La Cañada History: St. Francis High School wins first La Cañada Flintridge All City Track Meet

Ten Years Ago

The first La Cañada Flintridge All City Track Meet was held in March 2003 on the fields at the St. Francis and La Cañada high school campuses. St. Francis captured the overall competition with a decisive win. Other schools fielding teams were Flintridge Prep and Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy.

Twenty Years Ago

The La Cañada High School orchestra was preparing for its tour of Hawaii during spring break. The 30-member group had been holding fundraising activities to help defray the costs of the trip.

Thirty Years Ago

An undercover investigation that had been in the works for five months ended with a drug raid on a house in the 4700 block of Hillard Avenue. Two men were arrested and charged with the manufacture, possession and sale of methamphetamines.

Forty Years Ago

An editorial appeared in the La Cañada High School newspaper, then known as “The Iliad,” calling for a boycott on the school’s cafeteria. An endorsement of the editorial was signed by 154 students, one of whom stated that few teens were using the facility because of its offerings. “It’s inferior food and the prices are too high,” wrote Vicki Meyer.

Fifty Years Ago

After months of rehearsals, Palm Crest Elementary School’s 1963 edition of the Ding Dong Daddy Show was ready for its two-day staging at the junior high school’s auditorium. Hilarity and harmony were promised, with dances, jugglers, barbershop quartets and “loads of surprises” (performers, all fathers of Palm Crest students, would be dressed as women). Tickets to the extravaganza were 50 cents each.

Sixty Years Ago

Locals were reacting to the news that the state Division of Highways decreed a large stand of mature eucalyptus trees lining Foothill Boulevard from Verdugo Road to Union Street would have to come down to accommodate a widening project along the main drag. The project would give the state a 100-foot right of way through La Cañada, with a road of approximately 80 feet in width, curb to curb.

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Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci