Out of the past 5/19/06

25 years ago: May 19, 1981

After months of near drought conditions, the weather story for Cape Girardeau has turned into a soggy saga; thunderstorms that rolled through the city yesterday brought with them a drenching 2.82 inches of rain, swelling creek banks and turning farmers' fields into mudholes.

The dynamite blast Friday that destroyed a building housing controls to the primary rock crusher in the quarry of the Marquette Cement Mfg. Co. plant won't result in any slowdown of production or temporary loss of jobs, says an official with Marquette's parent company, Gulf and Western Industries Inc. at Nashville, Tenn.

50 years ago: May 19, 1956

Construction on the first phase of the Main Street levee program, running only slightly behind the time table set by the contractor, is about 30 percent complete; it is expected the Broadway sewer will be laid and the street opened again for traffic from Lorimier Street eastward by Wednesday of next week.

The annual Cape Girardeau Rose Festival and Garden pilgrimage kicks off its 10th edition at noon, with an attractive garden center in Houck Field House sharing the spotlight with rose beauty spots on the route to be visited by guests.

75 years ago: May 19, 1931

At 91, William Billings says he is eligible for the city's "oldest" club; Billings, who claims to have "fought practically every rebel" during the Civil War, resides with his daughter, Mrs. Ed Carter, 1129 S. Ellis St.

Additional workers are employed by the Missouri Utilities Co. as it begins construction of the intake in the Mississippi River for the new water plant at Cape Rock; at the site of the new intake, a tunnel about 40 feet deep will be bored through solid rock and will then run for a distance of about 150 feet into the river.

100 years ago: May 19, 1906

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Two Iron Mountain freight trains and a work train were wrecked last night at Mingo, a small station north of here; three men were killed and several injured; demolished freight cars were strewn along the track for 300 yards.

The great baseball game to be played between the members of the Normal School faculty and the graduating seniors has to be postponed from this afternoon until Monday; several of the seniors play on the first team, which has been in Rolla, Mo., for two days; they miss the morning train from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders