75 years ago
March 12, 1944
Sunday, no newspaper published
March 13, 1944
Goldberg Furniture Co, 117-119 W. Wishkah in Aberdeen is advertising “Fine and Famous Pendleton All Wool Blankets with 6-inch satin binding in your choice of blue, cedar, green and rosewood — $17.95.”
50 years ago
March 12, 1969
An 11-year-old girls who remembered the fire lesson she learned in school was rewarded by Aberdeen firemen after a Tuesday night blaze gutted her parent’s home and left the family of six homeless.
Violet Greenlee, the oldest daughter of Leroy Greenlee, 412 E. Pine St., saw a spark fall from a metal stove pipe at 11 p.m. and woke her two brothers and carried her two-year-old sister outside.
Robert Dyer, fire marshal, reported that Violet came to him in tears after the fire and sobbed: “I just got a new coat. But I remembered what you told me in school (in fire safety courses conducted by the fire department.) Even if you have a new coat or a new doll, you’re not supposed to go back for it even if you love it the most. You’re to go next door and stay out of the fire.”
Dyer said that Violet’s alertness save the lives of her sister and brothers. He added that the firemen’s benevolence fund will pay for a new coat for the girl.
March 13, 1969
A new route linking Scammel Street to Bel Aire will be presented to the city council in a comprehensive land use plan now being assembled by the Grays Harbor Regional Planning Commission.
This was learned from newly elected council president Prosper Ostrowski last night after discussion of the extension of Scammel relating to another matter.
“Scammel seems to be the most logical one to go up the hill and join Bel Aire,” said Ostrowski, who is a member of the city planning committee.
25 years ago
March 12, 1994
A Hoquiam barber who has weathered two economic downturns in downtown Hoquiam made a bold move recently when he tore down a nearly eight-decade-old building and erected a new shop.
For the last 20 years, Hoquiam native Rex Johnson has operated a barber shop at 714 Simpson Ave. And it’s still there, sandwiched between the Golden Dragon and Sisters restaurants, but now the digs are spanking new.
“It was a hard decision (to tear down the old building,)” he said, “but I just kept with it. I am very happy today that I did it. The whole downtown seems to look different to me now.”
Johnson says he has put about $65,000 into the new building. He still has the old chairs, an antique backbar, mirror and the original cash register from 1910.
March 13, 1994
Steelhead fishermen angling for a confrontation with the state Department of Fish & Wildlife Saturday got skunked.
Their plan was to fish on the Satsop River in defiance of a state regulation closing it in order to protect wild steelhead, possibly getting arrested as a protest.
About 70 people turned out for the low-key demonstration and about eight actually cast their lines in the water, but all had cut the hooks off first.
Fish & Wildlife monitored the event with plain clothes enforcement officers at the rally and high-powered sighting equipment, said Tony Floor, a spokesman for the department.
Floor said that since the fishermen weren’t using hooks, there were no violations.
The protest was organized by Joe Durham of Aberdeen, a former president of the local Trout Unlimited chapter and an avid steelhead fishermen. Trout Unlimited did not support the protest and Durham called himself the “sole sponsor.”
But virtually everyone at the rally agreed with his point of view protesting gillneeting downstream in the Chehalis River and signed a petition he is circulating and will send to state officials and politicians.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
