Past Tense: Aug. 5, 2021

70 years ago – 1951
At a joint Chamber and Lions Club committee meeting, members announced plans for a community recreation program the Lions would fund. Plans included hiring a paid recreation director and installing playground equipment.

65 years ago – 1956
A grand opening celebration was held for the new Richfield service station in Pine Cove. Everyone getting a gasoline fill-up got a free, 5-pound bag of sugar.

60 years ago – 1961
A refreshing new spot was welcomed on the parched Hill — water was circulating in the new fountain installed at Eleanor Park.

55 years ago – 1966
In her Town Crier column, “Flora, folks & fauna,” writer Dorothy Bryant let out the locals’ secret that the Idyllwild dump was “the place to see deer, as well as other interesting forms of animal life.”

50 years ago – 1971
Idyllwild Institute – Fiesta’s sixth-annual Mountain Home Tour took place with proceeds going to the institute, a cultural center for teen girls.
45 years ago – 1976
The U.S. Forest Service issued a press release saying, “Visitors and residents … may note wild burros with brightly colored posteriors running around …” Agency personnel were shooting the burros with otherwise harmless capsules that contained colored dye in order to better study the animals.

40 years ago – 1981
Village Market was advertising avocados at 25 cents each, cabbage for 12 cents a pound, beef liver for 89 cents per pound and Totino’s extra large combination pizzas for $1.79 each.

35 years ago – 1986
It took a flip of the coin at a public-information meeting to decide which Ponderosa Drive in Pine Cove would undergo a street name change to clear up confusion caused by the duplication of street names. The flip came up in favor of residents living on Ponderosa Drive between what was then Gail (now Lake View) and Walter drives. The other, off of Coulter Drive, was renamed Cascade Drive.

25 years ago – 1996
A Bee Canyon Fire commemorative pin was developed by Idyllwild residents Jo-Carroll Dennison and Janice Fast. They were given to all public safety officials and volunteers involved in fighting the fire and to people who donated $25 to the pin project.

20 years ago – 2001
Huell Howser, host of KPBS TV’s “California’s Gold,” was vacationing in Idyllwild.

15 years ago – 2006
Idyllwild resident Casey Abrams, a finalist on American Idol that year, was a member of the cast of the Isis Theatre Company’s reading of Ernest Thompson’s “On Golden Pond.”

10 years ago – 2011
More than 80 people filled the meeting room at Caine Learning Center on Wednesday, July 27, to hear Bill Brown, Riverside County’s County Service Area operations manager, explain why the county recently decided to cancel its recreation contract with the Idyllwild Community Recreation Council.

5 years ago – 2016
At their July 26 meeting, commissioners for the Idyllwild Fire Protection District, in the absence of Larry Donahoo, unanimously approved a resolution to double the current $65 per-parcel unit fee to a $130 fee for all parcels.

1 year ago – 2020
The Town Crier reached out to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) media information bureau over the weekend for updates on two more missing people who were last seen in the Idyllwild or surrounding areas in recent months — bringing the total to six confirmed missing people.