1960—50 years ago
• The Brinks Armored Car company started weekly service in Redwood Falls, shuttling funds between Citizens State Bank and others around the state.
In addition to providing greater security, the Brinks armored cars were less expensive. Bank President Carl Beireis pointed out that sending bags of 50-cent pieces through the mails “runs up quite a postage bill.”
• Redwood Falls started a new civil defense siren system in case of attack or disaster, with separate signals for “take cover,” “attack or disaster imminent,” and “all clear.”
• Four girls—Jill Anderson, Mary Spicer, Janice Hasse, and Gladys Kletscher—represented Redwood Falls at the 1,400 delegate strong Future Homemakers of America national convention in Minneapolis.
• Redwood Falls pro-wrestler Art Kenny was featured during an evening of wrestling in the Armory.
The lead match featured the tag team of Germans Hans Schmidt and Hans Hermann taking on former Gopher and football player Butch Levy, and Frank Townsend of New Jersey.
• “No Double Parking” signs were set up downtown, and the police announced a crackdown on vehicles double parked outside stores on Second and Washington Streets.
• Harlan Leopold became the winningest wrestler in RFHS history when he won the consolation championship at the state tournament, compiling a 102-8 record by only his junior year.
1985—25 years ago
• The school board awarded a certificate of recognition to Karen Messer, who took on the responsibility of trimming and counting 20,000 soup labels which were used to purchase equipment for elementary students.
• To raise funds for the Minnesota Inventors Congress, 533 people attended a special night of bingo at Jackpot Junction Bingo Hall.
• In a southwestern Minnesota story that made national news, Danube Superintendent Kenneth Roetzel removed the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue from the school library, calling it too racy... too indecent for the shelves of a school library.
• Al Dahms, 1961 RFHS graduate, was put in charge of Jostens, Inc.’s jewelry divisions in Connecticut and Illinois, creating high school rings for seniors around the country.
• The Redwood Falls Music Store, Inc. began renting videocassettes for three dollars a night. For another seven dollars, you could also rent a player to show it with.
2000—10 years ago
• Coke beat Pepsi, at least in the awarding of beverage contracts at the Redwood Area Community Center.
• After being discussed on and off for almost 20 years, construction began on a pond between holes four and five at the Redwood Falls Golf Club.
Incidentally, Jim Boots became the first person to accidentally hit a golf ball into the new pond.
• Second graders at Reede Gray Elementary School made pancakes featuring ingredients such as chocolate chips, marshmallows, apple sauce, and orange jello. However, the concensus was that gummi worm pancakes were a bit too much for second grade palates.
• Three Hungarian engineers came to the Redwood Falls Artesyn Technologies plant to learn how to set up a computer system for a similar plant in their homeland.
• Boy Scout Troop 70 lugged about 4,000 pounds of food during the annual Cub Scout/Boy Scout food drive for the Redwood Area Food Shelf, about twice the previous record amount.
