Feb. 20

100 Years ago – 1925

Rippe-Prager’s Woman’s Shop on Walnut Street sold “a complete line of beautiful things in ladies’ and misses’ ready-to-wear for spring and summer in dresses, coats, millinery, hosiery and silk undies.”

75 years ago – 1950

The newly organized Women’s Auxiliary of Martinsville General Hospital took on as its first project the organization of a snack bar at the hospital. Mrs. H.I. Tuggle was a founder of the Auxiliary, by request of hospital personnel.

1961

Prices at Akers Supermarket, which gave double S&H coupons each Tuesday: Nescafe Instant Coffee, 99 cents; fryers, 27 cents a pound; ground beef, 39 cents a pound; sour pitted cherries, 15 cents a pound; grapefruit, 5 cents each; Russett baking potatoes, 49 cents for a 10-pound bag; all brands of loaf bread, 29 cents for two loaves.

50 years ago – 1975

When a robber with a stocking over his face stuck a pistol in Annie Saul’s face, she whopped him in the belly with a half-gallon of wine, and a fight ensued. She ended up losing the fight when he stomped on her face. Shortly later, a customer woke her up and asked her if she’d like him to call the police She said yes, and Early Lilly went back to the nearby boarding house where he lived and called. She got up and waited on customers, despite bleeding, with her eyes bruised and swelling and her cheeks bone broken in two places. When the police arrived, they told her she had taken in $18, though she couldn’t remember what she had sold. She and her husband, E.W. Saul, had been running Saul’s on Route 57 for 2 years, and before that, she spent 21 years running Stanleytown Store.

25 years ago - 2000

Trans World Connections (TWC) took applications for its first 25 jobs at its new location in Martinsville. Starting pay was $6.20 an hour. The electric cable company from Lynchburg moved into part of the former Sara-Lee building on Cleveland Avenue. John Kern was the director of operations.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.