Column - 2003: Woman and child pulled from car that broke through ice

Talk about it

The following is a collection of stories and other items that were included in Alexandria newspapers over the years.

100 YEARS AGO

JANUARY 1913

Mr. Hoglund of Hoglund and Berg Jewelers asked permission to put a huge clock on the sidewalk by their establishment. It will be 12 feet high, weigh 1,000 pounds, and have an illuminated 30-inch dial facing both sides… Frank Meyer and Robert Schmidt saw the figure of a man lighting a fire inside the Atwood Mill and immediately called the fire department. Because of the fast discovery, the fire was extinguished without water. The arsonist is at large, and a reward of $250 is offered for his arrest… Senator Knute Nelson does not like to be in moving pictures. It took two Norwegians two days before the senator walked in front of the camera. And when he did, they had to pledge never to show the film in the United States.

50 YEARS AGO

JANUARY 1963

A milk price war began in Alexandria when milk was 40 cents a half gallon. It dipped down to 31 cents and stabilized a week later at 39 cents… Mrs. Gerald Hoffman of the Indian Mounds Restaurant was notified that the University of Minnesota will send a crew of students to excavate the mounds for possible ancient artifacts… “Pete” Bursch was shown with his first customer at his new travel agent location on Lincoln Avenue… Frank Scheneker was home on leave from the Navy to be present for the birth of their first child, Annette Marie Scheneker, the first baby of the year… Civil Defense Director David Steinley drove the last bolt securing the official Fallout Shelter sign on the Runestone Electric building.

25 YEARS AGO

JANUARY 1988

The “Last Baby of 1987” was Mikki Lea Andrist of Garfield. She received a car seat from Charlotte Ludwig, chairperson of the VFW Auxiliary… The “First Baby of 1988” was Daniel Boyd Mahoney of Kensington. He received more than 20 merchant gifts, including his first hair cut at the barber shop… On January 4, the mercury could only climb to minus 6 degrees with an overnight low of minus 18. On January 5, it was minus 21 and the bitter wind brought the chill index to 60 degrees below zero… Hundreds of people crowded the Osakis Community Center to hear presidential candidate Jesse Jackson speak, offering “new direction, new leadership and moral strength”… Steve and Elaine Angen of Utopia Tours have purchased Alex Travel.

10 YEARS AGO

JANUARY 2003

Rescue personnel used a long pole to turn off the ignition in a car that partially broke through the ice on Lake Reno. A woman and a child were pulled from the car and taken to safety by snowmobile… Windmill Ponds, a new independent living facility, was featured on the Business Showcase page of the Echo Press... Governor Tim Pawlenty talked to a crowd of onlookers at Donnelly Custom Manufacturing about the $4.5 billion budget, stating that the deficit is the biggest in the state’s history… Ellie Marie Betterman of Garfield is the New Year’s Baby of 2003… Scott Burkholder, 2002 graduate of the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, was selected by the faculty to receive the Loy Wilkinson Award, an honor given for “outstanding academic excellence in chemical engineering.”

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Marge Van Gorp of Alexandria is a regular contributing columnist to the Echo Press Opinion page.

Tags: opinion, columns