Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — November 1922

Signs warning automobilists that a school is near have been put about 500 feet distant from the school building on Main Street. At times the road is more or less filled with children and many an auto driver goes scooting along anywhere from 30 to 40 miles an hour across the flat. The wonder is that no one thus far has been injured, but the luck is too good to last. It is high time that fast driving through the center of the village was curbed and curbed in a fashion that will not easily be forgotten.

Grant Finkle is laid up with lumbago this week.

Some girls can chew gum and be called vulgar while others can smoke a cigarette and be fashionable.

The mild autumn weather has helped out the coal bins. As one of our citizens remarks, I wish fall would last till March 31st and spring begin April 1st.

50 years ago — November 1972

Argosy magazine editor Milton Machlin of Amesville was acquitted Monday of the charge of refusing to pay his fare on a Penn Central commuter train in August. His trial in White Plains Municipal Court received widespread attention. According to testimony by witnesses, Machlin had intended to pay his fare, but after a few minutes on the train, and faced with “insufferable” and “inhuman conditions,” he declined conductor John Strilowichi’s request for payment. The train, witnesses testified, was late and overcrowded. In addition, the air conditioning was not working, which was confirmed by Strilowichi, the lone witness for Penn Central.

The spectacular gingerbread village which has charmed Salisbury School children and adults for years is featured in a full color spread in the December issue of Woman’s Day magazine. The village, displayed annually at Salisbury Central School and the White Hart Inn, is the creation of Olive DuBois, who works at the inn and whose husband, Jim, is a custodian at the school.

One accident related to Tuesday’s heavy rains was at the Lakeville Food Center, where the sump pump gave out and allowed the basement to flood. Fortunately, employes were able to get the pump going again before there was any serious damage to stored merchandise.

25 years ago — November 1997

Electricians from Orsini Electrical Services of Oakville and workers from F.B. Mattson Co. of Waterbury have installed the heating coils in the handicapped-access ramp at the post office in Lakeville. The coils will keep the ramp free of ice and snow. The project is expected to be completed soon.

SALISBURY — A near error during Wednesday’s recount almost changed the makeup of the Board of Finance and sent last week’s winner Bill Willis out of the race. The near-miss for Mr. Willis came during the recount of the absentee ballots, when the totals at first revealed he had lost to Herb Gustafson by one vote. Then a check of the figures against last week’s totals showed a difference of 20 votes. The missing ballots were discovered and counted. The final tally was Willis 574, Gustafson 571.

The organizers of the Goshen Turkey Trot, the Kimball and Lang families, have announced that the winners’ cups for the first-place men and women are being renamed in memory of Adam Ross Laschever. Mr. Laschever, who grew up in Goshen, died of melanoma Feb. 19, 1997, in Virginia at the age of 36. He was an enthusiastic participant in the annual Thanksgiving Day 10-kilometer run from the time he first ran it in 1989 and encouraged his friends and siblings to take part in the early morning race each year thereafter.

These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.