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October 1: Years Ago…
Years Ago

‘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

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 –The National Woman’s Relief Corps has announced the National Winners of the WRC essay competition ‘Love of Country, Love of Flag, and What it Means to Me.’ Remarkably three local students placed in the national competition. Branden Baumeister, 13, of North Crawford took first place at the national level. Adam Gallimore, a ninth grader from Kickapoo Schools captured second place, while Mira Marko, an eighth grader from Viroqua, took third place…. Häven Varnes-Epstein and Willa Dworschack greeted the crowd from their towering stilt walkers on Main Street during the Gay Mills Apple Fest Parade.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

SEPTEMBER 28, 2000 –Arvid and Ruth Kvigne were honored as Apple Ambassadors in the annual Gays Mills Apple Festival parade…EYE (Ecumenical Youth Endeavors) took third place in the youth category for the Apple Festival parade with their float that featured two giant eyes, a nose and lips. The group also sponsored a youth dance Sunday night at the community building.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

OCTOBER 4, 1990 – The Viroqua contingent of the 107thMaintenance Company of the Wisconsin Army National Guard rolled around the race track at the Viroqua Fairgrounds on Monday as friends and families gathered to send them off to take part in Operation Desert Shield. The company traveled by military convoy to Fort McCoy where they will ready for departure, a time or destination unknown. Area service men and women called to duty Ed Heisz, Deanna Eitsert, Deborah Johnson, Loren Lynch, Bryan Durnen, Daniel Durnen, and William Knoble. Russ Torgerson, Daniel Monahan, and Bradley George are already in the Persian Gulf area. The contact people for the Family Support Program are Sue Heisz and Kay Johnson. They will help the community to stay in touch and informed about our soldiers.

FORTY YEARS AGO

OCTOBER 2, 1980 – A $60,000 fire destroyed a 30 by 60-foot barn and a silo and badly damaged an addition at the Thomas Murphy farm on Highway 171 near Rolling Ground. The barn’s mow was full of hay and straw. One calf was also lost in the blaze…The Omega Studio Band entertained at the grand opening of the Peoples State Bank in Soldiers Grove. Pictured are Steve Picus, Dan Kerr and Joe Brandt. 

FIFTY YEARS AGO

SEPTEMBER 30, 1970 – An unusually wet fall is contributing to the growth of great numbers of autumn mushrooms. The best known and most easily identified is the giant puffball found in all sizes by pros or youngsters wandering through the woods. Randy Olson and Don Dregne, both of rural Soldiers Grove, displayed six large puffballs, the largest being roughly twice the size of a bowling ball… Scott Paulson, young son of Mr. and Mrs. John Paulson, Gays Mills, found the likeness of a dinosaur formed when about 10 potatoes were joined in a single malformed spud.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

SEPTEMBER 29, 1960 – According to Bob Carter, state highway engineer for Richland and Crawford counties, the marker commemorating the founding of the Kickapoo Apple Orchards was taken from its setting in the highway wayside overlooking Gays Mills and returned to the manufacturer for repair. The metal of which the tablet is formed had buckled, for some unknown reason, possibly temperature changes, causing cracks to form… Honored at a banquet at the Schroeder Hotel in Milwaukee were Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Sturm. Sturm is the retiring International Lions Club President. During the past year, Sturm and his wife have traveled in the 110 free countries, where there are Lions Clubs. Melvin Jones, who founded the Lions Club organization in 1913, attended the banquet. Among the 600 state officers and their wives attending was William Brewer, President of the Gays Mills Lions Club… Mrs. Ruth Winter, county nurse, announces that iodine tablets will no longer be distributed to children in Crawford County schools. Instead, families are urged to continue using iodized salt in food preparation and at the table. The tablet program was adopted years ago as a means of preventing simple goiter before iodized salt was generally available.