March 29, 2024

Throwback Thursday

Today is March 16, the 75th day of the year. So, there are 290 days left in 2017. Below are news items from the Creston News Advertiser for this week (March 13-19) in history:

10 years ago

St. Malachy School Principal and algebra teacher John Walsh gave his eighth-grade students an assignment of building a working model of a trebuchet – a machine used in medieval siege warfare for hurling large stones or other missiles. Zach Wignall really wanted to create a full-size working model. With the help of his brother Tim, his model had the capacity of 500 pounds and took a month to finish building.

Out of more than 600 entries, East Union fifth graders Grant Hall, Itzayanna Rubio and Sydney Weis won the grand prize in Old Creamery Theatre Company’s annual writing competition, winning a $150 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. Old Creamery, based in Amana, adapted the students’ short story titled, “The Glue Story,” into their performance at East Union.

Gov. Chet Culver signed legislation increasing the cigarette tax by $1 a pack for a total of $1.36 per pack. He felt signing the bill sent a bold message across the state that Iowa takes the health care of people, especially kids, seriously.

20 years ago

Mildred Bonus and Mary Kay Thompson were inducted into the Creston Women’s Bowling Association Hall of Fame. Also attending were teammates Margaret Baker, Delores Roberts, Tim Long, Bernice Downey and Jeannette Quick. The hall of fame originated in 1983.

Diane Miller’s second grade class at Murray Elementary School were having fun with a project sending “Flat Stanley” to relatives and asking them to send Stanley back with a souvenir of his trip. Austin Smith, the 8-year-old son of Joyce and Todd Smith, received a rattlesnake from his step-grandfather Don Castillo in Clyde, Texas. Castillo was a taxidermist by hobby and had participated in a rattlesnake hunt, so Stanley was returned in a crate along with a stuffed rattlesnake.

50 years ago

Several towns in the Creston area were without electric power for a time as a result of fires on poles on the 34,000-volt transmission line between Creston and Osceola. Darrell Reed. western district manager of Iowa Southern Utilities, explained the fires occurred on poles at 11 different locations because a coating of dust had built up on the pole-top insulators and had not been washed away during the long dry spell. The heavy fog that fell over the area saturated the coating of dust with moisture and electric current began arcing through the coating. The tops of poles and cross arms caught fire and several burned off. Reed said this was not unusual during dry weather, but the trouble occurred at so many points, it resulted in outages.

A sports show was planned at the old Farm and Home Store, 409 W. Adams St., in Creston and was sponsored by McIntosh Motors. The show featured a wide array of Yamaha motorcycles, Chrysler and Steury boats, Evinrude motors, Forester Travel trailers and Apache fold-down campers. McIntosh Motors, operated by John and Betty McIntosh, held the show in the Adams Street location instead of the South Elm and Highway 34 location, because of space needs and weather concerns.

Clearfield Lions Club dedicated its new building, which was also to be used as a community hall. The cost of construction and furnishing the building was about $33,000, with most of the work completed by the members of the club. The Lions also were at work completing three new shuttle buses to be operated at the state fair. They already had five to use on the fairgrounds, but were asked to put more in service.