THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - VOL. 96

 THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - VOL. 96

  

 THE FIRST ENERGY CRISIS - Those who drove cars before 1973 were used to paying a quarter or so for a gallon of gas.  During the energy crisis of 1973-4, gasoline prices doubled.  In the first week of August in 1979, gasoline prices topped the $1.00 mark for the first time in Laurens County. Dublin Courier Herald, Aug. 3, 1979.

    TIED FOR FIRST - The firstborn child of 1928 was Robert Benson Floyd and his twin brother John Barkwell Floyd, sons of Mr. And Mrs. Ivey Floyd of the Lowery District. Macon Telegraph, January 13, 1928.

    PROUD PAPA OF TWO DOZEN - R.W. Josey, of Laurens County, was known far and wide as the father of many children, twenty-four to be exact. The farmer was married twice.  Eleven children were born to his first wife Mary Elizabeth Jackson and a lucky thirteen to his second wife, Lucinda Ellen Ivey.  Josey fathered 11 boys and 13 daughters.  In July 1911, Josey got some news.  You guessed it, Number 25 was on the way. George became the 26th child in 1914.  Josey died in 1924.  Charlotte NC News, July 14, 1911. Ancestry.com 

    ARMY TRAINING SIR! - Lloyd Alexander, a Dublin, Georgia R.O.T.C. cadet at the University of Georgia, and his buddy, Robert Holleman, were a part of an armor training company in the late 1940s.  One day, the duo decided that they needed more practice in driving the company’s tank.   The trouble was that they were not in class.  So the Sigma Nu fraternity brothers serapticiously entered a building where the tank was parked and began driving it, just as they were taught.  It wasn’t long before the dynamic duo were spotted by Athens police.  A wild chase ensued.

    The chase of the twenty-ton armored vehicle came to end when the tank cut across a field and overturned in a creek.  Uninjured, the twenty-year-old boys, climbed out of the burning sixty-thousand-dollar, tank and jumped into the water in an attempt to hide.  After their bobbing heads were spotted,  the fleeing fellows surrendered to six swarming officers hot on their trail.  Alexander, when questioned about his motive, told officers that he needed more practice in driving a tank.  The prank resulted in Federal charges against the boys for destroying government property.  Atlanta Constitution, April 28, 1949, Florence, SC Morning News, April 28, 1949. 

    DUBLIN SAILOR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COLD WAR - Tensions between the United States, Cuba, and the U.S.S.R. remained high in the months following the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.  A motor vessel known as “The Floridian” was plying in international waters thirty miles off the coast of Cuba on the evening of  March 28, 1963.  Two Soviet MIGs opened fire on the ship. Cuban leader Fidel Castro was seeking retaliation for Cuban refugee attacks on his country.  The freighter was carrying a cargo of pineapples, sugar, and rum from Puerto Rico when the MIGs confronted her.  One of the crew members onboard “The Floridian” was J.B. White, whose address was given as 303 ½ West Moore Street, Dublin, Georgia. Dublin Courier Herald, March 29, 1963.

    ON GUITAR, TEX MILLER -   James “Tex”  Miller, a retired guitar player who once lived in Dublin, became the lead guitarist for the Country Music legend, Ernest Tubbs, when Tubb’s regular guitarist left for duty in World War II.  After the war, Miller went to Hollywood to join the band of Spade Cooley, who combined the popular “big band” and “country western” sounds.  After losing his eyesight in 1946 in an explosion, Miller spent most of his time in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Dublin, Georgia. Knoxville News, December 18, 1977. 

    I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME - Jane Sublett had thought of coming to see her brother, James, who was a commercial teacher at Dexter High School.  Her brother met her at the bus station.  On the way to his home in Dexter, his car slid into a ditch, blackening both of Miss Sublett’s eyes.   Undaunted, Miss Sublet accepted the invitation to a group of her brother’s friends.  As they were driving to McRae, Miss Jane and the other occupants of Dexter pharmacist W.G. Smith were badly shaken when Smith’s car overturned.  Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1941.