STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

Brawley’s J.C. Penney’s Department store is closing.

Owners of the building, National Dollar Stores, have plans to move in, according to a spokesman from their San Francisco office.

Penney’s closing will be effective “on or before” Jan. 31, 1968, according to M.L. (Mal) Hand, Penney’s district manager from Los Angeles.

Hand explained that although Penney’s Company had no previous plans to discontinue operations in the Brawley area, “it is closing for one reason. It has been unable to negotiate a new lease at its present location.”

The problem of negotiation, it now appears, was based on the National Dollar Stores intention to occupy its own building, but the company today would not estimate when it would open businesses.

40 years ago

Bob Meyer resigned his Carter administration position as assistant secretary of agriculture “because I feel so deeply that I must be free to voice my personal convictions” regarding the effects a 160acre limitation would have on Imperial County. Meyer, whose resignation was officially accepted by the president Tuesday, released the texts of his letter and Carter’s reply during a telephone interview with this newspaper late Tuesday.

The president’s three-paragraph response, which was hand-delivered by a White House aide to Meyer’s Washington home, stated that resignation was accepted “with regret,” however “I fully understand your feelings.”

Carter expressed “My sincere gratitude to you for all of the assistance which you rendered to me and to the country over such a long period of time and I look forward to seeing you frequently in the future.”

30 years ago

Indianapolis 500-mile veteran Rich Vogler is the latest entrant in the second annual Quaker State Oil Midget Classic on Nov. 28 at the Imperial Raceway on the California Mid-Winter fairgrounds.

The race, which will be the final points race for the national midget championship as well as the Western States regional finale, is expecting to have a field of over 50 cars on the 3/8 mile fairgrounds dirt oval.

Vogler, four-time national midget champion, will make his first appearance in the 900 pound cars at Imperial driving the Jonathan Byrd-Kentucky Fried Chicken Volkswagen. Vogler used this same machine to finish second to Mack McClellan on the cable television races from the Indianapolis Speedrome.

A winner of over 100 USAC races, Vogler is second only to A.J. Foyt on the all-time USAC win list.