Out of the past 8/20/05

25 years ago: Aug. 20, 1980

"Back to school week" has become "back to the pickets" week in four Southern Illinois school districts; salary disputes have led to teacher picketing at Mounds, Meridian, Carterville and Metropolis.

The Cape Girardeau Redevelopment Corp. has been granted its charter from the secretary of state's office in Jefferson City, it is learned; efforts by the corporation have begun to raise approximately $70,000 for a feasibility study of downtown redevelopment, which may be completed later this year.

50 years ago: Aug. 20, 1955

Cape Girardeau's swimming pool in Capaha Park, which was condemned by the Missouri Division of Health as a breeding place for bacteria, may be finishing its final two weeks of service; the pool will close the day before Labor Day, and the city has no plans to open it next year.

Judge D.W. Gilmore is in Jefferson City, where he plans to meet with Gov. Phil M. Donnelly and submit his resignation from the Scott-Cape Girardeau-Mississippi County judicial circuit; Donnelly is expected to appoint Sikeston, Mo., attorney Marshall Craig to the bench to serve until November 1956, when a successor will be elected to serve out Gilmore's four-year term.

75 years ago: Aug. 20, 1930

Members of the Parent-Teacher Units in Cape Girardeau say they will vigorously oppose a proposal now before the city council to exact a license fee from cafeterias operated within the public schools; several merchants have signed a petition asking that cafeterias be licensed, similar to private establishments.

Paving operations on Highway 61 west of Cape Girardeau are completed to Hubble Creek in the morning, and the floor of the bridge in the vicinity of Jackson is being poured; paving machinery is moved in the afternoon to the east end of the project at Williams Creek, seven miles west of Cape Girardeau, and pouring of concrete on that section toward Jackson probably will begin Friday.

100 years ago: Aug. 20, 1905

Yesterday was "courthouse day," with speakers going throughout the county to promote the passage the courthouse proposition in next Saturday's election.

M.A. Grissom returns from a meeting of the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association held in Pleasant Grove, Perry County, Mo., last week; also attending the meeting from Cape Girardeau were Maud and Bertha Walters and Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Carleton.

-- Sharon K. Sanders