85 YEARS AGO
May 25, 1940
Aberdeen’s main postoffice is unable to issue money orders and can’t accept postal savings deposits, Postmaster George D. Magee said today, because the vault in this branch of the postoffice cannot be opened and the papers necessary for this service are securely locked up.
Safe experts have looked over the vault but because it is protected by gas attachments can not force it. They say the mechanism in the lock is out of order and to avoid setting off the gas, which is said to be very powerful, it may be necessary to cut through walls.
May 27, 1940
Milton Styner totalled 228 to edge out his nearest competitor by two points and annex the Instructors trophy last week in the fifth annual match for Aberdeen high school riflemen. Marvin Reiner, 1939 winner, was runnerup with 226. Bob Street won the trophy in 1936-37-38.
May 28, 1940
Worthy Edwards, Raymond floriculturist, is harvesting and shipping a group of 10,000 Calia lilies for northwest florist shops.
The blooms are grown in a small, protected valley across the highway from the Willapa Harbor port dock. The plants which produce the blooms cover about half an acre and all came from a single plant purchased by Edwards 15 years ago.
He is also developing successfully a plantation of eastern blue berries which are very rare in this section.
May 29, 1940
Except for decorating graves at Sunset Memorial Park at 6 o’clock tonight, Hoquiam’s program is complete for the annual Memorial Day observance Thursday, Walter Harris, Veterans of Foreign Wars general chairman said today.
Units in the parade will form at 9:45 Thursday morning on Riverside Avenue. The parade will halt on the Eighth Street bridge while the Woman’s Relief corps conducts water services in memory of sailors who died in battle. The naval reserve will fire the gun salute.
May 30, 1940
Sixty-five seniors of the Montesano high school, forming one of the largest classes ever to be graduated in Montesano, received their diplomas in impressive commencement exercises in the high school gymnasium Tuesday night. Guy Bilow, member of the school board, presented the diplomas and Superior Court Judge J.M. Phillips spoke.
May 31, 1940
Aberdeen’s bronze doughboy will get a new bayonet for his rifle, Art Ross, commander of Aberdeen Post No. 5, American Legion, said today. The bayonet disappeared several weeks ago and investigation by Hugo Larson, park superintendent, indicated that the steel had rusted through where the bayonet was fixed to the rifle.
The tribute to America’s soldiers was given to the city by all veterans organizations.
60 YEARS AGO
May 25, 1965
The Small Business Administration has granted a $268,000 loan to purchase land and build a 32-unit motel adjacent to the Morck Hotel, it was announced today by Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen. The motel is to be constructed on the southwest corner of Wishkah and K streets.
According to William Hamman, Morck Hotel owner, the deluxe facility will have an elevator, a sky bridge connecting the motel to the hotel, sheltered parking for 32 cars and a glass enclosed year-around swimming pool.
May 26, 1965
One of Southwest Washington’s largest and finest new food stores, the Swanson Market in South Aberdeen, is observing a gala grand opening this week.
In addition to the food and meat sections and other departments which have come to be associated with the modern supermarket, Swanson’s also has a drug store with complete prescription service, a fine restaurant and a coin-operated laundry and dry-cleaning service.
Charles Veloni is manager of the store, Jack Chartrey is head of the meat department, Ray Mathis of the produce department and Chet Houpt of the drug store.
May 27, 1965
Frontier Post I, an exercise mirroring the wars described daily in the nation’s newspapers, ended Wednesday in Grisdale.
The nine-day counterinsurgency maneuver involving 4,000 4th Infantry Division soldiers from Fort Lewis came to a close, not with a bang but with a subtle education.
Rugged combat troops received a course in frustration and learned how to fight a make-believe war with no front-lines, with fly-by-night guerrilla activity, with minds as much as with arms. They passed with a big “A” for alertness, underscored with a small “f” for fatigue.
Bemused soldiers-turned Asiatic citizens tested the ability of division forces to win their good will and trust as well as provide protection against insurgent elements. The “villagers” did their best to make things difficult. They invited an officer on a good will mission to feast on the village delicacy — fish heads and rice — while at the same time harboring known guerillas in their huts, much to the anger of the 2nd Brigade soldiers who spent nights chasing them through the mountains.
May 29, 1965
The wall of the old Curtis Hotel, long-time Harbor landmark, finally collapsed under the blows of a wrecking ball yesterday. Demolition of the hotel, started months ago, had been delayed by structural difficulties. A city parking lot is planned on the Heron and H street site.
35 YEARS AGO
May 25, 1990
A 152-foot excursion ship will tie up at the Westport Docks tonight, but undoubtedly to the chagrin of many, its 70 passengers won’t be touring the city. They won’t even be on the ship when it arrives.
Operated by Seattle-based Wilderness Cruises, the Sea Lion will serve as sleeping quarters for the passengers who are traveling here by bus today from Astoria, Ore. The Sea Lion party will be dining at The Dunes restaurant in Grayland before boarding the ship docked at Float 3 for the night. Cruise travelers will board a bus again Saturday morning and travel to the rain forest at Quinault.
May 26, 1990
Bishop Vincent Warner of the Diocese of Olympia will be the speaker next Friday night at the Centennial Dinner at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Aberdeen.
St. Andrew’s began as a missionary church in the 19th century with the Rev. Dr. Reuben Denton Nevius, a circuit rider priest, as the prime mover.
The congregation was meeting in the Methodist church at First and F streets. A rectory was built at Third and I, on lots given the parish by Samuel Benn and J.M. Weatherwax. The first church was consecrated in 1895 at the present site, First and G on property also donated by Mr. and Mrs. Sam Benn.
May 27, 1990
The 1988 Nobel Prize winner for medicine, Dr. George H. Hitchings who spent the first five years of his life in Hoquiam was back home this weekend to help celebrate the city’s centennial. He led the tugs and motorboats up the Hoquiam River as parade grand master.
“They made me feel like I’m at home,” said the 85-year-old researcher after riding aboard the tug Nak Nek.
The water seemed an appropriate place from which the doctor could wave to spectators.
His father, George Herbert Hitchings, was a Harbor ship-building pioneer who made his mark by building superb lumber schooners with partner Peter Matthews at a shipyard along the Hoquiam waterfront.
May 28, 1990
Grays Harbor has a bit more time to search for a new home for 41,000 tons of trash it produces each year.
A recent engineering report, which was based in part on an aerial survey, estimates that the Aberdeen Sanitation Landfill will reach its capacity by September of 1993 — five months later than had been estimated. The LeMay-owned site two miles east of Aberdeen is the only landfill now operating in Grays Harbor.
May 29, 1990
As George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev meet this week for summit talks that may shape the future, an 11-year-old Aberdeen girl is predicting the world will celebrate “no more wars anywhere” in just two decades.
Sabrina “Breezy” Carter’s vision of the future, which won a first prize, $4,000 scholarship in a nationwide essay contest of 16,000 youngsters, includes the election of a female U.S. president, a cure for the common cold and ray guns that will zap the dirt out of laundry.
Miss Carter, a fifth-grader at McDermoth Elementary will fly to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Her whole family, dad Bill and mother Diane— both teachers —plus twin brother, Ben and older sister Adrianna, 16, will accompany her. Breezy’s teacher, Joyce Wasko, and husband Frank, will also be making the trip.
May 30, 1990
The Grays Harbor/Pacific County Chapter of the American Cancer Society will hold its 24-hour Run Against Cancer beginning at 6 p.m. Friday at the Hoquiam High School track.
Last year more than 350 Twin Harbors’ participants raised $29,000. This year 750 volunteers will be participating on 58 teams. Corporate sponsors are Weyerhaeuser, Aberdeen Federal Savings & Loan, ITT Rayonier, Ocean Spray, KAYO, Sidney’s and KXRO.
The historic Raymond Theatre, a grand relic of the city’s glory days, is likely to get a second life.
The state Department of Community Development has granted the city $500,000 to acquire the 577-seat movie house and renovate it into a community center.
A meeting room, a kitchen, modern restrooms and an elevator are all included in preliminary plans for the building.
May 31, 1990
The parents of Sabrina “Breezy” Carter, the 11-year-old Aberdeen girl who won a national essay contest, said today they were glad they resisted the temptation to tinker with her entry. Breezy, who wants to be a lawyer, won a $4,000 college scholarship for herself and a computer for her teacher, Joyce Wasko. She read her essay at the Capital Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C. during a ceremony honoring the winners of the Time Capsule Contest.
“I’m an English teacher so I suggested she might use fewer topics and develop each of those a little more,” Breezy’s father Bill Carter, said. “But she said, ‘I really want to do it this way.’ Of course at that time we had no idea she would win. Our approach was always that it was only an essay contest that nobody ever wins.”
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.
