jordan moved to Dublin in 1939, he had a choice for the name of his drug store.  He could have used generic names such as Dublin Pharmacy or Emerald City Drug Company.  In those days, it was the usual practice to place the name of the owner first followed by the words “drugs” or “drug company.”    Harvey joined the crowd and chose the eponymous name for his pharmacy.  For you see, Harvey Jordan was only his first and middle names.  You guessed it.  Harvey’s last name was “Strange,” hence the name of the drug store was “Strange Drugs.”  That name brought no particular attention during his first two decades, but when the 1960s came along, his bright green sign on the front of his store became an iconic promoter of the young people of the 1960s and 1970s.   

DOCTOR-MINISTER - Dr. Leland Moore was a native of Laurens County, Georgia.   Moore graduated from Emory University’s School of Theology.  For more than a half century before retiring in 1961.   A leading Methodist minister of his day, Rev. Moore was the first Methodist minister of the South Georgia Conference to obtain a doctorate degree in Theology.   He died on January 16, 1972.  Atlanta Constitution January 18, 1972. 

  SEEING QUADRUPLE - For most teachers, the first few weeks of the school year present the difficult task of knowing their students name by their faces.  Mrs. Catherine Lawrence, a first grade teacher at Johnson Street School, had a more arduous task.  In her 1972-1973 class, there were two Stuckeys, two Powells, two Jones, and two Tillmans.  The real problem was that Tracy and Stacey Stuckey, Leitha and Teretha Powell, Jerry and Terry Jones, and Keith and Kevin Tillman constituted four sets of identical twins.  This statistical anomaly is extremely rare. Mr. Spock calculated that the odds of have the odds of having four sets an in single classroom at 2020 birth  rates is 12.6 in 1 billion, a figure somewhat higher than it was 55 years ago.  This remarkable  coincidence is most likely is a world record for identical twins in a single class room.  Atlanta Constitution, October 6, 1972. 

THE ANCIENT PREACHER - Rev. J.R. Roberson, who served for 56 years in the ministry, died in September of 1978 at the age of 103.  Dublin Courier Herald, September 18, 1978.

JUMP! - Don Allen, a 21-year old Dublin man,  and Dianne Gilmore, an 18-year-old from Chipley, Florida,  fell in love.  When Don announced his intentions to join the military, Dianne was ready to join with him.  The thing is that Don wanted to become a paratrooper during the peak of the war in Vietnam.  The couple were married by army recruiter.  The fact that Diane was to become only the third female to go the Army’s jump school at Fort Benning was remarkable in itself. Diane grew up looking up  to her old brother.  If she wanted to touch his head, she was have to jump high. For Diane Gilmore’s brother was none other than Artis Gilmore, an seven-foot, two-inch, All-American basketball star at Kentucky and an eleven-time all-star basketball player in the ABA and the NBA, a Most Valuable Player in the ABA, and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.   Atlanta Constitution, December 18, 1973.