This week I covered what was happening in the summer of 1976, forty years ago.

The East Brewton United Methodist Church held an open house to show off its new parsonage located on Brandenburg Street. There were lots of photographs of the inside, as well as outside.

Time was ticking down to elections and The Brewton Standard was full of ads. I thought it was interesting to see that I recognized several of them. Now I know that time marches on. I am old enough to realize that I don’t look the same as I did forty years ago, but most of them have aged just as I did. I noticed that the men were sporting long sideburns and wearing dated clothing. Do you remember the polyester suits or leisure suits?

Anyway, Patricia Hart had an ad. She was running for place No. 3 on the Brewton City Council. Now Tricia looked good.

There was a photo of Yank Lovelace too. He was running for place 4 on the city council. He, too, looked a lot younger.

There were photographs of some newcomers to town. Dr. Joe Terrill, his wife, Debbie and their children were given a warm welcome to Brewton.

There was an interesting story about a man, John Coker, who had taken up the almost forgotten skills of hand-making white oak baskets. He had been encouraged to experiment with the baskets by Mr. Lowery, who owned the Burnt Corn General Store.

The store is no longer open in Burnt Corn, but it was something right out of the past. They sold everything from animal feed to clothing, to wash tubs on down to frying pans and almost anything anyone could possible want.

Now, believe it or not, I tried my hand at making chair bottoms out of the split oak. I didn’t care for the work at the time because it was kind of hard on my hands. We had some of these chairs when I was growing up and now I have them in my home. I don’t use them, but in many ways they are works of art.

The old three-story school on Belleville Avenue was coming down as the finishing touches were being done on the Brewton Elementary School. It was supposed to be finished by the time school started.

I remember that when the school was torn down, some of the furnishings were sold. I bought a desk, but something happened to it over the years. I also bought some old chairs and they too, are gone. I guess I am not such a pack rat after all.

Construction was getting under way for a new bridge to cross over Murder Creek between Brewton and East Brewton. This is the bridge that now is a one-way bridge.

I don’t know the timeline for these bridges, but after this one was up and running, the old bridge was replaced with the one that has the flower baskets. Confusing, isn’t it?

Two young ladies from this area were named Outstanding Young Women. They were Janice Adams Franklin and Margaret Jones Carter.

Lastly, Rev. M.G. Waters and his wife, Annie Crooks Waters were given a celebration party honoring their 50th wedding anniversary. There was a very nice picture of them with the article.