Out of the past: Oct. 25

1996

They had charts, leaflets and diagrams; and only one person showed up to see them; city officials expected a crowd for yesterday's informational open house on Cape Girardeau's water system; the mayor and several department heads waited in the City Council chambers to answer questions about two related issues on the Nov. 5 ballot; City Manager Michael Miller attributed the low attendance to good education on the part of the city and local media.

The Cape Girardeau recreational hiking and biking trail should be finished by this time next year, city officials say; an 80-foot prefabricated bridge was installed yesterday at Arena Park, completing the second of four phases that will complete the trail; the asphalt trail pathway, which varies in width from 6 to 8 feet, snakes its way through Cape Girardeau, ducking under streets and dodging trees and other natural obstacles; construction began about five years ago, but planning began in 1988.

1971

Veterans Day. Emphasizing the role played by servicemen in the history of this nation, retired National Guard Brig. Gen. Narvol A. Randol declares, "We have been the land of the free only because we have been the home of the brave"; Randol, president of Farmers and Merchants Bank who served nearly 37 years with the Guard, makes his remarks during the annual Veterans Day program in Houck Field House, following a parade on Broadway.

Women's lib has landed on the State College campus; plans are being considered to make NOW -- the National Organization of Women -- a sub-group of the college Association of Women Students.

1946

With rent control to go into effect over Cape Girardeau County on Nov. 1, a four-day registration of dwelling rental units will begin Nov. 12; rents will be frozen at the point they reached Jan. 1, 1946; arrangements for registration have been completed, and a temporary office will be established in Common Pleas Courthouse.

Cape Girardeau hosts 1,273 Boy Scouts, Cubs and leaders from 66 troops and packs representing 27 district towns here for the annual fall roundup of the Southeast Missouri Area Council of Boy Scouts; the boys register in the afternoon at Courthouse Park and are given their supper; afterward, they march out Broadway to Houck Field Stadium, where they are guests of State College at the football game between the Indians and the Missouri Miners of Rolla.

1921

Edna Wilson was reelected president of the Cape Girardeau Sunday School Association at a meeting last night in the Presbyterian Church; other officers are vice president Theodore Roth, secretary Helen Stumm, treasurer Albert Will, superintendent of administration Belmont Farley, superintendent of young people's division Naomi Pott and secretary of elementary division Leta Harness.

Giboney Houck, assistant to the receiver for the Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad, says rail service between Cape Girardeau and Ancell will again be in operation by Jan. 15; plans for the construction of a bridge over the diversion channel south of there and across several creeks, and the relaying of some of the track, have been completed; there has been no railroad connection between Illmo and Fornfelt and Cape Girardeau, by means of Ancell, in the past five or six years.

-- Sharon K. Sanders