EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

MARQUETTE — Donckers Candies may yet celebrate its centennial. Fred Donckers, brother of former owner Frank Donckers Jr., plans to reopen the Washington Street candy and grill store next Friday. And local chocolate lovers will be relieved to learn that Donckers will still make its famous homemade fudge. In addition, the counter will stock Sakylly’s chocolates from Escanaba, Kaaps Chocolates of Green Bay, Chocolate House from Milwaukee, “and of course all the other lines we carried,” Donckers said. When the store first opened 94 years ago, Washington Street was lined with gas lights. After almost 100 years, the family owned operation closed in March, when Frank Donckers Jr. said it wasn’t profitable enough anymore. “I worked in the store in the ’50s and ’60s under my dad and brother,” said Fred, who wanted to keep the business alive. “You gotta do what you gotta do. It’s been in the family since 1896.” But in this age of fat-free food and sugarless sweets, can an old-fashioned candy store make money? “Oh sure,” he said. “I don’t worry about that.”

60 years ago

MARQUETTE — Pollen count in Marquette this morning was recorded at 73 grains per square yard of air, as compared to a reading last year on this date of 15, according to Frank P. Sciotto, city sanitarian. Sciotto noted the count can be expected to remain about the same for the next several days. For this month, he added, a total of 806 grains of pollen have been counted, as compared with 694 grains last year. However, the count began Aug. 17 last year and on Aug. 13 this year. The average count per day for August, Sciotto said, has been 42.7 grains. In 1959 the average was 46.2 grains. Last year during the August counting period, there were two days in which the count exceeded 100, and this year there have been three. Only one day, on Aug. 23, a zero count has been recorded, as compared to three in the same month of 1959.