Out of the past: March 9

1993

The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau is forecast to crest late this week at 36 feet, four feet above flood stage; however, no significant flooding is expected at that level.

Cape Girardeau public schools have been designated drug-free and gun-free zones, as part of a citywide effort to curb drug and weapon offenses; the Cape Girardeau Board of Education Monday adopted a formal resolution designating all school properties within 1,000 feet of the schools as drug- and gun-free zones.

1968

The six-county Perryville Forest Fire Protection District experienced the highest fire danger ever recorded in this area yesterday; at the same time a 14-year-old boy was taken into custody suspected of arson, and two fires in Cape Girardeau broke out again for the third time this week; the blkze near Leemon, which in three fires has burned a total of about 130 acres, is believed to have originated by arson.

Roy Smith, who is semi-retired, has become the seventh candidate for a place on the Cape Girardeau City Council, filing shortly before the deadline Friday; Smith was a member of the council under the commission form of government from 1952 to 1954.

1943

Charles DeWitt, traveling secretary for the St. Louis Brown, says most members of the baseball team will arrive in Cape Girardeau Sunday to begin spring training; most players will come here by train; others expected to arrive are manager Luke Sewell, coaches Zack Taylor and Fred Hoffman, trainer Bob Bauman and assistant trainer John Hanley.

The ban on bakery-sliced bread has been lifted, effective immediately; food administrator Claude R. Wickard in Washington, D.C., rescinded the anti-slicing ban late yesterday, explaining that its disadvantages outweighed its advantages.

1918

The bridge across the drainage ditch on the Rock Levee Road, near the Scott County line, will be finished Tuesday at the latest, according to County Highway Engineer Dennis Scivally; the previous bridge was swept away by ice early in February.

Capt. A.C. Jaynes, owner of the Cape Girardeau ferryboat, is disappointed at not having his boat here for service; its return from Paducah, Kentucky, where it is on the ways, has been delayed because of problems getting materials for its repairs; the boat was barely saved from destruction in the ice jam that destroyed so many boats in January.

-- Sharon K. Sanders