Bad day at the school library, 44 years ago

During summer vacation in 1974, vandals tore apart the IMC, the library area, at Spence Elementary in La Crosse. The damage to the 10-thousand square foot room was described as “almost total destruction.” Paints and glue were poured onto the carpeting, and the intruders sprayed fire extinguishers throughout the IMC.

Ted Fetting was running for Congress in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, but he was also walking…hundreds of miles through the large district. The 30-year-old Fetting was among a field of Democrats challenging seven-term Republican Congressman Vernon Thomson. He was a Vietnam vet who walked with the help of a cane because of shrapnel in his knee left over from the war. Fetting lost the primary to Al Baldus, who unseated Thomson in November.

In late July, a House committee in Washington approved three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. The committee votes came shortly after the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the White House to turn over secret Oval Office recordings to the special prosecutor investigating Watergate.

The Hudson Brothers had a summer variety show on CBS. On summer nights, you could also watch “The Odd Couple,” with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, “Barnaby Jones” with Buddy Ebsen…or Sally Field as “The Girl with Something Extra.” She had ESP, on TV in 1974, 44 years ago, yesterday in La Crosse.