Forum Flashbacks: Oct. 12-18

FORUM FILE PHOTO
Story hour will begin again Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Maryville Public Library. Mrs. Don Showers (center) who is in charge of the program gives Melanie Thompson, 5, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Thompson, 710 S. Vine St. (left) and Gary Shipps, 5, son of Mr. and Mrs. Garland Shipps, Route 4 (right) a foretaste of things to come. The program will run for six weeks and will include stories and films. At the first story hour the film will be, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” and stories from the books, “What Can You Do with a Pocket,” “Granny and the Indians,” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

5 years ago
The overcast, rainy conditions outside weren’t enough to dampen the ebullient spirits of the community members who celebrated the dedication of the Carl and Cheryl Hughes Fieldhouse Friday afternoon.

Hundreds gathered at Northwest Missouri State University on a chilly, rainy day that seemed the perfect weather to demonstrate how useful the gargantuan facility will be.

After two years of planning, fundraising and construction, the $21 million fieldhouse officially opened its doors Friday.

Speaking at the ceremony for the complex that bears his name, Carl Hughes said that early on in the process, consultants told him that the funding would never come.

“Don’t you like it when people tell you that you can’t do something?” he joked to the crowd.

The funding did come, and it came from sources large and small. More than $13.5 million came from donors through the Northwest Foundation, and another $3.45 million through a voter-approved “bed tax” from Maryville residents.

Comparing the relationship between the city and the university to one of an “old married couple,” Mayor Rachael Martin set the tone for an afternoon of acknowledging the herculean efforts required from every corner of the community that saw the project to its completion.

“I’m eager to see what the future holds for Maryville and Northwest,” Martin remarked to the crowd. “With continued collaboration like we have accomplished here, I’m confident that we have a lot to look forward to. Thank you for joining us to commemorate this new symbol of our commitment to each other.”

The largest public-private partnership in the university’s 113-year history, the 137,000 square foot sports and events complex will allow nearly every outdoor sport offered by the school a place to practice indoors during inclement weather.

With conference and meeting rooms included, it’s also designed to host recreational activities and to provide a venue for conventions, commercial fairs, expos, school functions and other large-scale events.

50 years ago
Five men at Lloyd Metal Products sighted what was described as a possible unidentified flying object at 1:50 a.m. today in the bottom land east of the building housing the Lloyd plant.

Kurt Moore, one of the men who sighted the object and the one who reported the sighting to the public safety department, described himself as a “firm non-believer” in UFO’s, but said he saw “what I assumed to be a UFO.”

He described the object as having white, red, blue and green lights “which appeared to be revolving.” Moore had gone outside the building in the line of his work and spotted the object. He told several others about it.

Moore returned to work inside and when he went outside again, the object was not visible, he said.

After the report to the public safety department, officers were dispatched to the scene. The Kansas City weather bureau was contacted and reported that there were no “blips” on the radar screen, further deepening the mystery of the lights.

Clifford Dotson, public safety director, was contacted at his home and got up (and) watched the lights from his porch. “I’ll swear the lights were there,” he said,” but I don’t know what they were.”

In the past two weeks, sightings of UFO’s throughout the country, which seems to go in spurts have been coming in frequently. Several sightings have been made in the St. Joseph area during that time.

100 years ago

GIRLS HAVE NOT CHOSEN VOCATION

_______________

Questionnaire Answered by High School Juniors Shows Boys Know What They Want as Their Life Work

Practically no girl students of the junior class of the Maryville High School have chosen a vocation while all the boys have picked some form of life work, according to a recent questionnaire filled out by each of the seventy-one members of the junior class. The examination was given to the students at the Maryville High School, which was picked from the several hundred schools of Missouri by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools as an experiment and means of recording statistics.

The selection of the Maryville High School is an honor as only the outstanding schools of the state were asked to take part in the investigations. The topic of the examination as sent out to the local school is “The High School as Judged by Its Students.” The answers set down in the four-page list of questions were recorded honestly and frankly as the local students were not required to sign their papers nor were the individual papers to be made public. …

The members of the class, with very few exceptions, stated that their motive for going to high school was to prepare for a college education, along with fitting themselves to serve society better and to contribute to the world’s progress. Snobbishness was the most common answer to the question of “What is the most deplorable thing in your high school?” Women teachers are preferred to men teachers according to the answers of the students and the students themselves are to blame for low grades received in classes.

The set of questions on religion and morals were well answered by the students and practically every student answered in the affirmative to the question: “Would you be interested in having in the high school a course dealing with the fundamentals of religion?” Most of the class are members of a church, according to their answers. A course in moral education was asked by many of the class.

Latin and the languages were voted to be the most unnecessary and bothersome studies (and the high school course which was easiest for the class was mathematics).

*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. The original 50-year article ran in the Oct. 18, 1973, issue of the Maryville Daily Forum and the original 50-year photo ran in the Oct. 16, 1973, issue. The original 100-year article ran in the Oct. 16, 1923, issue of the Maryville Tribune, a predecessor of the Maryville Forum.