Out of the past 1/29/10

25 years ago: Jan. 29, 1985

At last, Cape Girardeau Park Department personnel determine there is enough ice on part of the lagoon at Capaha Park to allow for safe skating; the traditional bonfire will be built next to the lagoon by 3 p.m. today, signifying the ice is safe.

G. Gordon Liddy, the silent Watergate burglar, addresses a crowd of about 300 in Academic Auditorium on the Southeast Missouri State University campus; in his talk, Liddy admits he made a mistake -- not in carrying out the break-in and bugging of Democratic headquarters, but in getting caught.

50 years ago: Jan. 29, 1960

Winter flexes its muscles across Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois; drizzle had been generally forecast, but snowfall comes instead; Cape Girardeau receives more than an inch of snow.

C.J. Strom is the eighth candidate to file his petition with the city clerk to seek nomination to one of the four city commissioner positions to be filled in the spring election; until selling the business in 1958, Strom owned and operated a magazine and newspaper distribution agency and retail store at 415 Broadway.

75 years ago: Jan. 29, 1935

A new Federal Emergency Relief Administration project will make it possible for needy persons to have shoes repaired without cost; the shop will be in the Ideal Shoe Shop, 905 Broadway, and the foreman will be Adolph Jarosik, shop proprietor; six assistants selected from relief roles will work 15 hours per week.

The mule is making a comeback; buyers are paying the highest prices for the animals since the World War; the call for mules from cotton-producing states is especially strong.

100 years ago: Jan. 29, 1910

Workers are placing sod on the terraces at the new federal building on Broadway; the building will soon have a completed appearance.

Dick Carroll's gasoline launch, which has been in the lake at the fairgrounds since last fall, is loaded on a big log wagon and hauled to the river; there it is placed in the stream; however, the men launching the craft fail to tie lines to it, and it goes scooting off toward the Gulf; the men quickly secure a skiff and rush to capture the launch.

-- Sharon K. Sanders