Things have changed a lot in the last 70 years. A look back to September of 1950 turned up a Standard Oil customer appreciation advertisement. The ad featured the Langley family and praised them for their contribution as the “kind of people who make America tick.”

Mr. Langley is a civic-minded taxpayer and a good provider. Mrs. Langley keeps a home for her husband and two daughters and still finds time to do community volunteer work. And when they fill up their sedan at the Standard Oil Red Crown gasoline pump, they go cruising down the road with one child on Mrs. Langley’s lap in the front seat and the other hanging over the back of the front seat.

50 years ago

Kansas State University horticulturist Charles V. Hall introduced his latest watermelon breeding success in September of 1970.

The “Petite Sweet” was a mini-melon, weighing between 5 and 10 pounds. It was a round melon with dark and light green stripes. The new breed was the product of nearly a decade of crossbreeding and selection.

Next on list for breeding efforts, Hall told Kansas Farmer 50 years ago, was a seedless melon that he hoped to have ready in “a few years.”

40 years ago

Tree farms in Kansas reached a milestone number of 300 in September of 1980. It came after the establishment of the first Kansas Tree Farm in 1963. The Tree Farm designation is approved only after it has been established that the farm owner has materially improved the forest resource.

Among those attaining Tree Farm status were a growing number of Kansas Christmas Tree Farms.

20 years ago

The turn of the century brought a new era to old-fashioned candle making. Harvest Lights, soybean oil-based candles, were developed by the Indiana Soybean Board but were offered for sale nationwide.

The candles were packaged in resealable, reusable canning jars in black cherry, blueberry, clover, cinnamon, lemon and vanilla in both 4 oz. and 8 oz. sizes and in bayberry and evergreen in 8 oz. jars only.

Goerzen is executive director of Old Cowtown museum. She writes from Wichita.