85 YEARS AGO
May 18, 1940
The park service for the present will not attempt to buy out or otherwise acquire North Lake property within the park borders, but plans to do so eventually and when it does “we hope you will be ready to sell,” Park Superintendent Preston P. Macy told Quinault settlers at a meeting last night at the Quinault Grange.
Settlers along the south shore of the lake and the south side of the Quinault River “need have no fear” that the park service will attempt to take their lands, Macy said.
May 20, 1940
With the applause of the public and critics still ringing in their ears, Aberdeen high school bandsmen returned yesterday from Spokane where for the third consecutive year they won a superior rating in the national regional music meet. The rating is the highest that can be won by a high school group.
So exceptional was the playing that at the end of “Finlandia” by Sibelius, the audience of more than a thousand kept Director Kenneth Hjelmervik and the band on the stage for three minutes while the auditorium rang with applause.
Creations of a fire protection district and purchase of fire equipment for Central Park will be discussed at a mass meeting of Central Park residents Friday at the Grange hall. Residents will discuss boundaries of the district and Ivar Asplund will arrange for an expert to present data on equipment costs.
May 22, 1940
Theft of virtually everything at their Bear Gulch logging camp except the camp site was reported to Aberdeen police last night by the Cole and Stafford Logging company.
Among equipment removed were several valuable blocks, 2,200 feet of cable, axes and saws, a complete set of rigging, tools, grease, gas and oil, spikes, wedges and a sledge hammer, a gas can and spring board irons.
The logging equipment had been piled up preparatory to being moved to a new site.
Charges that Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes has cut off a source of airplane spruce in the Queets valley at a time when other, national government agencies are launching a national defense program embracing airplane production are being investigated by the Aberdeen and Hoquiam chambers of commerce, it was revealed this afternoon.
May 23, 1940
Dick Osgood, veteran barber in the Kellogg shop in Hoquiam, lays claim to some kind of record, having given tonsorial service to five generations of the pioneer Willis family.
When Osgood joined the Kellogg & Horton shop in 1907, men had their individual mugs and N.P. Willis was one of his first customers. Ed Willis, Chenois rancher, was next in the family to receive tonsorial service. When bobbed hair came in vogue his daughter, Mrs. William Hanson, called on Osgood to do the cutting. Her son, William Jr. has been patronizing Osgood for a number of years, and the latest to join the ranks is his two-year-old son, making the fifth generation.
May 24, 1940
The allied armies caught German armored columns in an artillery crossfire today in a new effort to cut the reich army’s corridor to the sea and turn the tide of the battle for mastery of the English channel. Masses of allied infantry also weighed down on the German salient, pressing south from Flanders fields in the Cambrat region and north from the Somme river in a pincers movement designed to break off the spearhead which has twisted west to the channel coast.
60 YEARS AGO
May 19, 1965
Harold Schmid, chairman of the Aberdeen City Council’s Water Committee and Henry Soike, manager of the industrial development department, Port of Grays Harbor, testified today before the House Appropriations Committee in Washington, D.C., on three budgeted items of vital concern to the Harbor area — the $2 million budgeted for the second year’s work in rehabilitating the south jetty, $60,000 to permit the Army Engineers to continue a study of the proposed Columbia River-Puget Sound intracoastal waterway and $500,000 for continued planning and design for the Wynooche reservoir project.
Grays Harbor Community Hospital Auxiliary will host a chuck wagon dinner from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the hospital, featuring ham, roast beef and home made pies. Tickets are $1.75 for adults/75¢ for children.
May 20, 1965
Aberdeen Post 224, VFW, the only VFW west of the Rockies to reach and exceed 1,000 members, is once again the “biggest post on the coast.”
Commander-elect Floyd Callaghan, who served as chairman for the 1965 membership campaign, announced at Tuesday’s post meeting that membership now stands at 1,026 as compared with 1,008 in 1964.
May 24, 1965
Romaine Darrin was crowned Grays Harbor Dairy Princess in coronation ceremonies at the Brady Grange Saturday night. She is a senior at Wishkah School and was sponsored by Elma’s Epsilon Xi Chapter.
35 YEARS AGO
May 18, 1990
Fifty current or former Aberdeen residents have added their names to a suit against the Weyerhaeuser Co. for damages allegedly caused by emissions from treatment ponds for the company’s Cosmopolis pulp mill.
The residents allege that toxic fumes from the ponds in South Aberdeen, just off the highway to Westport, blew over their property and seeped into their homes, causing property damage and “permanent injury to the health of plaintiffs and their families.”
Dave Edwards, the Hoquiam attorney representing all of the South Aberdeen residents, said “There is an extremely high percentage of residents (living near the ponds) who have cancer and family members who died of cancer.”
Jodi Griggs, manager of Western Buffet in Aberdeen, gets an explosive expression when asked if it’s worth it to pay minimum wage to workers with mental or other disabilities. “Are these people worth minimum wage? Oh, definitely. That’s not a tough question at all.”
Brad Young is an ever-smiling dishwasher whose hands move with the speed of a juggler as he pre-washes the saucers.
White-haired and friendly Dana Tinsley, a busser at Western Buffet, gets more tips than any other worker. “Dana’s a good worker,” said Griggs, “but she also always takes that extra 30 seconds to stop and talk to people, and that’s good public relations.”
May 19, 1990
Kingsley Hall compares himself to the Phantom of the Opera — and he does seem a world away from his former lakefront home in Sumner.
But this 56-year-old is playing a real-life role, and he lives in a small, lonely apartment above the Elma Theater rather than under the state of an opera house, as did the fictitious phantom character.
Hall, who acted with a theater group in Auburn before moving to Elma earlier this month, didn’t consider it a sacrifice to trade in the house he built at age 21 for the old theater. The stage buff hopes to breathe new life into the theater, showcasing live entertainment there.
May 20, 1990
Elma’s Lorna Tovia was named Black Hills League Player of the Year by BHL coaches in balloting released during Saturday’s district AA girls’ slow pitch tournament.
The heavy-hitting Tovia was joined by Elma teammates Darcy Stenek and Brenda Whipple on the all-BHL first team. Hoquiam’s Liz Brown, a standout both offensively and at shortstop, was also a first team selection.
May 21, 1990
Hoquiam incorporated 100 years ago today and although the birthday will be celebrated throughout the week, not to mention all year long, today is highlighted with photographers capturing the city on film and Hoquiamites talking about the future.
“A Day in the Life of Hoquiam” project will no doubt capture a glimpse of the 9,100 people who live here.
“They’re tough, they get things done and they do an awful lot with very little,” Mayor Phyllis Shrauger said of the townspeople.
The mayor (of the future) who helps this city celebrate the city’s bicentennial should know the people today are “very caring, particularly the way they care for kids,” she said, noting how they support Little League baseball. “We’ve probably got more baseball teams per capita than anywhere in the United States.”
Hoquiam Councilman Frank “Buddy” Springer and a logger by profession, added “I hope our children realize the struggle myself and the community has had to achieve a balance between our livelihood now and for future generations.”
“I hope that 100 years from now a log truck isn’t something you will see only in a museum,” Springer said.
May 22, 1990
Riding a surprising surge of support, a proposal to consolidate the Raymond and South Bend school districts could find its way on the ballot this year.
Petitions calling for consolidation have drawn a total of about 350 signatures in both district.
Gathering signatures went “a lot better than I expected,” said Brian Hatfield, an aide in Senator Arlie DeJarnatt’s office and originator of the petition. “I didn’t expect it to go this fast.”
May 23, 1990
Andy Crow never performed live with Buster Keaton. But on Friday night the organist will help the master of deadpan comedy revive the 7th Street Theatre’s glory years.
Crow, a longtime theater organist who has lived in Olympia for the past 20 years, will help Hoquiam celebrate its centennial with a special showing of “The General” at the historic theater.
Even though Hoquiam’s 62-year-old theater was built specifically for sound movies, it was also a vaudeville house in its day and with its superb acoustics is tailor made for this type of occasion.
“That is one of the most beautiful theaters in the area,” said Crow. “This has always been one of my favorites. I hope the people of Hoquiam know how lucky they are to have this theater.”
• Kathy Lorton, The Daily World’s 1990 Citizen of the Year, has been hired as principal at Taholah School. Lorton, the Student Assistance Program coordinator at Aberdeen High School will begin work at Taholah in August.
May 24, 1990
Westport’s hopes for more visitors could get a lift with a Hovercraft that could speed across Grays Harbor in 20 minutes on a cushion of air.
Hovercrafts, which have transported people across the English Channel for many years, may seem like a far-fetched notion in these parts.
But two ambitious men, Fred Rapp from Elma and Michael Crisman from Sacramento Calif. have assured Westport officials in separate presentations that Hovercraft service here is a real, if distant possibility.
The vessels they envision could speed across calm or stormy seas twice as fast as boats or ferries and could carry 10 cars and about 20 people.
With several milestones already accomplished, North Beach’s girls will shoot for a trophy in the state Class B softball tournament in Walla Walla this weekend. The state appearance is the first for North Beach’s softballers and their season record (19-2) is the best in school history.
Dawneen DeLaCruz clubbed a school-record 12 home runs and leadoff batter Michelle Grover hit .662 for the season. Bobbie and Gina Jones also came on strong at the plate at season’s end.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom, editorial assistant at The Daily World. You can contact her at karen.barkstrom@thedailyworld.com or call her at 360-537-3925.
