Out of the past: Jan. 3

1992

Fears a critical shortage of fresh produce might develop later this month because of a whitefly infestation in California and Arizona are discounted by produce distributors and brokers; they say supplies of produce in area food stores should improve as prices return to near-normal winter levels.

Stating their work has only just begun, two incumbents on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education say they plan to seek re-election; Ed Thompson and Lyle Davis plan to file for election on the first day of filings, which open Tuesday.

1967

The Cape Girardeau post office during the past year handled more mail than ever before, a 5 percent hike from 1965, with the big upswing coming in outbound mail; the post office here in 1966 received or dispatched 20,488,000 pieces of mail.

The County Court, meeting for the first time as the administrative body of a second-class county, sets out immediately to solve some transitional problems; in major action the court gives the go-ahead for a move of the sheriff's office out of the courthouse to the county jail.

1942

The Cape Girardeau County Tire Rationing Board, sworn in and given instructions at a meeting yesterday at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, has called a meeting this evening of all tire dealers in the county who wish to learn of the new rationing law and who desire to serve as inspectors; under the new regulations, few Girardeans will get tires until the end of the war; those who do must be physicians, surgeons, visiting nurses or veterinarians; fire trucks, police cars, sanitary vehicles and mail trucks may secure new tires, as may public transports carrying 10 or more people.

Mr. and Mrs. Lacy Bernard of Oran, Missouri, have been notified their nephew, Elvis Alexander, 25, is missing after a Japanese attack; he resided with them for two years before entering a CCC camp and later the Navy.

1917

Edward V. Beeve, until three months ago a police officer in Cape Girardeau, has been given a promotion by the Frisco Railroad and now is stationed at the Monett, Missouri, terminal as a sergeant special officer; Beeve plans to move his family from Cape Girardeau to Monett shortly.

Within the next three days, three work trains will begin hauling dirt to fill in the big hole at the foot of Independence Street, where the Frisco Railroad built a sea wall to protect the territory behind it; up to the holidays, only one or two trains were carrying dirt to the big hole, dumping 100 or so carloads of soil into the hole every day.

-- Sharon K. Sanders