Stories from the past
50 years ago
An empty beet truck crashed into the rear of an automobile on Highway 86 in Imperial shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday. The truck trailer climbed on top of the car and crushed it nearly flat. The truck’s front left wheel was pushed down through the roof and on to the driver’s seat.
The driver, Louis Tony Velasques, 20, who had just moved to Imperial yesterday, ended up between the truck wheel and the firewall of his auto. He escaped very severe injuries and was listed in fair condition at El Centro Community Hospital this morning.
According to the Imperial Police Department, Velasques was headed south when he slowed down for a violent dust storm near Imperial County Airport. A car driven by John William Brady, 38 had also slowed down. It was right in front of the Velasques auto.
An empty southbound beet rig driven by Louis Tony Rodriguez, 30, of El Centro, then smashed into the Velasques vehicle. It was pushed ahead into the rear of the Brady car, but no one in that car was hurt.
40 years ago
Tim Zalva of Tim’s Tiger Restaurant and Joe Grijalva manager of Denny’s for the past five years, have taken over management of the new Noh Restaurant, 1425 Adams Ave., El Centro.
A new sign, TJ’s Restaurant, heralded the changeover last week. The restaurant has been leased by the two from Penny Lodge of San Diego, which owns the property and operates the adjacent motel.
30 years ago
CALEXICO — Visitors to Camarena Memorial Library stand a good chance of seeing her cataloguing hundreds of classic and contemporary Spanish fiction and non-fiction books as well as academic analyses of the political turmoil in Central America.
Judging by her white skin and bright red hair, few would guess she is fluent in Spanish or that she spent part of her youth dodging bullets in Venezuela.
But a unique set of economic and political circumstances have sent Camarena librarian Mary Frances Johnson on a worldwide journey, the final destination of which she has yet to discover.
“I was born in Chicago during the depression and my father went to Caracas when I was very young to work in the oil fields,” Johnson recalled.
“After he was down there for a while he got sick and my mother sailed down to see him. She left on Dec. 6, 1941, leaving me behind in a (Chicago) boarding school.”
Johnson said she was not reunited with her family until 1943 due to the difficulties in crossing the Caribbean Sea during wartime.
“I was in third grade when I arrived in Caracas, but they put me in pre-kindergarten because I didn’t speak any Spanish. Nobody knew English except the mother superior. And since I never saw her, I had to learn Spanish.”
Johnson said she was in Venezuela when Romulo Gallegos was ousted by the military and replaced by Marcos Perez Jimenez, who ruled the country until 1958 when a democratic government came to power.
20 years ago
Central Union High’s Brian Martin was drafted yesterday in the ninth round of the 1998 Major League Baseball amateur draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.