75 years ago

September 17, 1944

Sunday, no newspaper published

September 18, 1944

The fall quarter opened today at Grays Harbor Junior College with students meeting their faculty advisors and working out study programs, Dean Lewis E. Tidball announced.

At 10 o’clock tomorrow morning there will be a general assembly at which instructors will explain the contents of their courses, after which students will have an opportunity for final program conferences.

50 years ago

September 17, 1969

Hoquiamites repealed fluoridation by a solid 61 per cent majority yesterday in the heaviest primary election turnout in Hoquiam history.

There are 4,669 registered voters, and the unofficial tally indicates 2,365 balloted on the controversial issue — a turnout of fully 50 per cent.

The new fire station received an over-whelming 70 percent vote of confidence. Woodlawn area residents approved annexation by a wafer-think margin of four votes, 29-25.

September 18, 1969

• Sgt. Eldon Bargewell, Hoquiam, has received a purple heart and Bronze Star Medal for heroism in Vietnam.

Bargewell distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action in April, while serving as Special Forces team leader of a reconnaissance unit on an intelligence gathering mission deep within enemy territory.

Bargewell attended Hoquiam High School and Grays Harbor Community College and played football for Hoquim and GHC. His wife is the former Barbara Hubble.

• The opening salvo in the second round of the Harbor’s week-old gasoline price was fired this morning as Shell and Texaco stations dropped their price per gallon another two cents.

This morning’s price was 34.9 cents a gallon for regular gasoline and 37.9 for premium.

25 years ago

September 17, 1994

Huddled beneath a comforter on a couch in front of the television, Molly Bauman and Claudia Halbac might be college roommates in a rental house anywhere in the United States.

But there are no empty beer bottles gathering dust in a corner of the living room, nor do pictures of guitar-strumming twenty-somethings adorn the walls. Instead, a crucified Jesus Christ modeled in ceramic lends an air of sanctity to the Aberdeen abode.

Bauman and Balbac — along with Patricia Burnell, Johnny Kim and Mike Vogrin — are college graduate Jesuit volunteers spending one year working for various social service agencies across the Harbor.

The group is sponsored by several Harbor parishes as well as the Evergreen Counseling Center.

The volunteers, who hail from locations as far-flung as Lawrence, Kan., and Buena Park, Calif., share living space in “Providence House,” a building owned by the Sisters of Providence and lease to them at a minimal charge.

September 18, 1994

• The line down Main Street in Elma Saturday afternoon remained long after the parade had ended as people staked out slices of the “world’s largest” blackberry cobbler.

“There wasn’t a world record for cobbler, so obviously this is the largest ever baked,” joked Fred Rapp, president of the Wild Blackberry Festival.

Rapp was dressed in purple polyester pants, a festival T-shirt and purple baseball cap. A square dancer, he picked the bright pants up from a caller a few years ago and figured they made the perfect festival wear.

• Neah Bay extracted a heavy physical toll in trouncing Wishkah, 38-8, in a non-league football game Saturday at Addison Field.

The Loggers lost fullback Tim Berge to a leg injury on the third play of the game. Later, quarterback Nick Glaser went down with an ailing shoulder, halfback Eric Sweers suffered a knee injury and center Adam Peirson was knocked woozy.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom