What happened in LCF 10-20-30 years ago?

Ten Years Ago

Longtime La Cañada resident and businessman Norbert Olberz (who died last month at the age of 86) picked up a shovel and posed for the cameras during ground-breaking ceremonies for the new corporate offices of Sport Chalet, Inc., the sporting goods firm he founded here in 1959.

Twenty Years Ago

Ross Dress for Less officially opened its La Cañada location in a former Ralphs grocery store on the west side of town.

Thirty Years Ago

La Cañadan Carolyn Laeser, her two daughters and three other girls escaped as a propane storage plant sent a 250-foot ball of flames into a campground near Moab, Utah, in a disaster that killed an 8-year-old boy, critically burned eight others and forced the evacuation of about 3,000 Moab residents.

Forty Years Ago

The swim team at La Cañada Country Club, coached by Bill Reinhard, was undefeated as of early August 1971, and the young swimmers were in the hunt for their 10th Western League championship.

Fifty Years Ago

Charles Garzanelli, owner of Flintridge Nursery, announced plans to build a modern, two-story garden center in the 1300 block of Foothill Boulevard, about five blocks west of his existing business location. Today, Garzanelli’s modern building houses an Armstrong Garden Center.

Sixty Years Ago

Plans were unveiled to hold a La Cañada community carnival during the last four days of September 1951 on an empty lot at the northeast corner of Foothill and Oakwood Avenue. The goal was to raise enough money to complete the Youth House, then under construction on Chevy Chase Drive. A special feature of the event was to be a contest in which girls representing different local organizations would compete by selling tickets. The top ticket-seller would be crowned queen of the carnival.