Here’s a look at some stories happening the week of Dec. 17-23.
Dec. 20, 1937: Post office swamped with Christmas mail
The Christmas rush was in full swing the week before Christmas in 1937.
Extra post office clerks were called in and extra windows were opened, but lines of people with packages to mail or stamps to buy formed faster than they could be taken care of.
Postal sales that year were amounting to the greatest amount in the history of the Dayton post office.
Through November, the post office had brought in $2,430,740, and with the December rush, receipts were to boost the year’s total far above the previous record, set in 1930.
Dec. 17, 1953: Rike’s held up, bandit gets $30,000
A robber took $30,000 from a cashier at Rike-Kumler at 1 p.m. and escaped in a crowd of Christmas shoppers with the money stuffed in a Rike’s shopping bag.
The robber went into a seventh-floor cashier’s cage and threatened the employee working with a small, black gun. The employee screamed immediately while another employee called the police.
The frightened man, who was not masked, grabbed one bag of money and ran.
Police barred all the exits and conducted a floor-by-floor search for a man wearing a light gray topcoat and a blue hat. About 50 officers searched through an estimated 3,000 shoppers, but the man was not to be found.
Dec. 20, 1964: Duck in distress: Keep your talons off Miss Carla
Mary Davis called the Jefferson Twp. police after her 3-year-old duck, named Miss Carla, was attacked by a hawk.
Police Chief Robert Scott pursued and shot at the bird, observing that it was apparently a large cooper’s hawk, a species known to be fond of chicken dinners.
Miss Carla had a routine of greeting Davis’ daughter, Christie, 9, when she arrived home for school on the school bus. That is when the attack happened.
“I opened the door,” said Davis, “and there that huge bird was attacking and clawing at Miss Carla. I ran outside and kicked it away, grabbed Miss Carla and ran back into the house.”
Later, Davis went back outside and the hawk then attacked her.
“I keep having nightmares,” she said. “I wake up thinking that that hawk is in my hair.”
The director of the Dayton Museum of Natural History was skeptical of the story, saying, “We haven’t got a hawk around here big enough to attack a full-sized domestic duck.”
Dec. 19, 1973: Grocery bills tracked by Daily News Market Basket Index
In 1973 The Dayton Daily News published a weekly update on the cost of twenty common items at area grocery stores.
During this week the price of a pound of tomatoes reached a new record of 53 cents. a six-pack of beer also reached a record high of $1.33 and a can of tuna also was at a record of 51 cents.
The total for the 20 items this week $17.93, compared with $17.82 the week before.
The eight stores checked each were were A&P, Big Star Discount Foods, Dorothy Lane Market, Foodarama supermarket, Imperial Foodtown, Krogers, Liberal market and Nickley’s Friendly IGA.
Dec. 21, 1986: Keith Byars is on his own, and just fine in Philly
The Dayton Daily News caught up with Dayton native Keith Byars during his first year in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles.
At 23, Byars was living on his own for the first time, in a condominium in the Philadelphia suburbs.
“I call home about four or five times a week,” Byars said. “When I’m cooking, I need directions. I never cooked before.”
After playing at Roth High School and at Ohio State, Byars was drafted by the Eagles and signed a four-year contract that had the potential to be worth a total of $1.9 million.
Byars showed up for the start of the season driving a 1985 Camaro but had just ordered a Mercedes Benz that he hoped to have by Christmas.
Byars had just recently had his first 100-yard game for the Eagles. After the season Byars planned to stay in Philadelphia.
“I miss my friends, and I don’t want to act like I don’t miss Dayton at all, but I like it here,” said Byars. “Maybe if I were in Green Bay, I’d still live in Dayton.”
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