Gwen:
I remember Bergie and the threat he was to our teen age driving abilities. I avoided him and don't think he ever noticed my 1948
Plymouth pea green coupe. Not exactly a speed demon car. The cool guys always drove Chevrolets or Fords. Somehow I got stuck with a Mopar product--probably because my cousin Janice married a Grim
family member.
I don't recall anyone in our class who had run-ins with Bergie (unless it was possibly David McFarren who was in our class I think
at one time or another).
That story about diverting trucks to the cemetery is hilarious.
In today's times it would have made a good U Tube video.
Before Bergie got a city owned police car, does anyone recall what
he drove? I think it might have been a black and white Ford with a
hand painted police marking on the side of the vehicle. Or maybe
I'm thinking of Broderick Crawford and his TV show Highway Patrol.
Now that was a classic tv show.
Question: Was there a jail in Dalton for Bergie to send offenders
for various and sundry traffic offenses? Was there a Kangaroo
Court in Dalton also? Who was the judge? Maybe it was the mayor
Kate Slusser?
Thanks for the memories,
John
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--- In dalton59@..., Gwen Meier <gwenmeier@...> wrote:
Hi everybody,
I still get The Dalton Gazette after all these years.??? The latest edition brings news of the passing of Raymond Berg ("Bergie" as we called him), the Police Chief when we were in high school.??? He was 87 and he lived in Benton, LA .??? His sister, Phyllis Berg, was in Glenn's class.??? She, too, died many years ago.????? He had?two sisters?in addition to Phyllis.....Wanda and Marilyn.??? He also had a brother Jotham?(I don't remember him)?and two nephews?Gary and Cameron Lintern.??? It said in the paper he became Dalton's first Chief of Police in 1950 and served in that capacity until 1981 when he moved?to Louisiana.??? During?his time as Police Chief, he operated from an office in his home?and used his own car as a police vehicle (until 1965 when the town purchased the first police cruiser), and also spent a lot of his own money for equipment to modernize the Police Dept.?????Can you imagine that in this?day
and age???????????He was a good guy.....?
Dave Bolender & Ronnie Martin (from Glenn's class)?told?at Glenn's class reunion how they would?"detour" some of the semi trucks (remember how all the trucks would come right through Dalton back then) right back to the?cemetery and?how "Bergie" would?get all hot under the collar.??? Some of the trucks would get back in the cemetery and they could hardly get out, especially in the winter.???? Bergie would threaten them and threaten them.......to no avail.???? They would do it over?and over again.???
Also in that same paper, news of Rebecca (Stockham) Presti's death.....???? They had a picture of her......she looks much as I remember her.....???? She was 72.??? She graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and earned a Master's degree from Kent in Library Science and was the past Director of the Oberlin Public Library.??? I always liked
her....
More later.
Gwen
