Looking back...

10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO

100 YEARS AGO...

Someone unknown blew up the city dipping vat, situated about one mile from town on Hicks Road. Dynamite was the explosive used and a complete job was made of it. Evidently a good many persons in Milam County object to law and order, and just how long the law-abiding citizens are going to stand for these acts remains yet to be determined. It may take a visit from Uncle Sam’s Secret Service men to stop it, or a night ride by the Ku Klux Klan to get the fellow’s goat who was getting so free with the dynamite.

Engineer Louva Lenert made a survey and drew up a map of the district which will have to be drained to free Rockdale of the malaria mosquito.

FORTY YEARS AGO...

Alcoa was to cut production at its Rockdale Works temporarily from a full eight potlines operation to seven potlines. Approximately 60 workers were to be laid off and smelter output would be curtailed by 35,000 tons per year.

Milam County commissioners heard that the price tag for the expansion of the county jail could be $1 million or more.

The baby girl found abandoned in a weed patch near the Coffield Addition was placed in a temporary foster home after a nine-day stay in Richards Memorial Hospital and was “doing fine.”

Trail rides, the crowning of the 1981 Miss Jubilee Days queen and three nights of riding and roping would highlight the annual Jubilee Days Rodeo at Fair Park.

TWENTY YEARS AGO...

Rockdale City Council members heard that “you get what you pay for” where street construction was concerned, and also that natural gas rates were going up.

Alcoa and United Steelworkers of America were headed for “baseball style” arbitration for the final year of their six year labor contract.

Taxable values increased over the past year in 11 of Milam County 12 taxing entities including Rockdale ISD, the City of Rockdale and the Rockdale Hospital District. Gause ISD was the only one to show a decease.

Joe Lopez, a 1996 graduate of Rockdale High School, was among 847 graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy May 30 in Colorado Springs.

TEN YEARS AGO...

The Rockdale City Council appeared ready to pass Rockdale’s first-ever comprehensive nuisance ordinance. But first it had to answer one key question. Just what exactly was a nuisance? Council members, meeting in workshop session at City Hall, discussed nuisances and failed to make any progress on a disagreement with the Rockdale Fair Association over a “memorandum of understanding” regarding Fair Park use.

The second RHS Band Reunion was set at the Patterson Civic Center and former director Jim Perry said a special invitation has been extended. “We have been offered the use of a band hall, drums and some of the larger school instruments,” Perry said.

The 76th Rockdale Homecoming would be held at the Patterson Center, according to Dr. Lucile Estell, spokesperson for the Rockdale Homecoming Association.

It’s too hot, way too early. Five readings of 100 or greater were recorded over the past week in Rockdale, including back-to-back highs of 104 Sunday and Monday. The mercury climbed to 100 Tuesday on the U.S. Weather Service thermometer at KRXT-FM and it was also an even 100 on Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s (June 2) century mark was 57 days earlier than the first 100-degree reading of 2010, which was recorded July 29.