Sept. 26
100 Years ago – 1924
Proctor & Gamble was running a special on soap: get a galvanized bucket with 95 cents worth of soaps – 3 P&G White Naptha, 3 cakes Guest Ivory, 2 Star Naptha Powder, one Ivory soap flakes, one Chipso and one cake of Star Soap – for just 69 cents. It lists stores where this special was in place [which is a good way to get an idea of what stores were around back then]: Martinsville: W.P. Hodnett Co., Inc., Phones 74 and 369; H.M. Hairston, Ph. 346; C.F. Hairston; Miller Carter, Ph. 142; T.W. Carter, Ph. 274; Jas. Cheshire & Son, Ph. 2016; J.F. Floyd; J.W. Booker & Co., Ph. 70; Peter Anglin, Ph. 97; C.P. Kearfott & Son, Ph. 144; Shumate & Morris, Ph. 172; W.T. Walton, Ph. 350; C.D. Weaver, Ph. 232; H.L. Wells, Ph. 265; G.W. Wingfield, Ph. 460; Hawkin & Carter, Ph. 419 – Boxwood: A.B. Holland – Bassett: Craig & Bassett, H.T. Williams, W.W. Smith, L.P. Grogan, W.H. Rangely – Figsboro: C.B. Hundley; Stuart: W.L. Handy, S.F. Dunkley – Critz: B.F. Martin – Carlisle: Nance & Co. – Fieldale: Fieldale Mercantile Co., C.W. Atkins, C.W. Harrell. Note also that only the stores in Martinsville at that time had telephones.
75 years ago – 1949
Advertisement for Sew-Gem sewing machines, which were sold at the O.K. Kirby Sewing Machine Center at 198 Main St.: “Sew-Gem features these 4 big national programs: “Stop the Music,” every Saturday at 8 p.m. on ABC; “Sing It Again,” every Sunday at 10 p.m. on CBS; “Queen for a Day,” every week daily at 2 p.m. on MBS; and “Betty Crocker’s Magazine of the Air,” Wednesday over ABC.”
1960
Special Bassett Officer J.D. Witt told the Board of Supervisors that he had to pay $306 for a used motor for his automobile, and since the incident that caused his motor to blow happened while on duty, he felt that he was entitled to some compensation from the county. He was driving his car, which also was a police cruiser, during a police chase when the motor blew. As a special police officer, part of his salary was paid by the County, and part was paid by Bassett. The board said such a request had never come before them before, and they’d have to think it over, but meanwhile, he should submit an affidavit of the circumstances of the chase. The agreement was that the County was paying special officers a sum of $75 each month for automobile upkeep, but Witt said that wasn’t enough to operate a vehicle for police work. Supervisor Otis M. Dyer suggested that the county might save money through the operation of county-owned vehicles in the sheriff’s department and other county office over the practice of that time which was to provide a stipend for use of each employee’s personal vehicle.
History was made in politics and in television, when the first ever speech-interview-debate with major presidential candidates was aired on TV. Republican Richard M. Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy would debate domestic issues between 9:30-10:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time from Chicago over the three major television networks and the four principal radio networks. Then, on Oct. 7 and 13, there would be an hour-long, all-subjects news conference. The final broadcast will be from New York on Oct. 21 would be like the first one, but with questions on international affairs instead of domestic.
The 1960 Henry County Fair and Exposition opened at Liberty Heights fair grounds.
50 years ago – 1974
Thelma Cox’s purse was stolen right from the kitchen of her home at 310 Starling Ave., after she had set it on a table and walked into another room. That house has long ago been torn down, and the DMV office is there now. The theft left her in quite a jam, because the purse had her eyeglasses, dental plates, personal papers, money of course, and other items.
A benefit football game was held at Laurel Park High School to raise money to buy a grand piano.
25 years ago - 1999
Harry Wiencek, author of “The Hairstons,” a book about the white family and the people they enslaved on the Beaver Creek Plantation, spoke at a program at Piedmont Arts Association.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.