La Cañada History: Local votes tallied up sweetly in the ’08 presidential race — cookie by cookie

Ten Years Ago

The second National Election Cookie Poll featuring cookies resembling an elephant (Republican) and a donkey (Democrat) was in progress across the country. Local voters could put their political persuasion above calories by participating in the poll at a La Cañada business, Cakery Bakery. As of mid-September that year, La Cañada cookie buyers had put presidential candidate Sen. John McCain slightly ahead of his opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, with their votes-by-cookie. But by the end of October, La Cañada Democrats had purchased 1,076 of the treats, to their area GOP counterparts’ 975. Nationally at that point in the election cycle, Democrats had gobbled up 31,904 cookies to Republicans’ 22,911.

Twenty Years Ago

Longtime St. Francis High School coach Jack Friedman, who turned the Golden Knights into a major high school football powerhouse, died at a Glendale hospital following a lengthy illness. He was 71.

Thirty Years Ago

A field goal kicked by Ross Allan during the final five seconds of the game gave the La Cañada High School Spartans an exciting 13-10 football win over cross-town rivals Crescenta Valley High.

Forty Years Ago

The city of La Cañada Flintridge applied for a $575,000 federal grant to purchase the 65-acre Cherry Canyon in the Flintridge area to retain it in its natural state.

Fifty Years Ago

More than 500 people filled Church of the Lighted Window (today known as La Cañada Congregational Church) to hear the Rev. Myron Meckel eulogize Leslie Tupper, a member of the La Cañada school board who had died of a heart attack while driving his car along Pasadena’s Linda Vista Avenue on Sept. 11, 1968. The local attorney was a civic dynamo, having headed up a number of community improvement efforts. Today the Les Tupper Awards given out by the La Cañada Flintridge Coordinating Council pay homage to him.

Sixty Years Ago

The state Banking Department approved an application by Citizens Commercial Trust and Savings Bank of Pasadena to open a branch in La Cañada. It would be the community’s second financial institution, with Bank of America already well-established here.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.