MID-SOUTH MEMORIES

25 years ago — 1997

Claiming they aren’t taking sides, City Council members have expanded a summer jobs program for youths as requested by U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. and yanked credit from Mayor W. W. Herenton by renaming the effort. Last month, Herenton and Ford quarreled over the program, each accusing the other of using it for political gain. Ford challenged the mayor to tap into city money to expand the largely federally and privately funded program designed to provide 4,200 jobs. Herenton accused the first-term congressman of trying to tell him how to run City Hall. In a surprise move this week, the City Council appropriated $250,000 in city funds to increase the program by 250 jobs. The council also changed the program’s name from the ”Mayor’s Summer Youth Initiative” to the ”City of Memphis Youth Initiative.” Through spokesman Carey Hoffman, Herenton declined comment Thursday.

50 years ago — 1972

DIXIE DIALING — Celebrities have been running for president for years. Most of the time it doesn’t mean a thing, but watch out for Archie Bunker. They have started sending out campaign material and they’ve set up little information booths all over the country, trying to drum up support for a guy billed as “America’s loveable bigot.” Of course, the campaign is coincidental to a big push for Archie Bunker retail products, which is comforting. I mean we can tolerate something like that if they just want to sell us little gedunks. But what scares me is, Archie probably is the No. 1 choice of a lot of people already, and if he campaigns with just a modicum of success, look out.

75 years ago — 1947

Memphis retail grocery stores will start closing all day on Mondays beginning June 2. The decision to go on a fiveday week was voted by the 300-member Memphis Retail Grocers’ Association,

250 to 9, at a mass meeting at the Chisca last night. Hailed as a progressive move a “forward step” by its advocates, the proposal met weak but stubborn opposition by some independent grocers in floor discussions.

100 years ago — 1922

Planters in the Delta around Scott, Miss., are facing a peculiar situation. Heavy showers have started grass growing in their cotton. Their labor is all on the levee holding back the flood. Confronted with these conditions they are puzzled as to a plan of procedure. While a few of the planters are withdrawing some of their labor from the levee, most of them are still aiding engineers to continue the fight. In the meantime their crops are getting in a bad way.

125 years ago — 1897

A wolf, measuring 5 feet from tip to tip and weighing 125 pounds, was killed yesterday in the Fifth District of Tipton County, Tenn., near the Shelby County line, by Deputy Sheriff A. H. Merrill.

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL FILE Riverside Drive is submerged at the foot of Beale Street on May 9, 2011. The Mississippi River in Memphis, usually a half-mile wide, measured 3 miles across at the time of this photograph. The river was expected to crest at 48 feet, just below the record set in 1937 of 48.7 feet. It was the first time the Mississippi River has exceeded even 41 feet since that record 1937 flood.