75 years ago
November 29, 1943
For “outstanding excellence in the production of war goods” the Posey Manufacturing company will fly, after proper ceremonies December 10, the joint Army-Navy E award flag, it was announced today. In addition to the flag, each Posey employe will receive an Army-Navy E pin.
Governor Arthur B. Langlie is to be in Hoquiam for the occasion. High ranking officials from the army and navy will make the awards and participate in the brief exercises. Due to war exigencies only plant personnel and a limited number of invited guests will be allowed to attend.
November 30, 1943
Robert Clark of the Marine corps is a clean cut, straight backed lad of 19 who looks even younger. Yet he wears the Purple Heart decoration for those wounded in action, the Navy Cross for bravery under fire and the South Pacific theater ribbon.
And up until six months ago he had never been west of Moon Island. He had left Hoquiam high to go into the CCC camp at Montesano, then worked a stretch at the Rayonier plant, had eight weeks of training in San Diego before being assigned to the Fleet Marine force and sent aboard a warship. His station was at a pom-pom gun.
One night the convoy was attacked from two quarters. Airplanes dive bombed from above as a wolf pack of submarines let fly with torpedoes. Clark was hit, a fragment of shrapnel entering his abdomen. He’s now on 30-day leave designed to allow his nerves full relaxation from the tension of war.
50 years ago
November 29, 1968
Undaunted by the Harbor’s sloppy “snow” Santa Claus will pay his first pre-Christmas visit to Hoquiam youngsters Saturday.
Santa reported this morning that he plans to park his sleigh on the roof on the Emerson Hotel. A police and fire department escort will lead the way as Santa parades through town at noon.
The parade will start on Fifth Street between Simpson Avenue and K Street, then proceed down K to Eighth, and down Eighth to J, where Howard Wilson has set up a workshop at the Colonial Maple Shop.
The Hoquiam Retail Trade Board is sponsoring Santa’s trip.
November 30, 1968
A Grays Harbor ship-loading record set in October lasted only a month. The Reiho Maru sailed from terminal four at noon Wednesday breaking by about three hours the record set on the same vessel in October.
Harbor sources said that it took 26 gang shifts of longshoremen, with a few of them not working a full shift, to load 5,500,000 board feet of logs, Brereton scale, aboard the Reiho Maru.
25 years ago
November 29, 1993
Dental health in the Twin Harbors area is receding as fast as some gumlines, says the president of the Grays Harbor Dental Society.
Access is decreasing because in the past 10 years only a handful of new dentists have decided to practice here, said Dr. Michael Lawr of Montesano.
“The South Bend/Raymond area is really hurting,” he said with only one or two dentists available.
In the 1970s, the federal government was paying dental schools on a per-student basis in an effort to increase the numbers of dentists, Lawr said. But that isn’t happening anymore, and several dental schools have closed up or cut their enrollments. “The University of Washington Dental School cut the class size in half,” said Lawr.
November 30, 1993
Angie Wright received the Kiwanis Outstanding Swimming Award at the Aberdeen High School girls’ swimming banquet Monday night.
Other special awards: Bus Fairbairn Memorial — Jillane Reynvaan. Captains — Stephanie Dragecevich, Angie Wright. Coaches Awards — Megan Elway, Stephanie DeWitt. Most Improved — Whitney Uhler.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
