Surprise! About two inches of snow that dropped here Christmas Eve guaranteed the Lawrence area its first white Christmas since 1974. Weather forecasters were caught off guard as much as everyone else after declaring the prospects for any kind of precipitation, let alone snow, were less than 10 percent for the Dec. 25 celebration.

A former Kansas University staff member who had been in Iran the past Christmas on a hostage mediation trip was charged with five counts of selling illegal drugs. Clarence Dillingham Jr., former acting director of affirmative action at KU, was charged with three counts of sale of cocaine, one count of selling marijuana and one count of possession of cocaine with intent to sell, according to Dist. Atty. Mike Malone. Dillingham, 28, was arrested after a two-month investigation by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. He had been a part of a local “free the hostages” action that had resulted in his being denied pay for the period he was gone from the KU campus during the fall semester of 1979.