MID-SOUTH MEMORIES

25 years ago — 1994 A downpour in the bottom of the first inning postponed the USA national team’s baseball game against Chinese Taipei Friday night at Millington’s USA Stadium, but it failed to dampen their recuperative spirit. After losing 7 of 12 games on its recent road trip, Team USA (9-7) had reasons to doubt itself heading into a five-game series against Taipei, that restarts tonight at 7. But Team USA coach Chuck Anderson, and several of his players, are confident that the extended homestand (13 games through July 30) will rejuvenate the team as it continues preparations for the World Championships that begin Aug. 3 in Managua, Nicaragua. 50 years ago — 1969 Cape Kennedy – Ready for the century’s grandest adventure, space agency officials declared Apollo 11 set for blast off today to land two Americans on the moon. “We have had a very smooth countdown. There has not been any problem whatsoever that would scratch us,” launch director Rocco Petrone said yesterday as work moved smoothly toward an 8:32 a.m. lift-off (Memphis time). Confident and in good spirits for their quarter-millionmile journey to the moon, lunar explorers Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin Jr. “have shown no evidence of any illness of any sort,” said Dr. Charles Berry, chief astronaut physician. According to Armstrong, “We’re ready to fly.” 75 years ago — 1944 Hundreds of persons residing in South Memphis had a front-row seat on a grim tragedy of the air early yesterday afternoon when a Navy fighter plane’s single motor failed at an altitude of 1,400 feet and the pilot, after a desperate battle to keep his crippled ship aloft, parachuted to safety and landed in a tree near Union Railway and Lauderdale. The pilotless ship finally nose-dived into a cleared field a short distance away. It was demolished by the terrific impact. 100 years ago — 1919 Drug addicts may not obtain narcotics on physicians’ prescriptions merely to relieve the suffering caused from lack of the drug, under stringent regulations issued yesterday by the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Washington. 125 years ago —1894 A contractor engaged in levee work informs The Commercial Appeal that he has employment for 300 hands and is now forced to content himself with the services of half-grown boys. He says there are 10,000 jobs on the river between St. Louis and New Orleans. Labor agents in the large cities say the streets are full of idle men who refuse to work. What are they waiting for? They must be seized with the delusion that Uncle Sam will come along presently and make provisions for their support.

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL Gus Cannon smiles as he listens to his first album, which includes such songs as “Salty Dog,” “Ol’ Hen” and “Gonna Raise A Ruckus Tonight,” on July 16, 1963. The 79-year-old banjo player, who wrote “Walk Right In,” received 15 cents from each of the $3.98 albums sold. The album was recorded at Stax Records.