‘Years Ago’ is a compilation of newsy tidbits as published in the Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout on this week ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years ago.
TEN YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 5, 2009 – Senior, Melissa Stussy, is pictured on a donkey at the donkey basketball game against the Volunteer Firefighters last Sunday at North Crawford School. The event is a fundraiser to support the purchase of playground equipment… Dr. Deborah Prior celebrated her 100thdelivery at Vernon Memorial Healthcare when she was the doctor to deliver Leo Joseph Hatlan weighing in at 6 lbs. 12.8 oz. Dr. Prior started practicing medicine at VMH on November 7, 1995. Her first delivery, a boy, was on January 1, 1996. Before coming the VMH she also practiced in Nova Scotia.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 4, 1999 – North Crawford Playhouse is in desperate need of 11 pairs of cowboy boots to be used in the production ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”… Miriam Oldenburg’s and Marci Payne’s third and fourth graders at Seneca Elementary School had a visit from Dave Becwar, an area flintnapper, who shared information about his hobby to enhance their science and social studies class. He uses the same technique as was used in ancient times to make chipped stone tools and arrowheads. By using his own handmade tools formed from stones and antlers, Dave chipped and formed an arrowhead from chert stone. He uses some of his arrows for hunting and his stone knives for gutting deer. He chooses Brazilian agate for hunting because it is not archaeologically significant…. Dr. Marta Engel, a Gays Mills area veterinarian with The Rising Sun Animal Wellness Center, is holding a silent auction and open house. This year the final day of the benefit auction will go to help Sue Broten establish her Coulee Wildlife Rehab Center in Chaseburg. Sue rehabilitates raptors and mammals. The event will also feature music and entertainment by Jamie James and there will be wholesome treats for pets and owners alike. The Rising Sun Animal Wellness Center is unique in the area in offering animal acupuncture, homeopathic and herbal care.
THIRTY YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 9, 1989 – Todd Lund, fourth grader at North Crawford, will get to see his prize in person along with other students when Jim Gantner, second baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers, comes to the school this Friday afternoon. Todd was chosen as a winner out of 8,000 entrants in the ‘eat a Wisconsin Hero’ contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Beef Council… Michelle Wilson, Rt. 1., Gays Mills has been notified that her poem ‘I Also Heard the Roses Died’ has been chosen to be published in Poetic Voices of America, a National hardcover anthology to be published by Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum in June, 1990.
FORTY YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 8, 1979 – Ceremonies last week at the New Town relocation site in Soldiers Grove should have dispelled any doubts that a new Main Street is in the making. Ground breaking was held to signal the start of a quarter million dollar building to house the Soldiers Grove branch of Peoples State Bank. Also last Wednesday, there was groundbreaking for three buildings to replace the Kickapoo Valley Medical Clinic, Turk’s IGA and the old Kickapoo Scout building.
FIFTY YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 6, 1969 – Never too young is the headline for a photo of an experienced bunch of coon hunters were among a party of 11 who brought home their quarry in the dark of night. It was quite a feat for Todd (5), Roger (7), Salmon (6) with Bucky, and Pat George (3), who got down to serious business with their Grandpa Laurel George, Roger Salmon, Sr. Gary and Diana George, Donnie Dull, Jerry Moran, and Donald Turben. But the young ones made it up the hill, through the brambles, to watch as Grandpa shoot the coon and their expert coonhound, Bubbles, went to work. Only little Pat was rootin for the ‘other fella’ as he kept insisting, ‘Shoot the dog, Shoot the dog.’
SIXTY YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 5, 1959 – Robert and Roger, twin sons of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Fortney, enrolled Monday morning in Emerson Orthopedic School, La Crosse. The pair has begun their new educational experiences with enthusiasm. Robert and Roger will live Monday through Fridays with the John Hatfields on Prospect Street…. A bowl of strawberries was brought to the Independent office Monday by the Reverend Harvey Sherwood. The generously-sized fruit, of the ever bearing variety, were concrete proof of the length of the current growing season. Several light frosts have nipped foliage in the Sherwood strawberry bed and it has been well blanketed by snow, but no serious damage has been done.
