SPOTLIGHTING THE YEAR...1964

What Was Going On 14 Years Ago

The Keith Clevenger Address at the Opera House was heard by a mere handful of people, owing partly to the very short period of advertising, but mainly to the fact that there was sickness in nearly every Stockton home and the night was cold. It was a talk that would have electrified any crowd we might have furnished, notwithstanding the speaker made it brief and hit only the high places in his regular speech. Mr. Clevenger was for 20 years in Kansas newspaper work, during which he was one of its most widely quoted writers. He is secretary of the state Chamber of Commerce, and publicity man of the United Telephone Company. He has made a hobby of civic improvement and is remarkably well versed in all that makes for the welfare of communities, possesses the talent of presenting his thought with force and elegance of diction. It is a delight to sit under his spell. He says he will come again whenever we want him, and we trust it will not be long before he returns.

Rooks Countians were treated to a first look at the new Rooks County Health Center when two different views on a quarter-page artist’s drawing were published in the March 9, 2006 paper.

* And So They Say: Maxine Bates: “I’m afraid if I should ever put on one of those new model bathing suits, I’d never come out from behind the bushes.” Lee Phelps: “Most everyone will be eating Girl Scout cookies for the next few weeks unless they freeze some of them.” Ralph Burlin: “I thought March came in like a lion because I forgot to look at my calendar to see that February had 29 days.”

Our sister town, Woodston, recently had another disastrous conflagration. Tipton and Stewart’s Bakery, and three other buildings of frame construction on the north side of Main Street, were entirely destroyed by a fire within an hour. Mr. and Mrs. Tipton, who were sleeping in one of the buildings, barely got out with their lives, being compelled to jump through a broken window. None of the contents of the bakery was saved. They had recently installed new bread mixing machinery and a new gasoline engine. They carried $1,800.00 of insurance on the property, and their loss will be considerable. We have not learned who owned the other houses. One of them was occupied by Will Tallman. A phone call for help was received at Stockton at 2:30 a.m. on Monday morning and in a very few moments George Beckley and A. L. Graham had got their cars out, which were loaded with citizens and made a quick trip, but upon their arrival everything was burned to the ground. The origin of the fire is still shrouded in mystery.

THESE STOCKTON MEN participated in the Grand Island Bowling Tourney at the end of February in 1997. The men brought home $1,956.23 in prize money out of a total payout of $10,485.25. They are (front row, from left): Lawrence Koelling, Joey Bellerive, Kermit Schindler, Dale Boucher, Corky Hagan, Harry Colburn, Jerry Sterling; (back row): Kevin Morgan, Merrill Johnston, Delwin LaRue, Dan Nelson, Bill Dibble, Bob Lambert and Donnie Johnston. Not pictured: Chad Sterling, Mike Hollern, Dale Broeker and Bob Oliva.

* And So They Say: Les Eckart: “You haven’t tried anything till you’ve tried to get a passport photo.” Butch Ostmeyer: “I don’t think it will be too long until we have the 1964 Fair lined up pretty well.”

A Scrapbook Crop Event was planned for March 18 as a fundraiser for the Stockton Fire Department.

Mr. and Mrs. George Maddy arrived from Oklahoma City last Saturday. By Monday George had become the owner of the J. B. Graham property on Second Street south and at once commenced clearing the grounds preparatory to the erection of three $5,000.00 residences of different designs to face east. George is an expert stucco builder and has several forces of hands on construction in Oklahoma. Within three weeks he will have materials and workmen on the ground and will commence simultaneously of the three houses. They will be sold on the installment plan. He will engage in stucco building on a large scale in Stockton and no doubt many new homes will go up this season in Stockton. We confidently look for a large building program this year, in addition to the completion of the courthouse and the erection of the big high school building.