FOND MEMORIES, is about anything you would like to share with us about Beatrice. Send your stories & memories to: Biged60@webtv.net so they can be added to this page.
[1] I have many Fond Memories of growing up in Beatrice,Al. Here is a list of some of them:
Going to Cat Thompson's "Starlight Drive Inn Movie Theater
Going Skinny Dipping in Robinson Creek
A bunch of us Sitting on the Stone Wall in the middle of town on a Sunday afternoon waiting for the first person to show up with a car. We would all jump in and GO! We didn't care where, Just GO!
Hanging out at the Tennis Court at night
April Showers Day. All that Bar-B-Que & Stew.
Brenton Harris sure knew how to cook.
Sock Hops in the GymParties
More Parties
Late night Drag Races ( Dick Wall you should remember these ) Dick, do you remember the time that I picked you up on a Saturday afternoon to go to Monroeville, but instead we slipped off and went to Montgomery to the Stock Car Races.
The car broke down on the way back, and we had to hitch-hike. Along came John Morris Stallworth and picked us up. Boy! did he drive slow. We didn't get home till the sun came up.
Dennis Stallworth, do you remember the nights you would slip out in the middle of the night and take that big black Buick Roadmaster on a fast road trip to OLD Texas?
Do you remember us painting your old jeep Black and writing STUD RANCH on the side of it?
Guess I had better stop
before I say too much. Times were a lot better back then. All the guys owned hunting rifles and shot guns, but they didn't,t take them to school and kill their classmates. I left out the juicy parts about growing up in Beatrice. Lynda told me to be nice.
It was great growing up in the 50's.
Edward ( Big Ed ) Wiggins
[2] Yes, my father, John Morris Stallworth did drive slow. As a teenager getting into, "the aimlessly driving around thing", he wanted me to drive slow too. He is the only person I ever heard of who intentionally took his car into the service shop and had the tires mounted slightly off balance.
He told me when I felt the car began to vibrate at about 45mph I would know I was going too fast.
He stopped doing that when I told him after you get past 80mph it leveled out and rode smooth again! Poor man almost had a stroke!
I loved him dearly but it didn't take much to "rattle his chain".
By the way, he loved telling the story of picking you and Dick up that night. I think he drove slower than usual just to aggravate you two.
Judy (Stallworth) Powell
P.S. Love the web site. Thanks for all the hard work.
[3] Beatrice is certainly a town that has aged beautifully.Although, I was born and reared in Midway, most of us who attended Beatrice High School viewed Beatrice as our hometown, too.
I remember "April Showers" being an annual event that everyone got excited about. I remember each class cleaning their classrooms from top to bottom. We even cleaned the windows!!
On the day of this event, our school was spotless inside and out.
I remember Jim Wiggins picking up our horses and taking them to Beatrice for the horse show event at April Showers. One year, my brother, Joel Cobb and I, won the Shovel Event. This event entailed attaching a shovel to a rope and tying the rope to your saddle horn. Your partner waited at one end of the football field and you raced your horse down the field, picked up your partner, or your partner jumped into the shovel as best he/she could, and you raced back up the field. The shovel seemed so large and I am not sure where they came from or what they might have been used for.
I remember one year, Bill Cater was in charge of the "Grand Finale." This event entailed turning the football field lights off and running calves that had fireworks tied to their tails, out onto the football field.
I was sitting on "Ole Gal" on the opposite side of the field from the school anticipating this event with much excitement. When the fireworks started, it scared my horse and she ran away with me.
We went through the woods and we ended up at the woodyard at Stallworth Timber Company. God was certainly with me that night because I was hanging on for dear life. I was afraid that if I jumped off, that we would never find her, so I rode her out. Bill Cater said that one could hear me over the fireworks shouting "Whoa Gal."
I consider myself to be so fortunate to have been associated with some of the very best teachers who truly cared about us. The mold has been broken when I recall teachers such as Mrs. Evelyn Chappell, Mrs. Ballard, Claude Hardee, James Shelly Hines, and Brantley Mixon.
Also, our lunchroom folks were the very best cooks. Our food was prepared with love. When I think about some of the meals that Mr. & Mrs. Willie Grimes and Mrs. Knight prepared, I know that a lot of children really missed out on some very good food.
Yes, Beatrice is truly an inspiration to many of us. I appreciate the opportunity to share my story with others. You should have been there!!!!
Mary Lee Cobb Poss
[4] Growing up in Beatrice, I remember many things about my childhood from about three to six years of age:I remember we had a dog named "Jupee" that we were chasing through the yard trying to lasso him. He ran out into the road and got hit by a car. We were terribly torn up over that, but the Vet fixed him up and he lived a long life with a crooked face after that.
I remember a boy by the name of Tuffy.
I remember a pretty girl by the name of Lou Ellen Robbins.
I named my oldest daughter Lou Ellen.
One time Daddy had sent me over to the Baptist church to ring the bell for training union.
When I pulled the bell rope, it rubbed on the celotex ceiling and made a terrible roar. I just knew there was a lion in the church and I ran all the way home, scared to death.
I remember how we played house beside the church with Jackie Black. We would rake up pine straw and make walls for the rooms.
I remember Uncle Conrad Wall taking us to the movie theater.
I still remember how I tried to get a coupon cashed at Joe Black's store, or the Bank.
I remember going to the crystal market and having T. N. Stallworth buy me a soda, and I drank the whole thing without stopping.
I remember trying to go to work with Daddy. I crawled up on a load of logs he was taking to the mill, while he was taking a dinner break. Somebody saw me after he had gone aways and stopped him.
One time when Daddy had bought a new Willy's Jeep, he came home for dinner and left the keys in it. I sneaked in and turned the key on and started it by pressing the accelerator, which pressed the starter. Daddy had left it in reverse and it took off and plowed into the embankment across the street.
I got out quick as a wink and ran around the house and got into the dog house. I stayed in it till he left.
I had to shovel all the dirt back off the sidewalk. Lots of memories through the years.....mostly good ones.
James Stallworth (Son of Edmond Stone Stallworth)
