Out of the past 12/21/10

25 years ago: Dec. 21, 1985

A woman is robbed at gunpoint in the evening at West Park Mall by a pair of robbers, who make off with two furs she had just bought; it is the seventh report of an armed robbery in Cape Girardeau this month.

Sgt. Michael Hurst, a Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department deputy, has been named the 1985 recipient of the Timothy J. Ruopp Award, an award initiated last year.

50 years ago: Dec. 21, 1960

Ice-packed streets and a blizzard-blown 3-inch snow swirling on winds up to 35 miles an hour clogged homebound traffic on Cape Girardeau streets and on highways in the area yesterday afternoon and evening; it was necessary to close traffic between Perryville, Mo., and Jackson during the evening, while Missouri State Highway Patrol officers cleared traffic jams on U.S. 61.

It is learned that orders have been issued in Washington holding in abeyance a proposed plan of reorganization of the Army Reserve Engineer Replacement Training Center, which would eliminate Southeast Missouri components.

75 years ago: Dec. 21, 1935

To date, work amounting to $8,694.40 has been done on five Works Progress Administration projects in Cape Girardeau; those projects are Alta Vista Drive, grading and surfacing Main Street, razing Lorimier School, malarial control and county sewing rooms.

With Max Wielpuetz selling the Bamby Baking Co. to new owners, a stretch of 24 years in which the Wielpuetz family operated a bakery business at the southeast corner of Good Hope and Frederick streets comes to a close; Carl Wielpuetz and his three sons moved the company to Cape Girardeau in 1911 from Fornfelt.

100 years ago: Dec. 21, 1910

Straw hats and screen windows are all the rage in Cape Girardeau; Bob Lamkin of the Buckner-Ragsdale store has been busy buying straw hats for next summer, and a man from the Burrows Screen Co. of St. Louis is fitting new screens on the Federal Building; after they are all fitted and numbered, they will be stored away for use early in the spring.

Since the Lyric Theater added a vaudeville attraction to its entertainment, the crowds there have increased; the present act is exceptionally good.

-- Sharon K. Sanders