The Yellowed Pages: News from 25 years ago in The Baltimore Guide
by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com
April 15, 1982
The Claremont Street Improvement Association commended six children for their help cleaning up the athletic field behind Highlandtown Elementary School #237 and the east side of Grundy Street.
The six were Nancy Justice, Rance Keesler, Ali Keller, Donna Stoots, Cathy Moore and Paula Ramino. They and Recreation Leader Kay Stainer got their photo on the front page of the April 15, 1982, Guide.
The General Assembly wrapped up its 1982 session—its highlights were a 50 percent increase in the gasoline tax over two years and a raise in the ceiling for consumer credit interest rates—and approval of “balloon” payments on second mortgages.
That balloon payment approval came back to bite the General Assembly a few years later, as unscrupulous mortgage brokers applied silent second mortgages to homes during the real estate “flipping” scandal of the 1990s, costing many unsuspecting new homeowners thousands—and sometimes their homes.
State Senator Cornell Dypski, an unapologetically liberal champion of the working class, argued against the interest rate hike. “I don’t think we should financially rape the people of this state simply because some money-hungry people come down here and tell us to raise the rates,” he said. “I think we’re doing a grave injustice to the people.”
State Senator Frederick Malkus Jr. also did not buy the banks’ argument that raising the interest ceiling would actually lower the interest rates, but the measure passed anyway, 31-13.
And eight years after the General Assembly lowered the state drinking age for beer and wine to 18, it declared defeat and raised it back to 21.
Three men escaped from the Maryland State Penitentiary by overpowering four guards and taking their guns. The men, convicted of murder, rape and armed robbery, disarmed and handcuffed two guards and took another guard hostage. Warden George Collins attributed the escape to an error in procedure by the guards, and did not rule out disciplinary action or even criminal charges against the guards.
Someone placed a classified ad in the Baltimore Sun touting 75 new clerical and office jobs at City Hall, and 400 people showed up at the front door on Holliday Street to apply—only problem was, the ad was a fraud. The ad was placed on Good Friday, April 9, and listed the telephone number of Linwood Ivey, head of the Bureau of Urban Services.
City Hall sent most of the applicants over to the Civil Service Commission for interviews for future openings. Joan Bereska, Mayor William Donald Schaefer’s chief of staff, said the ad was “a cruel joke, a really rotten thing to do” in such a difficult job market.
Two children were killed and three adults injured in a fire in the 400 block N. Duncan St., a blaze the Baltimore Fire Department blamed on careless smoking. The fire,, which was reported by neighbors at about 3:30 a.m. on April 12, started in an overstuffed love seat in the front room. The fire burned out the first floor and damaged the second. The children, ages 6 and 7, were found on the second floor.
Concerned Citizens of Hampstead Hill announced a meeting to discuss juvenile prostitution around Patterson Park. Eastern Avenue in particular was getting a reputation as a meeting ground for “chicken hawks,” men who sought out boys for sex.
The Highlandtown Merchants Association announced the winners of its Easter Coloring Contest. The lucky children were Steven Schweiger, age 10, and Stephanie Kane, age 6. Both kids received seven-foot stuffed rabbits as a prize, and one parent was overheard to say that he would have to consider an addition to the house to accommodate the new member of the family.
The Easter coloring contest entries were judged on color harmony, originality and neatness.
Bethlehem Steel announced that it would call back 2,650 workers of the 5,900 currently laid off. The move was made so the company could reopen three idle mills at its Sparrows Point steel plant.
