Throwback Thursday: Ferris wheel legend, school smoking crackdown and a million-dollar surprise
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — This week’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to September 1997 for a look at a longtime Ferris wheel operator, a high school smoking crackdown and a Southport woman who won $1 million.
Nelson Ferris had been operating Ferris wheels for more than 40 years in 1997, continuing a family tradition that stretched back three generations.
At the time, Ferris was still operating a manual Ferris wheel built in 1947.
“You get attached to something,” Ferris said in the 1997 WWAY report. “When I drive in out there, it’s like you get a shot of adrenaline.”
At Topsail High School, administrators were taking a tougher approach to students caught smoking cigarettes inside the school.
The school introduced a $50 fine for students caught lighting up.
One school administrator said many students caught smoking reported starting when they were 12 or 13 years old, sometimes with help from their parents.
School officials said the new enforcement was already making a difference.
The final story from September 1997 brought a much happier surprise.
Southport hairdresser and single mother Stephanie Rivers won $1 million in a Minute Maid sweepstakes with about 800,000 entries.
The win came as Rivers celebrated her 40th birthday.
Asked whether she ever thought she would be able to say she had won $1 million, Rivers replied, “No, never in a million years, pardon the pun.”
Minute Maid celebrated Rivers’ win by throwing a party for her and the entire town of Southport.
This segment is part of a weekly Throwback Thursday series that features stories from WWAY’s historical news archives. That archive can be accessed here.
