75 years ago
December 31, 1944
Sunday, no newspaper published
January 1, 1945
Two explosions about 8 o’clock last night which rattled windows of Harbor buildings and residences were being investigated today. The explosions are believed to have occurred in the vicinity of Grays Harbor City. Navy personnel said it caused quite a commotion at the airport but that the matter was in the hands of the Hoquiam police department.
Hoquiam police said a youth had reported hearing two boys talking about setting off some dynamite on a hill between Hoquiam and Grays Harbor City last night.
Tom Flinch, west Hoquiam resident, discounted the dynamite theory. “I’ve handled dynamite in the woods and to make an explosion as strong as that would take a ton of the stuff.”
January 2, 1945
Police Chief Norman C. Foote today explained the Harbor’s New Year’s eve explosions.
Two Hoquiam youths, 16-years-old, last night, “gave themselves up,” Chief Foote said, and admitted they had set off from from 50 to 85 sticks of stolen 60 percent Dupont dynamite Sunday night.
The first explosion was from one stick which they set off and threw into the bay near Mood Island bridge. A few minutes later they set off the remainder of the dynamite on a hill back of Grays Harbor City.
They admitted stealing the dynamite and hid it until New Year’s eve. They had about 100 feet of fuse.
January 3, 1945
Nine or 10 high school youths have been implicated in the New Year’s eve, dynamite blast that shook Grays Harbor, Police Chief Norman Foote said today, as questioning of the boys continued.
The teen-age lads admitted setting off the blast of over 50 sticks of DuPont 60 percent dynamite. A spot check of the powder house of the F.G. Foster company shows a shortage in the explosive inventory, pointing strongly to the possibility that the dynamite was stolen from there.
Possession of dynamite without a federal permit in wartime is prohibited by national law, officials said.
50 years ago
December 31, 1969
Bowl Game Lineup: Tonight — The Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, Houston vs. Auburn; New Year’s Day — Rose Bowl, Southern California vs. Michigan; Cotton Bowl, Texas vs. Notre Dame; Sugar Bowl, Arkansas vs. Mississippi; Orange Bowl, Penn State vs. Missouri
January 1, 1970
The top 15 stories in 1969 as selected by The Daily World:
1. The Wynooche dam; 2. Aberdeen mayor election; 3. The Grand jury; 4. Hoquiam’s fluoridation repeal; 5. The Emerson grandstand fire; 6. The winter weather; 7. Hoquiam’s second place spot on state basketball tournament; 8. Grays Harbor College state football championship; 9. James Jackson, Man of the Year selection; 10. The death of Aberdeen Mayor Ed Lundgren; 11. Opening of the last link of the Ocean Freeway; 12. Closing of the Quinault beaches to non-Indians; 13. Resettlement of sea otters; 14. Barge salvage at Taholah; 15. The Sasquatch
January 2, 1970
Not many Aberdonians grew up like John “Bus” Fairbairn’s children — a full-sized gymnasium and swimming pool in the same building and a somewhat swampy football field for a back yard.
As caretaker for Miller Natatorium and Stewart Field, Fairbairn has made his home in the natatorium building with his wife, Louise, for more than 30 years and has earned the Harbor’s title of “Mr. Water Sports.”
Although getting along in years, the caretaker still gets in the pool to put the sons and daughters of his earliest swimming pupils through the backstroke and dog paddle and during the summer, conducts canoeing classes at Lake Sylvia.
January 3, 1970
Saturday, no newspaper published
25 years ago
December 31, 1994
• The Daily World’s news staff and the paper’s Reader Advisory Board, a group of citizens who meet with newspaper management once a month to offer input on news coverage, both voted the prison controversy to be the year’s top story on the Twin Harbors.
For the most part the news staff’s and the reader board’s lists were in agreement. The first three choices were identical — after No. 1 rated prison controversy, the next two on both lists were the Port of Grays Harbor scandal and Kurt Cobain’s suicide.
• Hoquiam Fire Capt. Paul Dean and firefighter Mike Lunceford recently showed off the department’s new 1,500-gallon-per-minute pumper that will go into service Jan. 1. It was built in Wisconsin at a price of $214,000 plus tax. The rig features a 6,000 watt generator, full scene lighting and a 40-gallon foam tank.
January 1, 1995
Perhaps no Twin Harbor athlete in recent history has made more of a state and national impact in a single year than Aberdeen High School basketball star omm’A Givens did in 1994.
Givens, who became the state’s leading prep career scorer in March, attained one final 1994 honor by being named the Daily World’s Athlete of the Year.
The UCLA freshman nosed out Jake Kringen who sported a 0.00 earned run average in helping pitch Elma to the state Class A baseball title, and national and world powerlifting champion Dean Nguyen of Aberdeen for Athlete of the Year honors.
January 2, 1995
Russ Darrin’s TV appearance in the 1995 Tournament of Roses Parade may have lasted only half a second but it was enough to please his parents.
Darrin, son of Barbara and Dennis Darrin of Montesano, plays the trumpet in the University of Oregon Marching band, which was No. 24 in the famous Pasadena, Calif. parade.
We were taping (the parade),” Mrs. Darrin said this morning. “We were trying to figure out if it was him. It was so fast, we had to rewind it.” The band also played a six-minute set during the Rose Bowl game’s half-time show.
January 3, 1995
Sometimes it’s the voice of experience Chris Miller is looking for. On other days she’s just seeking a sympathetic ear.
In either case, Miller knows she has found someone she can count on to help deal with the day-to-day difficulties of coping with her 7-year-old daughter, Anna, who was born with Down syndrome.
The Millers — her husband Bob and older daughter Laura included — are one of 50 Harbor families benefiting from “Parent to Parent,” an all-volunteer program that began in September.
Sponsored by Coastal Community Action Program, Parent to Parent is a matchmaking service in which parents whose young children have disabilities are introduced to parents who have already dealt with the same disability.
With Parent to Parent, the experienced parent meets or talks by phone with the parent facing new challenges. They make contact at least once and in some cases several times over the course of a couple of months, says program coordinator Mark Brady.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
