LOOKING BACK

1923 – 100 YEARS AGO

Crack swimmers, numbering about 16, will attempt to smash world records here Saturday afternoon at the community swimming pool, the A. A. U., to have full charge of each event. In the group coming to this city will be about ten men and six girls, all holders of records. Owing to the fact that our pool is of uniform depth and that it is over 100 yards long experts think that several new records will be made.

Announcement was made today that DeKalb is to have a new business enterprise that seems to be one to fill a long felt want. The firm of Kline & Phillips, composed of two well-known Aurora men, will open next Tuesday, in the building occupied by the C. A. & D. railway with its express department, a wholesale fruit and vegetable business. With the new firm established, local dealers will be able to purchase their fruit and vegetables locally instead of being dependent upon the South Water street commission men in Chicago.

Plans are now being made whereby trees and shrubbery will be planned at the community swimming pool this fall, carrying out the plans that were submitted to the DeKalb City Plan Commission early in the spring. When the pool was purchased last fall a large tract of land was also bought. It is this land that will be beautified so that in years to come the place will be one of the beauty as well as pleasure.

The people who know Ben Peck believe him to be getting fleshy and developing a double chin, but such is not the case. The double chin was developed in a hurry by one big bumble bee one day recently and Peck claims the bee was not satisfied with one jab, but took several and was still at it when he pulled it off his neck. The officer states that there is but one thing that will make him madder, and that is to have an auto driver tell him, after being stopped that he was driving but 20 when he was doing 40.

Fire plugs about town are being moved back to the sidewalk on corners where new pavement is being laid so as to allow a wider swing in making the turns. In many places that streets have been too narrow to allow ample room for autos turning the corners, and in order to remedy this it is necessary to move the fire plugs back. This will be done in every instance where the corners are being widened.

1948 – 75 YEARS AGO

Another feature of the festival program of the DeKalb Municipal Band on Tuesday evening, Aug. 24, will be a brilliant display of fireworks, including an aerial display and set pieces. The festival is expected to attract several thousand to Hopkins Park. The DeKalb band was the first to incorporate fireworks with a music festival and each year the fireworks display is one of the important parts of the program.

A man, who was arrested by the DeKalb police late yesterday morning, was this morning sentenced to serve six months at Vandalia when he appeared before Justice of the Peace. E. L. Dunn. The man has been arrested several times of late for being drunk and disorderly and following his arrest yesterday a vagrancy charge was placed against him. He will be taken to the county jail in Sycamore and will be sent to Vandalia within a few days.

A highlight of the Ideal Industries Inc. picnic held Saturday was a sack race event which attracted a large group. Entertainment planned for adults and youngsters kept the crowd in a happy mood during the entire afternoon.

A box carrying 55,000 minnows and other bait was thrown on a side road near Route 51 north of Rochelle Thursday, leaving the road in a slippery condition. A man from Waukegan was driving a Triangle Bait Company truck and was involved in a collision with an auto driven by a man from Davis Junction. The impact threw the box of minnows to the road.

The Glenn Stearns home in Ohio Grove has been given a new coat of paint.

Threshing by the old-fashioned method is not an easy job. W. J. Fitzgerald of Pierce Township is shocking grain of a bumper crop. The grain has been cut and bundled by a reaper. From there it is hauled to the threshing machine. This method has one advantage over combining in that the straw can be placed in a stack or blown into the barn. Most combines leave the straw scattered over the field where it can be raked and baled.

George Eychaner of Esmond, who is keeping the Shiebe’s dog while they are in Kansas, ran into trouble Monday evening. He was looking for the dog and when he found him he bit his hand. George had to be taken to a doctor where the wound was dressed.

1973 – 50 YEARS AGO

Boy Scout Troop 33 of DeKalb went out to Potter’s Field, which is located near the DeKalb County Home, to clean out two dead trees.

President Nixon said Wednesday night it is the “simple truth” that he is innocent of guilt in the Watergate affair. He suggested Senate investigators help solve the country’s problems instead of trying to put the blame for the scandal on him.

With the final summer concert last night, Dee Palmer completed 25 years as director of the DeKalb Municipal Band. At the opening of the concert last night at Hopkins Park, friends of Palmer interrupted the proceedings to surprise him with a plaque for his work through the years with the band.

A new look is in store for the County Board at its meeting Wednesday, but so are a lot of old problems. Starting Wednesday the board will be meeting in their new “home” in the third-floor courtroom of the county courthouse. The board will say goodbye to their 68-yearold desk with the little name-plate in front. They are languishing in the courtroom basement awaiting some kind of disposition, probably a county auction.

1998 – 25 YEARS AGO

Located in the central business district, the current Genoa Post Office site has poor parking for both customers and postal vehicles, and some community leaders feel it needs to be relocated.

With the clock ticking toward his showdown with prosecutors, President Clinton’s advisers are preparing for the prospect that he would acknowledge an “inappropriate” or “improper” relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

It appears the Cornerstone Christian Academy may begin offering high school classes around the corner from the school’s existing facility in Sycamore. The academy petitioned the Sycamore Plan Commission last week for a special use permit allowing the institution to open a high school in a converted barn house on South Fair Street west of downtown.

Corn and soybean producers ordinarily work hard to keep weeds and other pests out of their fields. Yet, in one rural DeKalb County grain field more than 80 species of weeds grow unchecked, on purpose. At the University of Illinois Extension Experimental Field southwest of DeKalb, weeds grow in a special garden designed to provide hands-on diagnostic experience for crop consultants, producers, college students and agribusinesses.

– Compiled by Sue Breese