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Looking back history column: July 15

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The Roanoke Times | File 1939


This photo is looking south on Jefferson Street from Norfolk Avenue in 1939. If you look closely, you can see the parking meters that were installed in 1938 — charging a nickel for an hour of parking.

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The Roanoke Times

Monday, July 15, 2013


1988 (25 years ago)

  • “A year has passed since Roanoke experienced an invasion of the Grateful Dead and the rock band’s followers, known as the Deadheads. One question on every true fan’s mind is, ‘When will the Dead be back?’ The answer is maybe next year, and maybe never.”
  • “Green. We’d almost forgotten what it looked like. But this week, after the rain, the vibrant shade of life seeped back into a dead-brown world like a dusty sponge gladly soaking up God’s spilled water colors.”
  • “The Roanoke County School Board Thursday named the district’s first two women secondary principals.”
  • “Ricky Van Shelton, who hails from tiny Grit, Va., (near Altavista) is touted as the ‘main event’ of the second weekend of country music at the Salem Fair and Exposition.”
  • “The Roanoke Valley has had the Eastern Hockey League, the Southern Hockey League, the Atlantic Coast Hockey League and the All American Hockey League. Now comes the East Coast Hockey League.”
  • “At the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts, where the cash flow last year sometimes became a cash trickle, the financial picture seems to be improving.”
  • “After specializing in late-game comebacks in the 17-and-under AAU national basketball tournament, the Roanoke Hawks saw a rally from the other end Saturday night.”

1963 (50 years ago)

  • “More than 100 works by about 60 Virginia artists will be displayed this week at Crossroads Mall shopping center.”
  • “The once-rampaging Rebels have tuned into slumping Salem and even ‘Hammering Henry’ Hill isn’t hammering out base hits quite so often as batting average have sagged and earned-run marks have soared.”
  • “Roanoke’s school desegregation plan, minus its escape clause, has been approved.”
  • “A crowd of 4,080 turned out for the annual battle between WDBJ and WSLS Monday night at the Salem ball park. … WSLS, behind the slugging of Little Bitty Pete and the horrendous infield play of WDBJ manager Ted (rifle arm) Powers, won the laugh-filled opener, 8-3.”
  • “One ordinance requiring segregation still remains on Roanoke city books, but Mayor Murray Stoller will move next Monday to have it repealed.”
  • “Four local photo supply houses report a brisk market in fogged film, presumably purchased by Roanokers who plan to watch Saturday’s near-total eclipse of the sun.”
  • “Boxwood, reportedly the first house in Salem to feature a bathtub, is being demolished because of its age.”
  • “Capt. Lawrence E. Hackley, who was one of three American servicemen killed Thursday in Viet Nam after being ambushed by Communist guerillas, came from what admiring friends term ‘one of the finest and most remarkable families in Roanoke.’ ”
  • “Over 300 entries are expected for the fourth annual Roanoke Valley Horse Show at Maher Field.”
  • “The remains of six bodies were found in the city’s newly acquired Bowman Park Friday, thus confirming reports that the area had once been an old county cemetery.”

1938 (75 years ago)

  • “Approximately 50 property owners in the county have failed to comply with the state health law requiring sanitary toilets on the premises.”
  • “R. Haden Whitlock, noted steeplejack, arrived here last night on his first visit in two years to paint some of the city’s flag poles.”
  • “Roanoke’s once famous public links tournament will be dragged out of the moth balls next month and surrounded with a new coat of interest which will make it the rival of the highly successful Metropolitan tournament in the spring.”
  • “Timothy Driscoll, 94, Roanoke’s oldest Confederate veteran, died at 4:45 o’clock yesterday morning in a local hospital.”
  • “Roanoke automobile drivers who come downtown after 8 o’clock Friday morning to park on Jefferson street … or on Campbell avenue … will have to drop a nickel in the slot of the newly installed parking meters to stay an hour.”
  • “In an auspicious concert debut at the high school last night, the Andrew Lewis band pleased an audience of more than 100 with a conspicuously varied program.”

1913 (100 years ago)

  • “Woe unto the hobo who rides into Roanoke on an iron-bound rattler — meaning a freight train.”
  • “The patrol wagon was kept so busy in the early part of Saturday evening that a large crowd gathered at the station house door to enjoy the fun. The principal offenders at that time were plain tipplers.”
  • “Troop G of the Eleventh United States Cavalry, with fifty-one men, fifty-nine horses and eight mules, arrived in Salem yesterday morning at 11 o’clock on the march to Winchester.”
  • “Playing to form, Our noble third placers and climbing Tigers sent the Tars deeper and deeper into the shadows and mysteries of the cool and deep cellar while the Bengal Boys scrambled another peg toward the top, the result of the contest being 7 to 0.”
  • “Staging better ball games than the one pulled off yesterday afternoon is almost impossible.”
  • “The weather men did not overlook Roanoke yesterday in the heat line and according to information given out last night by local weather expert, R.F. Bell, it was the hottest day here in many years and the thermometer stood 98 in the shade in the afternoon at 4 o’clock.”
  • “One of the most severe wind storms in recent years accompanied with rain swept Roanoke yesterday afternoon about 4 o’clock lasting thirty minutes.”
Saturday, September 14, 2013

Weather Journal

Nice weekend, plus winter talk

2 hours ago

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