Gov. John Carlin was hoping for a 10 percent hike in teacher pay in the state the coming year but skeptics abounded.

Meanwhile, a likely increase in the state sales tax, to fund programs such as education, seemed still in the talking stage as 1984 ended and the 1985 legislative session loomed.

Lawrence was in the middle of an old-fashioned gasoline war and, for the first time in ages, prices for self-service gas had dropped here to under 90 cents a gallon. Naturally there were a number of “pump runs” by motorists.