Out of the past: Oct. 20

1992

There will be Christmas decorations this year in the Jackson business district and along East Jackson Boulevard; that was assured yesterday, when the Jackson Board of Aldermen voted 8-0 to donate $10,000 to a community-wide fund drive to purchase new Christmas decorations.

Students at St. Mary Cathedral School welcome Yoko Fujita to the country with traditionally American gifts; the 26-year-old Fujita has come to Cape Girardeau through the International Intern Program to teach the students about Japanese culture; in return, she's discovering America for herself.

1967

A Cape Girardeau city councilman proposes an outside study of police department practices here in view of recent problems with the news media; two other councilmen -- Charles A. Hood and J. Ronald Fischer -- and city manager Paul F. Frederick say they will go along with A. Robert Pierce Jr. in bringing in a police department consultant firm to observe police methods and suggest better ones.

Allen Robinson, executive vice president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, has received the designation of certified chamber executive; this is the highest honor bestowed upon those engaged in the chamber profession.

1942

With nearly normal attendance forecast in the face of tire rationing and pending gasoline curtailment, the Southeast Missouri Teachers Association will swing into its 67th annual meeting at State College on Thursday morning; sessions will run through Friday; headlining the final day of the session will be a concert by Wings Over Jordan, a famous black choir.

Operations will resume tomorrow at the Dorsa Dress Co. factory on Spanish Street, it is announced by Robert Kramer, who has been transferred here from St. Louis as the plant superintendent; a meeting of all former employees of the firm will be held this afternoon at the factory to discuss operation plans.

1917

BENTON, Mo. -- The Scott County Court has made two contracts for gravel to go on public roads, one being with Joseph Ellis of Commerce, Missouri, at the price of 3 cents per cubic yard, and the other with T.W. Anderson, also of Commerce, for material at 2 1/2 cents a yard; the gravel pits are about three-fourths of a mile from the Frisco tracks, and a spur track will be laid out to the pits.

J.J. Bartley, formerly a machinist in the Frisco shops in Cape Girardeau, has gone to the European front; this information came to the family of his son-in-law, J.M. Fullerton of this city.

-- Sharon K. Sanders