Out of the Past 1/20/09

25 years ago: Jan. 20, 1984

The Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department announces the lagoon in Capaha Park is ready to receive ice skaters; it is the second time this winter ice has reached a depth of 4 1/2 inches, the minimum thickness for skating.

Fire, believed to have started from water pipes being thawed, damaged a home at 623 Emerald St. in Cape Girardeau.

50 years ago: Jan. 20, 1959

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- An announcement has been made of the purchase by Bob Capshaw of the two Littleton lots on East Main Street, between the Finney drugstore and the Elks Building; Capshaw says he will build a bowling alley there; the lots formerly held three buildings destroyed by last year's tornado.

Mr. and Mrs. Rush H. Limbaugh have returned to Cape Girardeau after almost two months of travel through India; Limbaugh, a Cape Girardeau lawyer, and Harold L. Reeve, a Chicago lawyer, served as specialists representing the State Department.

75 years ago: Jan. 20, 1934

Until the Missouri Utilities Co. puts into effect the reduced electric lighting rate in Cape Girardeau ordered by the Public Service Commission for 1933 and makes a refund to customers on the rate charge during the year, city officials say they won't accept any further reduction offered by the company and won't agree to any dismissal of litigation involving the city and the company.

Repair work has been done on the joists and flooring between the first and second floors of the Sunny Hill Dairy Co. building, 245 S. Frederick St., which was damaged by fire Dec. 31.

100 years ago: Jan. 20, 1909

The Mississippi River rose a foot or more yesterday, sending water down the channel between the sandbar and the Missouri side; water company officials say they will be pumping water through the pipes again shortly.

BENTON, Mo. -- W.H. Stubblefield of Oran, Mo., says an active campaign for a local option election is imminent; this means a locking of horns between the north and south portions of Scott County, with Sikeston, Mo., working with the north end element, which is believed to be "wet."

-- Sharon K. Sanders