Stories of Atlanta, Texas

Stories of Atlanta

Atlanta Stories is the place for you to contribute your story of an experience in Atlanta. If you have a story of something that happened to you or your ancestor in Atlanta, please share it with us. We may put it here.

Radio Atlanta

7/6/2009
Title: Radio Atlanta

Location: North Sea, Europe

Story:
One of the most celebrated pioneers of modern commercial radio is Gordon McLendon who not only attended high school in Atlanta, Texas but noted Atlanta, Texas as being the location of where his radio career began. One interesting story about Gordon and his pal Clint Murchison, Jr., is that they bought and converted a German ship which for a time broadcast to Stockholm, Sweden from off its coastline as Radio Nord. When that epic came to an end the ship was brought back to Galveston, Texas until she set out again, this time as Radio Atlanta aboard the same ship now called Mi Amigo. Radio Atlanta began broadcasting commercial radio programs to London, England in 1964 from three and a half miles off the coast. Shortly afterwards Radio Atlanta merged with another radio ship venture under the marketing name of Radio Caroline South (the other radio ship being Radio Caroline North broadcasting to Liverpool, England.) You can find more about this story on Wikipedia under Radio Caroline or a brief note under Atlanta, Texas on the same site. I am currently working on a more detailed story about all of this called 'Distant Drums' due to appear in book format - hopefully later in 2009. Of course it will have some kind words about Atlanta, Texas as perhaps the real origin of Britain's radio love affair with the "Swinging Sixties"!

Granny

6/1/2009
Name: Dan Albright
Email: danalbr@swbell.net
Phone:

Title: Granny

Location: Atlanta, TX

Story:
Last night I was thinking of my grandmother, Mallie Albright. During the second world war, Granny had 5 sons all serving in the military at the same time--2 Marines, 2 Soldiers and 1 sailor. My dad was working at the Gunter Lumber Co. which was considered an industry vital to our war effort so was not called into the service. Granny was not satisfied with just having 5 sons in the Service, so she went to work for either Red River Arsenal or The Lone Star defense plant. I don't know if she was a volunteer or was actually paid a modest wage. I do know that she and other workers caught a bus to the workplace from Atlanta to Texarkana. If you had a relative who participated in the war effort is this way, I would like for you to fill in the gaps for me.
Best regards--Dan Albright

ATLANTA VIST

4/7/2009
Story:
IN 1982 MYSELF AN MY FATHER JAMES RAINES MADE A VIST TO ATLANTA TX. MY DAD WAS 75 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME AN HAD NEVER BEEN TO THIS AREA OF TEXAS. I HAD FOUND MY DADS COUSIN FRANK BARLOW AN HIS WIFE NORA. THEY HAD PLAYED AS CHILDREN UNDER THE LARGE PECAN TREE IN FRONT OF THERE GRANFATHERS HOUSE IN BRIGHTSTAR ,AK 70 YEARS BEFORE. AFTER 70 YRS THEY SAID THE TIME FLEW BY.FRANK TOOK US TO ALL THE DOWNTOWN AREA OF ATLANTA. HE WAS VERY PROUD OF HIS TOWN. AFTER THE VISIT THEY MADE WEEKLY PHONE CALLS UNTIL THERE DEATHS 3 YEARS AGO . ONE OF MY DADS LAST MEMORYS WAS OUR TRIP TO MEET FRANK AN HIS TOWN OF ALTANTA,TX

Atlanta

2/27/2009
Name: andee krantz
Email: krantzfam@aol.com
Phone: 530-228-4825

Title: Best of Texas!

Location:

Story:
My family and I visited Atlanta during a weekend over the summer of 2008. My husband and I had lived there several years ago, so for us it was a "re-visit" but for our daughters it was a first. Well, as anyone who has been to or lives in Atlanta might expect... after eleven years, it was like we had just spent the previous day with y'all! People we saw downtown and at the Wellness Center recognized us, stopped to visit and "catch up" and of course, the dear friends we stayed in touch with over the years were just as warm and hospitable as ever. Atlanta is really a special place!

Events

8/18/2008
RDH PROMOTIONS PRESENTS
the NATIONAL award winning SOUTHERN GOSPEL TRIO
"KAREN PECK & NEW RIVER"

along with
JENKINS SISTERS AND HENDRIX TRIO
FRIDAY AUG 22, 2008
OAKLAWN OPRY
124 Oaklawn Village Shopping Center
Texarkana TX 75503

FOR MORE INFO CONTACT
870-772-2854

Football Camp

8/15/2008
The fifth annual free football camp sponsored by the East Texas Youth Football League will be held Saturday Aug. 16 at 9 a.m. untill noon with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m.
For more information contact Randy Jones at (903)796-5880.

8/2/2006

Miles Drugstore

3/9/2005
Note: Tucker Conley lives in Longview and is often in Atlanta on business, his wife Diana frequently by his side. He has wonderful memories and experiences from the Atlanta area. Best of all, he excels at sharing them-

Diana and I love Atlanta...especially Miles Drugstore. On a spring day in 2004, we were there for lunch...chicken salad sandwiches and chocolate sodas. The doors were open to the sidewalk and the American flags were gently waving in the breeze. We sat at a table and were joined by Mr. Miles, the heir-owner-pharmacist.

He showed us a photograph of a log truck made 60 years ago as it rolled along in a parade on the street just outside the store's north door. He described where he was with his dad when the photo was made.

I asked him what were some interesting experieinces he'd had as a pharmacist and he related the time a very worried father called and asked to meet him at the drugstore in the wee hours of the morning. There was a medical emergency. Mr. Miles went down and opened up. The dad wanted a little tin of St. Joseph's aspirin!

In the front of the drugstore that day there was a very attractive display of Whitman's Sampler Chocolates. All of the gold boxes were stacked up in the display style of the 1920s. The interior of Miles Drugstore is probably much like it was in the late 1940s-a real step back in time.

After lunch, we snooped around a couple of antique stores. Diana bought a beautiful wooden bowl with a lid that she now keeps by her big chair. It's full of safety pins, finger nail files, threads, needles, paper clips and more. We next explored the local True Value hardware store, one of the largest in Texas.

I have a photo of my great-great grandfather, Dr. Willis Henderson Dodd, and two other gentlemen that was made in Atlanta probably around 1885. His home in Bright Star, Arkansas, was destroyed by a fire in the 1870s. His granddaughter, Verna Lee Murray, was my dad's mother. Her husband, my grandfather, John Smith Conley, founded the Merchant & Planters Bank in Bloomburg around 1910. It became the Bloomburg State Bank. I received from Kathy Peacock a few years ago, a photo of the interior of the Merchants & Planters Bank and the teller windows, and my then 4-year old uncle Murray standing in a chair at one of the windows! Amazing.

8/14/2004 11:43:26 AM

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