75 years ago
October 24, 1942
Tulagi, Coral Sea, Midway, Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal — and other points south of Kiska and west of Panama.
That has been the war itinerary of M.F. “Mickey” Baldridge Jr., strapping young South Aberdeen sailor, who visited his parents this week for the first time since the fur began to fly in the far reaches of the Pacific.
The battle names above are all familiar to Mickey because he was in every one of them. And although “plenty of death” whistled in his way, Mickey came through it all without a scratch. In the passed 11 month he has been in virtually constant fighting except for only three weeks in port. All of the rest of the time he was at sea aboard his heavy cruiser — once for 120 straight days.
October 25, 1942
Sunday, no newspaper printed
50 years ago
October 24, 1967
A trip to New York City last summer on a family vacation and a visit to the offices of Ingenue, a magazine for sophisticated teens, resulted in a full-page layout of pictures and story in the October issue of Ingenue for Trisha Pearson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Elliott Pearson of Aberdeen.
The pretty Weatherwax High School senior is pictured in two attractive poses with the new hairdo created for her by Mr. George of Derel Coiffures after she was chosen for Ingenue’s Beauty Lab.
The hair style was selected by Mr. George to fit her active life. She loves to ride her horse, Gina, along the coastal beaches, fishes and hunts with her two brothers, does charcoal sketches of what she sees and surfs at Pt. Grenville.
October 25, 1967
Tending bridge is lonely, monotonous work, broken only by an occasional accident or capsizing.
Charles Keen, who put in the first full shift on the Chehalis River Bridge when it was built, recalled the time he was about to open the bridge but stopped to investigate a dog at the south end of the lift span. “The dog was hovering over his master, a drunk who was sprawled on the lift span,” Keen said. “If I had opened the bridge, he would have taken a bruising tumble.”
Robert Francisco, night tender, remembers watching a youth race a runabout up and down the Hoquiam River, running through his own wake. “I was sure he was going to flip,” he related, “and sure enough, he did.” When Francisco called the youth’s mother, she said, “Someone else (already) called. That boy has no business being out there. Goodbye.” Slam.
25 years ago
October 24, 1992
He can make chins more prominent, extract wisdom teeth, relieve the pain of TMJ and help put together a face shattered in an accident.
David Parks, 33, has moved to Aberdeen and will be the Harbor’s first oral surgeon as well as the only one west of the I-5 corridor.
Parks and his wife, Cynthia, 31, an attorney who has been hired by Bitar Morgan and Bitar in Hoquiam say they are thrilled to have moved from Southern California.
The newlyweds bought a house on Broadway and are looking forward to raising a family in a small town.
“We left riots, earthquakes and smog to come here,” Parks said. “It’s the smartest move I’ve ever made.”
October 25, 1992
Rebekah Keiser, a 20-year-old St. Martin’s College student, wowed the crowd at Aberdeen High School last night with a violin solo of “Czardas” by Monti and was selected Miss Grays Harbor for 1993..
“It doesn’t feel real,” Keiser said as she fought back tears of joy backstage.
Keiser, the daughter of David and Vickie Johannes and Tom and Pat Keiser, said she practiced her violin intensely this year and worked on expressing her “inner self.”
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
