Out of the past 5/24/05

25 years ago: May 24, 1980

Those hoping to take a cooling dip in the municipal swimming pool in Capaha Park this Memorial Day weekend will be disappointed; since the Central High School pool is open, the opening of the Capaha Park pool was delayed while it gets a new coat of paint.

Tom Evers and Pennie Sawyer were announced as the salutatorian and valedictorian of University High School graduating class Wednesday; the announcement came at the annual awards assembly held at the school.

50 years ago: May 24, 1955

Marble Hill, Mo.'s new $300,000 dial telephone system will begin operating early next month, says Thomas Q. Ebanues, local manager for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.; new dial telephones have been installed in the homes of 650 customers in the Marble Hill-Lutesville-Leopold area.

The Marquette Cement Mfg. Co.'s "dinky," the 18 1/2-ton locomotive that has been used 25 years at the plant here, becomes an object of fun for Cape Girardeau's children; the engine is loaded aboard a low-boy truck by William Heuer and transported to Capaha Park, where it is put on a special pedestal as an addition to the park's playground equipment.

75 years ago: May 24, 1930

Avery Dillinger, 35, a log roller at the Leming Lumber Co. mill in South Cape Girardeau, is instantly killed in the morning when he falls into a log carrier and is hurled into a 56-inch circle saw; Dillinger, who had been employed at the mill only about a month, is survived by his wife and two children.

The Cape Girardeau School Board will meet soon to act on the proposal by Continental Oil Co. to construct an oil filling station on a lot adjoining the Broadway School on the east; several members of the board have expressed disapproval of the plan because of the danger to pupils from traffic at the station.

100 years ago: May 24, 1905

A large assembly attends the commencement exercises at the Normal School; the senior class of 21 students was the largest in the history of the Normal; from present indications, the class next year will show a great increase.

J.S. Brownfield, a popular conductor on the Frisco, and his wife have returned from a 20-day trip to Portland, Ore., and the Pacific coast; Brownfield went as the delegate from this division to the national meeting of the Order of Railway Conductors.

-- Sharon K. Sanders