Out of the past: June 21

1990

A committee studying a proposed 7,700-acre recreational lake recommended last night that the Cape Girardeau and Bollinger county commissions put a 1-cent sales tax proposal before voters in the Nov. 6 general election to pay for the project.

The Cape Girardeau Public Works Department has started its summer asphalt overlay street repair program; the work began last week in the south part of town and is continuing this week in the north end.

1965

D. Wayne Goddard, who has been assistant principal at Central High School the past six years, has resigned to become principal of the high school at Charleston, Missouri; the high school at Charleston will serve a newly organized district, and plans are being made for the construction of a new high-school building.

The Golden Troopers will march again, but probably in confused cadence; members of Cape Girardeau's once-famed American Legion drum and bugle corps announce a reunion of all former members will be here Aug. 7 and 8.

1940

UNIONTOWN, Mo. -- The young son of Ben Ponder, while plowing one day last week on his father's farm near here, unearthed a skull; he reported the find to his father, who dug up a whole skeleton, believed to be that of an Indian; it is known the Shawnees and Delewares had burial grounds in and near Unitontown and Old Appleton, Missouri.

An additional labor grant for the new park project is being sought of the WPA by the city to take up where the present allowance of labor has ended; the work is necessary to make the park ready for the Cape Fair, to be conducted in September.

1915

CAIRO, Ill. -- Excitement is caused after a statement made at a meeting of the Cairo Building and Loan Association called for the purpose of electing new officers; it is learned that one of the officers, who died about a week ago, had been appropriating funds from the association, leaving a shortage of $60,000.

The watchfulness of night policeman Arthur Whitener again saves the city from what could have been a disastrous fire; as he is making his rounds through an alley in the rear of the Scott restaurant at 3 a.m., he discovers a blaze in a barrel and at once sends in a fire alarm; the barrel had been used for dumping ashes, and several live coals apparently set the staves on fire.

-- Sharon K. Sanders