Out of the past: Nov. 30

1999

Jackson school officials are planning two expansions to help alleviate overcrowding caused by growth in enrollment and programs; Jackson School District enrollment is at a record 4,480 students and has 300 teachers; the district has experienced an average growth rate of 3% annually since 1994, and there is no foreseeable end to the growth.

Southeast Missouri State University will receive $2.1 million in federal money for three projects, including $1 million to help equip a new polytechnic building that soon will be under construction; the funding is part of the massive $390 billion budget approved by Congress and the president; besides funds for the polytechnic school, the university is to receive $600,000 to fund public transportation services for welfare-to-work clients in Southeast Missouri and $500,000 to help relocate the Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Lab to larger quarters.

1974

Thanksgiving was only a memory yesterday as thousands of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois residents jammed Cape Girardeau to get a head start on their Christmas gift hunting; the day after Thanksgiving traditionally marks the opening of the Christmas season, and Friday was no exception as the Main-Broadway-Spanish business district and Town Plaza Shopping Center were hit by throngs of shoppers.

Cape Girardeau has hired three new firefighters, bolstering the departments normal numbers to 51; the new men are Charles Denson of Chaffee and Thomas C. Lee and Michael Carlton, both of Cape Girardeau; the trio will start off with training, and they will be stationed at Station No. 1.

1949

Cape Girardeau’s planned post office and Federal Building, carried on the government’s proposed list for better than 10 years, may be much closer to reality than anyone had anticipated; this was indicated by an Associated Press item yesterday relating that the post office department is asking $1,100,000 for the building and site; should Congress, convening in January, approve the appropriation, it is possible that construction of the building could start in the next year or two.

City engineer John R. Walther has completed plans for a sanitary sewer system to serve the new Second Sunset Addition and expects to begin work soon on plans for a similar system to serve the Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive area; the sewers in Second Sunset Addition will be built privately by the subdivision owner, Riverside Lumber Co., serving 41 lots in an area of eight blocks.

1924

Losing control of their automobile as they attempt to change drivers, siblings Gus and Margaret Russkamp, 5 S. Lorimier St., have a miraculous escape from death, when their Ford coupe plunges into the icy waters of the lake at Hely’s quarry on South Kingshighway, turns a flip-flop and lands upright on a ledge almost completely submerged in the water, 30 feet below the level of the roadway; dazed and shocked, the two climb through the caved-in top of the car and are rescued from their perilous position by Charles Watts, a Cape Taxi driver who is on the road nearby and sees the car dive into the lake.

Dr. E.W.G. Wilson and his sister, Edna Wilson, are building a new bungalow in the 300 block of North Pacific Street; the modern brick home will contain five rooms and a bath, hardwood floors hot water heat and all new conveniences; the house is being constructed by M.E. Leming Co., and the cost is estimated to be $10,000.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a weekend column called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper.