Out of the past: March 13

1996

More students at May Greene School in Cape Girardeau are taking the bus to school because of concerns about pedestrian safety at Highway 74 and Sprigg Street; a pedestrian crossing light is in place at the intersection, but school officials don't want to take any chances with the grade school students attempting to cross the highway on their way to or from school.

A Cape Girardeau police officer has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Cape Girardeau alleging discrimination; Patrolman Freddie Ford, 55, filed the lawsuit March 1 with the U.S. District Court clerk in Cape Girardeau; in his suit, Ford says he was passed up for promotion and a position as a community police officer because of his race and age.

1971

Another landmark of the summer season in Cape Girardeau is falling by the wayside; the annual American Legion Picnic -- synonymous with Fourth of July to Southeast Missourians -- won't be held this year; the picnic has been the highlight of summer events for the past 51 years.

A little bit of Las Vegas glitz came to Cape Girardeau last night with the Jaycees' "Fabulous Follies for '71"; there were Vegas show girls and guys, a bunch of madcap Cuban revolutionaries and even a few "women's libbers" as Cape Girardeau businessmen took a bit of time off from the office and housewives left the soup to simmer on the stove while they participated in the annual event; a second performance is set for this evening at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

1946

Two war veterans, Ralph G. Wright Jr., and Byron B. Carson of Sparta, Illinois, have leased a building at 220 N. Main Street in Cape Girardeau and will shortly open a retail firm under the name Lifetime Plastics; they will deal in all types of novelties manufactured from plastic and also in liquid plastic lines.

Cape Girardeau experiences the first strong westerly breeze of an early springlike day; but it doesn't carry the sweet scent of blooming trees and flowers to residents of the Happy Hollow neighborhood of Frederick and Independence streets; rather, it brings smoke, and with the smoke the sharp sting of odors from a number of fires, visible and invisible, on the premises of the city's mid-town dumping ground.

1921

Plans have been made by a committee representing the Cape Rock Association and the Cape Girardeau Country Club for the latter to take over 80 acres of the Cape Rock Park tract of 107 acres, bought about two years ago by Cape Girardeau residents who wanted to see it preserved; this will leave the park association with 27 acres, which it may dispose of as it sees fit.

The annual Southeast Missouri Interscholastic Basketball Tournament is history; the championship for 1921 has gone to Jackson, for the second time in succession; Jackson High School inched past a tenacious Illmo squad last night on the Teachers College court to claim the crown, 17-15.

-- Sharon K. Sanders