Monday, October 13, 2008
Looking back: Week of Oct. 13
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The Roanoke Times
File 1953 Children and adults line up to ride the Mill Mountain Zoo Choo. The Roanoke Jaycees paid off their final IOU on the train in 1958.
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More history stories
- Looking back: Nov. 23
- Looking back: Nov. 16
- Looking Back
- Looking back: Nov. 2, 2009
- Looking Back: Oct. 26, 2009
Archive
1998 (10 years ago)
n "Shania Twain, in the midst of her first world tour, stops off in Roanoke on Nov. 17. ... [Civic Center] Marketing director Robyn Schon expects all Shania tickets to be gone within a couple of days."
n Miss America, Nicole Johnson, "crowned her successor at a ceremony in Roanoke Thursday, making Nita Booth the first black Miss Virginia."
n "When Akio Koeda opened his new Japanese restaurant in the heart of Christiansburg's commercial area last month, his goal was to re-create the atmosphere of a Japanese village -- down to the fishpond and up to the starry sky. Koeda, who also owns the popular Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse in Roanoke, selected Christiansburg as the site for his second Kabuki, which opened Sept. 27."
1983 (25 years ago)
n "Salem has become the third Roanoke Valley government to endorse the building of a $38 million dam in western Roanoke County to provide a regional water supply."
n "Henry Lee Lucas, a 47-year-old drifter from Blacksburg, Va., may be linked with a companion to as many as 97 murders in 13 states, detectives from across the nation said Friday after conferring for three days."
n George Takei, who portrayed Mr. Sulu on Star Trek, was a guest at RoVaCon 8.
n "If you watch football on television to see offense, you must have been bored stiff with the Virginia Tech-West Virginia football game." The final score was 13-0 in favor of West Virginia.
n "Construction of a surprisingly large number of condominiums and town houses in Salem is helping give the city its best building year ever."
1958 (50 years ago)
n "Roanoke's Harvest Festival came to a brilliant climax yesterday afternoon as a near record 26,000 cheered, shouted and sang their way through the first Harvest Bowl. For Virginia Tech it was a stunning 22-13 victory over the University of Virginia."
n "After a four-year stay in Winston-Salem, N.C., a chrome plated fire extinguisher is coming back to Roanoke. The apparatus is the award presented annually to the winner of the fire prevention contest between Roanoke and Winston-Salem."
n "Eileen Farrell, whose voice became beloved via the air waves more than a decade ago, renewed her thrall on the public last night in a magnificent concert at Jefferson High School."
n "Roanoke's Jaycees paid their final Zoo Choo IOU to a local bank today."
n "An abortive early-morning panty raid attempt on a National Business College girls' dormitory ended in Municipal Court today with five of the participants drawing $15 fines on trespassing charges."
n "A halfback with fallen arches and a fullback with a brand new set of upper teeth accounted for 163 yards and 19 points in William Byrd's 26-0 win over Cave Spring at Vinton last night."
1933 (75 years ago)
n "The first consignment of government purchased pork for the needy will arrive here in the early part of next week."
n "The Valleydoah Civic League moved to investigate the possibilities of securing a sidewalk along the Williamson road ... to see additional rooms for the Oakland grammar school and secure a traffic light for the intersection of Williamson road and Tenth street extension at Oakland school."
n "The new Andrew Lewis high school football team returned to the form of Salem high warriors of old yesterday afternoon at Maher field, tacking their colors on the long end of the score in a game with Jefferson high school for the first time in 16 years." The score was 20-6.
n "And Mr. Ducky Denton [Andrew Lewis football coach] was the toast of Salem today and his gallant eleven -- 11 men started and finished that game Saturday without a substitution -- was the talk of the town."
n "Football fans, both white and colored, will turn their eyes to Maher Field Friday when Hampton Institute and Bluefield, two of the most powerful teams of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, battle in a game which may have some bearing on the association's championship."
n "Someone dropped a park bench in the fish pool at Elmwood Park, and four large fish today had made it their hiding place for darting out and seizing small fry."
1908 (100 years ago)
n "The anniversary of the discovery of America, which occurs tomorrow, will be observed with befitting ceremony by the Roanoke Knights of Columbus."
n "The Pulaski Athletic Club and Dublin Institute engaged in a hotly contested battle on a muddy gridiron here [in Dublin] this afternoon, neither side being able to score."
n "The City Council has instructed the Public Property Committee to prepare plans and advertise for bids for the erection of a tuberculosis and syphilitic hospital on the almshouse farm."
n "A coop of chickens is the latest acquisition of the police department. The said coop contains seven nice frying-size chickens, and the sight of them has made more than one mouth water."
n "The great store of Watt, Rettew & Clay ... was the scene last evening of a brilliant and interesting event. It was a new and enterprising departure in the retail business of Roanoke, and it illustrates the up-to-date manner in which this well known concern conducts its establishment."
n "Mr. Frank E. Brown has decided to build an abattoir on the site of his present slaughter house on Tinker Creek."
n "Mrs. Phillip Snowden, wife of the distinguished member of Parliament from the Blackburn district of England, is the guest today of Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Coulter, on Roanoke street. Mrs. Snowden is in Roanoke in connection with her visit to Hollins, where she delivered a lecture last evening."
