75 years ago
Aug. 18, 1941
Umpires and armies in the Northwest’s great war games might have been “scrambled” and confused over the weekend, but the detail of 17th infantry men holding the Palix bridge on the Ocean Beach highway, four miles east of Bay Center was not a part of that confusion.
The detail, armed with large white flags, was stopping northbound traffic with a warning to “watch out for soldiers on the highway” and keeping a sharp eye out for the blue army.
“We’ve blown up this bridge,” the Fort Ord, Calif. boys declared “and the blue army can’t cross it.”
Aug. 19, 1941
Three tons of cured hemlock bark, gathered in adjacent woods, will be shipped to Wyndmoor, Pa. next month for exhaustive tests by department of agriculture experts. The hemlock bark, valuable for the tannin it contains, may be the basis for a new industry in Hoquiam. Civic officials have been investigating the possibilities for an extraction plant in the city, and if the government tests prove successful, the new enterprise may be launched.
Tannin extract is extensively used in the tanning of hides and in leather processing.
50 years ago
Aug. 18, 1966
Willie Mays, the second greatest home run hitter of all time, is a man who never ceased to be a youngster.
“The thing about Willie is he never has lost his enthusiasm,” said Herman Franks, manager of the San Francisco Giants. “He loves baseball. No matter how many records he sets or how much money he makes, he’ll still be a kid out there in the field.”
Willie hit his 535th home run Wednesday. Now only Babe Ruth’s remarkable record of 714 lies ahead. “I’ll have to average 40 a year to catch up with that guy, the Babe,” Willie said recently. “I don’t think I can do it.”
Mays is 35. His salary is reportedly $125,000 and he lives in a swank, five-tiered split-level home on top of a winding hill in San Francisco.
Aug. 19, 1966
Russian fishermen have infuriated local fishing interests on the North Beach who claim the foreign fleet is not only taking hake, but salmon.
The Russians though, have not been completely selfish during their offshore stay.
Beachcombers who normally find the picking slim during the summer months, have been finding a varied assortment of junk ranking from crates, barrels, light globes and note-carrying bottles, thrown overboard by the visitors.
Most of the crates carry Russian printing in the Cyrillic alphabet used in Slavic countries. Clear glass light bulbs with filaments burned out read “2o0 Yowps.” Presumable one yowp equals one volt.
Among the unusual items picked from Ocean Shores beaches last week are an inflatable rubber life vest and what appears to be a Russian man’s suit coat of the double breasted variety.
25 years ago
Aug. 18, 1991
Organizers and visitors alike at the 4th annual Westport Longboard Surf Festival noted that yesterday’s crowd was the largest they’ve seen so far.
“We’ve had a real good response,” said Ricky Young, a Bellevue surf shop owner who has organized the event each year. “The turnout is better … for people and competitors.”
Young contacted 350 surfers he knows along the West Coast and Hawaii. Sixty-three surfers competed including Robert “Wing Nut” Weaver and Marcel Soros.
Aug. 19, 1991
It may have licked the remainder of the Grays Harbor Pro-Am field, but the Grays Harbor Country Club course absorbed a clean knockout from Louie Runge.
The Raymond pro fired his second consecutive 68 Sunday for a runaway triumph in the 33rd renewal of Grays Harbor’s most prestigious golf tournament.
Runge accounted for exactly half the weekend’s sub-par scores in capturing his second His 36-hole total of 136 was five strokes better than Ocean Shores pro John Reeves.
