April 25, 2024

Throwback Thursday

By Information compiled

Jordan Bloodgood marched in the Creston High School marching band during the 60th Annual Southwest Iowa Band Jamboree parade held in Clarinda in 2015. Creston was one of 58 middle and high school bands that participated in the parade. Creston Middle School's band also marched.

Today is Oct. 8, the 282th day of the year. There are 84 days left in 2020. Below are news items from the Creston News Advertiser for this week (Oct. 5-9) in history.

5 years ago

The Creston Panther Marching Band drumline took first place for the first time out of all the other classes at the Southwest Iowa Band Jamboree in Clarinda in 2015. The band as a whole placed second in its class in the field show competition and third in its class in the parade. Director Mike Peters said the band took fifth place of 58 bands overall. The drumline was the only band in all classes to receive a score from the judges higher than 90 on a 100-point scale, scoring a 91.

In an important playoff Class 3A District 8 game, Creston/O-M and ADM entered halftime after the battle and tied 21-21. The Panthers had the Tigers right where they wanted them, and came out in the second half, hammering the Tigers with a fresh Chase Shiltz, pulling away to a 38-21 victory.

Schweser’s in Creston announced that they were permanently closing their doors in January 2016 due to declining sales over the past few years. The store’s manager, Kathy Eblen, said “It’s going to put a damper on shopping for the town.” Eblen was at Schweser’s for nearly six years and had been the manager there for two years.

15 years ago

An off-duty sheriff’s deputy credited with saving a teenager from drowning was a recipient of the state’s top award of valor. Vic Lilienthal was called to Mount Ayr Lake where a group of five teenagers had been swimming. Seeing he was closer than the on-duty deputy, despite the choppy 40-degree water, Lilienthal jumped in and pulled Tonya Johnson to safety when she was trying to swim across the lake.

Extra security was put in place for the Madison County Covered Bridge Festival, as arsonists had been busy regularly setting fires to the bridges. Cedar Bridge was destroyed in 2002 and Hogback Bridge was minimally damaged in 2003. Cedar Bridge was rebuilt and unveiled in 2004, and Hogback was refurbished by volunteers. All six bridges in the county were outfitted with wireless surveillance cameras and members of the community had their eyes “wide open.”

25 years ago

CHS 1995 homecoming week was full of activities with the theme “A Panther Spirit Revival: A Homecoming Classic.” Homecoming queen candidates were Melissa Baker, Cari Briley, Samantha Willetts, Mandy Moffitt and Nikki Crawford.

Creston boxer Allen Smith took his 10-2 professional record into the ring again. Smith, the reigning Iowa Boxing Association’s supper middleweight champion fought a six round non-title bout at Super Toad Bar in Des Moines.

Samantha Willets was crowned the 1995 Creston High School homecoming queen at the coronation ceremony held at the high school.

The 1995 Nodaway Valley homecoming queen was Stephanie Millsap. The Lenox homecoming king and queen were Mike Ryan of Bedford and Julie Scott of Sharpsburg, coronated at the Lenox Friday night football game half-time ceremony. Lenox would go on to beat Stanton 17-0. Layla Sunderman was crowned Corning High School’s 1995 homecoming queen.

50 years ago

The Boswell Contracting Corporation of Sioux City began pouting concrete in the 1970 Creston paving project, which began at east Howard Street, working east from Ash Street to half of the 41-foot width of Howard Street. The crew was to then move on to the rest of Creston’s streets, working counter-clockwise to end up back at east Howard to pour the second half.

Sandra Barker was nominated the 1970 Lenox homecoming queen, and Pam Wyllie was nominated queen for Orient-Macksburg.

150 Creston kids participated in the annual Kids’ Parade, which formed in Rainbow Park, sponsored by the Southside Booster Club. Four divisions for the parade contest were: kids with their dolls, on ponies, with their pets, or on decorated bicycles.

The winning float at the Lenox Community High School homecoming parade was the junior class float entitled “We’ve grown accustomed to First Place,” which won first prize. The float featured a large trophy cup made of gold-colored paper napkins. The parade theme was popular song titles.