Memoried Glances: LaGrange in 1940 — City gets bus service; optimism for new school year

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 8, 2015

Memoried Glances

Julia Dyar

Contributing columnist

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Augusts past, 75 years ago.

From LaGrange Daily News, 1940.

Front Page News

Buses to Begin Operation in LaGrange — Bus service will begin in LaGrange later this week when on Sunday morning, machines of The LaGrange Coach Company will begin operation along four routes at 5:20 o’clock a.m.

Buses will run the routine every 20 minutes, according to Stanley Green, head of the company. Buses have a 25-passenger capacity and are new and modern.

The company is operating under a city franchise and will give school children special rates. The schedules and routes of the buses have been mapped out to insure the greatest number of residents the most efficient service.

Headquarters of the coach company are located on Main Street. Tickets may be purchased there – regular tickets in lots of five for 25 cents; school tickets in lots of 10 for 40 cents; transfer issues free on all bus tickets only. Tickets may be bought between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the office at 219 Main St.

1940-41 to be Outstanding Year for LaGrange School System — The 1940-41 school year in the city schools of LaGrange will be one of the high water marks in the history of the system it was revealed today with the announcement of the faculty, and as construction work at LaGrange High School sped along toward a September completion.

Superintendent B.A. Lancaster announced the list of teachers that included 10 new instructors and one transfer. He expressed great confidence in this faculty.

Highlights in the current term will be the completion of work at the high school. This includes the enlargement of the lunch room, installation of a new workshop for boys, the complete renovation of the auditorium, the rebuilding and equipping of the offices of the superintendent and principal, and the reorganization of the athletic department.

Local Motorcade to go to Eastman — A motorcade which will journey to Eastman is being arranged to coincide with an appearance there on Labor Day by the Junior Drum and Bugle Corps and the All Girls Band of LaGrange.

Approximately 23 automobiles will be in the motorcade, which will leave at 4 o’clock Monday morning. The motorcade will be led by members of the state patrol and the 163 miles will require four hours of driving. There will be no escort on the return trip.

The band and corps will participate in the Eastman Labor Day celebration and parade.

Police Officers Ask Cooperation — Cooperation in the matter of watching local homes while citizens are out of town was asked yesterday by members of the LaGrange Police Department.

LaGrange is one of the only cities in which police officials watch houses and surroundings for absentee residents, and officers stated that they have no intention of discontinuing the practice. It is important, however, for house occupants to notify the police department upon their return to LaGrange.

Camp Viola has Successful Season — The 15th consecutive session of Camp Viola, with a total of 105 boys and girls during a three-week period, will end Saturday, climaxing one of the most successful seasons in the history of the site dedicated to the up-building of the youth of LaGrange.

With a staff of 10 dedicated counselors, the current session has been highlighted by the use of electricity for the first time. Rural electrification lines of the Troup County Electric Membership Cooperation have been extended to the camp, permitting outdoor recreational activities at night in addition to the added facility of electric lights and radios.

Harriett’s Letter: I have an idea that Mrs. Sanford Sellers Sr. of Lexington, Missouri, felt a little like Rip Van Winkle when she made a visit to LaGrange last week after an absence of 75 years. Mrs. Sellers, as Lucia Rogers, was born in LaGrange but left when she was 6 years old in a covered wagon with her parents, the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rogers, for the West. It was her uncle who established Brownwood School for Girls here, which older folks of this section remember very clearly.

Mrs. Sellers visited here with her daughter, daughter-in-law and a granddaughter. They stayed at the Terrace Hotel during their visit here.

Battle of Britain Rages in English Skies Today — The battle of Britain raged in the skies today where airplanes fought airplanes on a mass scale.

Germany declined to say that the full-scale blitzkrieg was in progress, but to observers on the bomb-spattered shores of Britain it looked like “the real thing.”

London’s outskirts had their first taste of war when screaming German Sutkas plummeted down upon the great Croydon airport.

Julia Dyar, a retired journalist, is active in the Troup County Historical Society.