75 years ago

Aug. 16, 1941

H.D. Eaton, assistant director of finance, business and budget and supervisor of state purchasing, said today that manufacture of Washington’s 1942 license plates is practically completed.

The plates, following the state policy of reversing colors of numbers and backgrounds each year, will have green numbers on a white background.

Brennan’s Hardware of Aberdeen, Western Washington champions, breezed to a 11-0 victory over the Everett 46th Material Squadron in Pasco yesterday in the opening round of the state softball tournament.

Alstrom, Rockway and Fulkerson showed their stuff and the trio limited the Everett batters to two hits. Wickstrom starred at the plate for Brennan’s cracking out a home run in the second to drive in two teammates.

Aug. 17, 1941

Sunday, no newspaper published

50 years ago

Aug. 16, 1966

The H&R Contractors, rebounding through the losers’ bracket, swept a twin bill from Lamb-Grays Harbor at Franklin Field last night to capture the title in the Harbor Slow-Pitch League’s first annual Duffers’ Tourney.

Leading H&R in the final contests, were Duke Herman, who collected 3 for 4 in both games and wound up with the tourney’s Most Valuable Player Award, and Ken Liedes with one circuit smash in each tilt.

Joe Shapansky maced three hits, including a homer, in the opener for H&R.

Aug. 17, 1966

Grays Harbor Co., and the U.S. Department of Labor, have entered an agreement for the training of 48 unemployed or under-employed people as junior draftsman, it was announced by Sens. Henry Jackson and Warren Magnuson.

The qualified people will take 12 weeks of classroom training in draftsmanship at Grays Harbor College. This phase will be followed by a 24-week on-the-job training program at Lamb-Grays Harbor and the students will be paid $2.06 to $2.16 an hour.

25 years ago

Aug. 16, 1991

Who are “the Downtown Dolls”?

You’ve probably seen the signs and read the ads over the past 10 days. “Watch for the Downtown Dolls!” they declare, teasingly.

The Aberdeen Beautification Committee revealed the “secret” Thursday.

At Heron and H streets, above Billy’s restaurant, you’ll discover several life-size, provocatively-clad dolls lounging in a second-story window of the historic building. They’re posed in a scene that many a logger saw in lusty old Aberdeen’s days of yore.

They may be wearing feather boas and slinky gowns, but “These are dance hall girls,” insists Jan Lattin, an ABC member. “We don’t want to offend anyone.”

Aug. 17, 1991

When retired couples like Dan and Elsie McBee of Eugene, Ore., plant seeds, they end up with things like new church buildings and Christian summer camps.

In Hoquiam right now, the 77-year-old former logging contractor and his wife are helping to “sprout” a new fellowship hall for the Harbor Free Methodist Church on Simpson Avenue.

The McBees are among hundreds of retired couples nationwide who drive their RVs from coast to coast, literally building solid Christian foundations along the way. They’ve built churches in Bellingham, restored cabins at Bible camps in Texas and constructed fellowship halls on Indian reservations throughout the nation.

The project could be completed as early as November, thanks in no small way to the expertise and enthusiasm of the volunteers.

“Their work is great, but they’re also an inspiration,” say Joe Barrett, the young pastor at the Free Methodist Church. “They are highly-committed, highly motivated and great people to be around.”

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom