STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Sears, Roebuck and Co. will open its new-look El Centro store on Wednesday, March 6, Edward F. Wilson, the store manager, reminded today.
Store employees are making final preparations for the grand opening, including arranging merchandise in sales departments and working out details for a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The new store, with heavy emphasis on fashion, will be one of Sears’ most complete one-stop shopping units.
The store consists of a main sales building which includes an automotive center, a new warehouse and a parking lot for 1,300 cars. It is the first building in the new El Centro Shopping Center on North Imperial Avenue, which is to include A&P and W. T. Grant stores.
40 years ago
Craig Reichert, who became a national figure when a Superior Court judge authorized his “legal” use of marijuana, died Thursday in El Centro. He was 21.
At the time of his death, Reichert was the only known American using marijuana for therapeutic control of nausea, a side effect of chemotherapy cancer treatments.
The landmark order signed by El Centro Superior Court Judge Don Work in January authorized the use of “three to five marijuana cigarettes per day” to counteract violent vomiting attacks which plagued the young man’s cancer treatments.
Reichert, known affectionately as “Colombo” due to his “slow-eye” resemblance to actor Peter Falk, died in El Centro Community Hospital shortly before 11 p.m. His family was at his side.
Reichert had been hospitalized at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla and ECCH during the last 30 days, except for Feb. 23 when he was allowed to spend the day at home in El Centro.
Reichert had been battling a rare form of cancer which developed in the kidney area in 1975 while Reichert was a senior at Central Union High School.
30 years ago
Farmland prices in the Imperial Valley appear to have stabilized as nationwide farmland prices head upward for the first time in six years.
Roger Hexem of the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service said recently that farmland prices nationally have risen because of sharp price increases for farmland in the Corn Belt states and in the Northeast.
“We’re less certain what’s going to happen in the South and in the West,” he said during an interview for a report in the March issue of Agricultural Outlook magazine.
In the Imperial Valley little change has been seen in farmland prices, but the market is reported to be active and prices are holding firm. “It (the market) is much healthier than it was at this time last year,” said Paul Engh, staff appraiser at Western Land and Trust in El Centro.
“Things look pretty bright,” Engh continued. “There is a lot of land changing hands and we are not seeing any more downward motion.”
20 years ago
CALEXICO — A high-speed pursuit that began in El Centro has left one man dead and three injured after the vehicle in which they were traveling went out of control and smashed into a utility pole west of here Wednesday.
The driver had led El Centro police officers on a more than 10-minute pursuit to the outskirts of Calexico and had reached speeds of about 100 mph while heading east on Highway 98 into Calexico before the crash, El Centro police Sgt. Mike Crankshaw said.
El Centro police Lt. Ron Merideth added the accident occurred when the driver of the vehicle attempted to turn onto the banks of the nearby All-American Canal but lost control. The vehicle then flipped and smashed into a utility pole.
An unidentified Mexican national died at the scene from what are presumed to be internal injuries, county Sheriff’s Office Coroner Investigator Jesse Lopez said.