Looking Back Through the pages of the Wapakoneta Daily News
MARCH 17, 1923
Maple water is running well now, ‘tis said, and the sugar camps all over the county have been opened up in good time to get the full amount of sap. When the maple water flows well, that’s a sure harbinger of spring. Sometimes the robins and bluebirds are false harbingers, but when the sugar water flow’s it’s a sure sign that spring’s not far off. The maples, earliest of all trees to blossom, know that the time is drawing near for them to put on their spring wardrobe, their yellowish flowers, and the sap flowers…. maple camps are not the common site they once were in this county. Few camps are opened for commercial use, but a large percentage of the farmers tap a few trees every year and get the delicious product for home use. The maple-sugar parties, however, are almost a thing of the past, even as the old-fashioned husking bee, quilting party, and apple butter makings. And so the spring activities in the “sugar bush” has a sentimental appearance. Some of the maple sugar camps which are opened every year in the county are: the Elias Bowsher camp north of Cridersville-probably the largest-the Frank Sheipline camp, as well as the Guy Campbell and Joseph A. Brown camps. Ninety trees in the Brown grove have been taped and about 150 buckets are being used.
Wool production and wool marketing is to be the problem that will call some 400 wool growers of the county together on March 22 at the assembly room of the court house, according to plans being worked out by the farm bureau. Lee Palmer, president of the Ohio Wool Growers Association, is going to tell how to get from 5 to 10 cents per pound more for wool by waiting longer for the money through co-operative selling. PETER GEIB-WILL do light hauling or draying, plow lots this spring, haul ashes, etc. See him. West Silver street. FOR Sale-buttermilk at two cents per gallon for pigs or chickens. The Fisher Dairy Co., North Blackhoof street, Wapakoneta
MARCH 17, 1948
Police Chief and Mrs. alter Menges are the owners of a cat that really enjoys water. They report that the cat jumps in th tub in their bathroom whenever the water is turned on.
From the St. Joseph Sunbeam-st. Patrick’s Day is [here.] This is always a big event for the Irishmen at St. Joe. so I have made it a pint to find out how they are going to celebrate. Carol Connaughton-dreaming of that last basketball game with Hicksville. John Connaughton-studying his Latin lesson. Freddy Cox-bowling (after school). Jo Ann Doorley-doing homework. Paul Goudy-preparing his part for the class play. Maxine Garrett-giving cokes on the house. Pat Kelly-chewing gum. Helen Madigan-singing the day away. John Madigan-thinking and dreaming of next year’s basketball team
MARCH 17, 1973
From United Press International-heavy snow is forecast for the northwest section of the state with accumulation of four inches or more of wet snow by late today. Winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour are forecast for all of Ohio today….
Diana Lynne Shoffstall, daughter of MM Curtiss Shoffstall of Route 3 is now making her home in Madrid, Spain. A 1969 graduate of Wapakoneta Senior High School, she placed second in her class. Diana graduated from Otterbein College in 1972, receiving the degree of bachelor of arts in Spanish. She is now a bilingual secretary to the head of the International Division of Publicitas, S.A., in Madrid, an international publicity firm.
Financial transactions, like the mail, must go on. During the blackout three days ago, Bob Lietz, president of the First National Bank, played the little candlelighter part, placing candles around the lobby of the bank to provide illumination of sorts.