June 27
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
Hooker-Bassett Furniture Factory Construction Superintendent Mr. E. M. Whitener, who was shot and seriously wounded the week before, was getting much better. He had been operated on and recuperating at Lucy Lester General Hospital after having been shot at work by a recently fired construction worker.
75 years ago – 1949
The Rev. W.H. Hobson, the pastor of a church in Ridgeway and representing the Missionary Baptist Conference Board, appeared before the Henry County Board of Supervisor to request that black deputies be hired. No action was taken.
In the state of New York, domestic relations Judge I. Motefierre Levy ruled that a man who discovered that his wife had not been a virgin when he married her would not have to pay her alimony after they divorced. The Associated Press reported that the judge said, “Thus it is taken for granted that at marriage the major number of men are not continent. Not so women – it is assumed that the large percentage of women are pure. … The court believes the husband was justified in leaving the wife and she is not entitled to his support.” [The judge did not explain how men before marriage were getting all that action if the women weren’t giving any.]
1960
Free chest X-rays to check for tuberculosis were being offered by the Patrick-Henry TB Chapter. A mobile unit was stationed for three days at Jones Creek Grocery, H.L. Green Co. on the Square, Leggett’s department Store, and, for their employees, at Continental Can Company at the plant. More than 22,500 residents took advantages of the chest X-ray service when it was held during May.
50 years ago – 1974
George Giles, a 1974 graduate of Laurel Park High School, won the state Future Farmers of America Horticulture competition and the Star Greenhand Award.
In the article “New Way to Rate TV” in the June 27, 1974 Martinsville Bulletin: Water department employees across the US had noticed that water pressure in their cities dropped during television commercials and dropped even more after shows ended. The phenomenon started in the early 1950s, when water departments began noticing unexplainable drops in water pressure that appeared at regular intervals. They couldn’t figure out what it was until it occurred to them that those drops happened exactly at the end of the televisions shows “Bonanza” and “Walt Disney,” the only two color TV shows on at that time. (Reason being – that’s when people left their TV shows and took care of business that resulted in the flush of the toilet; 20,000 people flushing at the same time would use about 80,000 gallons of water at once. The record drop of water pressure came at the end of the TV showing of the movie “Airport,” a drop of 26 pounds per square inch (PSI); the end of “Patton” got 22 PSI and “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” got a drop of 19 PSI.
25 years ago – 1999
Pluma, which had 500 employees in Martinsville and about 1,500 overall, had a net loss of $36 million the year before. It planned to make its comeback through scaling down and focusing on high-quality niche products. An example of this was a basic crew-neck sweatshirt versus a high-end sweatshirt: zipped and hooded. Thirty to 40% of Pluma’s sales were to Sam’s Club.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.