Remember When?

1974: Inflation Ranked Worst in Peacetime History

The U.S. was in the grip of inflation more severe than anything experienced in its peacetime history, according to Texas Agricultural Extension Service Home Management Specialist Mrs. Doris Myers. Since 1900, the cost of living had climbed 54 years, stayed about the same for seven years and went down in only 13. Reports in U.S. News and World Report showed that a 1900 $1 bought the same amount that a consumer would pay nearly $6 for in 1974. American workers’ buying power peaked during 1971 and 1973, before heading downhill. The Consumer Price Index was 10.7% higher than in May 1973. A typical worker with a wife and two children who received a $330 raise in 1973 actually suffered a decrease in buying power of $362.00.

The discovery suit brought by six Fayette County landowners against the Lower Colorado River Authority and City of Austin over the proposed power plant near Fayetteville turned into a moot suit and then into a temporary injunction at the Fayette County Courthouse. After a complicated three-part hearing in 155th District Court, Judge Paul Huser granted a temporary injunction sought by LCRA against nine landowners. The legal action forbade the landowners to refuse permission or interfere with LCRA agents’ efforts to survey their land and take core samples.

Funeral services were held for: Hugo G. Meyer, 78, of Carmine; Robert L. Gayda, 86, of Fayetteville; Elmo Meyer of Schulenburg; Otis Cordes, 70 a native of Warrenton; Frank Chovanec, 54, of La Grange; John A. Braun, 82, of Round Top; and Ernest A. Schwartz, 59, of Houston.

The Chromcik Council, Knights of Columbus, initiated a drive to secure signatures of 100 people willing to donate blood for Leo F. Tiemann, one of its members and an active citizen of the La Grange community. He was ill with acute leukemia. After 100 donors pledged, M.D. Anderson Hospital Blood Bank agreed to come to La Grange. Anyone 18 years of age or older residing in Fayette County could participate. Should Mr. Tiemann not require the entire amount of blood donated, anyone in Fayette County could request it within a year of the date it had been drawn. The KJT offered its office as headquarters for the project, which would likely be on a Saturday or Sunday.

La Grange City Council decided LCRA’s wholesale electric rate adjustments charged to the City of La Grange would be passed through to its electricity customers. Although the amount would vary from month to month, the city’s new LCRA contract called for a rate adjustment of about 46% per kilowatt hour.

Dr. David von Minden, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Milton von Minden, was commissioned in the Navy at Bethesda, Maryland.

Erwin A. Petzold, who celebrated his 50th year as a Gulf dealer in La Grange, was honored at a dinner meeting of Gulf dealers and distributors and their wives in Austin. In 1924, Mr. Petzold became a La Grange Gulf dealer operating a station where Reeder’s Air Conditioning & Heating was later located. He opened his station at the intersection of Hwy. 71 and Hwy. 77 in 1939. The old station, which was the first in Fayette County to install an electric pump, had only a 5-gallon hand pump in earlier years. “Once I heard an Army convoy was coming through,” Mr. Petzold said, “I met it in Smithville and talked the captain into gassing up at my station. I hired two boys, G.B. Mueller and Erwin Janssen, who pumped from noon to dark. We refueled the entire convoy from that one pump.”

Inflation, tight money and economic uncertainties had an effect on Fayette County bank deposits, according to reports from the county’s eight banks. On the call date of June 30, 1973, deposits had risen 18% over the figures from 1972, compared to the current year’s improvement of 4.87%. The two biggest increases were Fayetteville Bank, up 14.6%, and Farmers State Bank of Schulenburg, up 14.4%.

Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Otto celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on July 6, beginning with a social hour at 7:30, followed by a dance in the American Legion Hall. Miss Florence Stork and Charlie Otto were married on July 10, 1949, in St. Paul Lutheran Church. Members of the original wedding party in attendance at the silver wedding event were: Fred Otto of Austin, best man; Mrs. Mason Schmidt of Houston, maid of honor; Mrs. Gerald Mode of La Grange, bridesmaid; and Jake Jacob of Carmine and Edward Meyer of La Grange, groomsmen.

Will Rightmer of Muldoon was honored by friends and relatives on his 90th birthday at the Muldoon Baptist Church annex.

Elvind (Ivy) Johansen, the son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Klockmann of La Grange, was promoted from brigadier general to major general in an Alexandria, Virginia, ceremony. He was one of the youngest major generals in the U.S. Army.

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