Other Times
100Years Ago – 1919: A lazy, dozing maritime giant of America. This was the pithy summary by a big official of the Standard Oil Company after an analysis of Chester’s opportunity to take her rightful place as an important Atlantic Coast seaport. Interviews with men of Chester, a study of the natural advantages of the city, and an appreciation of what Philadelphia and Wilmington intend to provide in the near future shows Chester tailing along in post-war days with Colonial period ideas. Possessing the greatest natural advantages for a port between New York and Norfolk, there has been nothing attempted to make the city other than a subsidiary of Philadelphia.
75Years Ago – 1944: Swarthmore children were criticized for their conduct, “shocking manners” and “impudence” and their parents were delivered a sizeable chunk of the blame this week by the Rev. George Christian Anderson, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Swarthmore. The occasion for the Rev. Anderson’s blast was the Home and School meeting held in the Swarthmore High School Auditorium and his audience was composed of the parents and teachers in the borough.
50Years Ago – 1969: From the Associated Press Los Angeles Bureau: Two members of a wandering band of hippies were under arrest today and a third was being sought in the slaying of actress Sharon Tate and six others here last August. Police said they would seek murder indictments against “four or five” other persons. Under arrest were Charles D. Watson, 24, of Copeville, Texas, and Patricia Krenwinkel, 21, of Los Angeles. Being sought was Linda Louis Kasabian, 19, also of Los Angeles. 25Years Ago – 1994: Thousands and thousands of videotapes and audio cassettes – including first-run movies such as “The Santa Clause,’’ “Interview With a Vampire,’’ “Junior,’’ and “The Lion King’’ – were confiscated from Upper Darby street vendors yesterday during a daylong police sting operation. Eleven men and one woman were busted, a caravan of cars filled with pirated movies and tapes were impounded and towed and the contents of numerous bins and storage units were confiscated as evidence.
10Years Ago – 2009: Don Kaighn doesn’t want to be portrayed as a hero or a vigilante. “I was just protecting myself,” said the 84-year-old Ridley Township World War II veteran and longtime National Rifle Association member, standing next to a dresser mirror that was shattered during what appeared to have been an all-out gunfight in the bedroom of his Franklin Avenue home as he repelled a home invader.