IN 1977

Kansas University officials said that once former students errant in repaying educational loans could be located, they generally paid their bills. However, there was concern about the number of people who did not voluntarily repay their loans and who could not be located. There seemed to be a growing tendency of college students all over the country to renege on their loan repayments and federal officials were considering a formal program to collect such dues.

Kansas University was soon due to have a moon rock, a space suit and other souvenirs of the U.S. Apollo space missions to put on public display. U.S. Rep. Larry Winn Jr. of the local congressional district had arranged for the display. Winn long had been active in the space program process.

A two-story department store in Oskaloosa, Brenneman’s, was destroyed by fire. The loss was estimated at more than $250,000 for the building and contents.

IN 1962

Trees, trash and debris continued to cover the hard-hit Clyde Husted farm area near Lakeview even though the gigantic ice floes that had barged onto his land during the severe wintertime flooding had melted. Huge portions of valuable ground had been gouged out, leaving a tremendous mess and great problems of rehabilitation for Husted and his family. At one time, with the ice floes in place, the area had resembled a grim moonscape. Many of the ice floes had been eight to 10 feet high with tremendous area and bulk.

IN 1902

On March 17, 1902, the Lawrence World told of an incident involving a Lawrence businessman in its headline reading, “A Narrow Escape.” The article began: “Win Newmark had a narrow escape from death by suffocation a couple of days ago. A pole cat had found a pleasant resting place somewhere between the Newmark (809 Mass.) and Shearer (811 Mass.) stores and Win thought he would smoke him out with sulphur. The entrance into the cellar is a trap door and down this Win went with a large shovel full of sulphur. After lighting it he went to the front of the cellar and by the time he got back the fumes were so strong that it was with great difficulty that he finally reached the stairway and on hands and knees crawled up and raised the door. He managed to pull himself through and then fell in a half conscious condition. A half minute more or perhaps even a few seconds and death would have overtaken him.”