July 2015: Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse’s summer play, “The Farm,” blends a recounting of the 1999 Whitehall Farm auction with George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” Playing some of the human, animal and spirit characters in the show are, from left, Chloe Thompson, Reese Elam, Sophie Lawson, Carina Basora, Violet Babb, Malaya Booth, Ben McKee, Zan Holtgrave, Daphne Trillana and Camila Dallas-Gonzalez. (YS News archive photo by Tod Tyslan)
News from the Past: July 2025
- Published: July 31, 2025
75 years ago: 1950
Car safety checks. “Local police, with the assistance of the American Legion state highway patrolmen, checked 2454 cars during the June traffic safety check. … Over 500 cars with 700 to 800 defects were discovered in the cars checked, Police Chief Russell Bradley said this week.“
Ad — house for sale. “BRICK BUNGALOW – 5 rooms, 1½ story. 3 bedrooms, hardwood floors, full basement. Beautiful corner lot in Yellow Springs. House approximately 10 years old. A bargain today at $11,750.”
Morris Bean & Co new foundry. “So that residents of this community may see what goes on in the largest industrial plant in their vicinity, Morris Bean and Company are holding ‘open house’ at their new Hyde Road plant July 13.”
New benches. “Yellow Springs is assured of a dozen park benches for use on Mills Lawn and the Presbyterian Lawn. … Some settees, four feet long, will be ordered at a cost of $6.50 each, plus freight, and some eight feet long at a cost of $10.50, plus freight.”
50 years ago: 1975
Good neighbor. “John Bush … found Jerry Womack’s dog ‘Pud’ injured on Xenia Ave., apparently having been run over by a car. With the Womacks out of town, John took the suffering mongrel to Dr. Docton in Xenia for emergency surgery. Pud will be OK, the vet predicts.”
Affordable housing. “Planning Commission put itself on record Monday night, as Village Council had done the week before, ‘favoring the principle’ of providing Village-owned land on which housing for low- and medium-income families can be built.”
Wheeling Gaunt on July 4th. “A parade that left viewers oohing and aahing and fireworks that attracted a crowd perhaps the biggest in years marked the 4th of July celebration here. But the top event of the day for many citizens was the dedication of a marker honoring the memory of Wheeling Gaunt who on his death in 1894 donated the land on which Gaunt Park is located.”
Farmers market launched. “Saturday is the first selling day for the weekly Village Produce Exchange scheduled for Saturday mornings on Short St. in July and August.”
25 years ago: 2000
Overuse caused water advisory. “Saturday afternoon around 3 p.m. the Village of Yellow Springs Department of Public Works employees went door to door notifying residents on Herman Street and all areas south of a water boil advisory in effect immediately. Water pressure dipped below EPA regulations earlier that day as the Miami Township Fire-Rescue Department was running an unscheduled training session for its volunteers at Morris Bean & Company on East Hyde Road. … The boil alert was rescinded Tuesday around noon.”
Street load limits proposed. “Last year the Green Environmental Coalition drew attention to the issue of through-trucks passing through Yellow Springs when several of its members conducted a truck count. The group counted over 600 trucks passing through town in a 24-hour period.”
Street ministry. “Pastor James A. Nooks and visiting ministers will lead members of the First Baptist Church in a Street Ministry in Yellow Springs on the lawn of the Jackson Lytle and Ingling Williams Funeral Home Saturdays during July and August at 2 p.m.”
Ad — Summer 2000 Institutes at Antioch College. “July 24–August 17… Entrepreneurship Institute … Writing Institute … Peace Studies Institute … Theater/Dance Institute …”
10 years ago: 2015
50 years in the grocery trade. “Tom Gray was a high school freshman when he got his first job, as a bag boy at Luttrell’s, the grocery store on Xenia Avenue. … After high school he moved up to manage produce, then the meat department, then dairy and finally groceries at the store, later called Weaver’s after Bud Weaver bought out Luttrell. And in 2001 Gray purchased the grocery, which is now Tom’s Market.”
Officer cleared of charges. “During last week’s trial in the Greene County Court of Common Pleas, a Springfield prosecutor asked a jury to find Yellow Springs Police Sergeant Naomi Penrod guilty of two criminal charges — assault and interfering with civil rights — following a November 5 incident in which Penrod forcibly took a camera away from a villager attempting to videotape an encounter with police. In the end, Penrod was found not guilty.”
T-ball. “It was an international muddy affair at T-ball Friday night. Louise Camard, 3, accompanied to the diamond by her grandmother Mary Campbell-Zopf, is from France and is only here for two months this summer. … Marina Gama-Lobo, 4, and her brother Morgan Gama-Lobo, 6, are here from Tanzania, Africa! They are visiting for three weeks and their grandmother Virginia Caudill told me the first thing Marina said when she woke up Saturday morning was, ‘Can we go play baseball again?’”
Dylan, Angelou in WYSO archives. “Talks by Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Mead, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cesar Chavez, Abbie Hoffman and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Poetry readings by Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. Recording from a 1965 Vietnam Colloquium at Antioch College. Concerts by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs and the Beatles. The recently released WYSO 91.3-FM digital archive features more than 200 hours of aural history from the 1950s to the 1970s, documenting the central role that Yellow Springs and Antioch College played in the national civil rights, women’s rights and anti-war movements; as well as the rock n’ roll and folk music eras.”
[WYSO continues to offer archived recordings, accessible at http://www.wyso.org/archives, via The Center for Radio Preservation and Archives.]
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