Out of the past: Dec. 5

1996

Gasoline prices in the Cape Girardeau area have climbed to nearly $1.25 a gallon for regular unleaded fuel at most stations, the highest price since January 1991; Mike Right of the AAA Auto Club of Missouri says gasoline inventories are at the lowest level nationally since the 1960s; he says low supply is the main reason for high fuel prices.

Flood buyout efforts in Cape Girardeau received another financial boost Monday through $300,000 from the Missouri Department of Economic Development; the additional funding, which comes from the Community Development Block Grant program, brings the total budget for the city's buyout program to $2,240,585.

1971

Special activities mark the 20th anniversary of Faith Baptist Temple in Cape Girardeau; the Rev. A.B. Hess, pastor of Columbia (Missouri) Baptist Temple is the speaker at the morning worship service, when all charter members of the church are recognized; pastor of the church is the Rev. Dallas Williams.

Florsheim Shoe Co. has seen a marked sales increase in the men's division of its operation; the firm's old plant on Main Street is being renovated and some of the expanded business, chiefly heel production, is being taken care of there; currently there are about 150 persons employed at this plant, with the possibility of additional employment later; the new plant on South West End Boulevard and Highway 74 employs 650.

1946

The Missourian learns on good authority -- giving credence to a rumor which has been current since mid-summer -- that the city will file within the next few weeks a motion for dismissal of its flood control suit in the Main Street area; interest in the proposal, which would have created a Main Street Special Improvement District, has noticeably slackened since the suit was actually filed in Common Pleas Court.

Cape Girardeau's Golden Troopers will march again; given new recruits from the ranks of World War II veterans, the Louis K. Juden Post of the American Legion last night voted to accept the report of a committee that the drum and bugle corps be revived; $10,500 will be needed from the post in the next three years to equip and train the corps for competition in state and national conventions.

1921

Sunday, Dec. 4, will go down in the annals of First Christian Church as one of the greatest in its history; the membership of the church, asked to raise $1,000 cash to apply on the recently purchased H.A. Nussbaum property, placed $1,524.90 on the altar yesterday morning, and more money was brought in the evening; there were a few more than 200 persons present at the service, and every one of them walked to the altar and made a contribution.

J.H. Strain, picture show owner of Cape Girardeau, and George Grant Jr. of Jackson have a narrow escape from death, when an Iron Mountain train crashes into an automobile driven by Strain on the way to Cape Girardeau at 12:59 p.m.; both occupants of the auto are thrown out, and the car is demolished; the accident occurs at the foot of a hill at the edge of Jackson on Kingshighway leading to Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders