Out of the past: Dec. 16

1989

The final step in the transition from a nursing service to a full-scale county health department will be made later this year by the Cape County Health Department, when it moves into a new building at 1121 Linden St.; moving day is set for Dec. 27.

If bonds were issued in four stages, a one-cent sales tax potentially could generate enough revenue to pay the estimated $73 million cost of constructing a 7,700-acre recreational lake in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties.

1964

Those Christmas cards and cookies are starting to make their move; Postmaster Ted R. Regenhardt reports mail volume, which had been lagging somewhat during the early holiday season, is picking up substantially; he estimates that 75,000 pieces of mail were handled by Cape Girardeau postal workers yesterday.

More than 3,000 persons traveling in 1,320 cars view a live manger scene on the Baptist Student grounds adjacent to State College in the evening; Jane Misselhorn portrays Mary, and Everett Farrell is Joseph; the wise men are Robert McClean, Brooks Anderson and Byron Chapin, while the shepherds are Gene Wilfong and Jim Sevic.

1939

Nine hundred children attend a "food show" at the Broadway Theater in the morning, each turning in a can of food or a bag of potatoes in order to see the film; the canned goods fill 24 bushel baskets; this is moved to the chamber of commerce building, where it will be sorted for use in the community-assembled Christmas baskets.

Work on Sunset Boulevard by the city street department, with WPA employees being used, is progressing steadily; a considerable cut is being made less than a block from Broadway, Sunset being reduced to grade, so sidewalks, curbs and gutters can be built.

1914

The beautiful new bungalow of Tom Taylor's, out in Lorimier Place, catches fire around 9 a.m., apparently from a defective flue, and a large hole is burned in the roof before the fire wagon and firefighters arrive; the most damage done, however, is by the water, which ruins the walls in several rooms.

The first, second and third floor workers at the big shoe factory here are laid off for the day, owing to a leak in one of the boilers, which cuts the power for the plant in half.

-- Sharon K. Sanders