Out of the past 3/9/05

25 years ago: March 9, 1980

A freeze on prices for more than 400 grocery items, effective immediately, was announced yesterday by Schnucks-Walgreens president Bill G. Beaty; the voluntary action, said Beaty, was taken because of concern over inflation and rising prices.

E.C. Younghouse, chairman of the congregation, lifts the first shovel of dirt in the groundbreaking ceremony for Trinity Lutheran Church; the ceremony is held on the site where construction of the new $2 million church will begin this spring.

50 years ago: March 9, 1955

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Votes of the Chaffee school district, in a special election yesterday, approved issuance of $150,000 bonds, and this is to be bolstered by a grant of $50,000 from the state; the funds will allow the construction of a grade school, as well as other school building improvements and the addition of adequate bleachers to the football stadium.

A contract totaling $358,562 has been awarded to the Mary Construction Co. Inc., a subsidiary of R.B. Potashnick Co. of Cape Girardeau, for the construction of a water supply line and related work at Scott Air Force Base, Belleville, Ill.

75 years ago: March 9, 1930

Construction of an addition to the auditorium of Red Star Baptist Church will begin next week, says the Rev. W.E. Hicks, pastor; the auditorium now seats about 300 people, and the new addition will accommodate about 50 more people; a Sunday school room also will be added to the basement of the church.

With a crowd that packs and jams the auditorium as "jury," Dr. Lincoln McConnell presents the case of the deity of Jesus Christ in his sermon at Centenary Methodist Church; much as a lawyer would by logic and reason present a case to the jury, so does this former law student, ex-infidel and former evangelist place before the crowd his reasons for believing Jesus was of divine conception.

100 years ago: March 9, 1905

The disagreeable weather has put a damper on local politics, as well as the street department; the mud is so deep at the crossings that one can hardly wade across the street to talk politics to his neighbor, so the day is quiet.

George A. Kassel, the well-known photographer, goes to St. Louis to buy a new photograph outfit for a handsome gallery he will open over the new bank in Haarig; the building is undergoing alterations, and Kassel hopes to be ready for business by April.

-- Sharon K. Sanders