GRIS LIST: Mother’s Day gifts 1975, what’s in a name and the ‘Buck’ stops here

10 Things You Could Have Gotten Your Mom for Mother’s Day if You Lived in Macon 50 Years Ago (May 1975)

Blue or pink plaid polyester pantsuit for $32 at Kiralfy Goldman on Cherry Street.

Mother’s Day buffet with roast beef, vegetables and salads for $3.95 at the Holiday Inn West at U.S. 80 and Interstate 475.

1-pound box of Russell Stover assorted chocolates for $2.95 at Belk-Matthews on Third Street. Or a 1-pound box of Whitman’s Sampler chocolates for $3.25 at Eckerd’s drug store in Napier Square.

Florsheim white leather sandals for $27 from the Macon Shoe Co. on Third Street.

Short-sleeved or sleeveless cotton dress for $8.99 from Chanin’s on Cherry Street.

Flaming Polynesian assorted appetizers (egg rolls, tempura shrimp, BBQ spare ribs, paper chicken fried wonton) for $3.50 at the Golden Dragon on Riverside Drive.

Rival crock pot for $13.99 from JC Penney on Hillcrest Avenue.

Synthetic wig (short or long hair) for $4.84 from Rose’s department store on Shurling Drive.

Mother’s Day orchid corsage for $2.59 from Sears on Third Street.

A complimentary piece of strawberry pie for mothers at the Shoney’s Big Boy Restaurant on Pio Nono Avenue. (Or the whole pie for $2.90.)

What’s in a name?

The Pierce Chapel at Wesleyan College is named after George Foster Pierce, a Methodist bishop and the college’s first president. Pierce Avenue, between Vineville Avenue and Riverside Drive, is also named after him. Pierce is credited with planting the live oak trees at the corner of Vineville and Calloway Drive, which have been recognized as the oldest trees in Macon.

The middle school at Mount de Sales Academy was dedicated to Father John Cuddy in September 2014. Cuddy was appointed as pastor at Macon’s St. Joseph Catholic Church in 1974, where he led one of the city’s largest congregations, as well as being the spiritual leader of the students, faculty and alumni at the school and St. Joseph’s Catholic School for 40 years. In January of that same year, the new gym at St. Joseph’s Elementary was dedicated as  Monsignor John Cuddy Hall.

The downtown bridge at Spring Street is named after heavyweight boxer W.L. “Young” Stribling, one of Macon’s most famous and influential sports figures. Stribling lost only 12 times in his 288-bout boxing career in the 1920s and ’30s. He twice lost bouts for the heavyweight championship. His most famous was when he was knocked out by Germany’s Max Schmeling with 14 seconds left in the final round of the world heavyweight championship fight in Cleveland, Ohio in 1931. He was only 28 years old when he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1933 while riding to see his wife and newborn son at the hospital. More than 10,000 people attended his funeral at the City Auditorium, making it one of the largest funeral services (along with that of Otis Redding) in Macon history. 

The recreation center in Unionville was dedicated to Frank Johnson in 2002. Johnson, who was often known as the “Mayor of Unionville,’’ grew up the youngest of 10 children in the neighborhood where all of the streets are named after flowers. During World War II, he was one of the Montford Point Marines, the first African-Americans to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps. He worked for two years at the Naval Ordnance Plant in Macon, then spent 34 years in civil service at Robins Air Force Base. He was one of the local leaders who was asked to carry the Olympic torch when it came through Macon in 1996.

The interchange at Bass Road and Interstate 75 is named after the Rev. Jimmy Waters, one of Macon’s most well-known ministers and a pioneer in religious broadcasting in Georgia with more than 25,000 broadcasts. At Mabel White Memorial Baptist, where he was minister for 31 years, his sermons were broadcast beginning in October 1958.  Waters and his family sang gospel on Atlanta’s WSB radio in the 1930s, and he was famous for his “Victory Hour” in Macon. 

The bridge on Walnut Street crossing I-75 is named after singer James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul.’’ It was dedicated in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood in March 1994 when Brown was in town to perform a concert at the Macon Coliseum during the Cherry Blossom Festival. Brown cut his first record, “Please Please Please,’’ at radio station WIBB in Macon in 1955 with his band, the Famous Flames.

The Shirley Hills neighborhood is one of 12 historic districts in Macon. It was once part of the estate of U.S. Senator Augustus Octavius Bacon. Baconsfield gets its name from Bacon, and Shirley Hills was named after the senator’s granddaughter. 

The ‘Buck’ stops here 

Selby Buck was one of Macon’s most famous high school coaches. He coached football and basketball at Lanier High (now Central) from 1922-55. His football teams won more than 70% of their games.

Before he came to Macon, he was a member of the U.S. water polo team at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. He was the Army’s best tennis player (he once played a match against Bill Tilden). He was a member of the same semi-pro football team as Jim Thorpe in Marietta, Ohio.

At Lanier, Buck coached a sophomore named Ben Belue. After Belue’s father died of a heart attack, Buck became a “father figure” to him. 

When Belue’s first child was born in 1959 at the old Macon Hospital, he and his wife nicknamed their son Buck. He went on to play quarterback at Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs to a national championship in 1980. His miracle 93-yard touchdown pass to Lindsay Scott to beat Florida was voted the single greatest play in school history.