I'm no mechanic but tonight on the way home my lights started getting very dim and the car was hesitating, almost "missing" if that makes sense. By the time I got home I barely had enough headlight light to see 5 feet in front of me. I was thinking the alternator is bad, but I'm no mechanic. Also why would the car run so bad if the battery was failing.....

Any thoughts?

Not enough voltage to properly run the ignition? I'm not sure on carbed cars but on an EFI car low voltage will definately make the car run bad.

Yes, it sounds like your alternator died. The car was running totally off the battery. Eventually, the battery was too low to supply adequate power to the ignition. Had you gone much farther the car would have died completely.