Out of the past 7/20/07

25 years ago: July 20, 1982

A wagon train, part of a program called Vision Quest, a probation program for juvenile offenders, crosses Cape Girardeau County headed for Pennsylvania; 51 program participants and 29 staff members roll along Route OO west of Gordonville, eventually crossing the Mississippi River Bridge at Cape Girardeau.

The Missouri Department of Revenue's special investigation bureau has reopened its Cape Girardeau office, after having been closed for almost four and a half years; Vincent D. Grojean reopened the office yesterday in the H.-H. Building.

50 years ago: July 20, 1957

Jackson Mayor Larry A. Nowak, fairly sharp on the art of milking a cow, won a milking contest from Cape Girardeau Mayor Walter H. Ford last night; it was part of the program for the first annual Cape County Dairy Festival at Jackson.

Maj. Gen. William S. Stone, a native of Cape Girardeau, has assumed command of the huge Atlantic Division of the Military Air Transport Service at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

75 years ago: July 20, 1932

G.A. Womack of Cape Girardeau has been notified that he has passed the examination for assistant pharmacist; Womack, who has trained at Womack Pharmacy, 630 Good Hope St., will be eligible to take the exam for pharmacist after working two more years.

Bud Schrader, an employee at the Marquette Hotel, suffered a double fracture of the left ankle in a baseball game at Fairground Park yesterday; he was injured while attempting to steal home; he collided with the catcher, who was blocking the plate.

100 years ago: July 20, 1907

The small town of Houck, about 15 miles west of Cape Girardeau and five miles further on than Gordonville, was struck yesterday afternoon by a windstorm that later showed up in the form of a heavy electrical and rainstorm here; two of the town's five or six houses were damaged; none of the 25 residents of Houck was injured.

The telephone company, for whom young Tom Hamil was working when he was electrocuted Thursday morning, generously bore all the expenses of his funeral.

-- Sharon K. Sanders