25 Years Ago
by Beverly Brown 

It's October 1978. President Carter admits that the US is using satellites to spy on other countries.

 Carlos Reutemann, 35, wins the US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, 

 President Jimmy Carter celebrates his 54th birthday.

 The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4 to win the American League Eastern title.

 About 40 of the 239 Love Canal families choose to stay in their homes during a cleanup of the hazardous waste which had been dumped in the area years earlier by the Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation.

 CB Recognition Week, "20 Years of Citizens in Touch," is celebrated the week of October 4 also known as Ten-Four Day.

 Isaac Bashevis Singer, 74, wins a Nobel Prize for literature.

 Johnny Cash hosts the Country Music Association Awards show. Dolly Parton is named "Entertainer of the Year." Crystal Gale and Don Williams are chosen the top vocalists.  "Don't if Make My Brown Eyes Blue" is chosen as "Song of the Year."

 French singer/composer Jacques Brel, 49, dies of lung cancer.
 Punk rocker Sid Vicious is arrested in New York City for the stabbing murder of his girl friend.

 In Rome, the Sacred College of Cardinals elects Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, 58, as the next Pope. Wojtyla, who is the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years, takes the name John Paul II to honor his predecessor, Pope John Paul I, who died last month.

 Actor Dan Dailey, 62, who starred in many Hollywood and Broadway musicals, dies.

 The New York Yankees win the World Series. Two million New Yorkers welcome the team home with a ticker tape parade.

 Actor Gig Young, 64, and his wife are found dead in their Manhattan apartment in an apparent murder-suicide.

 Pope John Paul II's inaugural Mass at St. Peter's Square in Rome is watched by an estimated one billion people in 40 countries including Poland, which lies behind the Iron Curtain. During his 40-minute homily, the Pope speaks in eleven languages.

 Maybelle Carter, 69, mother of June Carter Cash, dies.

 The traditional "Passing of the Vegetables" ceremony is held on the SUNY-Binghamton Campus.

 A new municipal 40-car parking lot is under construction on Court Street in the Village of Owego. Village officials scrap plans to build another parking lot on Church Street when they are unable to get federal funding.

 The first snow flurries fall on October 8 in the Southern Tier.

  IBM-Owego is building a 35,000 square foot expansion to its Victory Plaza

 The Republican dominated Owego Town Board is stunned when its supervisor, Democrat William E. Engelhard, 71, resigns. Englehard says,"I got the feeling they can replace me with a puppet and a couple of strings."

 Endicott officials approve plans to merge privately owned Ideal Hospital with C.S. Wilson Memorial Hospital in Johnson City. The new hospital will be called Ideal/Wilson Medical Center.

 A 15-year-old boy dies after he is shot behind a laundromat in West Corners. A 13-year-old boy is arrested.

 A fire at SUNY Binghamton destroys most of the first floor of Lehman Hall in Hinman College.

 At Binghamton Central High School, fire destroys the school stage and auditorium.

 The annual Owego Halloween Parade takes place in Owego.

 Movies playing at local theaters include "The Big Fix" with Richard Dreyfuss, "Interiors," "Almost Summer," "A Wedding," and "Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?"

 Top tunes include "Hot Child in the City" by Nick Gilder, "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray, "Reminiscing" by Little River Band, "MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer, and "Whenever I Call You ‘Friend'" by Kenny Loggins.

 And a box of C110 or C126 Kodak film (20 exposures) costs $1.54 and box of three Sylvania Magicubes (12 flashes) costs $1.59.

 Happy Halloween!