Good Old Days 09-18-15

Compiled By Delaney Uhrig

These stories from the past first appeared in The Sidney Telegraph. Original writing is preserved, though some stories were shortened for space reasons.

50 Years Ago

'Manpower School Chances Good'

Sept. 16, 1965

Facts and figures are being put together this week to strengthen Sidney's bid for a federal manpower training school at Sioux Army Depot.

The school would be administered through the public school system and could attract as many as 350 people to Sidney, some bringing families.

Russell Pedersen, superintendent of Sidney Public Schools, would be administrator in charge, but would hire an assistant and coordinator, to do the actual supervision and administration work.

An advisory committee composed of local people already has been named to assist with the various courses which would be offered through the school.

A representative of the manpower organization is in Sidney this week and has taken stock of building, facilities and equipment available at the depot.

The fact that these facilities are available at no cost is expected to boost Sidney's bid for the school.

Those who have been close to the study think this city's chances are excellent. Manpower officials on the state level are known to favor it, and the proposal is expected to find favorable climate when it reaches Washington within the next few days.

It is possible that the school might be set up and running by Nov. 1.

It would attract people from a wide area beyond the Nebraska border who can qualify for retraining because they have been displaced in their jobs because of economic conditions or other reasons. The school would be an important 'shot in the arm' to the economy of the reason.

40 Years Ago

'Living History Plan To Proceed at Library'

Sept. 17, 1975

A "living history" project was announced today by The Sidney Telegraph and the Sidney Public Library.

The idea is to encourage the people of this area to record for future generations their memories about life in the past or present. The recordings will be made and stored at the library for public use, according to librarian R. W. Brown.

Recording tape for the project is being purchased with a $200 grant from the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben, awarded to the newspaper earlier this year as part of the Ak-Sar-Ben newspaper community service prize. The award stipulates that the money must be spent on a community service project.

"With the nation's Bicentennial throwing a lot of attention on local histories and heritage, this seemed to be an appropriate way to spend the money," said Telegraph editor Frank Partsch. "We'd like to consider this to be one of the newspaper's Bicentennial projects, and we hope everyone in the area will think of it as a community Bicentennial project."

"Life is changing rapidly as we move toward the 21st Century," he said. "But there are still people among us who remember people and events from the 1890s. We think it would be very valuable to present and future generations, if they would take an hour or so to describe life as it was when they were young."

He said, however, that the program isn't limited to the elderly. "Such events as the construction of the Sioux Army Depot, the discovery of oil, the Golden Link ceremony happened comparatively recent years, but that doesn't make them any less significant in our overall history. We hope participants and observers in these and other important events will take this opportunity to speak across the years."

In fact, he said, it isn't inconceivable that a high school student would be able to provide a valuable account of such things as the development of girls' athletics or a state championship team.

25 Years Ago

'Twist and Shout! – Elvis, Buddy and The Beatles shake it up on Sidney stage'

Sept. 17, 1990

Historically, it never happened – Elvis Presley and The Beatles sharing a stage.

But, it did happen in Sidney on Saturday, and the audience of about 300 ate it up.

Elvis, The Beatles, and Buddy Holly all appeared in Sidney, or at least those who make their living impersonating the legends of rock and roll. It was Buddy, Elvis and The Beatles. . . The Legends Live On ... sponsored here by Kids Plus, and featuring Eddy L. as Holly, Tim Hilliard as Young Elvis, and the alumni cast of "Beatlemania" as the Fab Four.

The joint appearance of The Beatles and Elvis came during the encore, and the band pounded out "Twist and Shout," a group of teens and preteens did just that – danced in the aisles.

Shouting came easy for many of the youngsters in the audience, which was laced with adults who were teens when Elvis and Holly helped launch rock and roll in the 50s. Sadly, there was a lack of high school students. Many adults commented that today's youth possibly felt it "was not cool," for teens to attend the tribute program. So much for the local teenage laments of of nothing offered in Sidney for teens to do.

The teens who did attend got their money's worth. So did the adults.

10 Years Ago

'Community Members Gather To Battle Sidney's Meth Problem'

Sept. 16, 2005

Perhaps they should be called the "Meth Busters."

On Wednesday, Sidney became the training ground for the fighters of a very serious war – the war on methamphetamine.

While law enforcement embers trained and educated citizens, average local people were the true stars of the show.

Wednesday members of the Region IV Clandestine Meth Lab (CLAN Lab) Team assaulted a vacant house made up like a meth lab as art of their training. Team embers gather Wednesday evening at Western Nebraska Community College for a community-wide meeting about meth.

Sidney Police Chief Larry Cox said he was pleased that the citizens showed up Wednesday night to discuss the community's meth problem.

"People are so busy in their daily lives that they don't stop to think about it until something happens close enough to affect them," Cox said. "Most of the people at the meth conference have started out of that mode and we are seeing more and more stuff in the paper and the media locally and rationally. They are startling to get concerned and more and more people in this area are coming to that conclusion."

Cox said most of the people who attended Wednesday's meth conference were there to learn about the drug.

Sidney Patrol Officer Jeff Gaasch said he even learned a lot at the conference.

"I always learn something when I attend a class like this," Gaasch said adding what he learn at the conference was about "the trends and how they have changed. I see more of the usage, the age of people using (meth) shocks me but the trends, as far as the labs and the way they are changing their methods of cooking, always surprises me."