La Canada history: Girl Scouts participated in annual garden tour

Ten Years Ago

Grocery workers at the La Cañada Vons and Ralphs markets returned to work after joining the majority of their union members in approving a three-year contract that ended the nation’s longest grocery strike. Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons gained a victory in getting employees to pay weekly healthcare premiums and in the creation of a two-tiered system that reduced benefits and wages for workers hired after the strike began in October 2003. The United Food and Commercial Workers union touted wins in the areas of future pension payments for existing employees and in maintaining one healthcare fund for employees and retirees.

Twenty Years Ago

Forty-two-year-old Jan van de Snepscheut, a computer scientist and Caltech professor, died after a fire destroyed his home on Hayman Street. His wife, Terre, suffered head injuries during the incident while the couple’s children, ages 10, 12 and 14, escaped unharmed. It was reported that Terre van de Snepscheut had been awakened when her husband allegedly struck her with an object; when she smelled smoke she shepherded her children to safety. The fire caused an estimated $200,000 in damages.

Thirty Years Ago

Gail Hammill, a postal clerk at the La Cañada post office for nearly 30 years, announced his retirement. “The best people in this world come through the doors of this post office,” he said. “It will be hard to leave.”

Forty Years Ago

The local Kiwanis Club members feted their La Cañadan of the Year, Dr. George C. Griffith, whose achievements in the field of cardiology had gained him national and international recognition.

Fifty Years Ago

La Cañada Girl Scout troops were planning to participate in the Pasadena Area’s Girl Scout Council’s 31st annual Garden Tour, a fundraiser showcasing several beautifully landscaped properties in Pasadena, Altadena, San Marino and Flintridge.

Sixty Years Ago

The idea of extending Foothill Boulevard’s business district from Oakwood Avenue, where it then ended, east toward Hampton Road, long a controversial issue within the town, was reopened and scheduled to be considered by the Regional Planning Commission. It was the third time within a five-year period the matter had been argued. Developer Matt Flynn was pushing for the move and was supported in his application by Edwin Carpenter, Burt Kirst and Elena Rinetti, who, along with Flynn, owned all the land (300 feet deep) on the north side of Foothill from Oakwood to Hampton.

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Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci. Follow @CarolCormaci on Twitter.