Past Tense: Aug. 15, 2013
65 years ago – 1948
More than 100 people attended the town’s Old Time Dance.
60 years ago – 1953
An electrical storm roared through the night, starting eight fires and depositing .84 inches of rain that raised Strawberry Creek 2 feet.
55 years ago – 1958
Max and Bea Krone were collaborators on “The Together We Sing” book, just off the press.
50 years ago – 1963
Jackson Lemon of Long Beach, a retired contractor, was an Idyllwild visitor. Years before, he was the builder of the local Community Presbyterian Church.
45 years ago – 1968
The county’s Advisory Traffic Committee turned down a request by the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce for angle parking at the Post Office and Town Hall.
40 years ago – 1973
The fire chief’s son, David Hunt, 14, got a ride to Hemet Valley Hospital in the fire department’s rescue vehicle after falling from his bicycle and breaking his shoulder.
35 years ago – 1978
The Town Crier had two foreign correspondents. Luther Weare was writing from northern Europe and Ernie Maxwell was sending reports from the Yukon.
30 years ago – 1983
Idyllwild Arts Foundation was to take over operating the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts campus. Patricia Clark was to be the director.
25 years ago – 1988
Mike Bergstrom, a 17-year-old Idyllwild resident, spent a week as a citizen of Boys State on the California State University campus.
20 years ago – 1993
Target shooting was blamed for the 475-acre fire that started just north of the Cranston Fire Station at the upper end of Bee Canyon Road.
15 years ago – 1998
Workers repairing the ventilation system at Idyllwild School made a surprising discovery. In the crawl space below the roof were dozens of military cots, circa 1955, apparently stored for emergency situations and long forgotten.
10 years ago – 2003
Community activists cheered when Pine Cove resident Paul Black, who had been illegally selling water off his property, had his water tanks removed.
5 years ago – 2008
“Idyllwild’s pine forest could convert to chaparral,” said Anne Kelly, a University of California, Irvine researcher who, along with UCI researcher Michael Goulden, studied how climate change was affecting the area mountains with plant species moving toward higher elevations.
1 year ago – 2012
With 70 felony property crimes reported from Jan. 1 to Aug. 11 in Idyllwild and Pine Cove, concerned residents were rapidly convening to form Neighborhood Watch groups.
