Forum Flashbacks: July 2-8
MARYVILLE DAILY FORUM, JULY 12, 2001
25 YEARS AGO: Enjoying the warm weather these neighborhood children played for hours in the yard of Holly Wilmes. Tucker McDonald levels the slide, while Heath Wilmes goes down and Zack Carmichael watches. Also playing but not pictured were Caleb McDonald, Alec Wilmes and Kali Dodd.
50 years ago
Maryville Daily Forum, July 6, 1976
M-80s Plague Celebration
Three incidents of vandalism involving fireworks were reported to police over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Two of the incidents involved M-80 explosives which were set off in phone booths owned by United Telephone. The other involved an M-80 thrown at a pop machine.
Early Sunday morning, shortly before 1 a.m., a telephone in a booth between the Lil’ Duffer and Knotty Pine Motel was blown up and-or torn away from the booth, police said. Fragments of the M-80 were found in the booth and the remaining parts of the telephone. The main body of the phone was not found, officers said.
A similar incident was investigated Monday morning at a phone booth on the 500 block of North Main Street. Police said an M-80 had been placed in the coin return and exploded, blowing off the cover of the phone.
Shortly after the first telephone incident Sunday morning, police said an M-80 was exploded at a pop machine at Shell’s Service Station on South Main Street. Tony Emery, Maryville, told police he was about to buy a can of pop at the machine when an unknown subject threw an explosive at the machine, blowing it open. Fragments at the scene identified the explosive as an M-80.
The sheriff’s department reported it received only one complaint of fireworks over the weekend, that incident involving an explosive placed in a mail box in Barnard.
75 years ago
Maryville Daily Forum, July 5, 1951
Thousands Jam College Stadium To Witness July 4 Celebration
Approximately 3,000 Maryvillians and county residents crowded the Northwest Missouri State College stadium last night to watch the Independence Day celebration which featured a professional fireworks display, a concert by the Maryville band and a talk by the Rev. Fr. Edward Malone, O. S. B., rector of Conception Seminary.
The event, which was the first July 4 celebration to be held in Maryville for several years, was sponsored by the local American Legion. Legion Commander R. E. Wyman served as master of ceremonies.
America’s freedom to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, were stressed by Father Malone in his talk on the birth of this nation 175 years ago.
The Conception Seminary rector said that America is not the only country that believes in these principles, but one of the few countries in which they can be practiced.
“We must reflect the principles by which we live and be prepared to defend those things in which we believe,” he said.
Father Malone compared the Korean crisis to the revolutionary war between the United States and Great Britain when he said, “it was not a conflict between countries but a conflict between a group of men.”
“It is important that we gather and reassert the principles on which this nation was founded,” Father Malone said, “for what we are today our political thinking has made us and what we do tomorrow our political thoughts will make us.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The 50- and 75-year flashbacks are courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, accessible at shsmo.newspapers.com.
