10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO
100 YEARS AGO....
Rockdale merchant Ben Loewenstein Jr. took out a full-page ad “Ben Loewenstein Jr. vs. Sears & Roebuck” in which he compared prices in his store to those of the mail order catalog. “Give me the same chance you do the stranger you never saw in your life,” he pleaded.
Rockdale, led by James Robertson, defeated Rosebud 16-14 in a basketball contest even though The Reporter noted “The game was marked by roughness (but) the straight tossing from any angle by the Rosebud team was great.”
A new bridge club was organized with Mrs. Lon Hudson as president. High scorer in the first meeting was Miss Irma Dunnington who was presented with “a dainty handkerchief.”
The new Rockdale Chamber of Commerce was investigating the possibility of bringing a sweet potato plant to town. The Chamber’s New Industries Committee was directed to make a report.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
A Bryan construction firm took out a permit for Rock-dale’s first-ever federal housing project, a 27-unit complex at the northern city limits between Ackerman and Main Streets.
A leaking railroad tank car, filled with the substance added to natural gas to give it odor, was towed away from downtown Rockdale after an uneasy couple of hours. Firefighters said the substance was “highly flammable.”
Phone service for more than 1,800 Rockdale customers was disrupted as water seeped into underground cables, waterlogging them.
Five members of a Longview family escaped serious injury when their car failed to negotiate the curve at the Scarbrough-West Cameron (US 79) intersection, flipped and crashed into a telephone pole.
The Rockdale Volunteer Fire Department fought three house fires in a four-day period with two mobile homes destroyed in separate incidents.
Workers began preliminary work on the 2000 census in Milam County. The U.S. Census Bureau was seeking workers to canvass the area for face-to-face interviews.
A 32-year-old Leander man was accused of bilking a Rockdale woman out of more than $1,000 in what police termed a “tree-trimming scam.”
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced it would construct two new one-way bridges to replace the old, narrow, two-way “Long Bridge” that carried traffic over the Little River on US 77/190-Texas 36 near Cameron.
TEN YEARS AGO....
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) said “stimulus funds” from a recently-enacted federal bill, would not be used to construct a US bypass around Rockdale.
Rockdale police were enacting an “amnesty period” for anyone with an unpaid failure to appear or capias pro fine with the City of Rockdale.
Rockdale ISD trustees were giving administrators first shot at filling a principal’s vacancy, created by the imminent opening of a new intermediate campus in the school district.
Thorndale’s boys and girls basketball teams continued to roll on in post-season action. The Bulldogs defeated Flatonia in the first round while the Lady Bulldogs punched their ticket to the area tourney with wins over Evadale and Iola.
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