Video: 1950s school days

It’s 1957: The 6th, 7th and 8th graders at Canton Elementary have moved into the old Canton High School building now that the new high school, Cherokee, has opened. They hang out on the front steps, goof off by the gym and have downtown Canton as their unofficial campus.

The video opens on the steps of the school, and then films students exiting the old gym. At about a minute in, the students play a game of baseball in Brown Park (across from the current City Hall, the old First Baptist Church). Then more scenes of students outside the school — including some girls who have traded skirts for shorts after school. A few shots of Main Street (including in front of the movie theater) end the video.

The video originated from 8mm film that was shot by Richard Gray’s family when he was a student at the school and originally shared with The Canton Times site. The old school building was used as school administrative offices and now houses city of Canton offices.

Walk around the area today in person or by using Google Street View

A version of this was originally posted by Canton Rewind March 2, 2014

1960 homecoming parade: Fairy tale dresses and cars

Led by the marching band, cheerleaders and others in backs of trucks, long stretches of convertibles with homecoming royalty wind their way through Main Street during the 1960 Cherokee High School homecoming parade. In this home movie shared by the Gray family, we get a look into fashion and cars of the time, as well as glimpses of the architecture and businesses along Main Street and how they’ve changed (or not).

The video originated from 8mm film that was shot by Richard Gray’s family. Gray had kept the film for decades and had transferred it over to DVD in the past few years. It was originally shared with The Canton Times.

A version of this post was originally published January 18, 2014.

A fearsome gridiron gang

The 1958 Canton Elementary School football team was made up of this fearsome gridiron gang of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Because there were so few youth teams back then, the school’s team divided itself into “red” and “yellow” teams to play against each other.

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Front row, left to right: Richard Gray, Bobby Conkell, Unknown Leonard Dunn, Gary Haynes, Tommy Cullens, Butch Looper.

Second row: Sammy Tatum, J.H. Cantrell, David Cagle, Danny Quarles, David Donley, Unknown, Jimmy Conkell, Unknown, Lesley Cox.

Third row: Coach Norman Sosebee, Eddie Watkins, Unknown, Lynn Sewell, Charles Andrews, Brent Burton, Jimmy Stephens.

Back row: Coach Kenneth Wynn, Avery Wofford, Larry Young, Charles Wynn, Loman Cain, Mike Hunt, David Free, Coach Clayton Hawkins.

This was originally posted April 3, 2014.

These were the original comments:

2 comments on “A fearsome gridiron gang”

Kathy Dunn says:
April 3, 2014 at 2:12 pm
The unknown on the first row between Bobby Conkell and Gary Haynes is my own hubby, Leonard Dunn.

Canton Rewind says:
April 4, 2014 at 5:38 pm
Thank you, Kathy! I’ve made the update in the text.