Jehovas Witness Online

• A state department of health survey showed 54 percent of Lincoln School’s (the high school’s) students had “OK teeth,” while 60 percent of Sunnyside School’s (now Reede Gray Elementary School) reached that rating.

• DeKalb Street, newly blacktopped, was finally opened to traffic, then closed several days later when construction began on a bridge across a ditch.

• The Redwood TV Improvement Corp. shut off the town’s television service after only raising $5,300 of $12,000 necessary to keep the translator running.

A common complaint from subscribers was that the TV reception just wasn’t very good, even with the translator.

After a director suggested to several subscribers that the problem was with their sets, and they have their TVs looked at by a good repairman, the subscribers sent in their $10 dues.

• The State Bank of Redwood moved a block, to its new headquarters at the corner of Washington and Third Streets. For some reason, the directors declined to state when they would be moving the safe containing all the money.

• A beaver in Ramsey Park was felling trees over two feet in diameter near the park’s zoo. The park’s directors were doubtful the beaver would succeed in damming the river, however, since winter was too near.

• Editor Dave Churchill wrote he was having trouble figuring out what to write about for his column, and wanted to compile a list of ideas so he wouldn’t “have to spend hours staring at a blank screen.” 

It was the first known mention in Gazette history that the paper’s stories were being written on computers rather than typewriters.

• Despite being in the middle of hunting season, game warden John Thoreson was bored, only averaging one ticket a day. 

“I’d rather have a nice quiet day when everyone behaves themselves,” he said.

• When the Redwood Falls - Morton High School performed its 1986 season musical “South Pacific,” they invited members of the school’s 1969 production of the same play backstage to meet the new cast.

• Redwood Falls World War I veteran Norman Johnson reminisced about his experiences fighting the Germans in France. Johnson spent the war as a cook behind the lines, and was scheduled to be sent to the front lines just days before the war ended in 1818,

• The school board voted to name a wrestling tournament after long-time wrestling coach Virgil Sales.

• Hundreds of volunteers from across the midwest gathered in Redwood Falls to build a new Jehovah’s Witness hall in just four days. 

Construction started on Thursday morning, and the first service was held in it the following Sunday afternoon.  

• Despite never having any daughters in Girl Scouts, RVHS counselor Ken Meister received the second highest adult award the Girl Scouts give out — the Honor Pin — for his 26 years service to the organization.

• The Village People performed to a packed house at Jackpot Junction. Gazette reporter Troy Krause told the rest of the staff he refused to cover the event since he was afraid he’d end up stuck in an elevator with a man wearing chaps — “and nothing else.”

• The chamber teamed up with the newly formed Redwood Area Dollars for Scholars to sell coupon books as a fundraiser.

• The Redwood Area School District’s average daily attendance was 94.2 percent, meaning slightly over five percent of the students were absent — the equivalent of one half of one grade.