25 Years Ago 1986

 Flamboyant attorney John Safran may be our homespun version of Geoffrey Fieger, but even he has failed to block the sale of Lapeer County General Hospital. Circuit Judge Norman Baguley just threw Safran’s class action lawsuit out of court.

Why? His honor claims the suit is nearly identical to one Safran filed two years ago and lost. He should have appealed to a higher court. The other reason: Safran should have gone before Judge Marty Clements, who ruled against him in 1984.

Holiday shoppers are out there stampeding with fistfuls of dollars. Parking lots are crowded. Store hours are extended and checkout lines are long. Kmart manager Karold Lake says the Lapeer store averages 1,500 to 2,000 sales a day. On the Friday after Thanksgiving Kmart cashiers rang up 3,683 sales. K’ching!

 They’re here. They’re there. They’re everywhere. So beware. Men who work for Consumers Power Company, Lapeer parks and recreation and the DPW are teaming up with city police to be on the lookout for crime.

They are the “eyes and ears” of the community, trying to make our streets safer for everyday citizens. Suspicious acts will be radioed in immediately. The program has proven successful in bigger cities like Detroit. Local folks also are learning the value of neighborhood watch programs.

50 Years Ago 1961

 Wear hunter’s orange next time. Matt Sawchuk was seated in the woods, deer hunting near Beaulah in Benzie County when BANG! A lead slug whizzed by — three inches from his face. It blew two holes through the bent peak of his red cap and sent it flying off his head.

Sawchuck, a linotype operator for The Lapeer County Press, was too scared to move for at least 30 minutes. He never saw the man who nearly killed him. But he gave up hunting for good. That day. The next morning Sawchuck was out in the woods again, hoping for a buck and no more holes in his hat.

E.E. Irwin is the educator for whom the bell tolls. Irwin, who served as Lapeer schools superintendent for 32 years, died on Mercer Island near Seattle, Wash. He was 93. Irwin retired in 1946. After his wife died in 1960 he moved to the West Coast to stay with his children. Funeral arrangements were handled by Muir Bros. of Lapeer. In later years an elementary school was named after him.

 Four Lapeer Senior High School juniors were injured — one seriously —when a test tube exploded in the chemistry lab. Jim Greenlee is hospitalized and Dr. James Doty said it may be several days before he can determine how badly the young man’s left eye has been hurt. Doty, who removed glass from Greenlee’s eye, considers the injury “very serious.” Students Steve Rehn, Clennis Livey and Dan Cote were treated at the hospital and released. Greenlee and Rehn were mixing potassium chlorate with manganese dioxide when the rapid release of oxygen caused the test tube to burst. An instructor said the laboratory was not damaged.

75 Years Ago 1936

 Former Lapeer boy George A. Tomlinson is in the national news spotlight. Due to the death of a coworker, the Great Lakes shipping magnate is now in control of Mid- America, the holding company for a $3 billion network of railroads and real estate.

George, better known as Ash around Lapeer, is the eldest son of the late Samuel Tomlinson, who more than 50 years ago was ownereditor of the Lapeer County Clarion. Ash worked for his father in the newspaper office.

Samuel prospered in the publishing business and purchased the Van Dyke house on Pine Street in Lapeer. Back then the magnificent structure was at the height of its splendor. The family entertained lavishly and many notables enjoyed their hospitality. (In later years the house became the Lapeer City Hospital.)

Young Ash grew up and left town to try his hand as a cow punch at a large ranch out West. After that he married the daughter of Captain James Davison of Bay City and cultivated an interest in ship-building. The rest, as they say, is history.

 Imlay City High School gridders broke a five-year losing streak by stomping Lapeer High School Panthers 6-0 in the big Thanksgiving Day game. The upset dropped Lapeer to third place in the Tri- County League, where the team is tied with Imlay City at two losses each for the season.