Out of the past: Dec. 21

1993

Although outpatient surgery in Southeast Missouri is more costly than most areas of the state, procedures in Cape Girardeau generally are some of the best bargains in the region; a state report showed Doctors Park Surgery Inc. in Cape Girardeau has some of the lowest costs in the region, well below the state's median in most categories of outpatient procedures.

Santa Claus and a few dozen Jaycee helpers made some early Christmas deliveries in the evening; thousands of toys donated to the annual Toybox campaign were given to needy Cape Girardeau children, who get the added bonus of a personal visit from the man in red himself.

1968

CAPE KENNEDY, Fla. -- Apollo 8's Air Force Col. Frank Borman, Navy Capt. James A. Lovell Jr. and Air Force Maj. William A. Anders became the first humans to escape the grasp of earth's gravity as their rocket blasted them out of earth orbit and sent them toward man's first voyage in the vicinity of the moon; they aimed for a Christmas Eve orbit of the moon.

A running chase down Broadway early in the morning, during which a Cape Girardeau policeman fired five shots at a fleeing car, ended behind the floodwall with the apprehension of two men and the escape of a third, possibly into the Mississippi River.

1943

Judge James A. Finch of Cape Girardeau, acting prosecuting attorney of the county, has accepted the drive chairmanship for the 1944 Red Cross war fund campaign; it will be held in March.

Freight transportation by the Motor Transport Co., which has purchased the Potashnick Local line between Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, over Highway 61, is started through Cape Girardeau; the company, headed by Wilson Fly of Memphis, has established headquarters at a former service station on Highway 61, half a block north of the Broadway junction.

1918

According to Mayor H.H. Haas' proclamation, church services were permitted tomorrow and on Christmas day, except children under 14 years of age weren't allowed to attend; this will necessarily prevent Sunday school exercises and the holding of the usual Christmas trees and entertainments.

One large window in the D.A. Glenn Dry Goods Store was given over entirely to the entertainment of the kiddies; the scene evidently represented several different countries as seen perched on a peak of the Pyrenees; it featured a Spanish castle, sheep on the side of the mountain, a Dutch windmill, etc.

-- Sharon K. Sanders