Out of the past: Dec. 11

1995

As the Christmas shopping season wears on, retailers had hoped for record sales over the weekend; as many expected, the frigid weather and snow boosted holiday sales; shoppers returned to the stores Saturday and Sunday after a hiatus Friday when about 4 inches of snow blanketed Southeast Missouri.

Construction is underway on the Bavarian-style Jackson Drury Inn and Suites hotel nine miles north of Cape Girardeau at Interstate 55 and U.S. 61; the 80-room, four-story hotel is patterned after the Drury Inn in Frankenmuth, Michigan, and boasts the same Bavarian theme and decor; half of the rooms are two-room suites.

1970

Christmas spirit at the Cape Girardeau Post Office means more than delivering Yuletide letters, cards and packages; for the first time in many years -- perhaps in the history of the local office -- the post office sports a Christmas tree in the lobby; the tree, obtained with donations of postal employees, won't be the end of holiday happenings at the post office; for the next two weeks, Christmas music will be played in the lobby.

Gov. Warren E. Hearnes breaks a tie vote of the Cape Girardeau County Democratic Committee with the appointment of Ruth Meadows of Cape Girardeau as county treasurer; she and Elmer R. Schaper of Jackson, a former county treasurer, were tied for the post; Meadows is the sister of U.S. Rep. Bill D. Burlison, D-Cape Girardeau.

1945

Conferences are being held in an effort to solve the problem of schooling 12 elementary age children, members of the Japanese colony established on the vegetable ranch owned and operated near Arbor by Godfrey L. White of Osceola, Arkansas; five children from the colony have entered high school at Advance, Missouri, but the others of grade school age are out of school pending a decision on where they will go; the colony is in the Green Cox district.

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Loss of at least $60,000 results early in the day, when fire guts the Charlestonian, a large combined cafeteria and automobile service station on Highway 60 at the edge of town; the modern stone and brick building, erected seven years ago, was owned by W.R. McCracken.

1920

Records in the Cape Girardeau city clerk's office show an increase of 262 automobile owners for this year over last; 668 licenses were issued for the year 1919, and 930 for the present year, giving the city a revenue of from $3,000 to $3,500 yearly; the city clerk of Jackson states his records show 201 licenses issued for 1919 and 217 for 1920.

Henry W. Ludwig and his sons, Arthur and Ernest, nursery men from Pocahontas, are in Cape Girardeau conferring with officers of the Cape Girardeau County Fruit Growers Association and directors of the Casquin Orchards Company about furnishing fruit trees for this year's planting; Ludwig, a man with a reputation for integrity and square dealing, has two-year-old trees of various sorts, all good stock, that he can furnish for immediate delivery.

-- Sharon K. Sanders