Springsteen road trip, jimsonweed poisoning and more
Dayton has a fascinating history, which the Dayton Daily News has been there to chronicle since 1898.
Each week, we’re going into the archives for stories both important and interesting that happened this week through the years.
Here’s a look at some stories from the week of Aug. 11-17.
Aug. 12, 1935: Daytonian, with one and a half hours instruction, makes solo flight
W.F. “Bill” Bippus, 23, flew an airplane solo after less instruction than most novices. His instructor, Don Pullen, had just landed the training plane they were in, after an hour-long lesson, and then nodded to Bippus to take off by himself.
Pullen had confused Bippus for another of his students, who had much more experience.
Russ Moore, the owner of the plane and manager of the Dayton Municipal Airport, saw the whole thing.
Bippus, thinking he must have done really well during his hour of training, gunned the engine and took off with ease. He landed, again without a problem.
In those days, 10 hours of training was required before a pilot could make a solo flight. Today’s FAA requirement is that 30 flight hours are needed.
Aug. 15, 1945: Dayton American-born Japanese react to end of WWII
The announcement of American victory in World War II was greeted “as a smile of God” by young residents of Japanese descent living at the Cooperative House, on Central Avenue, in Dayton.
Many young American-born citizens were moved to cities, including Dayton, from coastal locations like California, due to security regulations. Some of the Dayton residents had been staying there for over two years.
Although many were separated from their family homes, they cheered the news of the victory.
“Each one of us has brothers or sisters in the American armed forces,” said George Ishii, a spokesperson for the group. “We are Americans, not Japanese. Patriotism cannot be judged by physical characteristics.”
Aug. 15, 1965: Kettering’s Stroop was once a buggy road
In 1965, the city of Kettering was spending $900,000 to make Stroop Road a modern, safer thoroughfare by widening it to four 12-foot lanes.
A search by reporters at the time came up with some interesting information about the road’s history.
In 1882, it was deemed by county commissioners that “owing to the evenness of said road,” that the road only needed to be 40 feet wide instead of the suggested 60 for public right of way.
That meant that the actual road surface only averaged 16 to 19 feet wide, enough for the wagons, buggies and horses using it.
A generation of travelers had been using the road before that. It opened as a public (no-toll) highway in 1835. The road got its name in 1903, when William Stroop purchased farmland south of the road.
Aug. 17, 1975: Jimsonweed’s seeds poison 3 teens
At least three Fairborn teenagers were hospitalized after eating the seeds of the poisonous plant jimsonweed.
The plant contains a drug that produces intoxication for about 48 hours. The drug, atrophine, is used as an anesthetic, among other things. When taken indiscriminately, it can be fatal.
The drug produces visual hallucinations and hot, dry and red skin.
A batch of the weed was found near a quarry in the Rona Hills area of Fairborn. There was also a house in Fairborn’s downtown area where jimsonweed had apparently been planted as a flower. It has white or purple flowers.
Jimsonweed is not on Ohio’s list of plants that are illegal to cultivate. It was also known by the names thornapple or moon flower.
Aug. 11, 1985: Bruce Springsteen fans ride bus brigade to concert
In 1985, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” tour’s only Ohio stop was at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium.
WTUE and Dingleberry’s record shop reserved tickets and chartered buses for Dayton fans, including Dayton Daily News reporter Nick Weiser.
In all, 235 people paid $59 for their concert ticket and round-trip bus ride. They filled five buses.
After the four-hour show, in front of 72,000 fans, Centerville resident Deanne Tiffee said, “That was the greatest thing I ever saw in my life. Absolutely the greatest.”
The buses left for their fivehour trip back to Dayton at 12:03 a.m.