Out of the past 4/1/08

25 years ago: April 1, 1983

Police receive 17 reports of vandalism occurring at scattered locations in Cape Girardeau last night and today; all the incidents involve basketball goals being torn from backboards and paint being sprayed on vehicles, homes, garages, fences and trash cans.

County Clerk Rodney Miller predicts that county voters may turn out in record numbers in Tuesday's election, spurred on by a $5 million multipurpose building bond issue proposal in Cape Girardeau and a proposition calling for the merger of the Delta and Chaffee school districts.

50 years ago: April 1, 1958

Richard E. Snider, a graduate of State College and the University of Missouri law school, files for the Democratic nomination for prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County.

SIKESTON, Mo. — In the most stirring city election for a long time, C.E. "Daddy" Felker is named mayor; he defeats the incumbent, Charles H. Bugler, who was in office a number of years; finishing third in the mayoral race is Thomas F. Rafferty.

75 years ago: April 1, 1933

Five business and professional men — H.H. Haas, O.A. Knehans, E.G. Gramling, J.S. Kochtitzky and George H. Meyer — spoke at a meeting last night of the Taxpayers League at Common Pleas Courthouse; each opposed the voting of the 25-cent levy in the school tax for building purposes, but urged the approval Tuesday of the $1 levy on the $100 valuation for the operation of the schools.

A hearse of the Walther Funeral Home stalls in Turkey Creek south of Neelys Landing, when taken there to bring the body of Leander Smith to Cape Girardeau; four mules are required to pull the hearse out.

100 years ago: April 1, 1908

Merchants of Upper Broadway, who have more civic pride than the city fathers who are paid to clean the streets, quit waiting and go to work themselves to clean the thoroughfare; the mud had grown so deep and tenacious that farmers began to desert the street.

Since the heavy rains, the basement sales room at J.B. Schneider's store, 614 Broadway, has been flooded with water; as this department is filled with enameled, tin, iron and wooden ware, the entire stock must be sold at once.

— Sharon K. Sanders