Past Tense: May 9, 2013

60 years ago – 1953
A record-breaking crowd of anglers hit the Hill for the opening of trout season. A crowd of 1,500 to 2,000 lined banks of Strawberry Creek shoulder-to-shoulder on opening day.

55 years ago – 1958
Tahquitz Lake Golf Club reopened, adding a cocktail lounge and dining facilities.

50 years ago – 1963
The Winter Park Authority announced that the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway would not begin operations until August. It had been scheduled to open in April, but weather conditions caused delays.

45 years ago – 1968
Cyril Blackburn was considered the luckiest man in town. He wasn’t at home when his hot water tank blew up in the basement, tore a hole through the floor, ripped out stairs, blew walls off the foundation, burst through the roof and finally came to rest a half-mile away from what was left of the house.

40 years ago – 1973
A Riverside youth climbing Tahquitz Peak fell 120 feet and landed in a tree. Other climbers rescued him. He suffered only minor injuries.

35 years ago – 1978
A Hemet Unified School District trustee squashed a student-initiated proposal to designate a smoking area for Hemet High School students.

30 years ago – 1983
Contributions were being collected for the Idyllwild Scholarship Fund. To date, $2,355 had been contributed by 54 donors.

25 years ago – 1988
Sparkletts Water Company’s plan to draw water from a Pine Cove well faced a snag as the owners of the Alandale Water Company claimed that property owner Carl Schirmer had no right to the water he was selling.

20 years ago – 1993
Joann White of Garner Valley almost lost her life in a single-car traffic collision on Highway 74. She had driven down the side of the embankment at Keen Camp Summit. She bled for about two hours before being rescued from her truck.

15 years ago – 1998
The Idyllwild Lions Club sponsored an all-you-can-eat Mother’s Day Pancake Breakfast at Town Hall.

10 years ago – 2003
Members of Idyllwild’s American Legion Post 800 Honor Guard performed the opening ceremony for The Moving Wall (a portable replica of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.), which was being exhibited in San Jacinto.

5 years ago – 2008
A cigarette was attibuted to the cause of an 800-acre fire near Apache Peak along the Pacific Crest Trail.

1 year ago – 2012
Stephen Lowder formally resigned as Superintendent of the Hemet Unified School District.
• • •
Ron Kimmerle was arrested for the second time in as many weeks. This time he was being charged with making criminal threats.