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FROM THE ARCHIVES: With NASA’s Gemini manned spaceflight program in full swing, space travel was on the minds of many Americans in the summer of 1966. Among them were these youngsters, who rode on their neighborhood’s rocket-themed float in the Fourth of July parade in Eagan MN. The group was dubbed “The Emerald Astronauts,” on account of their families hailing from Emerald Lane in Eagan.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: “Beware of Flying Objects” warned the headline to this photo published in the June 23, 1966 edition of the Dakota County Tribune. Twenty-year-old Mary “Potsy” Ryan of Farmington reported that she and three others were driving on Highway 3 in a ’65 Chevrolet Malibu when an oncoming semi truck wrought some serious damage. “A 10-pound, red-hot object believed to be a large muffler baffle of some kind, fell off the semi, and crashed through the windshield on the driver’s side,” the newspaper noted. “It hit the driver, Miss Rowan, who managed to keep control of the auto. Then it glanced over and burned Miss Ryan’s leg.” The driver received five stitches on her forehead.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Nothing warrants a celebratory toast of cold milk quite like the crowning of a new Dairy Princess. This photo — published in the June 16, 1966 edition of the Dakota County Tribune — shows 17-year-old Evelyn Wolkow of Farmington MN receiving her crown as Dairy Princess of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. As local Dairy Princess, Wolkow went on to compete in the Princess Kay of the Milky Way finals at the Minnesota State Fair. Also pictured is Mary Ann Titrud, top right, the reigning Princess Kay of the Milky Way, wearing her “all Minnesota butter carton dress.”

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Al Welcher and Mary Hagen shared the first dance after being crowned king and queen at the Senior Prom held April 18 for residents at The Timbers senior living community in Apple Valley. The event, which included dinner and live music, sought to capture the spirit of high school prom dances of yesteryear. And guests at the Senior Prom didn’t have to guess which of the punch bowls had been spiked — the one with peach schnapps was clearly marked.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: The 1979 energy crisis — and the resulting long lines at the gas pumps — proved a financial boon for two enterprising Apple Valley MN youngsters. Twelve-year-old Tim McMullen, left, and Joel Martin, 11, sold refreshments to motorists waiting to fill their tanks at Dick’s Valley Mobil at Garden View Drive and County Road 42. This photo of the two youthful entrepreneurs ran on the front page of the Dakota County Tribune’s June 28, 1979 edition under the headline “Long Gas Lines Lead To Nest Egg.”

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Q&A with fantasy author Kristin Van Risseghem

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Family cactus dates back generations

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Gowns “from the past, present and future” were modeled at the style show and luncheon held in 1979 at All Saints Church in Lakeville MN. This photo was captured at a rehearsal for the style show and features, from left, Nona Kalisch sporting a 1920s flapper-style gown, Catherine Gallagher in a “disposable dress of the future,” Shirley Marek in a 1930 dress, and Liz Murphy in a satin dress from the 1940s. The photo spread promoting the event, published in the April 26, 1979 edition of the Dakota County Tribune, also included an image of a young woman modeling a shiny silver “future jet suit.”

[sunthisweek]

Binturong cub born at Minnesota Zoo

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: This photo of a buried railroad sign along the Mankato Line tracks south of Farmington MN documented the heavy snowfalls that hit Dakota County in early 1979. “It is obvious the trains have not been running,” the Dakota County Tribune noted in its coverage in the Feb. 8, 1979 edition. The photo was published on the front page under the headline “We’re Havin’ a Cold Wave.”

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Dancers from Brenda’s School of Dance in Farmington MN donned cowboy hats and other Western apparel for their summer 1982 recital titled “Suburban Cowboy” — presumably a nod to the John Travolta film “Urban Cowboy,” which had been released two years earlier. About 175 dancers of all ages performed in the show held in the Farmington Middle School Auditorium. This photo promoting the recital was published in the Dakota County Tribune’s June 3, 1982 edition.

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Q&A with ‘Truest’ author Jackie Lea Sommers

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Sometimes the Minnesota winter seems to never end — especially when there’s plenty of snow on the ground in late April. Alice Blaha “gave up waiting for spring,” so she and the kids at her Farmington day care decided to make the most of the unseasonable weather and built a snowman, the Dakota County Tribune reported in its April 22, 1982 edition. The image ran on the front page with the headline “Snow … again.”

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Four-year-old Missy Carey of Burnsville MN couldn’t resist planting a kiss on the giant snow bunny she and her older brother, Ben, built after a mid-March snowfall in 1982. Between two to three inches of snow fell March 19 of that year, the Dakota County Tribune reported, though the unseasonably wintry weather let up not long after, with residents noting the season’s first robin sightings the following day.

[sunthisweek]

MORE PHOTOS from the 2016 Star Wars Extravaganza in Rosemount MN

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: The birth of four goats in Farmington MN was front-page news in the April 8, 1982, edition of the Dakota County Tribune. An American Nubian goat gave birth to four kids — “an almost unheard of event,” the newspaper reported, with one or two kids being the norm — at the Mike and Marie Prom home. The news item, which ran under the headline “It’s quads!”, described how Marie Prom took a week off work to care for the kids, bringing them into the basement and bottle-feeding them with their mother’s milk. The Prom family named the quadruplets Samantha, Sammy, Sonny and Skipper. 

[sunthisweek]

FROM THE ARCHIVES: The flowers in this photo aren’t quite as enormous as they may first appear. Sharlene G. Berg, of Lakeville MN, made a double-exposure image — capturing her daughter, Michelle, with one exposure, then pairing it with an image of some daisies. Berg entered the image in the “special effects” category of Thisweek News’s reader photo contest; it ran in the June 16, 1980 edition under the headline “Giant daisies?”