Past Pages July 22

120 YEARS AGO

A genuine nightmare: A Reno man drove a team to Virginia, putting his team up at Jim Black's stable then meandered up town to see the boys. One of these horses became frightened and concluded to jump the fence. About this time a V & T ore train came booming and the horse immediately meandered into a lodging house. The horse, seeing the hay, mistook the place for a livery stable and began to climb the stairs - and a door to one of the rooms gave way. The horse stood in the room master of the situation until the two miners who were in bed began yelling for help, police, etc. rousing the whole house. Everyone made suggestions of how to get the horse down stairs again ... some were for twisting his tail, others for blindfolding him. Finally, the horse was petted, the rope unloosed and the animal quietly led down the stairs to the street.

70 YEARS AGO

Surprise Melon "Bust": A carefully piled stack of watermelons collapsed in the front lobby of the Safeway store and 21 of the prized specimens of fruit cracked or split open ... traffic was temporarily blocked within the store's front entrance. Cause of the melon-busting was due to shaking a nearby slot machine.

50 YEARS AGO

Photo caption: Three new Sunny Acres Cottages are pictured here against the Orphans home building, which is scheduled for destruction. The cottages were built by Sture Swenson and represent a family type approach to institution living.

20 YEARS AGO

"Super" parking lot: The Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with the First Presbyterian Church and the Carson City Horseshoe club to create a new "super" parking lot downtown consolidating parking lots between Musser Street on the south and Telegraph Street on the north and closing Proctor Street from Curry to Nevada.

10 YEARS AGO

V&T: For $1,000 supporters of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad project can take part in the first "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" event sponsored by the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation.

• Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.