100 YEARS AGO....
T. B. Kemp & Son Grocery, which had been serving Rockdale since 1885, went out of business and sold its inventory to Scarbrough & Hicks. Both Kemps told The Reporter they were in poor health and decided to close the business.
It was already the wettest summer in Rockdale weather records and a total of 12 inches had fallen during the past week. While relief from the summer heat was welcome, the wet weather had taken its toll on streets’ highways and crops, especially cotton.
Cameron opened its new natatorium (indoor swimming pool) and The Cameron Enterprise editor remarked half the town showed up to watch the other half swim. Reporter Publisher John Esten Cooke inquired: “In which half was the editor?”
A 20-year-old Rockdale woman died on the operating table in a Shiner sanitorium where she was undergoing tonsil surgery. Cause was determined to be the anesthetic used.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
There were two newly-paved streets in Rock-dale as Plum and Bigger (later renamed Martin Luther King Drive) were open to traffic. Funding was through a federal Community Development Block Grant.
About 35 persons from Rockdale and Cameron attended a meeting to organize a community theater group, according to effort spokesperson Stephanie Reeves.
Thirty-two cooking teams and 1,500 persons flocked to Thorndale’s City Park for the annual cookoff.
Rockdale football fans didn’t have far to travel to watch the 1979 Tigers. The five road games on the schedule were to Pflugerville, Giddings, Hearne, Taylor and Cameron.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
With the state chipping in $800,000 more than originally anticipated, and the elimination of five positions, the Rockdale ISD adopted a “business as usual” budget for 1999-2000. Original forecasts were dire due to a $30-million drop in valuation of Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations.
Rockdale Hospital District directors okayed a change in the official configuration of Richards Memorial Hospital from 47 beds to 25.
Rockdale police, vowing to crack down on speeding in areas around school campuses, had written 46 speeding citations in the less than two weeks since the opening of school.
W. P. “Red” Hogan was honored by directors of NBC Bank-Rockdale for a perfect 40-year attendance record at director’s meetings, dating back to 1959.
TEN YEARS AGO....
A new era began as the 2009-2010 school year began with essentially two new schools. A brand new intermediate campus opened near the western city limits and an expanded and renovated Rockdale High School also welcomed students.
Nine persons were facing charges after the latest in a series of drug raids in Cameron.
Scott & White announce it would construct a 12,500-squsre-foot clinic and a 2,300-square-foot pharmacy at the intersection of Texas 36 and Lafferty Avenue in Cameron.
The brand new gym at Rockdale High School didn’t have to wait for the first day of school as the Rock-dale Lady Tiger volleyball team hosted Moody in the first-ever sports event at the new facility.
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