MARY BRASWELL: Looking back at January 1946

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected]. Follow @ABH_MBraswell on Twitter.

Just like the rest of America, Albany and Southwest Georgia residents were eager to get on with their post-war lives. Here is a look at the January 1946 pages of The Albany Herald.

— Albany and elsewhere began the first new year since 1941 in peace.

— City and county officials advocated strict enforcement of laws regulating the sale of whiskey. The public was reminded that 1946 would see whiskey sold only in unopened bottles and from licensed stores. Gone were the days of local bars and taverns.

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QUIK QUIZ

What product was first available to American consumers in 1946?

a) LP phonograph records

b) Elmer’s Glue

c) Morton’s Salt

d) Tupperware

See the answer at the end of the column.

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— R.E. Beck, former principal and basketball coach at Albany High School, rejoined Dougherty County educators after three years of service in the U.S. Navy. He was to teach physical education and social science at the Junior High School.

— Licenses for all taxicabs in Albany were renewed for 1946. The total number of cabs was 112, three companies for whites and seven for blacks.

— Wanted: Maid for all day, six days a week … $15 per week salary.

— Work was progressing rapidly on the conversion of Darr Aero Tech surplus buildings into 110 emergency housing units for veterans. Depending upon the availability, stoves and refrigerators were expected to be placed in each individual unit.

— Albany parents of children who received air rifles from Santa Claus were asked to monitor the use of the guns. A total of 55 street lights had been shot out since Christmas. The white way lights cost $5 each to replace while overhead lights cost $1 each to replace, an expense Albany simply could not repeatedly afford.

— W.A. Banks purchased the funeral home in Sylvester formerly owned and operated by Bowen and Donaldson of Tifton.

— In the first four days of the new year, building permits for $63,400 in construction were issued in Albany.

— Denis W. Brosman began his 47th year with the Albany Fire Department. He had been Chief Brosman for 35 of those years.

— For the first time in its history, The Herald was published without column rules, thin lines that border each column of type. The change came because the shortage of newsprint would not allow for larger body types. It was hoped that the shortage would be alleviated by year’s end.

— Albany was reported to make about 61,000 phone calls per day. That number was up from wartime’s 44,000 daily calls. About one in every six people had telephone service in the city.

— A “Bring Back Daddy” club was organized at a meeting in Albany. The national movement included petition signings to be forwarded to Congress to allow any WWII serviceman who was a father to be discharged, if he so requested.

— Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, one of WWII’s top heroes, visited Lee County for some hunting. He was the guest of T.C. King at his lodge between Leesburg and Smithville.

— Turner Field’s public relations office reminded returning servicemen that any automatic German or Japanese firearm brought back as a souvenir of the war had to be registered. Registration was held at the Internal Revenue Office in the post office on Broad Avenue.

— The Albany Board of Education granted teacher salary increases in the following amounts per month: Albany High School, $5; Junior High, $10; grammar schools, $20 and black schools, $15.

— After a long, long wait due to the war, Rosenberg’s announced an ample supply of chenille dotted ruffled curtains were available. There was a limit of five pairs per customer at $3.99 per pair.

— Albany’s mayor and commissioners were looking at proposals from five different parking meter manufacturers to equip downtown with as many as 800 meters. The city would have no capital outlay, as the $60 per meter estimate would be paid in installments from the proceeds from the equipment.

— The city cemeteries , Riverside and Oakview, had dead trees replaced over the course of a year with 95 live oaks, 100 crepe myrtles and 84 dogwoods.

— All businesses, with owner permission, were dusted with a 10 percent DDT powder furnished by the federal government to kill fleas, lice and mites. In addition, 60,000 or more rat traps were set.

— Two American bald eagles were given to the Tift Park Zoo by W.W. McGraw of Dawson. Their names were Samson and Delilah.

— Many of the grocers in Albany were sold out of meat completely. One merchant stated that women who normally would spend 40 cents on meat were buying several dollars worth as the national meat packers strike headed into its sixth day. The strike kept the local Cudahy plant shuttered.

— The Television Broadcasters Association reported that 4r million Americans desired a television set. War production had disrupted production almost completely. Nationwide, about 7,000 TV sets were in homes with 5,500 of them in the New York City area. Manufacturers set a goal to produce 300,000 sets in 1946.

— Coal shortages in Albany were reaching the severe level when 10 train-car loads arrived at Turner Field . The coal not needed at the base was distributed to local sellers, who were extremely thankful, although the supply remained far below the demand.

— Dawson was preparing for a busy 1946. The Federal Works Administration approved a grant application of $5,708 for a hospital, the high school was being enlarged, slums were being cleared and a new hotel was proposed.

— Western Auto advertised a just-arrived, limited supply of soldering irons, heating pads, heaters, hot plates, automobile batteries, DuPont sponges, and balls with bats.

QUIK QUIZ answer: (d) Tupperware

The first Tupperware home demonstration party was not held until 1948. The products were first sold in department and hardware stores with little success. Women simply did not understand its use.

FYI:

LP records (1948)

Elmer’s Glue (1947)

Morton’s Salt (1940)