Looking Back - 1936: 'Black Christmas' in area

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One year ago

Local Sudanese residents were preparing to vote in Omaha, Neb., on Jan. 9, most in favor of South Sudan’s separation from North Sudan.

The Bread of Life Feeding Ministry was to resume operation Jan. 1 at a new location and with a repurposed focus.

Heron Lake BioEnergy LLC was fined $66,000 by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for environmental violations dating as far back as October 2005, when the facility was under construction. A release issued by the MPCA stated the ethanol plant violated conditions of both its state-issued air quality and water quality permits on a number of occasions since 2007.

Between their annual salaries, per diems for meeting attendance and reimbursement for cell phones, mileage, meals and motels, full-time Nobles County commissioners collected an average of $25,125 in taxpayer dollars in 2010.

Five years ago

The District 518 Board of Education unanimously approved a purchase agreement from Grace Community Church for $150,000 for the former Prairie Lakes building on Worthington’s Nobles Street. The church had been leasing the facility for several preceding months.

The Nobles County operating budget was to increase nearly $3 million in 2007 to more than $25.1 million — an increase of 11.82 percent in budget spending over 2006. Due to $1 million in anticipated state aid, the money levied from property taxes was expected to increase only 7.42 percent over the previous year.

Swift & Co. donated $52,000 to the Worthington Area United Way to support individuals and families affected by the recent Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement identity theft investigation.

10 years ago

A $6.3 million bonding project to remodel and redesign classrooms and laboratory spaces and add a 3,000 square-foot student services office at Minnesota West Community and Technical College was on the fast track, with the Minnesota State Colleges and University system having included the project in its official request to the Legislature.

Worthington Middle School students and staff raised more than $19,000 for charitable organizations helping victims of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks.

Just before Christmas, snow fell (totals ranging from 2- to 5-inches, including 2 inches in Worthington) to bring a white Christmas to the previously brown region.

Reports from the 2000 U.S. Census showed Nobles County gaining 3.6 percent in population over the preceding decade — the only southwest continent to gain population in that time period.

25 years ago

The home of Fred and Wilma Tasler won first prize in the Windom holiday light display contest. Fred estimated he had used at least 200 bulbs to light up the back of the house, with 600 to 700 bulbs trimming the front.

Worthington retail stores reported one of their busiest days of the year Friday (Dec. 26). Merchants said the crowds rivaled or exceeded anything seen during the pre-Christmas shopping season, and that they “seemed bent on spending money received as Christmas gifts.”

The Fulda High School Raiders marching band, under the direction of Mike Peterson, departed for Phoenix, Ariz., where the band was to appear in the Fiesta Bowl.

Bare ground made it possible for the extended Dunning family, visiting grandfather Wayne Dunning in Rushmore over the holidays, to participate in the “Winter Olympics of Croquet.”

Kathy Grussing, Adrian senior basketball player, was this week’s Daily Globe Athlete of the Week.

50 years ago

Mr. and Mrs. Gary Kienitz of Worthington received their adopted child — Rhonda Le Ann — just before the holidays. The baby, a Korean orphan, arrived in Worthington last Tuesday. The couple also celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary Dec. 28.

Specials this week at Swanson’s grocery included bananas, 10 cents a pound, celery for 10 cents a stalk, Longhorn colby cheese for 49 cents a pound, four boxes of Betty Crocker cake mixes for $1, and a 12-ounce box of Ritz crackers for 29 cents.

At least 600 truck-loads of snow, picked up from Worthington streets already this season, were piled up in Centennial Park, presenting the appearance of an arctic wasteland.

Clarence E. Mobeck, cashier at the First National Bank of Worthington, announced his retirement effective Dec. 31 after 46 years in the banking business.

Icicles of mammoth dimensions were a common sight throughout Worthington this week.

75 years ago

Colder weather was on hand following Dec. 25, after Worthington celebrated one of the warmest and “blackest” Christmases on record. The thermometer zoomed to a high of 42 degrees on Dec. 25, rising from a low of 30 degrees. Recent warm weather cleared away almost every patch of snow to usher in a “black Christmas.”

Approximately 100 hunters engaged in a rabbit hunt near Adrian bagged 382 rabbits and two foxes. A number of hunters from Worthington and Lismore joined with the Adrian men for the day, covering 16 sections of land in the longest and most successful rabbit hunt attempted this year.

Advertised specials at Goff’s Grocery this week included Monarch Coffee, 25 cents a pound and navel oranges, 25 cents a pound.

Incoming probate judge Vincent Hollaren announced that after Jan. 4, Nobles County probate court would have four terms each month. Hollaren, the judge-elect, was to succeed the Hon. M. P. Thornton.

Tags: looking back, lifestyle, columns, reminiscing