Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1922: Dispute over a game of cards almost terminated in murder in Chester at an early hour yesterday morning, prompt interference by friends of the principals and timely arrival of the police being the means of halting a knife duel between Paul Pukur, aged 26 years, of 723 Green St., and Harry Orstakis, aged 32 years, of 715 Caldwell St. The latter was sent to Chester Hospital to receive treatment for severe knife wounds of the back and sides and Pukur was placed under arrest.
75 Years Ago – 1947: The John Morton Memorial and the entire Old St. Paul’s Cemetery at Third and Welsh streets, Chester, will be given a spring housecleaning. Plans for a $5,000 improvement project were approved at this week’s meeting of the Chester Veterans’ Council, which is sponsoring the program.
50 Years Ago – 1972: Some of the Darby-Colwyn High School basketball players, who had just defeated Monaca (64-54) to win the Class B state championship, wanted to stay and support Chester in its bid for the Class A title Saturday night in Harrisburg. There was a problem, though. The boroughs of Darby and Colwyn were already warming up the fire trucks and police cars to welcome them home between 10:30and 11p.m. That’s when cheerleader coach Hilda Boone told a WIBF-FM sportscaster they would arrive, not realizing that some of the team wanted to see the ChesterFarrell game.
25 Years Ago – 1997: Two Delaware County students were elected officers of the Honors Program at Widener University, Chester. Marissa Lee of Glenolden, a sophomore international business major, was elected vice president, and Stephanie Spina of Clifton Heights, a junior majoring in English/secondary education, was elected the junior representative.
10 Years Ago – 2012: It wasn’t all that long ago that one would have to travel to China, Russia or the Korean Peninsula to reel in a northern snakehead. Now the muchmaligned “Frankenfish” are popping up like Wawas all over the Mid-Atlantic. Last Thursday, a local angler snagged the infamous ecoinvader while bank fishing in a lagoon near Route 420 in the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. “We sent a biologist down to pick it up and it only took one look to know what we were dealing with,” said Gary Stolz, longtime refuge manager. “It was only a matter of time.”