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

30 years ago

MARQUETTE – Dressed in their black and red Japanese “happy coats,” delegates from this year’s sister city exchange brought goodwill messages and tales of their recent visit to Japan to the Marquette City Commission Monday. “My experience reaffirmed what we are told so often-people are the same all around the world,” said Marty Eskelinen of Big Bay. Eskelinen was among the 12 Marquette-area delegates who spent 10 days in Yokaichi at the end of May. Delegates from each city have been visiting each other since 1978. Despite a language barrier and strikingly different cultures, friendships made in the sister city program are lifelong and among the dearest, participants say. “I think I have more friends in Yokaichi,” said Dan Oja, delegation leader of this year’s exchange. “A tourist in another country can go on a tour and see all the sites but really never gets in touch with the people,” said Bob Bordeau of Marquette. Bordeau and his wife, Sharon, stayed with a family on the outskirts of Yokaichi. “We were surrounded by rice fields and azaleas were blooming everywhere,” Sharon Bordeau said. Their host family’s 20-year-old daughter spoke a fair amount of English, so they relied less heavily on their English-Japanese translation dictionaries. But six translators did accompany the group on outings and to social functions. Their “happy coats” were gifts received at a kite festival. Delegates said their Japanese friends told them that when wearing the jackets, “you’re supposed to be happy.”

60 years ago

MARQUETTE — The Federal Maritime Commission announced yesterday two investigations of Great Lakes shipping. One will go into the practices of all carriers on the lakes in quoting rates and establishing rules and regulations for the receiving, handling and storing of freight at Great Lakes ports. This inquiry is being undertaken by the commission on its own motion because of allegations that the tariffs of carriers in the Great Lakes trade are ambiguous and do not identify terminal charges against the shipper as separate from ocean carriage charges. The second inquiry, also undertaken on the commission’s own motion, is directed at Iino Kaiun Kaisha, Ltd., and the Mitsui Steamship Co., Ltd. It is based on the allegation that the two lines refuse to bring import cargos to Duluth, Minn., although they call at Duluth to pick up cargos of agricultural products for export.