Out of the past: July 20

1996

Happy Hollow remains the preferred site for a new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau, but a final decision won't be made before fall; the General Services Administration isn't rushing to make a decision because construction of the $30 million courthouse is still three years away; the GSA in April settled on the Happy Hollow site west of City Hall as its preferred choice.

Beginning in November, Missouri's welfare recipients will purchase food and get cash with a debit card, doing away with food stamps and welfare checks; the program, Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, looks to be more efficient, cost effective and secure, says Ed Bailey, the EBT project director for Missouri in Jefferson City.

1971

It might seem crop damage from last Thursday's storm couldn't be much worse, but the situation is indeed worsening; where hail struck corn plants, the southern corn leaf blight has taken hold; this is a blow to farmers for whom storm damage estimates alone continue to climb, now standing at slightly more than $6 million in crop losses in Cape Girardeau County alone.

Striking Bell System telephone employees throughout the United States are preparing to return to work under terms of a proposed contract yet to be approved by rank and file union members; picket lines in the Cape Girardeau district of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. are scheduled to be removed at 11 p.m., and striking workers are to return to their jobs Wednesday, exactly a week after the walkout began.

1946

Accompanied by a severe electrical storm, the heaviest rain in nine weeks fell in Cape Girardeau and immediate area yesterday afternoon; lightning struck the Southeast Missouri Telephone Co. building at Broadway and Ellis Street, knocking off approximately 40 to 50 pounds of cornice and scattering it over the lawn by the flagpole; workers inside the building were unaware of the strike.

Served by eight lines, three of them major systems, Cape Girardeau has established a passenger bus system which, officials of these firms believe, is unequaled by another city this size in the country; during each 24-hour period, there are 126 buses on regular schedules leaving and arriving at four local terminals; on holidays, as many as 150 buses arrive and depart from the terminals in a day.

1921

Work on the excavation of West Broadway is halted, due to the breaking of the large plow; the roadbed is so hard that it is with the greatest difficulty that it can be plowed at all; contractor J.W. Keller hopes to have the two blocks graded and ready for concrete within 10 days; by that time he will have completed the big road job on Kingshighway and will then rush the work on Broadway.

Willie Baker, pitcher for the Whitewater baseball second team, pitched such a strenuous game Sunday in an effort to defeat the White Mule team from Pruitville, Missouri, that he broke his arm; the break came in the eighth inning, with the score tied 15-15; the game wasn't completed.

-- Sharon K. Sanders