100 YEARS AGO
Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Green took all the children in and around Rockdale for a day’s outing on the San Gabriel River for pecan gathering, etc. Reporter readers were asked to phone 175 not later than 6 p.m. Saturday to get a head count so there would be enough dinner for all. They left the Perry Drug Store corner at 9 a.m. on Sunday. Mr. Green said, “don’t dress them up. We are going to get dirty and be happy all day.”
W.E. Gaither, car dealer, was offering the Ford Runabout for sale for $325.
The Rockdale water works standpipe collapsed under pressure at 9 p.m. The standpipe was 110 feet high and consisted of 22 sections of five feet each. The 13 top sections fell with a crash that was heard all over town. There was water damage to W.E. Gaither’s warehouse and the city cemetery. The loss to the city was not very great as the standpipe was know to be almost worthless and its collapse was not unexpected.
40 YEARS AGO
The new Patterson Civic Center was the site Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the Rockdale Community Players production of “Any Wednesday.” The Broadway smash hit starred Joel Cogwin, Marti Campbell, John Wilkey and Collie Parker, and was the latest in a series of highly successful dinner theater productions. RCP President Stephanie Reeves said the groups next performance, Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite,” was planned for April 1982.
The Rockdale NAACP branch scheduled a BBQ supper in the Pecan Street Masonic Hal,l according to Ellihue Wilbur, branch president. “Barbecue sandwiches will be sold for $1.50 each with drink,”“ Wilburn said. “There will also be checkers, dominos and a card tournament.”
20 YEARS AGO
The latest casualty of the 47-year Battle of the Bell between Rockdale and Cameron’s football teams was the bell itself. Cameron school officials announced that there would be a new $2,500 brass bell donated by Katheryn Thomas, mother of Marion Thomas Cooley, a member of the Cameron ISD school board.
The Rockdale PTO donated $2,500 to the elementary school for new playground equipment.
Rockdalians donated $11,065 for the victims of the New York City terrorist attacks. Denise Doss, chamber president, said the money will be sent to the American Red Cross.
10 YEARS AGO
The Rockdale Volunteer fire Department was making major upgrades to its aging fleet as the city council finalized plans to purchase a new $350,000 pumper during Monday’s council session.
It was one of the most successful Fall Festivals in years for the Rockdale Parent-Teacher Organization (P-TO) Friday in the Intermediate cafeteria-gym. “We grossed about $4,000,” Cheryl Blackstock, P-TO president, said. “There are some expenses but we still have receipts coming in.” Blackstock said the festival drew a large turnout from 5 to 8 p.m. “It was the biggest crowd in some time,” she said.
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