Monday, November 27, 2006 Looking Back is a regular feature of the Modoc County record, published weekly in Alturas, California. The following is transcribed from the November 23, 2006 issue. Looking Back 67 Years Ago – 1939 READERS DIGEST featured an article on Alturas a being one of the most progressive towns per capita in the nation because of its city council. It pointed out that the council has, in that three months: provided a city skating rink, summer scout camp, provided tennis courts and summer recreation program, organized discussion groups, promoted a dramatic club, established a children’s library and sponsored women’s dance class….The Alturas Grammar School, abandoned in 1936 has been put up for bids at $10,000, but to date there have been no takers….Modoc county accounted for nearly 10 percent of the total deer kill in California with a record 2,277. 62 Years Ago – 1944 GEORGE HARPER of Adin has been appointed foreman of the 1944 Grand Jury…. Charles Hays of Alturas is now boxing instructor in the army….Preparation of the Community Cannery has been declared a success….Norine Boyd and Wilfred Delbrouck are (high school) four-star generals in the current Third Army war bond drive, sixth loan….The Red River Lumber Co. in Westwood has been sold to Fruit Growers….Fire Chief Bill Mayben has urged residents not to call central every time there is a fire and thus tie up the line for use by the fire boys….Cutters are needed for voluntary Red Cross work at the Modoc Library. 57 Years Ago – 1949 MEMBERS OF the debate team this year are Jimmy Austin, Lucille Kenyon, Marty Young, Gary Brennan and Keith Holland….Three thousand rabbits were killed in a Lake City rabbit drive Sunday….Masten Ramsey has been elected as a director of the California Farm Bureau Federation….Work had begun on the construction of the new telephone building located on First Street north of the Niles Theater….The Chamber of Commerce has invested in numerous Christmas plaques that will provide city Yule décor. 52 Years Ago – 1954 JEAN DOLAN, junior at MUHS, has been named FFA Queen….Big Valley residents are making a statewide appeal to have a doctor locate in their area….The Modoc Grand Jury has been summoned by Judge A.K. Wylie for annual business….Senator Dale Williams and Assemblywoman Pauline Davis have called upon local sportsmen to get together in Alturas to form the northeastern California Conservation League. I will mention that in 1939 my Dad was Mayor of Alturas. We moved from the old Grammar school on East Street opposite the Court House to a school built in 1929 but never occupied. That school is in use today out on 4th Street. In 1939 the Safety Patrol attended the Worlds Fair and I am still in contact with the co-captain, Kenneth Laver, now living in San Jose, CA. The old Grammar school was called the Mary A. Raker Grammar School. It was made of Modoc sandstone, was two stories high and had 8 classrooms, an office and a basement outfitted to teach “manual arts”, which consisted of sanding a wooden block. One year my class occupied the second story room where the fires escape tube was located. We loved fire drill because we could slide from the second story to the ground in that steel tube, fun! See you with the next issue, when it arrives. Ron Morgan