Out of the past 3/7/06

25 years ago: March 7, 1981

Nearly 200 Southeast Missouri State University students put on their dancing shoes in the morning for the start of the seventh annual university dance marathon, which continues through tomorrow evening at Houck Field House; the event is expected to raise more than $20,000 in pledges for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

A Southeast Missouri State University alumnus and former Dexter, Mo., public schools administrator, Thurston Hill, has been suggested as a candidate for appointment to the university's board of regents.

50 years ago: March 7, 1956

The Cape Girardeau County automobile license bureau, 117 Themis St., is making plans to move later this month to a building at 320 S. Sprigg St.; the transfer is dictated largely by the need for additional parking space; Farmers & Merchants Bank has agreed to allow license customers to use its parking lot across the street from the new location.

Plans for the circulation of petitions to put the water fluoridation issue on the Cape Girardeau ballot April 3 are announced at a public meeting protesting fluoridation, sponsored by the Civic 500; a slate of speakers condemns the fluoridation plan as "mass medication" and a "hazard to health" that does far more harm than good.

75 years ago: March 7, 1931

March winds sweep a blizzard into the Cape Girardeau district, snow falling in the morning on the heels of the heaviest rain here since January 1930; rainfall, which began yesterday afternoon, amounts to 2.76 inches.

The Schumer & Bergmann Garage at Perryville, Mo., is sold in bankruptcy court to the Kelso Oil Co. of Cape Girardeau on a bid of $11,275; the property includes a one-story building, fixtures and equipment.

100 years ago: March 7, 1906

Cape Girardeau is growing too rapidly to make do with only one streetcar system; M.E. Leming says if he can secure a franchise from the city fathers, he will organize a company that will build the second line; some of the members of the proposed company have sufficient new rails on hand for the track, and work can begin as soon as the franchise is granted.

At 12:30 this afternoon, the Broadway streetcar has an exciting flight at the foot of the hill where the car line ends; the car gets beyond the control of the motorman and dashes down off the tracks and half way across the main line of the Frisco, blocking that road for some time.

-- Sharon K. Sanders