history
Lynn Hilburn: It’s that time of year
Although we were poor, most of the families and people that we knew were in about the same boat. For the children and families that attended the rural schools of Barry County, late fall and Christmas was some of our favorite times of the year.
Through the Years, Dec. 4
40 YEARS AGO: FREE ENTERPRISE WORKS — Typical examples of free enterprise were the actions of two young ladies in Cassville during last Wednesday morning’s awaking to snow covering the ground. Tracie Hill, 14, and Jennifer Dinsmore, 10, took the opportunity of being out of school to earn a few bucks shoveling snow from sidewalks of businesses. Their efforts were rewarding, plus saving owners the trouble of doing the job themselves. A quick warmup of temperatures in the 60’s over the weekend removed all traces of the first ground-coverer of the season.
Dakoda Pettigrew: The meaning of the Declaration
The rain was falling with misty, unrelenting force as President Calvin Coolidge rose to deliver the greatest speech of his life. It was Monday, July 6, 1926, and the rain beat the president’s face as he stood before a crowd of 35,000 on the grounds of the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American independence and constitutionalism. “Despite a fine drizzle, which became a heavy downpour,” The New York Times reported the next day, “the crowds patiently lined twenty miles of streets to pay their respects” to a man whose cool and quiet demeanor hid a patriotic intellect that could not be contained.
Through the Years, Nov. 27
40 YEARS AGO: FIRST PLACE PARADE ENTRIES — The floats pictured above and below received first place recognition in Cassville’s Christmas parade here Saturday evening. Each received $150 first prize money from the sponsoring Chamber of Commerce.
Through the Years, Nov. 20
40 YEARS AGO: GOOD SIZE HORNET NEST — This weekend, woodcutters could have gotten more than they bargained for in cutting this hornets nest Sunday.
Through the Years, Nov. 13
40 YEARS AGO: A LAST MINUTE EFFORT — Jerry Cook, of Rocky Comfort, who works at Garrett Mfg. in Cassville, was just about to give up hunting Sunday. In fact, at 4:30 p.m., the last day of gun deer season, he was coming back to his vehicle, in sleet and snow. As he thought about the season and possible missed opportunities, little did he realize he was about to be quite successful. The results of his shot so late in the season is pictured above.
Local legend ‘flies west’
Local legend and former Purdy resident, Retired U.S. Navy Cpt.
Kyle Troutman: Feeling frisson
On March 1, 2010, at 3:22 p.m., I used my iPhone to record a song that to this day brings an intense frisson. Following a volunteer’s playing of “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes — in a light drizzle and with a backdrop of at least a dozen U.S.
Dakoda Pettigrew: Ask Not
A bitter snowstorm dropped six inches of snow on America’s capital city the day before Inauguration Day. “Many of the pre-inaugural social affairs had to be canceled,” The New York Times wrote on Friday, January 20, 1961, adding that the snowfall had “snarled traffic, disrupted air and highway travel and chilled thousands of visiting Democrats.”
Through the Years, Nov. 6
30 YEARS AGO: COURTHOUSE ELEVATOR OPENING — Steve Holloway of Cassville, an employee of Branco Co. of Neosho and courthouse custodian Charley Baker stand in the basement area and show the depth of an elevator opening cut in the first story floor.
