World gone by
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 13, 2026
85 YEARS AGO
March 8, 1941
The city of Aberdeen this morning acquired the old Franklin school grounds, proposed site for a new city center, with an uncontested bid of $18,000. The bid was the minimum figure set by the school district for the West Market street block.
Plans have been drawn for a new city hall. City administrative officers, police and fire departments and city judicial offices would be centralized in the new structure. Cost of the proposed unit, part of which would be borne by federal funds, has been estimated at $250,000.
Aberdeen’s business district was jammed last night by a horde of enthusiastic window-shoppers and contestants in the “misplaced merchandise” contest staged in connection with the annual Spring Opening.
Armed with pencil, entry blank and a keen eye peeled for a fishing rod in a woman’s hat shop or a can of coffee in a furniture store display, entrants in the contest vied for prizes donated by participating merchants.
March 10, 1941
Grays Harbor dealers have been invited by the United States government office to bid on 200,000 barrels of cement for the 5,000-foot runway at Moon Island.
Bids of the consignment, the largest single cement order ever called for any project in southwest Washington, will be opened at Seattle March 17.
Jobbers who received invitations said it will take 1,515 cars to haul the cement for the project. The runway ballast will be crushed rock from the Lincoln street quarry.
March 11, 1941
Free hotcakes made by “Aunt Jemima” herself will be offered Aberdeen residents all day Saturday at the G Street Totem store, according to George Haynes, manager.
The jovial appearing woman of pancake and waffle fame will turn out her delectable hotcakes for all who call at the store during the day.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brazel today announced the formal opening Wednesday of the Midway tavern at Simpson Avenue and Myrtle Street in Hoquiam. The place formerly was Chitwood’s Lunch.
New fluorescent lighting was installed to provide daylight illumination. The counter is covered with Farlite, a marble-colored composition which cannot be marred by stains or cigarette burns. The exterior has been repainted and illuminated with neon on three sides of the building.
March 14, 1941
An Aberdeen old age pensioner walked into the county welfare office several days ago and protested that his senior citizen grant was too high. He showed welfare officials a check for $40, maximum grant under the new pension law, and asserted that he didn’t need that much.
“I can easily get along on $35 a month,” he said.
Pension officials aren’t saying anything until they recover from their surprise.
A stop light system, complete with green and red lights and warning bells, was installed this morning in the first floor hallway at Miller junior high school to alleviate congestion during intermissions between class periods.
The system was built in the school’s industrial arts department and this morning it worked to perfection.
However, some students are a little dubious. As one remarked, “When the novelty wears off everybody’ll be jumping the lights — just like they do downtown.”
60 YEARS AGO
March 8, 1966
Harbor music lovers are expected to fill the Grays Harbor College Gym tonight for the concert to be presented by the Brothers Four, popular recording group. The singing foursome got its start at the University of Washington a number of years ago.
A limited number of tickets will be available at the gate and Craig Wellington of the college anticipates a capacity crowd of 1,100 for the concert.
March 9, 1966
It’s getting close to press time for the 1966 telephone book.
So if your name has changed since the last telephone directory came out or you’d like to have an extra listing in the telephone book, now is the time to contact the telephone business office.
March 10, 1966
Aberdeen will have a new women’s shoe store with the grand opening tomorrow of the Wygan’s Fashion Footerie, 107 W. Heron.
John Wyatt will manage the store. He has behind him 11 years of experience in the local shoe business, after coming to Aberdeen in the late forties.
Breakwater Seafood, located at 400 S. F St. in Aberdeen, is advertising 5 pounds of fresh smelt for $1 and whole cooked lobsters for $1.39.
March 11, 1966
U.S. Marine helicopter pilots knew they were flying into a trap, but they brought out 69 wounded survivors of the Special Forces camp at Ashau in the last frenzied moments of the battle.
The lonely outpost near the Laotian border fell to a North Vietnamese regiment Thursday night after 39 hours of heavy attack. There had been 15 to 20 Americans and some 360 Montagnard tribesmen in the triangular fortress when the Communists opened up.
The battered remnant of the defenders — 4 Americans and 65 tribesmen — had to crawl through bullet-whipped elephant grass and claw their way through barbed wire entanglements.
The rescue helicopters spent less than 10 minutes on the ground but one pilot said “it seemed like a lifetime.”
March 12, 1966
Abul Taher, a Lamb-Grays Harbor draftsman, will be the guest speaker of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at the Sunday morning meeting in the Aberdeen Community Center.
The address will be the third in the current series, “Religion in the Wide World.” Taher’s subject will be “The Religion of Islam.” He will discuss the five pillars of the faith and clarify some of the misunderstood ideas about the “Religion of the Sword.”
Taher, a native of Nowgang, Assam, India, is of the Islamic religion, the oldest religion in the world according to the views of adherents of Islam.
March 14, 1966
A 3,040 pin total amassed the previous week by the Walt Failor’s quintet stood up under a sustained assault at Monte Lanes Saturday and Sunday to give the sporting goods five the team title in the 31st annual Aberdeen Bowling Association tourney.
Don Pierce, Ed Elkin, Ed Lind, Jim Lubitz and Maury Manners prevailed over 79 other aggregations as the largest list in tourney history competed on the East County maples.
35 YEARS AGO
March 8. 1991
Daily World photographer Brian DalBalcon and Aberdeen teacher Ron Harless are among 15 people around the state set to receive cash awards today for their work in helping to solve arson crimes.
They will receive their awards at the Arson Alarm Foundation’s Arson Award Luncheon at the Sea-Tac Red Lion in Seattle.
DalBalcon and Harless will receive $350 each for their part in the first-degree arson conviction of a juvenile last year. The youngster was charged with the April 1989 fire that destroyed an Aberdeen home.
Kenichi Kanno, Montesano High School’s wrestling coach for the past 14 years, died from a stroke Thursday morning in a Seattle hospital. He was 43.
“The team is upset,” said Montesano principal Ron Bennett. “He was just one of the good guys. He was fun to be around. He was respected and loved by all our kids.”
March 9, 1991
About 50 employees at the Lamb-Grays Harbor Co. headquarters in Hoquiam were laid off Friday, part of an overall 13 percent workforce reduction at its plants across North America.
David Lamb, corporate services manager, said poor economic conditions nationwide and a worsening slump in the pulp and paper industry had forced the move. The layoffs were effective immediately.
In Hoquiam, the layoffs affected the engineering, manufacturing, administrative and sales departments, Lamb said, with the first two suffering the heaviest losses.
The firm, founded along the banks of the Hoquiam River in 1903, is an international manufacturer of machinery primarily serving the pulp and paper industry. 4
March 10, 1991
The scream of a siren doesn’t make Duke Herman jump quite the same way it used to, while the phone calls in the middle of the night have all but stopped.
Hoquiam’s former police chief is finding retirement settling and peaceful.
“I feel kind of bad about leaving them in a lurch,” he said the other day from his home in East Hoquiam, “But I didn’t have a lot to say about it.”
Indeed, after months of medical tests, doctors diagnosed Herman last year as having diabetes. He experimented with various medications and treatments but is now nearly blind in one eye and his feet are swollen two sizes larger than normal.
In some ways, you might say the odds finally caught up with Duke, a short bull of a man who in 1962 managed to get a job on the police force even though he didn’t meet the department’s minimum height requirement.
He climbed the career ladder, going from patrolman to desk sergeant, shift lieutenant to deputy chief, then to the top spot in July of 1986. The department had been through several police chiefs, most of whom were recruited away.
March 11, 1991
At 94, Anna Bralens has become a legend in Hoquiam. To some she is “Grandma Bralens” the great storyteller who has kept listeners spellbound with stories of her escape from communism during World War II. She remains a staunch anti-communist who maintains a strong interest in the future of Latvia and its struggle for independence.
To others, she is simply “Anna Banana” the thoroughly sweet woman who always arrives punctually at the Hoquiam Senior Center to clean tables and then feeds the leftover bread to the birds in the park.
Anna has lived on the Harbor since 1951, when Saron Lutheran Church sponsored her and her family to come to the United States.
A warm smile, twinkling eyes, a wealth of knowledge and 98 years young. That’s Agnes Hobi Nelson.
A member of Aberdeen’s Review Club for 70 of its 100 years, she is an open book — typical of hundreds of women who have joined the club over the past century. In celebration of the club’s 100th birthday there will be a tea Tuesday at the Grays Harbor Country Club.
In 1891, Aberdeen was a raw-boned, tideflat town with a few hundred residents. At high tide, the children went to school in rowboats. There was no library, no radio, no automobiles, no labor saving devices beyond a butter churn. A book was a treasure, particularly a new one.
Feeling the need for cultural and intellectual stimulation 14 ladies met March 3, 1891 at the home Mrs. Wooding to organize a club to promote reading and discussion of good books.
March 12, 1991
Grays Harbor County officials are in the process of changing the names of more than 160 rural roads. The new, generally shorter road names, coupled with the numerical addresses that will be assigned, will make it possible for all the county’s addresses to be programmed into the E-911 central computer with a minimum of confusion.
Copalis Crossing-Humptulips Road will be changed to Kirkpatrick Road. Devonshire Road will become Wynooche Ave. W. Humptulips Gravel Bunker Road will become Bunker Road and Humptulips Prairie Gardens Road will be simply Prairie Gardens Road.
March 13, 1991
The second annual Standing Tall conference at Taholah last week was packed with workshops and activities to develop youth leadership.
Nearly 200 students participated in the two-day event arriving in Taholah from Seattle, Toppenish, Nooksack and other areas of the state. Most were in junior high and high school with Taholah students excused from classes Thursday and Friday if they signed in at the conference.
Featured speakers included former Seahawk football players and Vietnam War veterans. Topics for discussion and workshops included drug and alcohol awareness, teen pregnancy and strengths assessment.
Four Grays Harbor players were named to the all-Black Hills League girls’ basketball team.
Adrianne Doyle and Johnna Ballard from league champion Elma, Hoquiam’s Shayne Reynvaan and Aberdeen’s Brenda Blancas were included on the six-player first team.
Doyle, who averaged 26.3 points per game, was the consensus choice for Player of the Year. Reynvaan averaged 22 points per contest while Blancas led her team in both scoring (18.2) and assists (3.8). Ballard finished fifth in the league scoring race with a 15.5 point per game average and was second in the league in rebounding with 11.7 average.
March 14, 1991
As a former varsity athlete, Navy petty officer 3rd Class Rick Jenkins has heard the roar of the crowd.
But the 1986 graduate of Montesano High School says he was overwhelmed by the rousing cheers that greeted him on his way home from the Persian Gulf last weekend.
“It was outstanding,” says the quiet but affable Jenkins, who’s spent the past seven months handling supplies on the hospital ship USNS Mercy.
The 24-year-old, son of Rick A. Jenkins and Delona Nelson of Aberdeen, is one of the first Harborites to return from the Middle East since the end of the war.”When we (landed in) L.A. there was a crowd of like 1,000 people, just roaring. They were yelling ‘Go Navy, Go’ and stuff. And there were only like 11 of us coming in.”
Jenkins says he received some 60 letters of thanks (for his service) from people he’d never met. “I really appreciate them,” he says. “But I wish the Vietnam veterans would have gotten the same thing. We deserve everything we got, but they deserve more.”
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom, Editorial Assistant at The Daily World. You can contact her at karen.barkstrom@thedailyworld.com or call her at 360-537-3925.
