40 years ago: Drought produces smaller but sweeter peaches

Mrs. C. W. Davenport of Davenport Orchards reported that the continued drought had caused the area peach crop to be smaller in volume, and the individual peaches were ripening sooner than normal and were therefore smaller, but the prolonged sunshine had produced a sweeter fruit.

Construction was underway on the Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc., plant near 29th and Haskell. The mobile home manufacturing plant was expected to take three to four months to complete and would employ 150 people.

Contractors were working hard to complete the new Lecompton Bridge before the scheduled start of school. If the bridge had not been completed on time, the school bus route would have had to detour through either Lawrence or Tecumseh, where the nearest other bridges over the Kansas River were located.

Paving crews had completed only about 2,500 feet of paving on eastbound K-10, a drop in the bucket of the total project. Grading work had been going slowly because the utilities needed to be moved first. Also, because of the drought, water had been hauled to the site to keep moisture to the correct levels in the dirt used.