HISTORY: West Orange County of yesteryear for week of Sept. 5, 2024

OLD TIMES / THE WAYS WE WERE

80 years ago

J.M. Lanier of St. Petersburg assumed his duties as athletic director at Lakeview High School.

Pvt. Edgar R. Vining, who was with the Chemical Warfare in France, wrote that he was receiving the West Orange News and enjoyed every copy.

The Winter Garden Elementary School started its fall activities with an enrollment of 289, against 258 the year before. The highest enrollment was in the first grade with 78.

70 years ago

Holler Motors featured a new 1954 two-door sedan for $1,695.

The last service in the old building of the Ocoee Methodist Church was held. The church stood for 65 years, and it was the third church building to stand on or near the location.

Bert Roper, chairman of the Father’s March on Polio, announced the emergency drive netted $532.75.

50 years ago

Valencia Community College students Tom Elrod of Windermere, Bill Hart and Mark McNeil acquired a Delta wing ski-kite and were enjoying an exhilarating experience up in the wide blue yonder. The three hoped to establish a ski club at Valencia and compete in state and national tournaments. Elrod was the son of Bob and Jean Elrod of Windermere.

The Star-Lite Drive-In Church marked its 21st anniversary at a well-attended 8:30 a.m. service. Dr. Roy Ben Ridley preached the message. The drive-in church was established in 1953 by the Rev. O.V. Hitchcock, then pastor of the Winter Garden Methodist Church, and six laymen: Duck Teal, Ward Britt, Carl Hall, Herbert Pounds, Hilton Teal and Judson Moore.

New teachers at Lakeview High School were announced: Jacquelyn Page, psychological adjustment teacher; Gail Thomas Barnes, teacher of eighth-grade home economics, ninth-grade clothing and foods, and senior high clothing and bachelor foods; Susan Miller, seventh- and-eighth-grade English and humanities; and Scott A Bowman, English teacher.

Ocoee Elementary School’s new teachers were Patricia Rawls, adjustment; Robert Gawron, fifth grade; Laurie Adams, art; Lois Jones, Learning Disability; and Sylvia Brown, speech.

Helen Watson, the new principal at Dillard Street Elementary School, introduced the new school secretary, Pat Harper; new permanent substitute, Nancy Hardy; and Grace Boram, social adjustment teacher.

Joining the staff at Winter Garden Elementary School were Rita Ingalls, media specialist; Barbara Rutland and Daphne Horton, first grade; and Cynthia Collins, Learning Disability.

Woodsy Owl Says: Make sure your car has the required smog device and have it checked regularly. … Organic materials, like cooking fat, clog plumbing and septic tanks, causing sewage overflow. Throw them out, not down your sink. … Carry a litter bag in your car and boat. Take it home and dispose of it properly after your trip. Give a hoot! Don’t pollute!

45 years ago

Tickets were priced at $15 for five home games in which the West Orange Warriors play Oak Ridge, Titusville, Edgewater, Evans and Apopka.

35 years ago

Stacy Haiduk, starring as Lana Lang in the syndicated television series “Superboy,” was in Gotha waiting to shoot a scene at the Gotha Country Store.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

SEPTEMBER 9, 1969

Along with encyclopedias, A&P stores sold Sheffield dishes to help stock your kitchen cabinets. For only 19 cents the week of the sale, one could purchase a Serenade saucer in the gold sunburst pattern.

Elsewhere in the store, fresh produce, by the pound, was 25 cents for tomatoes or grapes and 19 cents for prunes or pears; a three-pound bag of onions was 39 cents; and a 10-pound bag of potatoes was 63 cents. If you were shopping for meats, pork roasts were 69 cents per pound, a five-pound box of fryer breasts was $1.99, two nine-ounce packages of flounder dinners were 99 cents; and bone-in California steak was 89 cents per pound.

Need to clean? Comet was 10 cents for a 14-ounce can, a three-pound package of Ajax detergent was 59 cents, and a half-gallon jug of Clorox bleach was 29 cents.

FROM THE WINTER GARDEN HERITAGE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES

George and Anne Bailey purchased The Winter Garden Times (later renamed The West Orange Times) from its Winter Haven News-Chief owner in July 1970, operating out of a small building located at 18 N. Boyd St. — the present location of the Deli Downtown. Ten years later, they invited Winter Gardeners to the opening of their new office at 720 S. Dillard St. Ken Morris was named managing editor that month. A newspaper has served the town’s citizens since Sept. 13, 1905, when founder and first mayor Arthur Bullard Newton published the first edition of The Ricochet. The Winter Garden Heritage Foundation treasures an original copy of that four-page newspaper; its editorial items and advertisements conjure a simpler time as it was lived in Winter Garden 120 years ago.