Out of the past: March 8

1992

One hundred sixty-nine people try out for the American Gladiators Live Tour, which is coming to the Show Me Center. Part of the tryouts include trying to knock opponents off pedestals with pugil sticks.

The local Easter Seal Society Telethon on KBSI-TV raises $51,155 in pledges; nationally, $46 million is pledged.

1967

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Voters in the Sikeston Public School District went to the polls yesterday and, by an overwhelming majority, passed the $1,350,000 school bond issue for improvements to the school system. Among improvements will be the construction of another elementary school to replace the Airport School.

The return of construction weather in weeks to come will mean resumption by the Cape Special Road District of work establishing a road to connect East Rodney Drive and Hopper Road at the Hawthorn School. The yet-unnamed street is open to traffic now between Lear Drive and Hopper Road, less than half the total distance it will cover.

1942

Large crowds have been attending evangelical services in recent days at the Church of the Nazarene; the meeting is being conducted by the Rev. Thomas Hayes of Colorado Springs, Colorado; his sermon this evening will be his life story, "From Cornfield to Pulpit."

Snow falls in Cape Girardeau in the afternoon and into the night, following rain earlier in the day; the temperature hovers just above the freezing point during the snowfall, so little remains on the ground. Saturday's high was 60 degrees.

1917

Ike Hobbs, that big and genial sawmiller, rancher and planter of Blomeyer, down the Hoxie line, is going home; Hobbs is here to close a deal for the farm where he was born and reared, the Joe Hobbs place on the Middle Egypt Road, five miles north of Cape Girardeau. Joe, Ike's father, sold the farm 17 years ago to professor H.S. McLeary, formerly of the Normal School; McLeary has owned the place ever since and sells it back to the son of the former owner at a considerable advance in price.

Herman Loeffel receives a letter from his mother in Muenchweier, Baden, Germany, which was written Christmas Eve. The letter says his mother and other members of the family are well; one brother is with the victorious army that chased the Romanians into Russia, and the other is somewhere in France.

-- Sharon K. Sanders