Out of the past: July 4

1996

Mud volleyball is a muddy, popular event at the Jackson Jaycees Independence Day Celebration at City Park; 48 teams compete in the tournament; other activities there include a Jackson Municipal Band concert, car show, craft show, pie-eating contest, keg throw, skillet throw and a Knights of Columbus-sponsored horseshoe tournament; the event ends with a fireworks display.

Cape Girardeau's observance of Independence Day began last evening, with a Municipal Band concert at the Capaha Park Band Shell; this evening, the Compton Heights Concert Band of St. Louis performs in front of the A.C. Brase Arena Park grandstand; a fireworks display, sponsored by the Joint Veterans Council, follows.

1971

The Jaycees' Fourth of July picnic is twice the fun, as revelers celebrate both Independence Day and Missouri's Sesquicentennial at Arena Park in a three-day affair; following Friday night's Little Miss Firecracker contest, the celebration continued yesterday with a parade from Capaha Park to Arena Park; along with the picnic fare are greased-hog contests, turtle races and watermelon-eating contests; a big fireworks display finishes off the fun.

The Rev. Michael V. McDevitt has been appointed assistant pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral by the Most Rev. William W. Baum, bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, effective immediately; McDevitt was ordained to the priesthood on May 22 in St. Louis.

1946

Crowds begin arriving early in the morning at Fairground Park and continue to swell throughout the day, until a crowd of thousands is on hand for the climax of the American Legion's annual Fourth of July picnic, the brilliant fireworks display; Brig. Gen. Howard L. Peckham, quartermaster on the staff of the commanding general, Army Air Forces, is the keynote speaker, outlining to the big crowd the government's procedure for determining the final resting place of the nation's war dead on foreign soil.

Threshing of barley, wheat and oats started Monday in a ring of nine farmers near Gordonville, known as the Grossheider, Weiss and Siemers ring; the old-fashioned separator is towed about by a tractor instead of the old steam engine and is property of Thompson Bros.; in the Neiman circuit, west of Gordonville, most of the farmers have harvested by the combine method.

1921

An all-day Fourth of July picnic, sponsored by the American Legion, kicks off in the morning with a parade from Courthouse Park to Fairground Park, led by Schuchert's Band; organized activities throughout the day include a foot race, goose race with girls driving the birds, a plane giving acrobatic demonstrations, boxing and wrestling, a baseball team pitting the Capahas with the Hickman, Kentucky, champions, and a fireworks finale.

Al Nenninger, Cape Girardeau lightweight boxer, fights Grub Whalen of St. Louis to a draw at Jefferson City in an eight-round bout; Pete Koch, also of Cape Girardeau, gets a draw in his six-round bout with a more experienced boxer.

-- Sharon K. Sanders