World gone by
Published 1:30 am Friday, August 7, 2026
85 YEARS AGO
Aug. 8, 1941
Thirty years ago tomorrow, a man, wracked by infantile paralysis, slid down the steps into the boiler room of the new Grays Harbor county jail and went to work on a “temporary” job. Sheriff Ed Payette drafted Taylor to take a look at the boilers and since that day he’s been in charge of alterations, repairs, installations and maintenance at the courthouse. He’s a plumber, carpenter, electrician, pipefitter, stone mason and any other craftsman needed at the moment.
“I never have said a word to the county commissioners about re-employment from the time I started to work for the county 30 years ago,” Taylor said. “I figured if they want me to stay they would keep me. I get a free hand in keeping up this building and the courthouse is better now than it was the day it was built.”
Aug. 11, 1941
Private Jackie Coogan, one-time child movie star, now in the U.S. Army, failed to return to Fort Ord, Calif. on time from his weekend honeymoon today and was listed technically as AWOL.
While Coogan, when he does return will be disciplined, authorities indicated they might not be too severe on the newlywed if his absence is not prolonged.
Today is a semi-holiday at the training post and the afternoon will be devoted to a large variety show, a “Farewell Sendoff” to the troops who are leaving this week for intensive war games at Fort Lewis.
Aug. 12, 1941
Open air movies, band concerts and special programs including a two-way broadcast with Monterey helps keep the army of occupation happy at the bivouac camp in Brady. The sound picture is flashed on a big screen anchored to the only brick store Brady boasts. The Sunday night program included a band concert by the crack band of the 17th infantry.
Aug. 13, 1941
A huge mythical enemy fleet theoretically invaded the coast of Washington at dawn today, officially starting the biggest war maneuvers in west coast history.
First enemy troops theoretically landed by parachute from transport planes at Aberdeen and Raymond. The new $12,000,000 McChord field air base was bombed, half its planes destroyed before they could get into the air and its runway blasted to bits.
Four hours after the attack the cities of Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Raymond, as well as Seaside, Canby and Warrenton, Ore. had been theoretically captured by the enemy.
Aug. 14, 1941
Four more towns fell to the imaginary invading army today and make-believe defending troops fell back on all fronts as a prelude to actual movement of troops in the west coast war games.
At 8 a.m., the invaders had occupied Centralia, Chehalis, Elma and Shelton. Enemy troops were 25 miles from Olympia.
The current phase of the maneuvers is being maintained on army officers’ desks by shifting pins and blocks on maps. To a civilian it looks like a lot of fun, but it is serious business to a soldier. If an officer doesn’t deploy his defense troops just right, they may be captured by the enemy which the umpires move.
State officials humorously asked army officials if they should theoretically move state records across the Cascades to Yakima.
60 YEARS AGO
Aug. 8, 1966
A father and his 11-year-old son walked into the Hoquiam police station Saturday afternoon and confessed that the boy had fired the shot that took the life of four-year-old Kelli Campbell on a Hoquiam street one week ago.
Police have been stymied by a lack of clues in the case and had hoped for a tip from a witness or a confession.
Authorities are being very selective about the details they release to the press. The boy’s name will not be released at this time, if at all. He was placed under the jurisdiction of Grays Harbor County juvenile authorities.
The gun is said to belong to the boy’s father and it was reportedly the first time the boy had used it. Chief Probation Officer Alan McKay said the boy was in a “near hysterical” condition when he made the confession.
Aug. 11, 1966
It took a little longer than usual, but Air Force rescue crews pulled the pilot of a downed reconnaissance jet from the dense North Vietnamese jungles, Monday, 27 hours after he had ejected from his aircraft.
Major Paul Curtis, 36, of Great Falls, Mont., ejected from his RF-101 Voodoo jet Sunday when he had a loss of power in his engine.
“I looked to be about 450 feet over the trees when the chute popped,” he said. “Three swings on the chute risers and I hit the ground.”
Before he landed he noticed a village nearby and quickly moved away from the area when he landed. He fell 75 feet down a mountain side snapping off the antenna of his survival radio, thus cutting the range of his emergency signal. The next morning aircraft passed over him several times before he was able to contact two F105 Thunderchiefs in the area, returning from a mission. The pilots relayed his position to the 38th Aero-Space Rescue and Recovery Squadron.
For four and a half hours the rescue crews passed over Curtis trying to pinpoint his position. Running low on fuel, the HH-3 “Jolly Green Giant” finally spotted Curtis, lowered a para-rescue man into the dense jungle and pulled him up into the helicopter.
Aug. 12, 1966
Ann Swanson of the Grays Harbor Country Club toured her home course in 84 yesterday to cinch the season’s low gross title as the Grays Harbor Pacific County Women’s Golf Association completed its summer series of monthly sweeps.
Aug. 13, 1966
Construction of a nine-hole public golf course will get under way in Westport this fall, E.W. Clocksin, port manager reports. The 67-acre site is located south of the state highway and southeast of the jetty right-of-way in Westport.
35 YEARS AGO
Aug. 8, 1991
Alissa Niemi and Crissy Hathaway, both of Aberdeen, were named to the seventh-eighth grade all-tournament team in the Pacific Lutheran University Girls’ Basketball Camp last month in Parkland.
Niemi was a member of the camp’s league championship team, while Hathaway joined Aberdeen’s Amber Prince, Christy Murray and Amy Nelson on the tournament champions. Prince was the camp free throw champion. Melissa Failor, another Aberdeen girl, was the leading rebounder in the ninth grade division.
Aug. 11, 1991
Walking into this weekend’s 7 Rivers Mountain Men rendezvous is like a trip back in time. The brown and white buckskins of the tepee village are framed against the deep green of the surrounding forest. And the mountain men — and women — in frontier garb sit around fire pits roasting poultry.
About 30 people camped in the area about one mile off Highway 107, between Montesano and Highway 101, and 18 traders sold their wares.
Outsiders tend to have just two reactions to the rendezvous, said 7 Rivers Member Jerry Charlton from Aberdeen. “It seems like people are either immediately hooked or they can’t understand the point of it.”
On Saturday, nearly 100 people had signed up to participate in the mountaineering events — the tomahawk and knife throw, and piston and rifle shoots.
Aug. 12, 1991
Doug Moore, the owner of an automotive restoration business in Montesano, has been an auto buff ever since he was a teenager and he tooled around Aberdeen in some of the spiffiest hot rods the Harbor had ever seen.
Full service stations meant you “got your oil checked and tires inflated, not to mention some plastic-handled steak knives. Road maps were free. You certainly didn’t have to ask to have your windshield washed.”
Today he collects gas station memorabilia — from restroom signs to gas pumps. He was one of five collectors who displayed their artifacts at the Gas Bash at the 8th Street Landing in Hoquiam during the Push Rods Riverside Run III.
Aug. 14, 1991
“Be careful and watch for cars,” was the last thing Donna Parker told her 13-year-old son Monday night.
“I will, Mom!” Robbie Pflugmacher shot back with the tone of a teen-ager who has heard the admonition at least a hundred times.
A short while later he was dead.
A truck driven by John Norris, 41, of Aberdeen, had slammed into Robert and a group of his neighborhood friends as they stood talking off to the side of Curtis Street in South Aberdeen. Prosecutors say the Aberdeen man was high on heroin at the time. He was charged with vehicular homicide and Judge Michael Spencer set bail at $75,000.
• Why urology?
Dirk Sypherd, one of the 11 new doctors recently recruited to the area, admits that is a question he’s often asked.
“It’s a great field – the best kept secret in medicine,” is his reply. “It’s a surgical field that doesn’t have the hectic pace of other specialties. We get called in for emergencies occasionally, but not like the orthopedist or general surgeon,” said Sypherd, 34.
He officially began work July 15, but had three cases the week before while his partner, Craig Whiting, was on vacation.
“We’re going to take advantage of the area,” he said, adding that he, his wife, Catherine and three children had visited Ocean Shores and gone crabbing at Westport. And he’s enjoying the weather here. “The day (we packed up to leave Paradise, Calif.) it was 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity. If it rains here, it rains, but that’s better than a drought.”
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.
