100 YEARS AGO....
Rockdale closed all its schools after 40 percent of the students did not show up for classes. There were also six teachers absent and only one showed up at the high school. Schools were expected to be closed for a week.
City Tax Collector J. F. McCalla said 309 persons in Rockdale had paid their poll taxes, 236 men and 73 women. It would be the first general election year in which women were allowed to vote.
The Reporter announced it would no longer run any advertising on its front page. “This is a policy adopted by all first-class papers,” Publisher John Esten Cooke wrote.
City Secretary J. F. McCalla, who also served at tax assessor-collector, submitted his resignation to the city council, citing after-effects of a stroke. During the same meeting, Ward 1 Alderman L. W. Sledge also resigned.
FORTY YEARS AGO....
Rockdale was approved for a $1.5-million Dept. of Housing & Urban Development for housing rehab, street upgrades and water/ sewer repairs in two east Rockdale areas.
Rockdale City Council members expressed displeasure that a new city well, drilled off East Belton Avenue, was producing less than half the expected 700 gallons per minute.
Rockdale High School was adopting a new, tougher, student attendance plan. Principal Bob Reynolds said the plan tied attendance to being eligible to receive course credits.
Rockdale just stayed alive in the District 23AA title race, holding off Rosebud-Lott, literally, at the buzzer for a low-scoring 38-36 win in the RHS gym.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) accepted an Alcoa plan to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from Sandow Power Plant Units 1, 2 and 3.
Stockholders of Reynolds Aluminum voted overwhelmingly to accepted a merger with Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa).
The Rockdale VFD responded to a burning Valentine’s Day sign at Rock-dale High School. Police said it appeared the poster board sign had been set afire with a cigarette lighter.
Rockdale’s youth baseball fields were getting a major upgrade including batting cages, a sprinkler system, new scoreboards and covered bleachers.
TEN YEARS AGO....
A brief ice storm coated Milam County roads just long enough to cause a pair of weather-related accidents, neither with serious injuries.
Alcoa’s Royce Haws reported about 70 persons remained employed at Rock-dale Operations, including 50 in the atomizer. He said the smelter remained “temporarily shut down.”
The third pursuit in three weeks for Rockdale police ended with an arrest.
Thorndale and Milano boys basketball teams ended the identical 9-1 district records and, since each beat the other, the Bulldogs and Eagles had scheduled a one-game playoff for the district title in the brand-new Rock-dale High School gym.
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