News from 25 years ago in The Baltimore Guide

by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com

May 13, 1982

Lucky guy Michael Madsen of Highlandtown won a radio station contest—and the grand prize was a date with Penthouse Magazine’s February centerfold, Divina Celeste. Madsen and Celeste, both fully clothed, took a limo to the J. Geils Band concert at the Capital Center and got backstage passes to meet the band, whose hit song at the moment was “Centerfold.”

City Hospital’s renowned burn unit was treating a severely burned Georgia man who had already been turned down by 40 medical centers around the country because he did not have medical insurance.

John Lacey, 28, of Savannah, Ga., was burned over 95 percent of his body when paint solvent that he accidentally poured on himself ignited. Georgia Governor George Busbee put up $50,000 in state funds as collateral for his treatment.

Spring in Baltimore means flowering trees, randy pigeons and the yearly budget wrangles. Department of Public Works chief Frank Kuchta said his budget was $2 million short, and in order to balance the budget he would have to cut back trash collection to once a week and drop bulk trash collection altogether.

Mayor William Donald Schaefer, calling Kuchta’s bluff, suggested he cut back to once a week only during the winter months, when trash could pile up without causing a public health problem.

The national unemployment rate hit 9.4 percent, the highest since the government started keeping monthly statistics in 1941. President Ronald Reagan blamed the Democrats, saying that their refusal to sign off on a $40 billion reduction in Social Security payments was stalling economic recovery.

A bill passed in the 1983 legislative session would revoke the license of a minor caught drinking, even if he was not drinking in a car or pulled over for drunk driving.
“A driver’s license is the most important thing a kid has,” said the bill’s sponsor, Del. Elmer Hagner, D-Anne Arundel. “If he wants to go out on a date he needs a car; when you take away his wheels he really suffers.”

Gov. Harry Hughes was expected to sign the bill over the objections of his Motor Vehicles administrator, William Bricker. “We’ve always taken the position that no one should lose a license for anything other than being a lousy driver,” Bricker said.

Another lucky guy, William Gensler of Fagley Street, displayed a 44-inch, 32-pound rockfish he caught below the Bay Bridge at the North Mile marker. The picture in the Guide showed that the fish was nearly as tall as Mr. Gensler.

Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard underwent eye surgery at Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute to repair a detached retina. Dr. Ronald Michels, head of the surgical team, said that Leonard came to Wilmer because he was losing his peripheral vision.
Michels said it would be four to six months before doctors could determine if Leonard would completely recover his vision. The surgery canceled Leonard’s totle defense against Roger Stafford, scheduled for that Friday.

Federal and city prosecutors charged 54 people, including two current and two former Social Services case workers, with welfare and food stamp fraud. Prosecutors charged that the defendants were draining the systerm of about $110,000.

Augusta Savings and Loan Association hosted the champion Baltimore Blast soccer team during the month of May, and offered door prizes and premiums to people opening accounts. $50 bucks in a new or existing account would net you a crab mallet or a salt and pepper set; $500 would get you your choice of a digital pen, watch or electric hot plate.

Equitable Bank was giving away television sets. An $11,000 deposit into a four-year certificate of deposit would get you a GE 19-inch color TV. The downside: the interest accrued on the 15-percent CD was payable only at maturity, and if you wanted remote control you had to deposit $20,000 and settle for a Zenith.

The Baltimore-Linwood Improvement Association hosted a Rat Rubout workshop in infested backyards and alleys. Members of the city’s Rat Rubout team showed residents how to identify rat nests and feeding areas, how to cut off their food supply, and baiting and trapping techniques.

A three-bedroom rowhouse in the 900 block S. Conkling Street was going for $40,000; a house in the 100 block S. Washington St. was on the block for $17,500 firm. Once you had settled in to your new rowhouse, Bush Plumbing was offering to redo your bathroom for $950, tile and carpentry work extra.

Woelfer’s Bakery was celebrating its 50th year by offering a free small coffee with any purchase; Kozy’s Steak House was featuring sour beef and dumplings for its Sunday special.