Rising Rapidly

September 16, 1967, Appleton Post-Crescent

We first looked at this tower back in 2013 on the blog: 

http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2013/02/island-water-tower-takes-shape.html.  In this stage of construction, it looked similar to the Saturn rocket that took us to the moon.  But while it was built adjacent to the Washington Street parking lot, I always thought of it as an Ahnaip Street thing, for whatever that's worth.  And with the elimination of the old Second Street water tower in recent years, this is what's left to announce to the world that you've crossed over into Menasha. 

Yes Virginia, There IS a James Island

September 5, 1970, Appleton Post-Crescent

We've visited James Island in the past  http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2015/02/james-island.html and http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2015/02/more-on-james-island.html but it took this article for me to discover it'd been left off official maps for a long, long time. (Sometimes I am so blind to the obvious.)

Nevertheless, it might have given Menashans a complex enough to secede, as Winneconne tried to do in 1967 after being left off the official state road map.  But obviously, cooler heads prevailed in our case.  In time, Menasha has taken ownership of the island, enough so that it is listed as one of its "Special Use Parks and Facilities" in the city's Open Space and Recreation Facilities Plan of 2007.

Foster Children

September 21, 1959, Appleton Post-Crescent

For a Wednesday this week, comes this human interest story.  Say what you will about your view of foster care or the way it's been depicted in the media for years, but I provide no social commentary here.  I'm just presenting it the way The Post-Crescent reported in 1959, a more intimate view of one of Menasha's families.

Now You Can Tape It With You

September 24, 1959, Appleton Post-Crescent

Long before the Sony Walkman and the digitized world of CDs and beyond, came this little "portable" gem.  Now, of course, if was portable only in the sense that it used batteries and was small enough to carry along from place to place. No, you couldn't expect to safely operate it while in motion, for example.  Not cheap by any measure either.  Using that inflation calculator I spoke of yesterday gives the price as $1637 in 2016 dollars.  But still...

Price War at an End

September 5, 1964, Appleton Post-Crescent

The recent change in gas prices is nothing compared to the gas wars of old.  We'd touched upon this subject several years back.  And while this doesn't seem a big deal, one of the inflation calculators I found online tells me that 32 cents in 1964 equals $2.45 in 2016, so does that mean we're paying less per gallon or approximately the same as we did back then?  A fascinating thought. 

Treatment Plant

September 19, 1973, Neenah-Menasha Daily Northwestern

Wisconsin Tissue Mills is now known as SCA Tissue.  The Swedish company bought the plant from Georgia-Pacific more than ten years ago.  This new process of waste treatment and water recovery was revolutionary for its time.  We'll show more evidence of that in the future.

Student Protest

September 19, 1969, Appleton Post-Crescent

It was the late 1960's and student protests were commonplace everywhere.  So it may not have come as a surprise that students in Menasha might utilize this tactic to make their demands known in this manner.  Cooler heads prevailed and there was no violence or major confrontations involving students and police.  In upcoming days, I shall do more research to see if there was a compatible solution to the students' demands for open study halls.