Separate tables in the school cafeteria, 43 years ago

In 1976, a student at La Crosse Central was suspended for three days, for the offense of sitting at a lunch table reserved for teachers. The offender happened to be the Central student council president, Scott Limpert. The suspension came after the second time that Limpert sat at the faculty table. He had gotten a warning the day before. Central didn’t have a written rule against a student sitting at the faculty table, but it was a tradition for teachers and students to eat apart from each other. The Central principal said the violation could not be ‘done in a democratic society.’

Oktoberfest hosted the new Miss America that fall. Dorothy Benham of Minnesota had only served as Miss America for two weeks when she came to La Crosse to sing at the Miss La Crosse-Oktoberfest pageant. Benham was a junior at Macalaster College at the time. The pageant was emceed by Terry Meeuwsen, who had become Wisconsin’s first Miss America just four years earlier.

TV reporter Daniel Schorr resigned from CBS, after appearing before a Congressional committee. Schorr testified that reporters have a right to keep their sources confidential. The committee wanted to know who gave him a secret report criticizing the CIA. At that time, the CIA was being run by future president George H.W. Bush…in 1976, yesterday in La Crosse.