100 years ago – December 25, 1924
Record Season Swamps Local Postal Force
Forty sacks of parcel mail, all tightly packed, received Monday at the local post office, forms the record Christmas mail ever received in Healdsburg, according to Postmaster Pearson. The post office was crowded all week with people sending packages and receiving them, and a long line of patrons was to be found most of the day at the windows.
The rush will continue for several days, because in spite of the admonition to get Christmas mail away early flocks of patrons are found on the list of “last-minute” shoppers. The arriving mail is larger than that going out to some extent, because local people as a rule have been sending away their gifts to others for the past ten days.
75 years ago – December 23, 1949
Community Christmas Eve Program
Healdsburg will observe Christmas Eve with a community Christmas carol program to begin at 7:30 o’clock at the American Legion Hall. Group singing, led by Smith Robinson, with Eliza M. Monroe at the piano, will open the program, and special numbers by vocalists and instrumentalists are to be presented. As an added feature of the evening, the Christmas Story will be given with colored slides illustrating the various scenes. Following the Christmas Eve program, groups of carolers will tour the community singing.
The community event is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce as part of Christmas season activities. Noontime carol singing broadcast from the Plaza each day this week has been another part of the Yule celebration here. In charge of arrangements for the public address system used in the Plaza is Douglas Badger, and Rev. J. I. Thomas organized the program. Singing carols on tape recordings broadcast each noon were the Chancel Choir of the Federated Church, Elementary School chorus, and the High School choral group.
50 years ago – December 19, 1974
Healdsburg: The City That Pays Cash
In a day when nobody seems able to save much, it may seem extraordinary, but the Healdsburg City Council has saved nearly $275,000 in the last year, enough to pay cash for the two new 60 kilovolt transformers that are now being installed at the Fitch Mountain substation.
The council accepted City Manager James Stanfield’s recommendation Monday night that the city pay cash for the transformers, rather than accept a 12% interest loan that it had arranged for last year. Total cost of the transformers is $274,664. Stanfield said that if the city were buying them today they would cost an additional 30%. The city went to bid on the transformers a year and a half ago. Stanfield said, “We have developed a $100,000 well system and a $300,000 electricity facility in the past year and paid cash for it all.”
Councilman Doug Badger noted that the city had also paid cash when the Gauntlett water system was developed, that it paid cash when it built the fire house and bought the Villa Chanticleer. The only bonds the city has floated in the past 15 years have been for the city hall and the sewage disposal plant.
The Flashbackers are docents for the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society, open Wednesday though Sunday, 11am to 4pm, at 221 Matheson St.
