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Tallapoosa Stuff
I was told by a former wife that she didn't understand my love for
Tallapoosa.
That was a reason she got to be a former wife. Sure I gave away a Mercedes, a
house in the Atlanta Country Club and enough money to reopen Club 78, Burger
Inn, Essie Mae's, and the Hi Hat Club. I would have paid more.
The love I have always had for our town reaches back to when I first got off the
bus from Miami when I was four years old. I remember the first look and smell of
my grandmother's house. I recall the smell was a combination of Olde English
Furniture Polish, Luzianne Coffee, and Vick's Vapo Rub also known outside urban
areas as "Vick's Salve". My memories of Tallapoosa include the steady traffic
along U.S. Highway 78 and the great Centennial Celebration of 1960 when the
entire area celebrated Tallapoosa's 100th year. I hope in 2010 a 150 year event
will occur.
A few days ago I took my girls back out to the city owned swimming pool. I took
a book preparing for a class I will teach later this summer. I looked up and I
began observing more tattoos and as many body piercings as at any biker bar on
Buford Highway in Doraville. That was just the females. I know I am not a
fashion expert and proved it when I didn't shed a tear at the recent passing of
Yves St. Laurent. I have not understood the fashion statement of a tattoo with
women. I have a friend whose wife has a Chinese symbol on her lower back. I had
seen it before and looked it up on the internet. The tattoo symbol was for
Mongolian beef and fried rice from a take out menu I had gotten in the mail.
My early childhood memories of Tallapoosa include Saturday afternoons in
Tallapoosa with the parking lots of Smith's Red Dot, Swint's Grocery, Skinner's
Store and Even's Red and White packed with shoppers. The Empire 5 & 10's candy
counter had kids twenty feet deep waiting to buy candy corn, chocolate covered
peanuts and hot popcorn. The smell of popcorn from the microwave can not compare
to fresh popped corn scooped into a white paper bag from the Empire 5 & 10.
Barber shops did a land office business back then on Saturday afternoon. Mr.
Benefield, Bill Coggins, and Bud Dingler were three of our city's most prominent
barbers. Their shops were busy all day long on Saturday with guys wanting to
look good for Saturday night dates or Sunday services. A haircut cost a dollar
back then. A recent Saturday afternoon I found I need a haircut. I went to the
shop up Freeman Street quite near the house. It was closed. I walked over to
Head Avenue to the shop there and it too was closed. I got in the truck and the
kids and I began searching for a place to help me keep from looking like a 1969
refuge from Woodstock.
Next to the post office I found Designing Women Hair Salon open and LeAnne
Teater gave me a great hair cut for less than half of what I have paid over the
years to my barber in Atlanta. My barber in Atlanta works two days a week and
consults Donald Trump on how to make money. I am baffled as why most places
where you can get a haircut within our city limits are closed on Saturday
afternoon. Was there a city ordinance passed that I missed? I wonder if you can
get a haircut on Saturday afternoon at the tattoo parlor here in town?
Rhubarb Jones is a Tallapoosa native and an administrative faculty member of
Kennesaw State University. His address is P. O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, Georgia,
30176 or by email at
Rhubarbjones@aol.com
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