Throwback Thursday: May 25

News from around Johnson County as reported on May 25 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 111 years.

On this day in 2001, the main story in the Daily Journal was about a Hoosier astronaut who visited a Greenwood school.

Astronaut David Wolf visited the Meridian Academy of Fine Arts in Greenwood after he met Lisa DeLong, the founder of the academy, at NASA headquarters. DeLong was working on a doctorate degree and needed to go to Houston for a conference with NASA, she said.

While there, she was introduced to Wolf, an Indiana native, and his fiance. Before departing, the astronaut promised DeLong he would visit her school when he returned to the Hoosier state.

On May 24, 2001, Wolf kept his word.

Surrounded by a floor full of curious, arm-waving elementary students, the Purdue University graduate answered kid’s questions while showing them a video of his 1997 expedition on a Russian space session.

They were hardly at a loss for words.

“Why were you in the costume?” one child asked, referring to the Wolf’s spacesuit.

“What was your favorite food?” asked another.

For the record, Wolf liked dining on the fruit cocktail and Russian yogurt, he said.

Explaining the gravity factor of his experience in space, Wolf told students, “It’s hard to live in space, and it’s hard to come back.”

Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day

2013

Members of Restore Old Town Greenwood were proposing pedestrian safety changes in Old Town Greenwood.

1983

Greenwood residents were wondering where all the teenagers would go after the closing of the Amusement Barn video game arcade in downtown Greenwood.

1963

Local officials were reporting that vandals destroyed “Little 500” decorations in downtown Franklin.