Out of the past: Dec. 2

1994

Construction is underway on a water line that will provide improved fire protection for the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport; the $172,915 project involves laying about a mile of 12-inch water line from the Nash Road industrial site southward to the airport.

CAIRO, Ill. -- More than a half a dozen parents, a city council member and a local police officer told the Cairo Board of Education last night it is time to settle the strike by the Cairo Association of Teachers; the board also heard from representatives of the association's negotiating team, who said teachers are willing to discuss finances in hopes of settling the strike, which is in its 10th day.

1969

In less than an hour and a half last night, numbers were drawn at random from a big glass laboratory jar at Selective Service headquarters at Washington, D.C., for the nation's first military lottery in a generation; no one classified 1-A by the Cape Girardeau draft board was born Sept. 14, the date selected by lot at the top of the draft priority list; likewise, at the opposite extreme, no 1-A registrant here was born June 8, the lowest risk birth date for draft-eligible men.

A thief, posing as a customer interested in rings, grabs two diamond rings valued at more than $800 from a display at PamMel's Jewelry store, 821 Broadway, and runs from the establishment.

1944

The Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, GI caravan, featuring 15 top Army entertainers and a display of Army equipment, will be in Cape Girardeau on Wednesday afternoon and night in the interest of the Sixth War Loan drive; the caravan will take part in a big parade through Cape Girardeau in the afternoon and that evening, the entertainers will perform at Broadway Theater; admission to the show will be by presentation of war bonds.

For the first time this season, the lagoon at Fairground Park has frozen over; however, the ice isn't thick enough for skating.

1919

Varina Ward, an elderly woman living at 930 Bloomfield Road, slipped on the ice on the rear steps of her home and fell; it is believed she broke her left ankle; she has been taken to Saint Francis Hospital, where an X-ray picture will ascertain the exact extent of her injuries.

The soft-drink parlor and poolroom of Joe Pelley of Illmo catches fire and almost burns down in the evening; the business isn't entirely completed; Pelley and his brother have living rooms upstairs, and they build a fire there, which becomes too hot and sets the room ablaze; for a while, the whole block is threatened.

-- Sharon K. Sanders