Look Back ... to JSTC entertaining wide-eyed seniors, 1949

April 17, 1949, in The Star: Jacksonville State Teachers College put its best foot forward April 15 to entertain about 1,700 high school seniors who came from far and near to be guests at the campus’s annual Spring Festival. The event has become so well known that high school seniors pass the word down from one class to another that it’s well worth attending. The college makes preparations weeks in advance to take care of boys and girls from small rural high schools and those in larger towns and cities, too. Food is served in great quantities, including sandwiches, salad, pickles, potato chips and cokes. This year’s seniors arrived around noon and after prompt registration were taken on tours of the campus. Also this date: Only four percent of Alabama farms had electricity when the Rural Electrification Association began its work in 1933. Today, better than 60 percent, totaling nearly 136,000 Alabama farms, have replaced the oil lamp with electric light.

April 17, 1999, in The Star: Oxford city officials plan to evict tenants living in three illegal rooming houses in Oxford’s historic downtown district. Two of the houses are on McPherson Street and a third is on West Oak Street. Neither landlord has a business license to operate rentals inside Oxford. Tenants of the rooming house say living on a limited income forces them to live in this manner. “It’s hard to find a place that’s drug-free. It’s hard to find a place that’s clean,” said Robert Wright, 57, a retired Army sergeant.