Time capsule

As reported 50 years ago in The Columbia News, March 25, 1954:

Schools to be built

Columbia County voters will be called upon to approve a bond issue to provide $300,000 in local funding for a $1.2 million school construction program approved by the State School Building Authority.

A countywide school survey for Columbia County was completed in 1951 by a citizens committee composed of approximately 400 county residents. The committee recommended construction of a new white schools in Harlem, Evans, and Grovetown, and new black schools on Columbia Road and in Harlem, Phinizy and Evans.

New theater screen

The Columbia Theater is striving to keep abreast with modern picture presentation. They wish to announce the installation of a new, large, curved panoramic screen.

Showing this week at the Columbia Theater: Monday and Tuesday, Mister Scoutmaster with Clifton Webb; Wednesday, Shark River with Cochran and Matthews; Thursday and Friday, Mogambo with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner; Saturday, a double feature of Mr. Longhorn with Wild Bill Elliott, and Sequoia, an MGM Hall of Fame thriller.

Fire risk

Columbia County is very dry now and the possibility of a woods fire is great, Ranger Robert L. Hagar of the Columbia County Forestry Unit has announced. The primary cause of fire this year has been due to farmers who burn their fields without taking proper precautions.

"From the first day of July, 1953, until the first of January, 1954, the Columbia County Forestry Unit had only 10 fires, but since that date we have had 19 fires," Hagar said.

Basic grad

Pvt. Cleon J. Whitaker, son of Mr. and Mrs. M.J. Whitaker of Harlem, has completed eight weeks of basic training at the Camp Gordon Replacement Training Center.

School news

Madelyn Ann Creech, daughter of Mrs. Madelyn Lamkin Creech, is enjoying her teaching at St. Angela Academy in Aiken after graduation from the University of Georgia.

Frances Guillebeau, a sophomore at Truett-McConnell Junior College in Cleveland, Ga., is among the 24 students who was named to the Dean's List for winter quarter 1953.