Days Gone By
100 YEARS AGO, 1924 » Nick De Meo, of 202 W. Fourth St., a member of the Franklin Fire company, while responding to an alarm of fire sent in from Tenth and Porter streets yesterday, lost a keyring with all of his keys attached. They are of no use to anyone but the owner and De Meo will appreciate it if the finder will return them to him.
75 YEARS AGO, 1949 » In what was described by the principal as “boyish playing around,” a 15-year-old Douglass Junior High School student suffered a severed leg artery when he fell on a penknife in the hands of a fellow student this morning. Taken to Chester Hospital unconscious after the scuffle in the electric shop of the school was Albert Harris, of 1128 Tilghman St. Shortly after he was admitted preparations were made for giving the victim a blood transfusion. An emergency operation was performed, after which his condition was pronounced as “good.” 50 YEARS AGO, 1974 » Chester city and state officials agreed Thursday to detour routes for handling traffic between the soon-to-be completed Commodore Barry Bridge and Interstate 95. The agreement apparently canceled a threat by Mayor John H. Nacrelli to stop the scheduled opening of the $120-million bridge Feb. 1 if alternate routes for carrying traffic through the city’s streets to I-95 were not finalized. The detour routes are needed because the I-95 connecting ramps which were to be completed in time of the bridge’s ribbon-cutting are still tied up in legal hassle between the state and Chester Township concerning rightof-way acquisition.
25 YEARS AGO, 1999 » U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7, of Aston, was re-appointed as the chairman of the House Armed Service’s Research and Development Subcommittee. Weldon has held the post for four years. The congressman Friday vowed to use his post as a bully pulpit to push speedier funding for the V-22 Osprey, the tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like a plane.
10 YEARS AGO, 2014 » A 13-car pileup in the southbound lanes of Routes 1 near Ridley Creek Road in Upper Providence Township during the morning rush hour caused massive traffic headaches for commuters Friday. The chain reaction crash took place at about 7:30 a.m. A driver traveling southbound lost control of his vehicle on the slick roadway and struck the embankment. Numerous vehicles behind him were unable to stop and slid into each other like bumper cars, according to Det. Sgt. Michael Langdale. Two people were taken to Riddle Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Langdale said.