World Gone By
Published 1:30 am Saturday, July 18, 2026
85 YEARS AGO
July 18, 1941
A YMCA outing at Camp Kiwanis on the north shore of Lake Quinault is a far cry from the first camp led by O.C. Lovgren there in 1912. Members of the Hoquiam Kiwanis club have built a dozen cabins equipped with electric lights, a large mess hall and quarters for staff.
Excellent boating and swimming facilities may be found at the lake front. Mrs. Lovgren and assistants prepare three “squares” for the boys — meals as wholesome as at home, except that larger helpings are provided for the youngsters whose pangs of hunger increase after brisk hikes through the trails or time spent in the lake.
Former army men today recalled that just 23 years ago this morning the Yanks surged forward in France with a counter-attack that never turned back until the Germans were defeated.
It was early on July 18, 1918 that Marshal Ferdinand Foch, allied generalissimo, lashed back at the enemy from Soissons to Reims. In that drive were scores of Harbor soldiers serving in the 9th and 23rd infantry regiments of the second division and the 16th, 18th, 26th and 28th regiments of the first.
July 19, 1941
Showing at local theaters this week, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante” at the Weir; “The Trial of Mary Dugan,” starring Robert Young and Laraine Day at the New Hoquiam; Fred MacMurray and Madeleine Carroll in “One Night in Lisbon” at the Seventh Street; Bob Crosby and Judy Canova in “Sis Hopkins” at the New Bijou and at the D and R is “Dance Hall” starring Cesar Romero and Carole Landis.
July 21, 1941
John House, old time railroad man, was killed shortly after 8 o’clock this morning when a locomotive at Polson camp No. 3 jumped the track and ran over him.
House was standing on the running board of the switch engine when it derailed. He was thrown off and fell beneath it. He had been employed at the camp about two years.
Every substance and object in army life has two names — the one by which the quartermaster department describes it and the one by which Joe Doaks, the enlisted man, refers to it when talking to his fellow soldier.
If you have worn a uniform longer than four hours, you call a machine gun an “ack-ack,” chicken has become “albatross” and canned milk is referred to as “armored cow.” They don’t call a spade a spade but an “army banjo,” “bath tub” is a motorcycle side car and coffee is either “battery acid,” “black strap” or “bootleg.”
July 22, 1941
The dream of every red-blooded youth — to go to sea — almost came true this weekend for Walter Berg, 15-year old Central Park boy.
When the Hindanger, a Norwegian motorship, docked at the Wilson mill, her skipper Captain Jans Hansen, Walter’s godfather, offered him a trip to South America, around the Horn and through the Panama Canal. But Walter has to go back to Weatherwax High School in the fall and the ship won’t be back to the Harbor until November.
“Ah heck!” Young Berg shrugged it off, but he added, “Gosh, I sure would like to go.”
July 23, 1941
Ed Heikla was at work in his Grayland store yesterday to the accompaniment of a radio broadcast. “Elma, Montesano, Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Cosmopolis are ready to go over the top in the national defense aluminum drive,” he heard the broadcaster bark. Heikla stopped in his tracks.
“What, no Grayland?” he demanded.
Half an hour later, Heikla, an overseas veteran of the World war, raided Mrs. Heikla’s kitchen and commandeered an almost-new saucepan. This he tossed in his yard, which faces the beach highway with a sign, “Aluminum.” By nightfall there were nearly a score of pots and pans in the yard with promises of more to come.
When a load has accumulated John (Babe) Damitio will haul it to Aberdeen.
July 24, 1941
Reconstruction of the Lund road bridge, which collapsed yesterday will begin as soon as wreckage of the center span has been cleared away, County Commissioner Stephen Trask said today.
Hardly halting to look at the wrecked bridge, a crew of the A. & L. Logging company, one of two truck shows served by the Lund road, immediately started throwing a temporary span across the river just below the county bridge. Within two hours of the collapse, the crew had cleared part of the approaches to the temporary crossing.
Trask and C.J. Carlson, road district foreman, said the bridge apparently weakened under heavy loads. It gave way first at the east edge of the center span.
Earl Milne, Cosmopolis, was crossing with a loaded log truck when he felt the trailer acting oddly, “as if the load shifted,” he said today. Just as the span sank under the trailer, he “gunned” the truck ahead to solid footing.
60 YEARS AGO
July 18, 1966
Beginning Tuesday afternoon, the gymnasium at the First Baptist Church in Aberdeen will be open to children from the neighborhood. The church’s junior high fellowship has just completed cleaning the gym in preparation for its re-use by the church and other groups.
Charles Rich, the church’s youth director, will set as supervisor from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays when volleyball, basketball, shuffleboard and ping pong can be played.
July 19, 1966
Hundreds of rioting Negroes, many of them shouting “black power, black power” set buildings afire and battled police and firemen with gunfire, fire bombs, rocks and bottles in a predominantly Negro neighborhood Monday night and early today, according to a UPI report.
Three people were shot, including a woman who died and at least 15 others were injured by bricks and other missiles.
Police said the rioting was sparked by two incidents in the Hough district on the East Side of Cleveland. In one instance, a young Negro girl was refused a glass of water by a white bartender in a tavern. In the other incident a group of Negroes soliciting money for an ill Negro girl was told to leave another tavern.
July 20, 1966
When the new Pay ‘n Save drug and variety store in Olympia’s South Sound Shopping Center opens its doors Aug. 2 its staff will include a host of former Grays Harbor area residents.
Assistant manager at the new outlet will be George Watson, formerly of Hoquiam. Jim Elway, Aberdeen, will run the sporting goods department. Other clerks who received their initial training at the Aberdeen store will be John Donaldson and Marty Chorba.
Yet another transferee to Olympia is Doyle Hamilton, former head pharmacist in Aberdeen. He will assume the same position in the capital city.
July 23, 1966
Lt. Terry Dennison, a Navy flier who graduated from Aberdeen High School in 1952, is missing in action in Viet Nam, the Associated Press learned from the Defense Department today.
Dennison, a native of Cosmopolis, was reportedly shot down recently flying a mission.
35 YEARS AGO
July 18, 1991
Paul Stritmatter of Hoquiam — long acknowledged as one of the state’s leading attorneys — has been named one of the seven best in the nation.
Stritmatter has been chosen as a finalist for the Trial Lawyer of the Year award sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Trials Lawyers for Public Justice.
Stritmatter was cited for his work on behalf of 800 migrant farmworkers in the case of Buenrostro vs. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission. The personal injury attorney won a $617,000 settlement for workers who were lured to Washington with promises of jobs and legal help that never materialized. It was the largest settlement ever for migrant farmworkers in Washington.
Stritmatter, 48, has been practicing on the Harbor ever since he began practice with his father, Lester, in 1970. The 1961 graduate of Hoquiam High School heads Stritmatter, Kessler & McCauley.
July 19, 1991
The Church of the Holy Trinity building at 4th and Emerson in Hoquiam was deconsecrated and secularized June 30 after the Episcopal diocese decided it needed to dispose of the property. “It is an old, derelict building,” said Archdeacon Don Maddux of Shelton. It could be a safety hazard to the community.
Hoquiam Mayor Phyllis Shrauger would like to see the building renovated for use as an office, an antique store or a restaurant. “There are a number of uses for that building that could be tastefully handled. It’s a beautiful addition to our city,” she said of the building that was completed in 1906.
July 20, 1991
Ken Hunt, M.D., a specialist in internal medicine in Aberdeen, has been elected to the Fellowship in the American College of Physicians (ACP), the nation’s largest medical-specialty society.
The Fellowship is an honorary designation that recognizes scholarly and professional achievements. ACP fellows are entitled to use FACP after their names in connection with professional activities.
Dr. Hunt is a graduate of Franklin Marshall in Lancaster, Pa., and received his medical degree from the University of Vermont, then trained as a surgical and medical resident at the U. of Washington and the U. of South Dakota.
As far as the Grays Harbor Nationals were concerned, it was largely a matter of time. The unbeaten Nats wrapped up the District Three 14-year-old Babe Ruth baseball championship with a 8-4 victory over Centralia Friday night at Pioneer Park.
The Nats seemingly held all the cards entering the contest, including Beau Beck, their right-handed pitching ace, working on four days rest, a rare luxury afforded by two rainouts earlier in the week.
“You can’t take anything away from Centralia,” said manager Erik Heikkila. “I was a little nervous. But this is a hitting ball club. This team has more heart than a lot of teams you’re going to see.”
July 21, 1991
Montesano Police Department initiated bike patrols in May — the first in Grays Harbor County to be state certified.
“I feel more aware about what’s going on on the bike than in the car,” says officer Steve Needham. “You have lots of blind spots with the cage.”
“People will come up and talk to you when you’re on bikes,” he added. “We’ve even had people come out of houses to talk to us.”
It’s been more than five decades since Ernie Richardson hung up his boxing gloves. But the “Pride of Hoquiam” lives on. Even at the age of 80, deaf and in a wheelchair, the former state and Pacific Coast boxing champ is remembered as a kid with a killer left hook who could end a career in three rounds.
He won more than 200 fights and lost only four before retiring from the ring in 1939. He and his brother, Dennis have lived for 70 years at 706 6th St. in the house their parents bought when they moved out west from Wisconsin. The kitchen is often full of old boxing buddies and other good friends. “Friends from all over the country,” Dennis says.
July 22, 1991
It would cost you more to breathe the air in the back of a Greyhound bus for three hours than it would to taste the salty spray of Grays Harbor on board the tall ship Lady Washington.
That’s the sales pitch Capt. Les Bolton uses as he encourages people to try the life of a salty dog during one of the many three- and four-hour cruises being offered at the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport in Aberdeen.
The ship returned on the Fourth of July from a 100-day voyage to Puget Sound. Exactly 50 days remain before Sept. 9 — the sailing date for a likely trip to the Columbia River.
Between now and then, the Seaport is hoping to lure tourists and Harborites alike board to avoid dipping into an estimated $43,000 profit made during the spring voyage. If the ship averages 12 people per cruise, Bolton said, “You’re holding your own.”
The cost for regular cruises ranges from $20 to $30. The Seaport has reduced that to $15 for Harborites — both to recognize the public and private funding that helped build the $1.6 million ship and to encourage local participation.
July 24, 1991
Walt Failor, 81, who ran for mayor of Aberdeen five times and won three times, is finally ready to settle down and just do a little fishing. He’s sold his famed Walt Failor’s Inc. sporting goods store to Brian Kim, a Springfield, Mo., physician, who will be an absentee landlord and use the building as an investment,
Outwardly, Walt Failor is a calm, easy-going man, but he could also be tough, stubborn and resourceful. During his first term as mayor in the early ’60s, he decided that the last brothel in town had to go. When it wouldn’t go any other way, he had the city buy the building, and he negotiated with the embattled madam to get the price down from $30,000 to $8,000.
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.
