Life in Hopkins Back in 1986

This wasn’t the only time that Hopkins has wrestled with the issue of dangerous buildings. On January 15th, 1986, the Hopkins Journal reported that there was a petition drive to remove the 60 Social Center, the Pool Hall, and the Opal Dowden building that the signers saw as “dangerous, an embarrassment to our community, and standing in the way of progress.” They were located north of where the tavern is today. They were subsequently torn down.

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Roger Florea was named Citizen of the Year that year by the Hopkins Community Club.

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The Hopkins Journal of January 29th, 1986 ran a baby picture of Megan Miller, daughter of Jim and Sharon Miller. “Too bad they don’t come with directions,” read the cutline.

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In the January 29th, 1986 issue, editor Jim Lohman wrote a lament about how God hates Chicago. Before the Bears won the Super Bowl a few days before, they had not won since 1962. The Cubs had not even been to the World Series since 1945, the Sox had not gone since 1959, and the Blackhawks since 1961. The Bulls had not even come close. Little did he know that Michael Jordan would begin a huge dynasty run in a few years.

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Picking on the wrong person – During the softball season that fall, when North Nodaway was playing North Andrew, one of the Cardinal players spiked Nicki Baldwin (now Herndon) as she was trying to complete a double play. She was in pain, the game was held up, and everybody was in consternation. But she insisted on staying in the game, and the next time she stepped up to bat, she crushed a home run on the Cardinals. 

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There was no way to take selfies, and there was no Internet to post them on, but people still liked getting their picture taken. The next week, Jim Lohman, editor of the Hopkins Journal ran a selfie of Nicki and some of her friends. He said that the picture had no news value, but because they asked nicely, he would take their picture. Sure enough, there was a perfect hole for the picture during crunch time, when he was trying to fill up space for the paper on Tuesday night. We saw a YouTube video of a Yankees game from 1931, and people were waving at the cameraman, just like they do today.