Forum Flashbacks: Oct. 17-23
MARYVILLE DAILY FORUM, OCT. 22, 1999
25 YEARS AGO: West Nodaway Royalty – Burlington Junction celebrated its fall Homecoming Oct. 8, at the West Nodaway school. Verlena Downing was named queen and Michael Goff was named king. Crown bearers were Claire Young and Sage Jones.
50 years ago
Maryville Daily Forum, Oct. 19, 1974
His shirt was faded; the wool plaid blending into an ill-defined, rusty red; his jeans were patched on both knees, with patches on patches on the seat and the cuffs were frayed; through his well-worn tennis shoes peeked a toe; and he wore an olive-drab cotton coat, obviously worn at one time by a soldier.
A description of a down-and-outer, on his last tattered leg? No, the much-infashion look of a typical college student.
“Grubbies” is what most of their wearers call their raggedy threads, many of which are purchased at army surplus stores or salvaged from high school days.
Mary Weers, a Northwest State University elementary education major from Platte City, dressed in bib overalls, a hooded T-shirt, knee-high socks and men’s penny loafers, said she dresses as she does for comfort.
“I don’t like dresses. This is my second year here and I’ve never worn a dress,” she said.
Anticipating her student teaching and subsequent employment as a teacher, Miss Weers said she will probably wear pants suits.
Almost anything of army green, that drab olive camouflage color, is popular with the dress-downers. Steve Ferree, Panora, Iowa, paid $17 for his full-length army coat which, in some areas, is bringing as much as $60 because they are so popular.
“I wear good stuff once a week,” Ferree said, “just to show people I can. I feel more comfortable in grubbies though — the same jeans I wore in high school.
“No one cares what people wear anymore,” he added.
Many college students dress as they do to protest the establishment’s materialism, but there are those who dress poorly because they are poor, or at least don’t have the money to dress smartly.
“I would buy nice clothes if I had the money,” said Gail Wright, Red Oak, Iowa, “but when you have to pay $15 for a pair of jeans, it’s ridiculous.” …
Wright’s friend, a Maryville youth who preferred to remain unidentified because he was afraid his parents would object, said being a student allows a person to dress as he wants, even though later he will have to conform.
“I don’t want people to judge me by my clothes,” he said, “but everyone is concerned about what the guy next to him thinks about the clothes he wears. That’s why students prefer washed-out jeans to new ones.”
His jeans were definitely washed-out and practically falling off his body. “What makes a person is much more than outward appearances,” he said, tugging at the hole in the rear of his jeans.
100 years ago
Maryville Daily Democrat-Forum, Oct. 23, 1924
ENOUGH BALLOTS TO PAPER A ROOM
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Two or three of the ballots which will be handed to Nodaway County voters at the polls on November 4 would be enough to paper a fair sized room, according to County Clerk Fred W. Smith, who has received samples of the forms which must be used.
The ballot measures 19 ½ by 37 ½ inches, more than a yard long. It contains seven complete tickets — Republican, Democratic, Socialist, Socialist-Labor, Prohibition, Liberal and Commonwealth Land Party. …
From President down to coroner there are nineteen officers to be voted for on the Republican and Democratic tickets. There will be a total of 259 squares in which to vote, this number being equally divided on the tickets.
Six of the tickets have emblems. The Republican, headed by Coolidge and Dawes, with the emblem of the elephant and the letters G. O. P.; the Democratic, headed by Davis and Bryan, with the Statue of Liberty as an emblem; Socialist, LaFollette-Wheeler, with clasped hands superimposed upon a globe as its emblem; Socialist-Labor, Johns-Reynolds, using as an emblem an upraised arm clasping a hammer; Prohibition, FarisBrehrn, a camel as its emblem; Liberal, LaFollette-Wheeler, with the Liberty Bell as an emblem and the motto “Unity”; and the Commonwealth, Wallace-Lincoln, which did not file an emblem.
In addition to wrestling with this ballot, each voter will be given a ballot containing the titles of the eight constitutional amendments and initiative proposals. This ballot is much smaller, 13 by 4 ½ inches.
It is now thought about 14,000 ballots will be sufficient for Nodaway County.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The 50-year and 100-year flashbacks are courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, accessible at shsmo.newspapers.com.
