Past Tense: December 21, 2017
70 years ago – 1947
Everyone was invited to the first Christmas party in Town Hall. Ernie Maxwell was master-of-ceremonies and Charles Kretsinger led the carol singing.
65 years ago – 1952
Sale of Buckhorn Ranch at Dutch Flats to the Reorganized Church of Latter-day Saints was announced.
60 years ago – 1957
Vandals shot insulators and power lines, disrupting electrical service for several hours in some areas.
55 years ago – 1962
Jill Campion, Town Crier associate editor, vacationed in England. She said the food was smashing: kippers for breakfast, steak and kidney pie for lunch, sausage, hash and cabbage for supper. She gained 10 pounds.
50 years ago – 1967
Hill folk were shoveling out from the heaviest pre-Christmas snowfall in 20 years. The Forest Service measured 38 inches of packed snow at the Idyllwild station.
45 years ago – 1972
Two well-known mountain men passed away: Ray Fobes, who drove the first stage operating from Hotel Hemet to Idyllwild 60 years previously; and Finest White, who had lived on the Hill for 35 years and was a onetime foreman at Camp Roosevelt.
40 years ago – 1977
Area residents Ed Knapp and Bill Plummer finished producing “Christmas in Idyllwild,” to be aired on Channel 3 Christmas Day. The two-hour TV show featured scenes from Town Hall’s holiday bazaar, Desert Sun School’s Christmas dance and other mountain activities.
35 years ago – 1982
Mel Goldfarb, then owner and pharmacist at Idyllwild Pharmacy, was recognized as a “Rock & Pillar of the Community” by the Idyllwild Rotary Club. At that time, Mel had owned the pharmacy for five years.
30 years ago – 1987
The first snow of the year brought 9 inches of the white stuff and gladdened the hearts of those dreaming of a white Christmas.
25 years ago – 1992
While the owners were away, several robbers broke into an Idyllwild residence, camped out for few days, ate all the food in the house and then took everything they could carry away.
20 years ago – 1997
Furious winds toppled trees, damaged homes and caused hundreds of Hill residents to lose power.
15 years ago – 2002
Riverside Mountain Area Safety Taskforce leaders gave Rep. Mary Bono and state Assemblyman Dave Kelley a tour of land affected by bark-beetle infestation. It was the fifth year of drought on the Hill, and the bark beetle had devastated about 36,000 forest acres.
10 years ago – 2007
An Idyllwild man, Christopher Lacanski, was arrested and charged with vandalism of Idyllwild School and theft of an automobile.
5 years ago – 2012
The Mountain Area Safety Taskforce devoted its primary focus during its quarterly meeting to the threat to local forests from the Goldspotted oak borer.
1 year ago – 2016
California’s minimum wage would rise to $10.50 an hour on Jan. 1, 2017, for businesses with 26 or more workers with subsequent graduated increases topping out at $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022.
