Out of the past: Aug. 9

1996

Helen Rodriguez doubled her patients yesterday at the intensive care unit of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri; five ducks from the Capaha Park Lagoon were brought to the clinic after park workers discovered they were ill; all the birds were limp and lifeless, but no one knows why; five birds already have died.

Gone are the days when Missouri Highways and Transportation Department officials told people what road improvements they would get; under a new program, Missourians will tell officials what roads should be improved; then department officials will look at ways to fix them; Cape Girardeau County is the testing ground for the new method, being used to study Routes 25, 34 and 72.

1971

"I'm tired, but still not tired of chess," says Cape Girardeau's world champion marathon chess player; Jon Anderson, 21, made the comment Saturday night after playing chess for 81 hours -- one hour longer than the previous world record of 80 hours; Anderson got in more than 160 games during his 81-hour chess spree; he lost only 20 games for a winning percentage in the high 80s.

The SEMO District Fair Association is sponsoring a demolition derby to be held in front of the grandstand in Arena Park on Saturday night; proceeds will be used to defray costs of repairing and painting grandstand bleachers heavily damaged in a storm last March.

1946

After being tied up for 11 days due to a labor dispute in St. Louis, the Cape Girardeau shoe factory of the International company will resume full operations Monday morning; 1,500 workers have been recalled.

G.D. Fronabarger (Southeast Missourian archive)

The weather-beaten war service honor roll board at Fairground Park -- near the Broadway-West End Boulevard intersection -- is to be removed; the American Legion post, which erected and maintained the board, voted to remove it Wednesday night following a report by George Vandeven, who has been responsible for securing and keeping the names up to date; the four heavy brick columns will be left as a decorative entrance, and the casualty lists, prepared on two center posts, will remain intact, as will the flagpole.

1921

ORAN, Mo. -- The aerocruiser tandem motor has been completed, and a number of directors and stockholders of the company living here and at Morehouse, Sikeston, West Plains and other Southeast Missouri points left yesterday for Detroit, Michigan, to witness the final tests of the engine; the inventors of the engine are the Rev. T.M. Finley and his associates; it is claimed it will revolutionize gas engine construction.

At a meeting of the board of governors of the Cape Girardeau County Club last night, H.L. Albert, vice-president, was elected president to succeed the late W.H. Harrison, and Fred Groves was elected vice president; Charles L. Harrison was elected a member of the board; in other business, the board purchased a complete outfit of dishes, glassware, silverware, linens, etc., for the clubhouse dining room and kitchen; beginning Sunday, breakfast will be served at the clubhouse each Sunday morning and dinner will be served each Sunday evening for members and their families; catering the meals will be Iska Carmack and Delia Kimmel, who have a great reputation in serving luncheons and dinners for the Rotary and Commercial clubs.

-- Sharon K. Sanders