Out of the past 5/29/08

25 years ago: May 29, 1983

The recent Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce membership drive netted approximately 100 new firms and individuals; the membership now stands at 875.

Bill Hopkins and Mary Crawford are preparing to open the new Riverside Gymnastics Academy in a leased building at 45 N. Main St.; the academy is taking the place of the SEMO community gymnastics program and the Cape Gymnastics Center.

50 years ago: May 29, 1958

Paced by the construction of a nine-unit motel and by construction of 13 new residences, building permits totaling $218,660 have been issued by the city of Cape Girardeau within the past two weeks; the new, two-story brick motel will be part of the Town House at Broadway and Kingshighway.

Roy Cain, whose Cape Boating Co. was destroyed by fire Tuesday evening, says he has obtained quarters at 18 N. Spanish St., and will continue his business there until the burned out building at 10 N. Sprigg St. can be restored; little of Cain's stock was salvaged from the fire.

75 years ago: May 29, 1933

Swarms of 13-year locusts over the weekend showed up in half a dozen Southeast Missouri counties, the army advancing from the west as far as the west portion of Cape Girardeau County; in St. Francois, Madison, Wayne, Bollinger, Ripley and Jefferson counties, they are already thick.

The State Highway Department is removing three pillarlike stones from the edge of bluffs on Highway 74 south of Cape Girardeau because it was feared they might topple onto the road; the rocks are prominent there and have long been admired for their beauty; the blasted stone will be used for riprap work at the edge of the highways nearby.

100 years ago: May 29, 1908

F.B. Goodwin, the tailor on Main Street, has fitted up a nice place in the rooms recently vacated by the Singer Sewing Machine Co.; he is making a specialty of cleaning and repairing clothing, and he is an excellent workman; he also makes clothes to order.

William Haman, the tinner, is able to be out for the first time after being in bed for two weeks with typhoid fever; his son, Leon, is still low with the malady.

— Sharon K. Sanders