La Cañada History: Halloween 1968 brings some minor mischief but mostly just good fun

Ten Years Ago

The Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station announced it would hold a public viewing of more than 1,000 items believed to have been stolen in numerous burglaries. The event would only be open to burglary victims who had previously filed a crime report.

Twenty Years Ago

The La Cañada High School instrumental music students were raising some “dough” for their program by taking orders for Thanksgiving pies. The freshly baked Marie Callender desserts, then priced from $8.50 to $10.50, would be ready for pick-up the two days immediately prior to the holiday.

Thirty Years Ago

Home Savings of America received approvals from the city of La Cañada Flintridge to go into a new building being constructed on the northeast corner of Foothill Boulevard at Commonwealth Avenue, where today there is a branch of Chase Bank.

Forty Years Ago

It was announced a foundation had been formed in town to help the local school system carry out its programs in the wake of declining enrollment, the passage of Prop. 13 and state school funding changes. The La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation, chaired by resident Neal Brockmeyer, was working to establish its status as a tax-exempt organization so it could begin collecting contributions.

Fifty Years Ago

Although a few isolated incidents of minor mischief were reported during Halloween 1968, the holiday, which that year fell on a Thursday, was reported to have been “good, old-fashioned fun.” The Valley Sun cover photo that day featured Daniel Parkinson, 4, and Katie Blaine, 5, in their costumes and ready to go trick-or-treating.

Sixty Years Ago

A final decision by President Dwight D. Eisenhower would determine whether Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada would be transferred to the control of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which had just been formally established on Oct. 1, 1958. The recommendation of the transfer of the Army missile program to the new space agency had been made by T. Keith Glennan, NASA’s first administrator. A complete study was underway in the fall of 1958 and the president said he would make a decision before the new year.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.