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The Roanoke Times

File 1979 A. A. Terrell, founder of the Hunton Life Saving and First Aid Crew, displays memorabilia of his more than 17 years with the crew.

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1999 (10 years ago)

n "Pulaski County High School science teacher David Carroll is designing a class where students can study weather forecasting, jet streams, pressure systems and cloud movement without stepping outside or opening a book .... Carroll's meteorology class will be one of the nation's first high school courses taught on the Internet."

n "Local Colors has survived to see another year. The regional chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice, or NCCJ, will adopt the cultural festival, employ Pearl Fu as a consultant and expand the concept of multicultural education to yearlong activities."

n "What happens when an immovable object meets an irresistible force? Roanoke Valley residents may find out this year as the battle between the mammoth Carilion Health System and a dozen ophthalmologists heats up."

1984 (25 years ago)

n "Virginia Tech may develop a 100-acre research park -- the first of its kind in the state -- as part of an effort to strengthen university relations with private business."

n "The Jacksonville Bulls made wide receiver and kick-return specialist Gary Clark of James Madison University [and Pulaski] their first pick in the United States Football League's open draft Wednesday."

n "A group of local business leaders wants the Roanoke Valley to be among the sites considered Tuesday by a committee in Richmond for a $4 million state horse center."

n "Until Saturday night, Roanoke College's basketball team didn't know how it would react to being behind in a game. The unbeaten Maroons found out not once, but on at least three occasions to stop Nazareth [N.Y.] 89-87 in triple overtime at Bast Center."

n "For the first time in 16 years, Ray L. Garland won't be going to Richmond for the sometimes tedious ritual that opens the Virginia General Assembly, but Garland says he is not through running for office."

1959 (50 years ago)

n "The Roanoke man on the street, for the most part, approves of the new flag design." The flag was changed when Alaska became the 49th state on Jan. 3, 1959.

n "A critical shortage of blood has made necessary an unusual Sunday afternoon opening of the Roanoke Regional Red Cross Blood Center."

n "The mercury skidded to a Woodrum Field record low for the date today .... At 8:15 a.m. today the temperature at the airport was 6 degrees."

n "A.A. Terrell, captain of the Hunton Life Saving and First Aid Crew Inc. for more than 17 years, is stepping down .... Terrell organized the country's only Negro volunteer lifesaving crew Dec. 21, 1941, just two weeks after Pearl Harbor."

n "The federal government assisted 112 residents of Roanoke City and County in securing mortgage loans last month."

n "Another outbreak of overcoat thefts indicates a cold winter may be in the offing."

n "Mrs. Frances Morrell, 87, ... doesn't head for the knitting needles when she wants to relax. She chalks up a cue and shoots a game of pool."

n "Old Man Winter hit Roanoke and Southwest Virginia a low blow yesterday. He sneaked in with a four-inch snowfall which caught everyone, including the weatherman, by surprise."

n "A campaign has been launched in Roanoke City and Roanoke County to teach people how to prepare for an atom bombing or other national emergency."

1934 (75 years ago)

n "While mothers and fathers of the formerly unemployed are working on CWA projects -- or while the unemployed seek re-employment -- the children will be put under the supervision of formerly unemployed teachers, it was announced here today."

n "London had nothing on Roanoke this morning in the way of a first class fog of cream soup texture."

n "Persons wishing to assist in the work of landscaping Lee Highway between Roanoke and Salem will be privileged to donate trees as memorials to their mothers."

n "The University of North Carolina basket ball team, coached by Bo Shepard, former Roanoke College court ace ... will appear at the City Market court Wednesday night against the Viscose Cavaliers."

n "The old St. Charles hospital property on Mountain Avenue Southwest will not be used as a lodging house or 'shelter' for transients."

n "A game known as 'double check,' more varied than checkers and not as intricate as chess, has been invented by Olif F. Rundlett, a blind Roanoker .... Since it was placed on sale here a month ago, 50 boards have been sold."

1909 (100 years ago)

n "Mayor Joel H. Cutchin is going to put the lid on Roanoke next Sunday and sit down on the lid good and hard."

n "The police are now looking for the parties who Sunday night stole chickens from coops in the northeast section of the city."

n "The case is known as the market house case. It has been in the courts for a year and by the decision of Judge Moffett the city of Roanoke is not allowed to extend the city market building in the market square."

n "The first through train over the Virginian railroad between Roanoke and Norfolk was run yesterday."

n "Mr. W. H. Horton has just erected a brick building on Luck Avenue .... It will be used by the Roanoke Bowling Association, and will be fitted up in first-class style."

n "Within a few weeks great trains of coal will be passing through Roanoke over the Virginian railroad."

n "Roanokers who were out early yesterday morning witnessed a beautiful scene in the skies. Far in the northwest, just above a fleecy bank of white clouds, hung the large, full, silvery moon, shedding its light over the city like a giant electric light."

n "At a meeting last night of the board of aldermen, the resolution adopted by the common council providing for substantial increases in the pay of city officials was knocked into a cocked hat."

n "Last night being unusually cold and disagreeable, the attendance at the union prayer services at the Methodist church [in Salem] was not so large as was hoped it would be."

n "When the news was wafted out upon the breeze last week that the city ordinances of Roanoke would be carried out to the letter, regardless of rich or poor, or high or low, and the 'lid' hermetically sealed, the denizens of the tenderloin section of High Street and Ernest Avenue began to migrate to other quarters."