Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.

Firemen repair toys in 1935

Posted Wednesday, December 20, 2017, at 12:00 AM

Dec. 21, 1935 Southeast Missourian

A month ago members of Cape Girardeau's fire department sounded an appeal for old toys, promising that if Girardeans would bring in the playthings, they would repair and renovate them so that some of the needy youngsters would be sure of a visit by Santa Claus. The response was far more than our gallant firemen looked for, but they stuck by their toys and did a big job in a big way. They are shown here with some of the toys. Left to right: Chief Harry Rabe, Pink Niswonger, Vincent Unnerstall, Otto Fowler, Roy Smith, Assistant Chief R.J. Kammer and Linder Allen. (G.D. Fronabarger photo)

Once a traditional activity for the Cape Girardeau firefighters, the practice was discontinued for a period of years until it was revived in 1956. Read more in this previous blog:

Firemen repair toys for Christmas

Comments

View 1 comment or respond

Community discussion is important, and we encourage you to participate as a reader and commenter. Click here to see our Guidelines. We also encourage registered users to let us know if they see something inappropriate on our site. You can do that by clicking "Report Comment" below.

Today the poor kids have to have new still in the original box toys.

-- Posted by R. W. Bess on Thu, Dec 21, 2017, at 9:59 PM

Respond to this blog

Posting a comment requires a subscription.