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Nancy Reagan carries her husband's banner

 
Published Feb. 27, 2006|Updated Feb. 27, 2006

Feb. 27, 1976

A crowd of 100 or so were milling around in the lobby of the Island Estates Freedom Federal Savings and Loan Association Thursday morning when Nancy Reagan arrived for a reception in her honor.

Looking chic in an apple green knit dress and much younger than her photographs, Mrs. Reagan got down to the business of "meeting the people" without wasting a moment. She had allotted an hour for a question-and-answer session that included a long reception line.

"I feel our country is at a crossroads," she said. "People are troubled, frustrated and terribly disturbed. They want a strong leader to put them back on the right track and my husband feels it has to be done by someone who is not part of the Washington scene - someone not involved in the whole political spectrum. We need to restore the dignity, the self-respect and everything that is great about this country."

She said she is confident that her husband has the ability to "put the country back on the right tracks."

Asked how Ronald Reagan would cope with a Democratic Congress, Mrs. Reagan said her husband coped with that situation when he was governor of California.

"He was able to put through his cut, squeeze and trim programs and reform the welfare program with a Democratic legislature and he can do it again," she said.

"When he became governor the state was spending $1-million a day more than it was taking in. The state was on the brink of bankruptcy. He left with not only a balanced budget but a surplus, and I don't know of any governor who has done that."

She received loud applause when she stated that she would not say what her husband thinks about former President Richard Nixon's trip to China. "You should ask that question of the man who pardoned him," she said, a reference to incumbent President Gerald Ford.

Feb. 18, 1951

Army Engineers revive canal proposal

CLEARWATER - Officials of the Clearwater Chamber of Commerce are confused by the Army Engineers' sudden about-face concerning the feasibility of a canal connecting the Anclote River with Old Tampa Bay.

The Army has filed notice for a public hearing at the courthouse March 7 at 10 a.m. Last October, however, Chamber Secretary Paul Ficht was advised by two Army Engineer officers that the canal was unwarranted and that opposition to it was strong. That opposition was partly voiced at a War Department hearing in Clearwater on June 16, 1949.

Prior to that hearing, it was reported that Tampa interests were backing the canal project to enable construction of a barge canal connecting Old Tampa Bay with the Intracoastal Canal on the western shore.

Notice of the March 7 meeting declares its purpose to be "to determine whether modification of the existing project . . . should be considered."

The Clearwater Chamber says there is no existing project.

Feb. 24, 1945

"Work or fight' ordinance hits loafers

CLEARWATER - Police Chief John Swift last night declared the city's new "work or fight" ordinance was exerting a wholesome influence in ridding Clearwater of habitual poolroom and beer parlor loafers. Several familiar faces are missing from such rendezvous of idlers, the chief said, and others were vanishing rapidly from the local nightlife scene. Enforcement of the ordinance, according to the chief, will work no hardship on persons able to prove means of support or physical disabilities.

Feb. 24, 1945

High school band to play at hotel

CLEARWATER - Young musicians of Clearwater High School's band will present the first of a series of winter concerts at 5 o'clock tomorrow on the lawn of the Fort Harrison Hotel, it was announced today by John Brown, chairman of the band committee. The concert will be given for the entertainment of hotel guests and other visitors. Professor Rocco Grella will conduct and other concerts will be presented by school bands of Largo and Tarpon Springs at later dates.

HEADLINES THROUGH THE YEARS

A look back at the events, people and places that made North Pinellas the unique place that it is. The information is compiled from past editions of the St. Petersburg Times.

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