Monday, December 17, 2007

Sanders, heritage group look back at old Auburn

While Auburn University served as a radio pioneer with one of the most powerful institutional radio stations in the world during the early days of radio, Auburn residents have woken up to radio personality Bob Sanders for more than 50 years.  Sanders, who was guest speaker Wednesday for the Auburn Heritage Association membership luncheon, talked about an Auburn that was.

January 17, 2007

While Auburn University served as a radio pioneer with one of the most powerful institutional radio stations in the world during the early days of radio, Auburn residents have woken up to radio personality Bob Sanders for more than 50 years.

Sanders, who was guest speaker Wednesday for the Auburn Heritage Association membership luncheon, talked about an Auburn that was.

He said downtown Auburn has changed some. There were no high rise building then. There was Olin L. Hill, Toomer’s, Auburn Hardware, two banks on opposite corners, two grocery stores and a couple of furniture stores.

“There was a place called Webbs Confectionery that nobody except me seems to remember on North College Street. For eight cents, you could get a pauper’s delight. That was six scoops of ice cream, about six toppings - cherries, nuts - the whole thing.

“It was truly a delight. I would save up enough money to get one of those and pig out on that.”

He said there was Burton Bookstore, Ware’s, two movie theaters - Tiger and War Eagle theaters, the Grille, Jake’s Joint, but there were no shopping centers or fast food places.
Sanders, who came to college in Auburn in 1949, said there wasn’t much between Auburn and Opelika.

“Much of Dean Road was just dirt when we first came and you had to wind around in a big circle to get to the highway. It didn’t go straight across like it does now. Between Auburn and Opelika was just country.

“Where Village Mall is now, there was a beautiful pasture and dairy cows. Where Midway Plaza is was a vegetable stand down on the road there,” Sanders said.

“If you are new in town this will be hard to imagine, but downtown Opelika was the shopping center of central and east Alabama. It was a busy place.”

He said there were two department stores, men’s clothing stores, women’s clothing stores, children’s stores, shoe stores, jewelry stores, furniture stores, appliance stores and automotive dealerships.

“Opelika was a busy, busy place. There were two theaters. They brought in acts like the Jimmy Dorsey Band at the Martin Theater in downtown Opelika.

“On a Saturday afternoons there would be just throngs of people on the sidewalks. It was solid people all over everything. Unless there was a football game, Auburn was pretty dead on the weekend.

“Back then, Auburn was a college town. Its industry was the university. Opelika was an industrial town. There were two big textile mills - Pepperell Mills and Opelika Manufacturing Co.”
He said Auburn has had so many changes since he first came here, and expects all the expansion to hook up with Atlanta at almost any time now.

“That they tell me is progress, but I am glad I remember Auburn as it was when I first came here,” Sanders said.
The Auburn Heritage Association, dedicated to historic preservation in Alabama, was founded in 1974. The association’s purpose is to provide an organization dedicated to the identification and preservation of items and material of historical significance in Auburn and its surrounding environment.