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1922 – 100 YEARS AGO
Ed Duncan, who had business at the North Western station one night recently tells of seeing something out of the ordinary, when two girls came out of the depot and flitted a freight train going west. The girls, it is reported, were wearing heavy overcoats and evidently prepared for just such a trip as they were making, Duncan and others who saw them hop the train, said it was the first time they had ever seen members of the gentler sex resort to that mode of transportation.
According to information received by The Chronicle this afternoon, there are a few youngsters of the city who need a lesson, one given by the police, to teach them it is wrong to destroy city property. Several days ago a crowd of boys was chased away from the street sign pole at Augusta and Park Avenue, while they were endeavoring to destroy it. The boys evidently believed they could get away with the job if they did it after dark, and this was accomplished last night. The sign pole is pulled over and the sign and brackets are gone. Some of the boys in the first party are known to residents of that vicinity and there is apt to be some investigating done within the next few days.
Many of the big trees at Huntley Park, and the smaller ones as well, are being trimmed up this week under the supervision of the city. The trees at the park, for the most part, were getting ungainly in appearance on account of lack of attention and the coming spring will see a difference in the sight presented there.
The DeKalb Flower shop, North Third Street, has recently secured a new electric sign to be placed in front of their place of business. The sign will show up very well from the Lincoln Highway and should attract considerable attention from the people passing through the main business part of the city. The North Third Street section is beginning to show improvement, with the installation of the new ornamental lights and some business signs that are a credit to the street.
Two or three reports have been brought to the attention of the Malta town board where people driving a horse and buggy and an automobile have used the sidewalks for a highway. In some parts of town the roads are bad, that is conceded, but it is hardly fair, so members of the board say, to use people’s private property on which to drive. Another instance has come to light where people are driving over the sidewalk and through the vacant lots north of the church property.
1947 – 75 YEARS AGO
Motorists are reminded that the parking meters in the business district will be in operation until 10 o’clock this evening and that those parking prior to that hour will have to operate the meters. Enforcement of the parking meter ordinance was started on Thursday of this week. Violations were quite numerous on the first day, but yesterday and today few violators were noted as the motorists become more accustomed to the metered parking.
Onlookers yesterday watched a dog leap to safety as an engineer on an eastbound streamliner slowed his train and blasted the whistle to allow the dog to jump from the tracks. The black and white dog was heading south over the tracks as the streamliner approached. When the dog reached the center of the tracks, it stopped to have a look at the lay of the land. The engineer noting the dog on the tracks immediately slowed his train and blew the whistle and the startled canine jumped to safety. When last seen, the dog was trotting down the street as though nothing had happened. All commented on the quick action and courtesy of the engineer.
Sycamore Fire Department was called to the scene of a blaze at the B. N. Bailey bungalow at Richardson early this morning. Maple Park was also called and arrived a few minutes after Sycamore. The furnace in the basement had become overheated and started a dust fire in the pipes. It spread up to the registers and started on the floors then backed down into the basement through the pipes and started the siding and joists on fire. Estimated damage was $500.
Over 200 individuals are finding shelter in a project at the Northern Illinois State Teachers college because a group of men were determined that obstacles were only something to overcome. Today, as 18 buildings stand completed and veterans of World War II and their families are occupying the 48 apartments and the dormitory type buildings, they stand as monuments to unusual planning and cooperation over six months.
1972 – 50 YEARS AGO
College of Education officials are seeking to work out with DeKalb school officials the best way to make the transition for pupils and staff of the University Laboratory School following yesterday’s budget cut. The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), meeting in Chicago, approved Northern Illinois University’s 1972-73 operating budget which reduced Lab School funds by one-half. Closing of the Lab School by fall 1973 “is a certainty”.
The Star Spangled Banner never fluttered more proudly than it did last night at the NIU fieldhouse as it was cheered when the National Anthem was re-introduced as a pre-game tradition at Northern basketball games. The subject of nationwide controversy, the playing of the National Anthem was temporarily discontinued at the beginning of the basketball season by NIU President Richard Nelson due to what he termed divisiveness among the black and white students at the athletic contests.
Old-fashioned dedication to a profession is exemplified in the life and philosophy of Mayme Self, R.N., who recently was named Employee of the Year at DeKalb Public Hospital. Mrs. Self has been nurse for 50 years and said she began working at DeKalb Public Hospital in 1939. She retired this summer, took some trips and reported for duty again this fall. She usually works two nights a week, but this Christmas season she has been working more frequently, substituting for other nurses.
1997 – 25 YEARS AGO
The City of DeKalb may soon look at cracking down on minors who use tobacco and those who sell it to them. The city attorney’s office, with students from the anti-substance abuse group, is considering measures which would make it illegal for minors to possess or use any tobacco products in certain areas of the city.
Seventy years ago, a young Ronald Reagan took a job as lifeguard at the local beach, eventually saving dozens of lives. Now residents of Dixon want to save the crumbling bathhouse that served as his headquarters. They have less than two weeks to raise $10,000 to repair the building that housed a concession stand and changing rooms when Reagan was lifeguard. The future president started the job in 1926 and worked seven summers at Dixon’s Lowell Park. “Dutch” Reagan cut a notch in an old log for each person he rescued; he says the tally reached 77. That log is gone, but the bathhouse is still there.
– Compiled by Sue Breese