Elmore County Living • Spring 2012
“thrill hill,” which was located at the intersection of the south end of 3rd Avenue and Jordan Avenue. A third boy raises the starting flag and in the distance a fourth pushes his bicycle up the far end of the hill. Hornsby wrote; “During the days of homemade wagons, there were races going on all the time. Shelby Lynn Hornsby, who passed away in 2010, sketched scenes of times gone by in the city […] Bicycles were also raced against wag- of Tallassee. Memories he preserved in pencil include the old Roxy Theatre, above, the “Thrill ons. Some kids even tried it on roller Hill” on Third Avenue, below, and the drive-in movie theater, inset. skates. I’m sure some of you still have scars from spills on this hill. […] Remember using a clothespin to hold a piece of cardboard against the spokes of your bicycle to make it sound like a motor? I have found, since I started doing these articles that certain things and places mean a lot to people. This is one of the places that has been mentioned to me quite often. Today, it is just a road, but back then it was a place for fun and a part of growing up.” According to Hornsby’s daughter, Lucretia, people were one of her father’s favorite parts of preserving Tallassee’s history. “He never met a stranger, and he loved everyone no matter who you were or what you did in your life, he loved you,” she said. For years Hornsby hosted a public haunted house for the public at Halloween. Lucretia also remembers Hornsby buying miniature bottles of alcohol at Christmas time. He would take them, she said, to people he knew were homeless or lived in homes with no heat, just to tell them “Merry Christmas” and that he loved them. Hornsby, who attended Opelika Tech for drafting, drew storefronts and buildings, but also scenes of life around town—like Wilbur Williams, who delivered papers for
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