La Cañada History: One Hit Wonder captures 1999 battle of the bands
Ten Years Ago
Father Greg Dongkore, a native of Ghana who had served at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Cañada for four years while also pursuing a doctor of philosophy in education degree was preparing to return to his home country to work with rural communities there. Parishioners at St. Bede marked his departure in late August 2009 with a Ghanaian-inspired Mass and held a reception in his honor that drew about 300 well-wishers.
Twenty Years Ago
A crowd that gathered for August Fest 1999 at the Community Center on Chevy Chase Drive named the group One Hit Wonder winner of the event’s battle of the bands. The contest was held to raise funds to rent a local building for a proposed teen center, an effort that was later abandoned.
Thirty Years Ago
La Cañada Unified School District was set to welcome 3,168 students to its campuses for the 1989-90 school year. More than 20 new teachers had been hired, reflecting an upward trend in enrollment as well as reduced class sizes in the first through third grades.
Forty Years Ago
A man walked into the Citizens Business Bank in La Cañada about 30 minutes before closing on Aug. 28, 1979 and, giving a teller the impression he was carrying a gun, demanded cash and received $900. The suspect, described as being in his 20s, fled the scene on foot.
Fifty Years Ago
The chairman of a La Cañada Kiwanis Club project to send paperback books to U.S. armed forces serving in South Vietnam announced the club had reached the 22,000 mark and were on track to meet its goal of shipping 25,000 books by the end of 1969.
Sixty Years Ago
Jurgensen’s, a Pasadena-based grocery chain known for carrying gourmet foods, purchased Angeles Crest Market, then located on the 900 block of Foothill Boulevard in La Cañada, and announced plans to close it permanently. The new owner acquired the local store’s fixtures, accounts and inventory and moved its staff to the Jurgensen’s Market on Linda Vista Avenue that was a staple of that west Pasadena neighborhood. The company was founded during the Great Depression by Harold Jurgensen, a Pasadena native.
Compiled from the Valley Sun archives.
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