How Time Flies for Sept. 2, 2008:

100 years ago

Sept. 2, 1908: The Bloomington school board is taking bids to tear down the old high school building at Monroe and Lee Streets. It has not been used as a high school since the new BHS opened in 1897 (on the site of the present District 87 offices).

75 years ago

Sept. 2, 1933: Area road projects are getting $119,000 from the state. They include paving the Saybrook road to Route 9, paving the Lake Bloomington road to Route 2 (now Route 251), and putting down four miles of gravel near Danvers.

50 years ago

Sept. 2, 1958: Thomas Whalen, 87, of Bloomington, booked his first airplane ride with Ozark Airlines. He's a Spanish-American War veteran, retired salesman, and former clerk at the Sabina general store. He's going to Philadelphia to visit a granddaughter.

25 years ago

Sept. 2, 1983: The USSR shot down a South Korean airliner off the coast of Japan. 265 passengers and crew were aboard, including 30 Americans. One of them was a congressman. None was known to be from Illinois but the shock and outrage was felt here just the same.