75 years ago
August 29, 1942
More than a ton and a half of scrap metal was brought to the D&R theater by Harbor youngsters as admission to a victory matinee yesterday, Theater Manager Russell Brown announced today.
The pile of scrap metal included 3,375 pounds of iron, 70 pounds of brass and 25 pounds of copper.
Brown thanked the youngsters for their fine response.
August 30, 1942
Sunday, no newspaper published
50 years ago
August 29, 1967
• An Aberdeen man, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Roger W. Harris recently received the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in Vietnam combat action where he assumed the lead of a 20-plane strike against an enemy railroad at Thanh Hoa, North Vietnam in January.
• Charles Darrow, 78, a heating engineer who invented the game of Monopoly while unemployed during the depression and became a millionaire from it, died Monday is Ottsville, Fla.
Darrow was living in a small apartment in Philadelphia’s Mount Airy section when he devised the game of real estate tycoons to pass the time. He patterned his game after the streets, parks, railroad and utilities in Atlantic City, N.J. the resort which he said was a “symbol of pleasure for so many people.”
He played the game with friends and it became so popular he started making sets and selling them for $4. He tried to interest toy manufacturers, but they told him the game was too complicated and might set families squabbling. He continued to produce the sets himself until he had sold 20,000. Then he sold the game to Parker Brothers for an amount of cash never disclosed.
August 30, 1967
Plans are progressing for conversion of Aberdeen-Hoquiam telephone numbers to an all-number form.
In May 1968, letter prefixes will change to the corresponding numbers on the phone dial. “For instance, the PNB business office number, LE 2-9000, will become 532-9000,” said Ralph Berggren, PNB manager.
All-number calling provides 50 percent more usable telephone numbers than the old name-prefix method. “(It) also reduces the confusion between the letter ‘O’ and the number zero and between the letter ‘I’ and the number one,” he added.
25 years ago
August 29, 1992
Ever since Bob Erickson, 24, and his partner, Roscoe Crowell, 31, opened Power Plus Nintendo at 1300 Sumner in Aberdeen, almost a year and a half ago, they’ve discovered that parents are just as prone to be Nintendo-holics as their children.
Those adults — most of whom grew up with an Etch-a-Sketch as the closest thing to a video game — now account for nearly half of the Nintendo rentals passing through their doors.
The perennial favorites for the kids are “Super Mario Brothers III, “NES Monopoly,” Dark-Wing Duck” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.” The adult favorites are puzzle favorites like “Tetris” and “Dr. Mario” or the fantasy classic, “Zelda.”
August 30, 1992
David Zeber pointed down the road toward Swinging Bridge Park, that straddles the west fork of the Satsop River, and says the unsupervised privately run recreation area has become a haven for teen-age drinking parties, high-speed traffic and dangerously rowdy behavior.
“The park is swinging, all right,” Zeber says. “It’s a playground for drinking and drugs. It’s such a shame.”
Nearly two weeks ago, the serenity of this secluded corner of Grays Harbor County was rocked when a noisy group at the park ignited a bundle of M-80s, large firecrackers about 2 inches long and an inch in diameter.
The blast, which Zeber and others said occurred about 3 a.m., Aug. 15, was the latest in a string of out-of-control incidents that have turned a once-pristine camping area into a den of manace.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
