Out of the past

25 years ago: Nov. 16, 1981

Downed electrical lines at five locations in the Good Hope Street area leave Missouri Utilities Co. customers along three blocks of Sprigg Street without power most of the morning; among customers whose power is interrupted is the Cape Girardeau Police Department, which converts to standby power.

Members of the Jackson Board of Aldermen, anxious to attend the high school playoff football game between Jackson and Pacific, Mo., handle only two items of business and postpone the regular session until Monday; the Indians down the visitors 27-0.

50 years ago: Nov. 16, 1956

Two schoolhouses in the Jackson School District were sold to the highest bidders this week when the school board met to open the sealed bids; Lawrence Davenport bought the Gravel Hill school and site for $1,501, and Junior Hanschen purchased the Gordonville building for $126; the latter will be moved from the grounds by Dec. 11.

Evidently due to an earlier mailing of statements, which brought in some payments at a corresponding early date, Cape Girardeau tax collections are running $22,385.84 ahead of those of a year ago.

75 years ago: Nov. 16, 1931

Invasion by the termite -- a wood-, concrete- and brick-destroying insect -- has alarmed several property owners in Cape Girardeau whose dwellings have been damaged by the pest; so great is the damage that a special representative of Bruce Flooring Co., Memphis, Tenn., has been contracted to treat the woodwork of a few local dwellings with Terminex, said to be the only chemical that will successfully combat the insect.

Public exercises in the evening mark the opening of the Franklin School addition; the construction marks the completion of the building, which was built in 1926 minus four rooms and the gymnasium called for in the original plans.

100 years ago: Nov. 16, 1906

A popular vote was taken yesterday at the chrysanthemum and baby show in Jackson upon six classes of babies, and the winners were presented sterling silver spoons; attendance at the show was good, with about 300 people there.

Up to a late hour in the afternoon, nothing is heard from Washington concerning the choice of a site for the federal building to be built in Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders