Forum Flashbacks: July 3-9
MARYVILLE DAILY FORUM, JULY 6, 2000
25 YEARS AGO: Bubble Making Fun – Northeast Nodaway students and their families held a celebration Friday, at Mozingo Lake Park to mark the end of summer school. Joel Scroggie and his mom, Deanna Scroggie, try their hand at making bubbles. Inset, Chad Messner gets the big one. Some bubbles were over a foot long. Students also got a boat ride and had a cookout.
50 years ago
Maryville Daily Forum, July 5, 1975
Van Voorst’s Toy Craft In Smithsonian Exhibition
If you visit the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., this summer be sure to look for the “Craft Multiples” exhibition. The display, which opened Friday and runs until Feb. 16, 1976, features the work of a local craftsman.
A Five-In-One-Train Toy, designed and built by Philip J. Van Voorst, Maryville, is one of the 133 objects in the display made by 126 craftsmen in 36 states and the District of Columbia.
Competing with 2,300 other entries, Van Voorst’s train toy was selected because of the uniqueness of its design. The train sections interlock, puzzle-like, and pack securely inside a hinged frame, making a square that will fit under a child’s arm.
Although Van Voorst started making the toys for his own two sons, they are also attractive to adults. The five sections of the train are cut from the same piece of hard wood, usually oak, with walnut or birch wheels, forming a continuous matched grain. As Van Voorst said, “One of my best customers doesn’t have any children.”
To fit the train inside the square, several design problems had to be overcome. Van Voorst had to handfabricate(sic) metal hitches that would recess into the train sections and the wheels had to have special positioning.
“The designing is what is fun,” he said, and “It’s always interesting to see what other possibilities my children can come up with.”
Van Voorst, who teaches two and three dimensional design at Northwest State University, finds it challenging to adapt his designs to avoid wasting materials. His inability to throw away scraps has directed his toy making from the very first. His first work came from trying to find a use for a scrap of wood left over from a sculpture base he had made.
As with many of his recent creations, the first one was based on a circle. He uses the circles partly because of the influence of tools, partly because of the ease of integrating one circle with another and as Van Voorst terms himself, “I am a circle freak.”
In addition to the all-wood toys, including various vehicles as well as small people and animals, he has combined two of his crafts, plexiglass sculpture and woodworking, for several pieces.
Having his work on exhibition is nothing new for Van Voorst because he has exhibited numerous pieces of his plexiglass sculpture.
100 years ago
Maryville Daily Democrat-Forum, July 6, 1925
IS SAFE AND SANE FOURTH
It was a safe and sane Fourth of July in Maryville, not a serious accident of any kind being reported to Maryville physicians.
Year after year this holiday is being observed quietly with less casualties, especially in Maryville and Nodaway County, a local physician said today. In a few cases burned fingers were given home treatment and a call to a physician was not necessary this year.
For the most part, Maryvillians stayed at home Saturday and celebrated the holiday as a day of rest. Long before dawn, patriotic youngsters, having saved their nickels and pennies for weeks, welcomed in the nation’s birthday by booming firecrackers or cracking torpedos.
A number of persons spent the day in Omaha, St. Joseph and other nearby towns and cities, but there was a general inclination to remain at home and rest.
The Maryville Country Club was the mecca for golf enthusiasts, a large number being on the links throughout the day. Several families enjoyed picnic dinners on the grounds and the dining room at the clubhouse served ninety persons. A large crowd witnessed the fireworks display southeast of the clubhouse Saturday night. The dance, too, was well patronized.
Fireworks were much in evidence all over the city Saturday night and it was not until nearly midnight when the last firecracker had been shot or the last Roman candle lighted the sky.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The 50- and 100-year flashbacks are courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, accessible at shsmo.newspapers.com.
