75 years ago

December 25, 1942

Private Donald Glacebrook, Trenton, N.J., soldier, probably was playing “White Christmas” at the piano in his parents’ home today — because of the generosity of an Aberdeen woman.

The woman was working at the Aberdeen Hostess House last Sunday when she noticed the soldier’s cheerless face as he was playing “White Christmas” over and over again on the piano. After talking to the soldier and trying to cheer him up, she learned he was unable to go home for the holidays because of lack of funds. He longed to be home with his family but his parents, in modest circumstances, were unable to provide railroad fare.

The woman asked army permission to lend the soldier the needed funds.

Permission granted.

The soldier was due to arrive at Trenton this morning. The hostess hopes that he found his “White Christmas.”

50 years ago

December 25, 1967

Comedian Bob Hope performed today before more than 25,000 troops, the most in his 26 years of entertaining U.S. GIs.

The crowd that sat in the blazing Long Binh sun included Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky, U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and his wife, Mrs. Carol Laise Bunker, Ambassador to Nepal.

Gen. William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam thanked Hope (for his dedication to U.S. troops).

“Westy went to see the President,” Hope kidded Westmoreland. “I guess things didn’t work out. He’s back.”

25 years ago

December 25, 1992

Morton International Inc., the company best known for refining salt, is planning a $16 million expansion project at its specialty chemical plant in Elma.

The new buildings, which will include a three-story processing plant and “storage” farm, will occupy nearly five of the facility’s 25 acres just off State Route 12.

Morton’s Elma plant, formerly known as Ventron, produces liquid sodium borohydride, a bleaching agent used to brighten newsprint. The new facility will replace an aging plant in Danvers, Mass.