MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1996
BOONEVILLE, Ky. – Actor Woody Harrelson said Wednesday he planted four marijuana seeds to promote hemp as a viable crop and would go to jail if necessary to protest a Kentucky law barring the plant. The actor, famous for roles as a bartender in the television series Cheers and a crazed killer in the movie Natural Born Killers, testified at a county court hearing on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge that could land him a three-month jail term.
“I came to this initially as an environmentalist, now I see it as an important crop issue for farmers,” Harrelson testified. “One hundred and fifty years ago hemp was the leading cash crop in Kentucky,
and in my mind I don’t see any reason why that can’t be the case again.” 50 years ago — 1971
William Shakespeare said it long, long before regulating time was a gleam in America’s eye: “The seeming truth which cunning time puts on to entrap the wisest.” And today there will be the wisest of citizens who will forget to turn their clocks back an hour and will arrive at church an hour early. Nevertheless, for better or worse, Daylight Saving Time officially ended at 2 a.m. today. And if you haven’t set your clocks back an hour, do it now. Or be an hour early for everything for the next six months.
75 years ago — 1946
Time was when witches maimed cattle, ghosts strangled honest bodies and hobgoblins tipped over ash cans. But no longer. They’re all reformed. When the minions of Satan gather around huge bonfires at Memphis playgrounds tonight, the creatures will content themselves with scaring the nightlights out of one another. Elaborate entertainment programs will make these motley crews forget they’re supposed to be out for mischief. The fun starts at 7 p.m. when fires blaze up and assorted fiends let loose a terrific racket. Playgrounds will be holding Halloween parties.
100 years ago — 1921
PARIS, Tenn. – “Today we are entering upon a week set apart looking toward the advancement of educational interests in Tennessee.” In conformity to the request of County Superintendent Joe Routon, working in conjunction with the state superintendent, the pastors in the pulpits of Henry County took that sentence as a subject for their sermons today.
The fact that Henry County people are alive to the needs of education was shown during the Tennessee Mothers Congress and the Parent-teacher Association last week.
125 years ago — 1896
The steamer Eugene A. Galvin, owned by J. A. Weir & Company, and used in the fish and produce trade, sank yesterday near Star Landing, 20 miles below Memphis.