Forty years in business

Since 1968, revolutionary products have caused some businesses to become extinct. Disposable diapers have replaced diaper services. Home milk delivery in 1968 was declining, but still in existence.

In offices at that time, secretaries could count on routine -- and sometimes emergency -- visits from the typewriter repairman. Others who visited periodically were there to service or repair the Dictaphone, mimeograph, adding machines, calculators or Ditto machine. The Xerox repairman was beginning to make an appearance, but some offices hadn't quite decided if that new piece of equipment was worth the cash outlay.

In offices today, administrative assistants, not secretaries anymore, are apt to ask "What's a mimeograph?"

On their way home in 1968, employees might stop at a gas station and get their gas tanks filled, oil checked, windshields washed and tire pressure checked, all without leaving their car. There were employees who actually did that in places called filling stations and garages.

In the early part of 1968, Procter & Gamble began considering the possibility of locating in Cape Girardeau, which it eventually did later that year, making sure to acknowledge that it built the plant entirely on its own with no state or federal assistance.

Florsheim Shoe Company announced in January, 1968 that it would build a new 92,000-square-foot building on Highway 74 and continue operating at the plant it currently had. This was before imports stepped all over American shoe company profits.

Remember Grant's stores? If you do, you also remember Kresge, Woolworth, and Carp's (Wal Mart was only six years old then). In January, 1968, the local manager of the W.T. Grant Co., announced a 6.36 percent sales increase from December 1966 to December 1967.

Forty years ago, the Southeast Missourian chronicled busy barge traffic on the Mississippi River, announced a new runway at the municipal airport, and showed construction work that was extending William Street from Kingshighway to Interstate 55.

Also under construction was a new federal building on Broadway. Mid-South Steel Co., planned to build a new plant on Water Street, and the State College -- as it was called then -- was adding buildings and expanding Kent Library.

In 1968, Cape Girardeau County had five banks, four in Cape Girardeau and one in Jackson. The five banks at that time were considering a move to computerize their bookkeeping and other transactions at a computer center a large metropolitan bank was planning to build in "a Southeast Missouri community."

According to a Dun & Bradstreet report that year, Cape County had added 35 manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers in the preceding year.

First quarter sales reports were good, except in one area: women's hats. In 1968, there were still millinery stores, such as Dolly's Hat Shop on Main Street which was remodeled that year, but women were giving up wearing hats because they didn't fit the current bouffant hair style.

Hats however were not among the items listed as available in the new fashionable Libson shop that opened a new location that year at 119 North Main St.

Prince Gardner, manufacturer of leather goods, added on to its factory in St. Marys, Mo. It was the third addition since the company opened in 1951.

Liberty Food Giant opened that year at its present location on North Kingshighway, where it's now known as Food Giant. Other grocery stores to open or expand that year were Kroger and National. They joined IGA and the A&P.

Restaurant chains that were popular then, but are now memories, opened in 1968: Lum's and Shakey's Pizza. McDonald's opened that year too; it is the only of those remaining.

In July, G.D. Fronabarger, business editor for the Southeast Missourian, quoted restaurant owner Richard Barnhouse as saying about restaurant offerings in Cape Girardeau, "If you can't get it on Broadway, you can't get it."

Also in July, Fronabarger noted the beginning of an upward swing in the construction of apartment buildings. In 1968, a financial office whose owner still used his middle initial opened: Edward D. Jones.

James E. Brown, president of Mercantile Trust Co. locally, announced that about 350 banks joined together to create Bankmark, a new credit card system.

Monthly airplane auctions were held at the municipal airport. In November, 15 airplanes were sold. New businesses opening included a forerunner to Krispy Kreme, the Tastee Donut Shops, based in New Orleans, and Rodells, For the Man, a men's clothing store. Construction was scheduled to begin on a new Ramada Inn at Gordonville Road and I-55, a Drury representative announced.

As 1968 came to an end, Fronabarger reported that 52 new businesses, mostly retail, had opened in town. There had been nine major expansions and 10 relocations. The year brought seven new industries: Charmin Paper Products, Florsheim Shoe Co., Bennett Corrugated Box Co., Leatherwood Manufacturing Co., Norton Manufacturing Co, Beaver Boat Co. and Bumpa-Tel, Inc. Expansions included Superior Electric Products Co., Central Packing Co., and Mid-South Steel Products.

There were no megastores that covered acres, and shopping was consolidated mostly in outdoor shopping centers, not indoor climate-controlled malls. Day care centers were usually a grandparent or a willing neighbor. Drive-through windows in fast-food restaurants have replaced car hops or walk-up windows.

When today's 40 Under 40 honorees relax after work with a workout at a fitness center, while they hydrate themselves with bottled water, maybe they can marvel at the fact that 40 years ago, no one hydrated; they drank water from public fountains. Sometimes the water was cooled. Workout fashions were mostly sweat suits or shorts and T- shirts. Athletic shoes were not specialized beyond tennis and running. There were no protein bars or energy drinks for a quick pick-me-up after a workout. Nor were franchises built around the sale and promotion of any of those services and products.

It makes one wonder what -- and who -- the next 40 years will bring.