The past 100 years

From The Santa Fe New Mexican:

Dec. 14, 1917: Because the doctors thought his lungs not sufficiently strong to permit him to wear a gas mask J.H. Watt, wellknown undertaker and furniture dealer of Santa Fe, is back.

One of the 10,000,000 men drafted, Mr. Watt responded to the call to arms by going to Camp Funston, Kansas, to spend three weeks as a mess sergeant and then was transferred with most of the New Mexico and Arizona troops to Camp Kearney, at Linda Vista, Calif. Since he has been training as a soldier, Mr. Watt has put on weight, a coat of tan and has gained strength.

Dec. 14, 1967: The Museum of New Mexico’s biggest relic — the great black locomotive-type boiler which has heated the Fine Arts Museum for 50 years — is being relegated to history — at least eventually. For a while, its replacement, shipped Dec. 1 from Boyertown, Pa., appeared to have been lost in the mail of the Christmas rush.

But yesterday it was tracked down, cooling its tubes in a Chicago trucking warehouse.

Dec. 14, 1992: They say money can’t buy love, but it could have at least bought some peace this year for Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Amos Melendez.

There can be no doubt that a lack of money made Melendez’s second year at the school district’s helm more troublesome than it otherwise might have been — troubles that made Melendez the target of anger from parents and teachers and some members of the Santa Fe Board of Education.