RAMM
Retiree’s Association of Martin Marietta Corporation
South of the Border
How our children loved those Pedro billboard signs when we would be heading
south on route 301 so many years ago. This was way before there was I-95. Even we
adults were captivated by those funny sayings of Pedro: “Pedro’s weather report, chili
today, hot tamale!” Yes, it is a little tacky, but entertaining while traveling that long trip
south.
In 1949, Mr. Alan Schafer built a simple 18 x 36
foot beer stand known as South of the Border Beer Depot.
As it adjoined the North Carolina counties, which were
dry of alcohol, business boomed. A few years later a 10seat grill was added and the business was re-named South
of the Border Drive-in. In 1954, Mr. Schafer added 20
motel rooms and shorted the name to South of the Border.
Now, how did Pedro come about? Well, apparently Mr. Schafer went to Mexico
to establish import connections and met two young men. He helped them get admitted to
the United States and they went to work at the motel office as bellboys for a few years.
People started calling them Pedro and Pancho (not their real names) and eventually just
Pedro.
All the signs were designed by Mr. Schafer himself. At one time there were more
than 250 different billboards from Philadelphia, PA to Daytona Beach, FL. Many
of these billboards are on I-95. There are now 175 billboards north and south from
the Virginia/North Carolina state lines to the South Carolina/Georgia state lines.
The 97-foot Pedro has 4 miles of wiring and weighs 77 tons. He stands 18
feet deep in solid clay and you can drive your car through the legs. “The Border,”
as employees call it, has become a little town within itself and they welcome you to
stop and visit while traveling south. As Pedro would say, “Keep America green,
bring money.”
Sidebar: Our granddaughter and her family, at the children’s urging, stopped
overnight one time while heading north. Yes, it was tacky, but with all the
attractions and rides the children loved it and that’s what family vacations are all
about.
P.O. Box 18115 Baltimore, Maryland 21220-0215
March 2015
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RAMM
Retiree’s Association of Martin Marietta Corporation
Where is It?
We watch movies of scenes in the 1800’s with ladies in hooped dresses strolling
down dirt-covered roads. We watch John Wayne and the cavalry chasing Indians. We
watch all the horse-drawn wagons delivering goods and the four and six horse teams
pulling the stage coaches. As I watch these scenes, there is one thing I never observe,
with all those horses, where is the manure? There has to be manure?
Sanitary experts in the early part of the twentieth century agreed that the normal
city horse produces 15 and 30 pounds of manure a day. In a city like Milwaukee in 1907,
for instance, with a population of 350,000 and a horse population of 12,500, this meant
133 tons of manure a day. Health officials in Rochester, New York, calculated in 1900,
the 15,000 horses in the city produced enough manure in a year to make a pile 175 feet
high covering an acre of ground and breeding sixteen billion flies.
Streets turned into cesspools when it rained. Ladies long-skirted dresses dragged
in liquefied manure. Complaints of dry manure that would blow in windows and into
people’s faces, there was a need for street cleaners.
The bicycle craze of the nineties reminded many that horseless commuting was
possible over reasonable distances. Electric power was a blessing. Horse-drawn street
cars were replaced with cable cars and were cheaper than horse power. As the number of
automobiles increased, cities such as New York and Las Angeles experienced smog.
Horses may be gone from city streets, but the unforeseen problems created by their
successors still beset us. I wonder how many people had to shovel up manure before
shooting a scene in a John Wayne movie?
New York
Baltimore
P.O. Box 18115 Baltimore, Maryland 21220-0215
March 2015
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RAMM
Retiree’s Association of Martin Marietta Corporation
What’s the Mashed Potato?
Remember the Buddy Deane Show that aired in Baltimore on WJZ-TV from 1957
until 1964? Some of you younger 70 year old RAMM members may have even appeared
on the show doing the Madison, the twist, the mashed potato, the stroll and of course, the
jitterbug. Perhaps some of the older members may have had a teenage child dancing
there. Our oldest son, Ray, appeared on the show when he was about sixteen showing off
some fancy dance steps.
Winston “Buddy” Deane was a broadcaster for more than fifty years, beginning
his career in Little Rock, Arkansas, then moving to Memphis, Tennessee before moving
to Baltimore where he worked at WITH-AM radio. He was one of the first disc jockeys
in the area to regularly feature rock-and-roll. His dance party television show debuted in
1957 and was, for a time, the most popular local show in the United States. It aired for
two and one-half hours a day, six days a week. Hundreds of thousands of teens learned
the latest dances by watching teens dancing on the Buddy Deane Show.
Many top acts of the day appeared on the show, both black and white. Chubby
Checkers introduced the twist to the teenagers, Bill Haley and the Comets performed
Rock Around the Clock for the first time on the show, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis,
Brenda Lee and many other singers performed, plugging their records.
At that time, blacks and whites were not allowed to dance together. The Deane
program set aside every other Friday when the show featured only black teenagers (the
rest of the time, the show’s participants were all white. Buddy Deane wanted both black
and white teenagers on the show, but the station was owned by Westinghouse and did not
want to integrate. The show was taken off the air in 1964.
The Buddy Deane show was the inspiration for the John Waters’ Hairspray
Buddy Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas after suffering a stroke, July 16, 2003.
He was seventy-eight years old.
P.O. Box 18115 Baltimore, Maryland 21220-0215
March 2015
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RAMM
Retiree’s Association of Martin Marietta Corporation
A Science Project?
In my living room I have a card table set up at my sliding glass doors. This is my
work table where I write the monthly RAMM newsletter. On this, I have papers, pads,
notes, and a ceramic mug containing a small and large magnifying glass and assorted
pens and pencils.
Recently, my daughter, Chris Lorber, arrived to take me to various places to
remove Mel’s name from documents. While sitting in a chair, waiting for me, she noticed
smoke rising from the card table. The sun, shining through the magnifying glass onto the
card table caused the plastic material to smolder. Chris quickly soaked the fabric with
water. It had burned down to the foam matting about six inches long.
If Chris had not noticed the smoke before leaving the apartment, I’m sure we
would have returned to fire engines on our parking lot. I’ve had the magnifying glass in
that mug for months. Apparently, this time of year the sun’s rays were just at the correct
angle to cause the burn. You can never be too careful in checking around before leaving
your home. Someone, once more, was looking out for me.
Do You Swear to Tell the Truth?
These are things actually said in court.
1. Attorney: Now doctor isn’t it true when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know
about it until the next morning?
Witness: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
2. Attorney: Your youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
Witness: He’s 20, much like your IQ.
3. Attorney: Were you present when your picture was taken?
Witness: Are you sh------ me?
4. Attorney: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
Witness: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
P.O. Box 18115 Baltimore, Maryland 21220-0215
March 2015
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RAMM
Retiree’s Association of Martin Marietta Corporation
Care and Concern
Please pray for all members who are ill.
Silent RAMMs
Our condolences to family and friends of:
Harry Howard died on February 8, 2015 thirteen days before his 100th birthday.
Lois Hausmann died on February 12, 2015
Care and Concern
If anyone knows of any RAMM member who is ill or has passed on, please call:
Dick Adams
OR
Mary Scheidt
410-561-3989
410-256-0686
Notice
Our first 2015 meeting at the Chug-A-Mug is on March 25. You must have your new
2015 membership card to show at the door. We are looking forward to seeing you there-please bring warm weather with you.
March Celebrations!
Congratulations to all those who have a birthday or anniversary this windy month of March.
Stay healthy,
Dottie Ruth
2913 D Conroy Ct.
Baltimore, MD 21234
(410-665-3207)
P.O. Box 18115 Baltimore, Maryland 21220-0215
March 2015
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