75 years ago
August 15, 1942
Sixty Grays Harbor residents who have completed more than 500 hours duty with the volunteer aircraft warning service will receive silver wing insignia from the army at honor services late Monday at McDermoth school.
During the meeting, a radio program will be received in which a nationwide tribute will be paid the airplane spotters.
August 16, 1942
Sunday, no newspaper published
50 years ago
August 15, 1967
The recent hike in the gasoline tax may make it possible for construction of the freeway through Grays Harbor to be speeded up, members of the Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce and area legislators were told last night at a meeting with the State Highway Commission in Olympia.
The chamber was also told that completion of the freeway segment between Linkshire Road and the Wynooche River Bridge has been set back until 1968. Ralph Kerslake, Third District engineer, said the delay stemmed from problems encountered in a swampy area south of Montesano.
August 16, 1967
His weatherbeaten face splotched with cuts and bruises, George Imlach, an 82-year-old Canadian fisherman, sipped steaming tea at Community Hospital this morning as he described what it was like to drift helplessly for three days in 36-foot troller.
A fisherman for more than 70 years, he left Bamfield, a small seacoast town in a south-western section of Vancouver Island, Thursday for a day of salmon fishing. He developed engine trouble and had no radio, no lights and very little food and water.
A Twin Harbors-based fishing boat spotted the troller adrift Sunday about five miles off the coast near Leadbetter Point and radioed the Coast Guard station at Tokeland for assistance.
25 years ago
August 15, 1992
When the Humptulips community hears a bell pealing tomorrow, for many of the older folks it may bring to mind lunch pails, chalk dust and “reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic.”
That’s because it will indeed be their old school bell ringing, the one that signaled the beginning of the day and the end of recess at the little Humptulips Schoolhouse.
But tomorrow, instead of calling them to the classroom, the chiming will be beckoning them to join in a celebration at the Humptulips Valley Church, located on Kirkpatrick Road, a block west of the Humptulips Grocery and the post office.
The bell, a fixture at the Humptulips School for many years, is now at home in the bell tower of the new building, believed to be the first church structure in Humptulips history, according to its pastor, Lonny Koukal.
August 16, 1992
Longboard surfers take it easy. The way some of them tell it, riding longboards is as much fun as it looks. Shortboard surfing may be more popular, but it takes more work.
“It’s easier to surf a long board,” said Erwin Dence of Quilcene as he sipped coffee between heats at the 5th Annual Longboard Classic at Westhaven State Park Saturday.
More than 100 practicers of the longboard art rode choppy waves under gray skies yesterday.
The winners in five age divisions will compete in the finals today.
The events doesn’t draw the kind of crowd often associated with surfing in movies and television.
Instead of lean young men and women competing for attention, weatherbeaten surfers in their 30s and 40s smiled and exchanged stories while their children tagged after them. These competitors are representatives of the majority of longboard surfers who learned to surf in the 1950s and ’60s with boards at least nine feet long. Surfing on a board six or seven feet long emerged in the ’70s and is very popular now.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
