In January Barbara and Morris went to Tampa to show baby Larry to Barbara’s parents Fred and Waive.   In the Spring of 1953 Waive and Fred along with their children Dixie, Carole, Gary and little Corky moved to Atlanta where Fred bought a house at 1228 Southeast Gresham Road.  With Jimmy still in the Navy, their daughter Sue with her baby Danny also lived with them.  It was a nice home, a two-story house painted white with a living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor, bedrooms on the second floor and a full finished basement which had two rooms, one used by Fred as an office for his Book and Bible House business and the other a big family room with a new black and white TV which the family spent watching shows such as I Love Lucy, Howdy Doody, Roy Rogers and one of Fred’s favorites, The Ed Sullivan Show.  

During the week, while Sue stayed home taking care of baby Danny, Dixie, Carole and Gary went to school and little Corky started Kindergarten.  Sometimes things got a little hectic around the house with all the kids.  Corky, who was six at the time later described having his nephew Danny, who was three living with them, “It was great having a “little brother-nephew,” (since Gary didn’t want anything to do with either me or Dan), but I hated it when Dan called both Sue and Mom, “Mommy!”  I wanted to boss Dan the same as Gary bossed me, but Mom and Sue would take up for Dan, not me.  I always loved Dan like another, and he will always be special to me, but I think we probably didn’t stop fighting until we were in high school.”  

For Corky it was a wonderful time, he got to go on dates with Dixie and Carole and their boyfriends, after church, with their mother, Waive, giving the sisters a choice, “Go home and baby-sit or take him with you.”   And so, thanks to his mother, Corky got to go to the Yellow Jacket drive-in restaurant, learned to play poker, learned to do the popular dances while on dates with his sisters.  His sisters, being popular in school, would often have their girlfriends over and they all thought Corky was the cutest thing and being the only boy around would dance with him. Corky said he had a crush on more than one of them.

It was a wonderful time for Dixie and Carole who were in high school enjoying their life with their friends.  Dixie describing it:

Carole and I loved high school and had lots of friends.  When we had a date we went to a ball game, a dance, a party of some sort, out to eat, to the Fox Theater or a drive-in theater.  When we went to the Fox we got dressed up.  We work spiked heels and a tight sweater with either an ankle-length tight peg-bottom skirt or a full skirt with three to five crinolines under the skirt.  There were ushers at the Fox who took you thought the dark theater to your seat with a small flashlight.  Before, after, and during intermission there was an organist who played beautiful music.  Some Saturdays we went downtown shopping at Rich’s Department store.  We always wore high heels, dress, gloves and sometimes a hat.  Your hat and gloves matched and your shoes and bag matches.  We like to eat in the Rich’s Tea Room – it was elegant and we thought we were sophisticated.  

Sometimes on the weekends, groups of us would go to Stone Mountain and climb to the top.  This was before the restoration – back when it was a big slab of granite with weeds.  We would climb to the top of the mountain, roast hot dogs, sing songs, act silly, and if you had a date, “smooch.”.  We had lots of hayrides, possum hunts, square dances, parties at someone’s house, and sock-hops in the gym after ball games.  We would also get someone’s pickup truck and load it down with people and go to the drive-in theatre for a $1.00 a car.  During the drive-in intermission, an organist would play the songs you requested.  Carole and I had quite a few boyfriends, were in logs of clubs, beauty pageants, and we were both homecoming sponsors. 

One day one of Carole’s high school friends was visiting the Junior’s when her father, Tom Webster, came to pick her up.  Fred answered the door and invited Tom in, and they begin talking and Fred asked what Tom did for a living and he explained that he was head of the southern district for the Headman Company which made F & E Check Writers.  Fred and Tom hit it off quite well and soon Fred went to work for Tom as traveling salesman going from business to business selling check writers.  The Headman company office was in downtown Atlanta in a building on Peachtree St. near the Fox Theater.  Sometimes when Fred went into the office, he would take little Corky with him.  Corky said his dad “would give me get thirty cents and I would go to the White Castle or Krystal and get a hamburger, fries and Coke, and bring Dad the change (not much left, but he always said I could keep it).”

Updated: 05-29-2023

1953 Barbara and Morris