STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
U.S. Customs officials at the Calexico Port of Entry said today they will be on the alert, but they anticipate no smuggling of cigarettes because of the increase in the California state tax tomorrow.
State tax on cigarettes, effective Tuesday, jumps from three cents to seven cents a pack. A second increase of three cents a pack comes Oct. 1.
Supervisory Inspector for Customs Charles Smith said U.S. citizens returning from Mexico are permitted to bring with them $100 worth of goods, and nothing says this $100 worth of goods cannot be in cigarettes.
“They sound different than any other truck. I’ve owned them and worked them,” Baxter stated this morning.
40 years ago
William Baxter, of Brawley, was awakened shortly after 1 a.m. today by the sound of a crash and the roar of a vehicle driving off.
He rushed outside to find his car had been hit. He called police.
“Did you see the other car?” He was asked by the dispatcher.
“No,” Baxter responded, “but it was a six-cylinder GMC truck.”
He repeated the description to patrolman Victor Coloca, who responded to the call. Coloca broadcast the information.
However, today he admitted to being a bit skeptical about Baxter’s observations.
Until he and Baxter discovered tracks made by some twin tires.
Then shortly afterward, the California Highway Patrol notified Brawley police it might be interested in a truck that had been driven into a ditch near Reggie’s (the old Tommy’s Inn), west of Brawley.
It had specks of green paint on it, which matched Baxter’s car.
It was a six-cylinder GMC flatbed truck.
The driver was charged by the CHP with drunken driving, and Brawley police today were preparing hitand-run charges.
And several amazed police officers today were pondering how Baxter was so sure about his observations.
It was simple.
30 years ago
The first issue of the Jacumba Plain Speaker, a newspaper designed to “help the community communicate with itself” was being distributed today, according to its editor, Tracy Sheridan.
Sheridan, a former reporter for this newspaper, said the Jacumba newspaper will start as a monthly with plans to go to a biweekly publication in January. “Of course, our goal is to be a weekly but that comes later.”
Sheridan said the publisher, Robert Mitchell, believes the newspaper will be valuable in helping to promote the Jacumba area. The newspaper will be given wide distribution. A total of 10,000 copies of the first edition were printed.
20 years ago
The story of how Los Angeles received water 200 miles away from the Owens Valley is a key chapter in Southern California’s water history.
It was memorialized in film, the mythical movie “Chinatown,” which depicts Los Angeles scheming to acquire water rights so the city could prosper.
Another famous account was written in 1986 by Mare Reisner as part of his book, “Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water.”
The Public Broadcasting Service used Reisner’s book as the basis for a four-part television series that recently aired nationally, called “Cadillac Desert.”
If you missed it the Coalition for a Fair Water Policy will show a free screening of Part 1 from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the Imperial Irrigation District’s auditorium, 1285 Broadway in El Centro. Also, IID spokesman Ron Hull will give an overview of Imperial Valley water history.