Past Tense
75 years ago – 1948 “Ma’s New Husband,” the first production of the Mountain Players, was a big hit. Evie Kretsinger and Leigh Dutton headed the cast.
70 years ago – 1953 Boxes were placed in village stores for gifts of food and clothing for American Indians on the Santa Rosa reservation.
65 years ago – 1958 Businesses were asked to enter the Community Yule Decoration Contest the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce sponsored.
60 years ago – 1963 Intermittent rain fell, bringing the season’s total to 10.90 inches, compared to 1.87 inches for the previous year.
55 years ago – 1968 Welch’s Carriage Inn offered a complete dinner for $1 on Wednesday Family Night.
50 years ago – 1973 With grocery industry strikes affecting deliveries to the Hill, local grocery store owners were making runs to Los Angeles and Santa Fe Springs several times a week to obtain goods.
45 years ago – 1978 Busted water pipes, hard-to-start cars and cold hands tormented many Hill residents when a cold spell dropped temperatures to as low as 8 degrees.
40 years ago – 1983 Hemet Unified School District announced it was exploring yet another prospective site for a mountain high school. Funds were approved to complete an environmental assessment on the site located behind the Living Free Animal Sanctuary in Mountain Center.
35 years ago – 1988 Dwight “Buzz” Holmes was preparing to conduct the 12th-annual local presentation of Handel’s “Messiah.”
30 years ago – 1993 After serving two years on the Hemet Unified School District board, Bill Sanborn was elected president.
25 years ago – 1998 Mike Pearson, a good friend of Santa Claus, was booking Christmas Eve visits by Santa to locals’ homes in exchange for a donation to the Idyllwild Tree Monument maintenance fund.
20 years ago – 2003 The County Service Area 38 Advisory Council proposed a special tax to be collected from Pine Cove property owners to help fund the Pine Cove Fire Station and ambulance contracts. The tax was to be voted on in May.
15 years ago – 2008 The defense attorney for accused murderer and arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler had inadvertent support from the federal government for his contention that another more likely person was an arson suspect at the time Oyler was arrested.
10 years ago – 2013 Within the San Bernardino National Forest, the national fee area review resulted in a proposal to eliminate the standard amenity fee designation for seven areas (Arrowhead, Barton Flats, Big Bear North, Big Bear South, Black Mountain, Falls and Thomas Mountain).
5 years ago – 2018 The California Fire Safe Council awarded a $200,000 matching grant to the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council. The local FSC was one of 45 awardees this year. The money was to be used for fuel reduction projects.
1 year ago – 2022 The Riverside County Board of Supervisors denied the five countywide elected officials — assessor/ county clerk/recorder, auditor-controller, district attorney, sheriff/coroner and treasurer/tax collector — possible pay raises, between $35,000 and $60,000 annually.
