Looking back...

100 YEARS AGO....

The world-wide flu pandemic continued to ravage Rockdale. A. M. Evard, 31, appeared to be recovering one morning but “had something like a congestive chill” in the afternoon and died.

Particularly sad was the case of housewife Mrs. Henry Strelsky, who died from the flu, leaving behind six children, all of whom were ill with the deadly virus. It was believed the children were recuperating.

Several Rockdale students were returning to Austin to resume classes at The University of Texas, which had been closed due to the flu outbreak.

The Reporter noted: “We have lost a regular reader. Note that we did not say subscriber. This party has decided to quit borrowing the paper, saying ‘it makes Mr. (John Esten) Cooke so furiously mad’.... We want everybody to read The Reporter and those who are too poor, or too stingy to subscribe are welcome each week to borrow the paper. But we feel sorry for their neighbors.”

FORTY YEARS AGO....

An armed robbery in a Cameron convenience store, and subsequent vehicle chase involving the Milam County Sheriff’s Department ended when the vehicle crashed, killing the 16-year-old driver, an escapee from the Giddings State School.

Volunteers began a $115,000 fund drive to raise matching funds to triple the size of the Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library and construct a civic center.

Rockdale Emergency Medical Services, a volunteer group of 25, assumed control of the town’s ambulance service, taking over from the police department.

The Battle of the Bell was to have something special in 1979. Cameron’s Yoemen were coming into the game undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 2A.

TWENTY YEARS AGO....

Rockdale ISD trustees were discussing the Y2K situation and how to deal with the possibility of computer problems on Jan. 1, 2000.

Final statistics on what was then Rockdale’s hottest summer ever showed the summer of 1998 included 59 days of temperatures 100 or higher and a single day high of 109.

Residents in a two-mile area were evacuated when a bulldozer ruptured a natural gas pipeline off Burleson County Road 311 south of Rockdale.

Rockdale and Milam County voters were going to the polls to help decide the state representative race between Democrat Teddy Boehm and Republican Dr. Charles Jones to replace the late Dan Kubiak, D-Rock-dale.

TEN YEARS AGO....

Potline No. 7, the final potline still operating at Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations, went down. One final layoff of 30 remained to complete the smelter shutdown.

The Rockdale Ministerial Alliance was organizing a barbecue at the Patterson Community Center to benefit families of more than 1,000 Alcoa workers laid off when the smelter was shut down.

Steel was up in the largest project from the Rock-dale ISD bond package, the 73,765-square-foot intermediate school on a new site on west US 79. Completion was forecast in 2009.

Big Blue stopped five-game losing streaking against Caldwell, rallying back from a 14-7 deficit to score 21 unanswered points and win 28-14.