World gone by
Published 1:30 am Friday, May 1, 2026
85 YEARS AGO
April 25, 1941
Slogging through the soft sand of Grayland dunes — terrain as tough as likely to be encountered in any war — Battery C of the 205th coast artillery moved four big, three-inch guns to the surf’s edge near Grayland, fired four rounds and then hauled the guns back to the highway.
Despite the guns great weight and the soft going, the crews moved them ahead relentlessly. Only on the return journey via the Grayland postoffice road did the maneuver bog down. Near the seaward end of the beach approach, two of the guns stalled. The straining muscles of 50 men, pulling on a long rope, yanked each one free in short order.
April 26, 1941
Disagreeing with fishermen who yell there are no fish in Lake Quinault, Albert Brunstrom and Gil Erickson of Quinault went out to prove the anglers wrong. Using lures of Brunstrom’s own design and manufacture, they landed 21 trout and four Dolly Varden. The longest trout measured 15 inches.
April 28, 1941
Casey Hardware and Anderson & Middleton start the 1941 Aberdeen season promptly at 6:30 o’clock tonight on the Stewart field diamond.
The Spar will take the field against Brennan’s Hardware in the second contest and the nightcap will match Waugh’s Mens store and the Gyros.
President Everett Lindsay named Bob Dombroski as official umpire. A base umpire may be named later. Harry Swan is league statistician.
April 29, 1941
Heeding objections raised by Grays Harbor residents, the national service board has rescinded its plan to establish a camp for conscientious objectors in the lower Humptulips valley. The camp will likely be located at Brice creek, 20 miles east of Cottage Grove, Oregon although also under consideration is a site at Vale, Oregon.
The reason an Oregon site is favored, according to the Rev. Mark Schrock, is because “there are a good many more members of the three pacifist churches in Oregon than there are in Washington and Idaho combined.”
Two eight-year-old Aberdeen boys today confessed attempting to enter the Safeway store at Wishkah and L when it was closed. Using a picaroon, they chipped away some tile around a front window, seeking to loose the pane. Then they battered a back door with the same tool. All their efforts failed.
April 30, 1941
Grays Harbor will produce approximately 10,000 turkeys for the holiday trade this year, County Agent Arthur Kulin said as he visited the Rock creek turkey ranch of the Wolf brothers, southeast of Elma to see the 1,000 birds being raised there.
When the young birds are turned out on the stumpland range they will grow rapidly, John Wolf said. Their natural enemies, the coyote, the weasel and the skunk will be frightened away by bells. Every 10th bird will have a bell tied around its neck. The Wolfs tried this method last year and didn’t lose a bird although the coyotes did howl on the hills all around.
May 1, 1941
The North River consolidated (Brooklyn) school system today sought a new superintendent and high school principal after the men resigned because of a fist fight.
Supt. Edgar Norton and Principal E.P Whiting were involved in the fight, reportedly over the high school’s annual publication. Chairman L.G. Goheen of the district board of education dropped into Norton’s office when the fight was in progress. Norton’s glasses were broken, he had a black eye and both men bore marks of combat.
A crowd estimated at nearly 15,000 thronged yesterday and last night to the Goldberg Furniture store in Aberdeen to help the firm celebrate the formal opening of its new annex and remodeled main store.
“We were of course very gratified at the huge turnout we had for our opening,” Cy and Lou Goldberg said today, “but we were especially pleased to see how interested the visitors were in the displays we offered.”
60 YEARS AGO
April 26, 1966
The Jeff Drake Fund got off to an impressive start this week with a contribution of $500 by Weatherwax High students from their United Drive.
Each year, the Weatherwax students raise a fund which they divide among several charities. No solicitations are made. They money must be earned through various projects. This year, students earned a total of $2,778.43.
Drake, 25, a graduate of Weatherwax High School, class of 1960, is stricken with an incurable kidney ailment. He has been accepted for treatment at the Seattle Artificial Kidney Center, and a drive is now underway to raise $10,000 to finance the treatment.
Five faculty members from Grays Harbor College have received National Science Foundation grants for graduate study at universities throughout the country this summer.
They are Eugene Schermer and Edwin Stricker of the chemistry department; Louis Messmer of the biology department, Albert Prestrude, psychology and Donald Gibbs, sociology.
April 27, 1966
Two months ago, many people had never heard of Woody Guthrie. They had heard his songs, but never his name.
Today, hundreds of those people have given their hearts to the slight, 52-year-old folk singer who lies dying in a Brooklyn hospital. His affliction is Huntington’s chorea, the same hereditary disease that killed his mother. It destroys muscle coordination until, after about 15 years, it runs its final course. Guthrie has suffered from the disease about 15 years.
Woody has written over 1,000 songs during his career that began in the Dust Bowl of the Depression.
Perhaps the greatest tribute off all, Guthrie’s oldest son, Arlo, has followed his father and, at 18, is a successful folk singer.
April 28, 1966
An advisory committee of engineers today said there are no feasible measures for temporarily arresting the erosion at Cape Shoalwater, and estimated that a permanent solution could cost $5 to $10 million. The report said “No temporary or interim engineering structure could be found with any reasonable economical outlay to arrest or delay the channel shoreline migration at Cape Shoalwater.” In addition, “there is nothing to be gained by adding more groins on the beach slope like those built to date.”
Who is the favorite pin-up girl of American fighting men in Viet Nam?
Actually, four long-stemmed beauties are the fairest in the eyes of the troops — Ann Margaret, Angie Dickinson, Lana Wood and Dorothy Provine.
As morale boosters, glossy 8×10 photographs of scantily clad glamour girls are second only to letters from home. They are plastered on the bulkheads of ships, tacked up in barracks and pasted on footlockers — a breath of beauty in the drabness of war.
It all began in World War II with Betty Grable in a snug white bathing suit. Then along came a dazzling Rita Hayworth and during the Korean conflict the darling of the American troops was Marilyn Monroe.
April 30, 1966
Hoquiam bats were smoking at the right time yesterday at Olympic Stadium as the Grizzlies pounded out 13 base hits and an easy 13-1 win over Chehalis.
Jon Parker collected three singles and the same number of RBI’s in the opener. Bob Thompson, Harold Reames, Keith Reynvaan and Jack Irion each had two hits, Irion’s double being the only extra-base hit.
Thompson went the distance on the mound.
35 YEARS AGO
April 25, 1991
David G. Wayman, 47, principal of Hoquiam’s Washington School, and an innovator of student, teacher and parent programs, is Grays Harbor’s recipient of the annual Washington State’s Distinguished Principal Award.
Wayman attended Grays Harbor College, and received degrees from Western Washington University and Central Washington University. He started at Hoquiam as a 6th grade teacher and coach at Washington School in 1967 and then moved to the middle school in 1974 where he worked as both a teacher and administrative assistant. In 1978, he was promoted to principal at Central School and in 1980 he returned to Washington School, this time as principal.
Dorothye Logue, a longtime volunteer worker at Harbor hospitals and for Driftwood Players, was presented with the 1991 National Community Service Award from the local chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons.
April 27, 1991
The year’s indoor scenery on the Spring Tour of Homes will be out of this world, even some of it is a little out of the way, organizers say.
Two of the three houses selected for Sunday’s tour are off Highway 109 on the way to Ocean Shores.
Featured this year are the homes of Keith and Lynn Kessler, Ellen and Bill Pickell and Lytle House in Hoquiam, owned by Robert and Dayna Bencals.
April 28, 1991
Inspector Mike Whelan, a 14-year veteran of the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Department, and his wife, Jennifer, spent some anxious moments last month before Mike graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va.
Jennifer gave birth to Kathleen Devin on the same day, 3,000 miles away.
Whelan, the third member of the Sheriff’s Department to graduate from the Academy, returned from the school two days earlier when it was possible that Kathleen might be an early arrival.
“Inspector Whelan has been, and is, a very valuable member of our Department, and in particular, administrative staff,” said Sheriff Dennis Morrisette. “He is very professional and accepts his responsibilities as a police office, leader and administrator very seriously.”
April 30, 1991
If there is one thing J. Scott Finlayson wants to make perfectly clear now that he is Hoquiam’s new police chief, it’s that by-gones are by-gones.
As far as Finlayson is concerned, the tw0-month-long legal controversy between Mayor Phyllis Shrauger and the police officer’s union over hiring methods is history. “It’s time to put all this in the past and focus on the future,” the mild-mannered Utah man said in an interview on his first full day on the job.
The 163-member Aberdeen Pioneer Association’s annual banquet will be held May 6 at the Aberdeen Eagles Hall. Muriel Alger will be handing the association’s prized gavel — carved from a portion of the “Lone Tree” that once marked the entrance to Grays Harbor — to incoming president Bill Stewart of Montesano.
The Pioneer Association is comprised of those who can trace their roots in Aberdeen to Dec. 31, 1909 or earlier. But this year there’s a slight exception to the rules. Bill Jones is being tapped as an honorary member, “because of his dedication to the preservation of historic events and memorabilia,” Mrs. Alger said.
May 1, 1991
TCI Cablevision of Grays Harbor is preparing to add four new channels to its lineup — including a 24-hour movie channel that’ll cost only a buck a month for most customers.
Encore will feature movies from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. It will air free for all customers during June as a preview. The other new channels are Comedy Channel Network, Court TV and VISN.
Basic cable including 22 channels will cost $16.65 per month. Extended basic with 27 channels will be an additional $1.50 per month. Rates are cheaper for senior citizens.
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.
