Twenty years ago in 1994, there was a lot going on in the Brewton area. There were many events around to keep everyone busy during the month of December, leading up to Christmas.
There was an announcement in the newspaper about Operation Lifesaver and the Brewton Police Department teaming up to prevent train and car accidents. The statistics showed that at least 15 vehicle-train accidents had occurred in Escambia County in 1994 with four of those being in Brewton.
According to those statistics there were only three in the county in 1993. The current campaign was to focus attention on preventing train-vehicle accidents. There was even talk of officers riding the train to observe what was going on.
Well, as I told you last week, these accidents are still happening at an alarming rate. Hopefully, people will learn to do what we were taught in school; stop, look, and listen before venturing across those tracks. Your car or truck will always lose in a confrontation with a train.
One of the good news stories in December of 1994 was that the T.R. Miller Tigers won the football game against Lanett 13-7 and advanced to play for the state championship against Cleburne County. The Tigers won the championship that year with a score of 27-6. The week before, when the team traveled to Lanett, one of the buses carrying the team was involved in an accident on I-65. The bus locked bumpers with another vehicle, but according to Coach Jim Hart, no one was injured.
I noted that the championship game was played in Brewton. I remember another championship game that was played in Cherokee County in 1984. It was so cold that you could hardly move. I went so far as to carry my sleeping bag to wrap up in that night and I was not sorry to have it. I know that it would have been a long trip back to Brewton that night if the team had lost. They arrived back in town early in the morning and after a couple of hours of sleep, they were on a float in the Christmas parade. Those were fun times for my family and I remember them fondly.
In another news item during this time was an announcement of the addition of a new water well and storage tank constructed in the Brewton Industrial Park to add to the city water system bringing the water storage capacity to two million gallons.
I don’t even remember when that happened. I guess everyone just takes their water for granted. We turn it on and out it flows. It made me wonder what would have happened if we did not have that storage tank 10 years later after Hurricane Ivan. Those on the Brewton water system managed to have water when they had to do without other things.
Do you remember when we had Christmas home tours? In 1994, there was a tour including several of the homes located on Belleville Avenue. I know there have been others since that time, but this one caught my eye.
One bad news story in the news was when police officers had to use tear gas to subdue a violent man after he had wounded one person and threatened to kill enforcement officers. It was revealed later in the article that it all began with domestic violence.
Lastly, the Brewton Ballet was getting ready to perform the Nutcracker – a beautiful showcase for those involved in ballet.