Doug Pharr (Osborne '59)
I was born in Austell, GA, September 4, 1941. Three months later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. My Mother insisted it was in retaliation
for my birth. But, I digress. We moved to Smyrna in 1943 when my father started work at the Bell Bomber Plant. We lived with my Mother’s parents
on Old Concord Road just north of Pat Mell Road. When I was six, my father built a house on an adjoining acre of land and I lived there until I
went into the Army in 1963. That house is still there at 1951 Old Concord Road. It is now owned by some of our friends from South of the Border.
I can remember riding the streetcar to Atlanta with my mother to shop at Rich’s and Davisons department stores. We always ate lunch at McCrory’s – fried chicken with all the fixings.
I started first grade at Osborne Elementary School and my first grade teacher was Mrs. Robert L. Osborne. I attended Osborne until Green Acres Elementary School was built and I was required to go there in the 6th and 7th grades. There I met some of my future Campbell High friends, Truman and Travis Holtzclaw, Donnie and Sandra McBride, Stanley Lovell, Linda Tritt and Lucy Duffy. After 7th grade at Green Acres, about half of the kids went to Campbell and half went to Osborne. Since I had attended Osborne for 5 years, I decided to go there for 8th grade. But, since my best friends were now at Campbell, I decided to go there in 9th grade. In addition to them, I made many new friends, some who are still good friends today. Among them are Allen Potter, Robert Fitzgerald and Joe Taylor. I rode the bus to school and often got off in downtown Smyrna on the way home to go to the drug store where everyone hung out, then had to walk home from there, about 2 miles. One morning on the way to school as we passed Brawner’s, several nurses and doctors were chasing a nude man in front of the hospital. Pretty exciting for the girls on the bus! I enjoyed 9th and 10th grade at Campbell, had my first “car date” and played on the Boys B-Team Basketball team. Some of the good players on that team were Bobby Beasley, Houston Ferguson, Jerry Greeson, Ben Turner, Robert Fitzgerald and David Beckett. I was about the worst player on the team and knew I would not make the varsity. I decided since Osborne was a smaller school I might have a better chance of making the varsity there so I transferred back to Osborne for the 11th grade. I was also dating a cute girl from Osborne. I tried out for the varsity and was one of the last two players cut. So that was the end of my high school basketball career. I graduated from Osborne with the class of 1959. I attend both the Campbell and Osborne class reunions and am fortunate to have many good friends and good memories from both schools.
While at Osborne, I still associated with my Campbell friends and dated some Campbell girls. I had a cousin at Campbell and when she was a junior at Campbell, her date for the Prom got sick at the last minute and couldn’t go with her. Her Mom called my Mom and arranged for me to take my cousin to the Campbell prom. It was a little strange but I had a good time and danced with some other girls as well as my cousin.
My claim to fame, and I am probably the only one of DaBoys who can make this claim, is that I killed an alligator in the headwaters of Nickajack Creek when I was 12 years old. Two friends and I were playing in the creek where Pat Mell Road crosses the creek, just west of South Cobb Drive. We heard some noise and discovered a 4-foot alligator trying to eat a large bull frog. We proceeded to bash it with rocks and took it to my house. My mother called the Cobb County Times newspaper and they sent a photographer out to take our picture. It was published in the paper a few days later.
I only started attending DaBoys luncheons this year (2009) and enjoy seeing old friends and listening to stories about the “good old days” from the “good old boys” . w
