85 YEARS AGO
September 14, 1940
Scores of Grays Harbor voters will join a motor caravan escorting Wendell Willkie’s special train to Seattle when the Republican nominee speaks there Sept. 23, Arthur E. Graham, Harbor Republican chairman, said today. In addition, the party committee will arrange for at least two busses to carry Harbor voters to Seattle to hear one of Willkie’s major campaign addresses at Sick’s Seattle Stadium.
September 16, 1940
President Roosevelt signed into law today the nation’s first peacetime draft bill and immediately issued a proclamation requiring the registration Oct. 16 of 16,500,000 men 21 through 35 years of age.
Bids for a completely modern clinic to be erected on North Broadway for Dr. M. W. Brachvogel will be opened this week. The new clinic will represent an investment of some $25,000. Although the clinic will not be a hospital, it will have 16 rooms and complete clinic facilities and will have a ambulance and emergency entrance.
September 17, 1940
The sentimental tie that binds a man with his buddies in khaki is strong — that’s why Stewart W. Armour is enroute at his own expense from Hawaii to Aberdeen today to join the 248th coast artillery when it is put into active service at Fort Worden.
Hearing that his outfit was being mobilized, Armour, who has been working in a pineapple canning factory, reported to the commanding general at Fort Shaftner. He was advised he could transfer to an Hawaiian national guard unit or return to Aberdeen. According to a radio-gram received here by Brig. Gen. Maurice Thompson, Armour preferred to be with his Aberdeen buddies.
September 18, 1940
August “Gus” Strom is a high climber. For 28 years he has been working just under the floor of the heavens, and twice he peeked inside. Once was when a flying line cracked his skull and he had to be lowered with a guinea line, again when he signalled to hoist a hull block “yust a little bit.” The green engineer “goosed it” and jammed the block in the rigging. Gus descended, minus a finger, from the still quivering spar tree.
Gus came to the Harbor in 1915, probably as Grays Harbor’s first high climber, worked 18 months for Polson, rigged up the first tree in the Coats-Fordney works, then tramped from one tree to another all over southwest Washington. He has been back at Polson for more than a decade and sometimes in his sleep he dreams he has climbed every tree from Humptulips Landing to O’Took Prairie.
September 19, 1940
Downtown Aberdeen was assured another new business building today when Tom Brennan announced he will erect a modern story and a half store in Wishkah, between Broadway and I street.
The new Brennan store will represent an investment of more than $30,000 and will be build on a 50-foot lot now occupied by signboards adjacent to the former Safeway store site.
The Brennan store was founded in 1924 and had a humble beginning on G Street, expanding there and moving to the Wishkah street location. As the store expanded it embraced two other businesses, the pioneer Model Tea & Coffee, one of the oldest businesses here and later the Baker Hardware. His present store is one of the largest in Aberdeen.
September 20, 1940
Grays Harbor’s national guardsmen paraded through downtown Aberdeen late today as a farewell gesture and were looking forward to leaving tomorrow morning for Fort Worden and a year’s training. Preceding the parade they posed for a group picture. The men were assured of a night off tonight to say goodbye to their friends.
60 YEARS AGO
September 14, 1965
Mrs. Lance Talley was elected Valentine girl by members of Xi Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi at the club’s first fall meeting at the home of Mrs. LeRoy Thomasson in Central Park.
Projects were discussed with the club voting in favor of holding a card party in October and a bake and craft sale in December.
Mrs. Fred Kogin was elected treasurer.
With four boys clowning in the background, President Johnson welcomed to the capital today record-setting astronauts L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles Conrad Jr.
Conrad’s four boys, ranging in age from 4 to 10, grinned and fidgeted behind the presidential desk as Johnson presented the astronauts with the Exceptional Service Medal of NASA. They were honored for their eight-day Gemini 5 flight last month that set a record for manned orbits in space.
September 15, 1965
The First Congregational Church will observe a major milestone this weekend when it celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding
Members of the original congregation were W.H. Johnston, Mary Zent, Sarah Carman, Lydia Worth, Eva Antrim, Mr. and Mrs. L.L. Trask, Mrs. A.L. Caruthers, A.D. Pinckney, Mrs. A.D. Wood and Mr. and Mrs. Jake Weatherwax.
Aberdeen resident Brain E. Burch has been named a Peace Corps Volunteer having completed 12 weeks of training at St. John’s College, Annapolis, Md., and is now home on leave prior to a departure to India in three days. Volunteers in his group will be involved in poultry extension and community development.
September 16, 1965
Construction of a $335,000 deluxe addition to the Morck Hotel has been approved by the Small Business Administration and construction is expected to get under way in November, it was announced today by William Hamman, Morck owner-operator.
The addition will be located adjacent to the hotel on the corner of Wishkah and K streets. It will be a three-story structure with 32 motel units on the two top floors and parking on the ground floor. The complex will include an enclosed swimming pool and a bridge from the annex to the hotel itself.
September 17, 1965
Three blocks west of Myrtle Street, a vast green facade of grandstand nestles nearly 10 acres of lush turf against Campbell Hill’s wooden slope.
Under the grandstand roof the entire adult and adolescent population of Hoquiam can be accommodated.
A baseball diamond unequaled in more than one major league park is fitted into the far corner of the stands. In right field, completely clear of the diamond, a football sward superior in quality to half the major New Year’s bowl arenas stretches before the main sweep of stands.
Outside the main enclosure are a Little League park, softball field, tennis courts and playground apparatus.
This is Hoquiam’s Olympic Stadium.
For $150,000, a tab picked up in large part by the WPA, in 1938 Hoquiam became and still is owner of the finest athletic plant in the state, with the exception of a few large stadia in metropolitan areas.
September 18, 1965
Motorists will be able to whip through Tacoma in 5.3 minutes after next Tuesday. That’s what the State Highways Department says it will take when the last section of the Tacoma Freeway is opened that day. It took more than three times as long for the seven-mile trip through the city before the freeway was built eliminating 18 stop lights.
September 20, 1965
Quarterback Curt Nations hit Duayne Slimp with touchdown passes good for 40 and 10 yards and tallied another himself on a sneak to lead his Quinault Elks to a 27-13 win over Wishkah Saturday in a SWW 8-man Conference opener. Milan Bruner scored the fourth Elk TD on a 1-yard dive to cap a 60-yard march.
35 YEARS AGO
September 14, 1990
Hundreds of men and women huddle at small, square tables. They’re all holding cards but there’s no money involved, bluffing is against the rules and the element of luck is completely eliminated. Moreover, no one is smoking.
About 600 bridge enthusiasts are participating daily in the week-long American Contract Bridge League regional tournament at the Ocean Shores Convention Center.
“Most bridge players don’t refer to bridge as ‘cards,’” said Darrell Keel of Aberdeen, who helped organize the regional tournament. “Duplicate bridge is different from virtually all other card games because the element of luck is non-existent.”
In duplicate bridge, each player’s hand is kept separate during play rather than being discarded into a single pile. At the end of each hand — or “board” as it’s called in duplicate bridge — the cards are placed back in a cardholder and passed to the next table of players. That group then plays the exact same cards.
September 15, 1990
For 30 years, Driftwood Players have been bringing high-quality theater to Grays Harbor audiences.
In 1959, the Grays Harbor Civic Choir produced “Pajama Game,” directed by Dick Lane. After the show closed, five members of the cast and crew got together and discussed the possibilities of doing more theater on the Harbor.
These creative talents were Dick Lane, Hinton and Joy Kitrell, Ron Randell and Sylvia Heikkila.
The group was given the use of a small deserted Weyerhaeuser office building in Cosmopolis. The first show, “See How They Run”opened that November before the theater was finished and the lobby still had windows that opened on to the street. During a final chase scene in the show, Lane, dressed only in boxer shorts was being chased on and off stage by Tony Daniewicz.
“A car drove past just as I ran through the open lobby,” Lane said. “The driver went straight to the police station and reported that there was an orgy going on. The constable told the driver that it was alright, it was just those theater people.”
September 16, 1990
The Grays Harbor Fisheries Enhancement Task Force is angling for bigger and better catches, now that a full-time coordinator is on deck.
The task force’s scope has grown from just Grays Harbor County streams to the entire Chehalis River watershed — the second largest in the state, with only the Columbia River watershed surpassing it.
As the first-ever fisheries coordinator for the task force, longtime volunteer Dave Hamilton of Elma will oversee brood stock programs on the Humptulips, Wishkah and East Satstop rivers.
September 17, 1990
Emmy Awards for 1990: Drama series, “L.A. Law”; Lead drama actor, “Columbo’s” Peter Falk; Lead drama actress, “Thirtysomething’s” Patricia Wettig; Comedy series, “Murphy Brown”’; Lead comedy actor, “Cheers’” Ted Danson; Lead comedy actress, “Murphy Brown’s” Candice Bergen.
September 18, 1990
An emotional father-and-son reunion brought true glitter to a Junction City couple’s Golden Anniversary this weekend.
“It was the first time I think I’ve ever seen him cry,” said Vi Jensen, whose husband, Earl, saw a son from his previous marriage whom he hadn’t seen in about 40 years.
Earl, 83, a retired welder and mill boom man, had been remarried for about a decade when he and his son, Neil, had a disagreement. That was about 1950.
But when Earl’s enterprising granddaughter, JoAnne Hazen of Aberdeen, learned she had a step uncle she’s never met, she took it upon herself to find him.
She located Neil working as a dentist in California and he and his wife pulled into Aberdeen Saturday, just in time for his dad and step-mom’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration.
“It’s really uncanny how much they look alike,” said Mrs. Hazen.
September 19, 1990
Top Foods in the Wishkah Mall is advertising top sirloin steak for $2.78 a pound, a 4-pound tin of Jif peanut butter for $5.89, a 12-pack of Lender’s bagels for 67¢ and 12-packs of Coke for $1.99.
September 20, 1990
Former high profile criminal Ron Rearick’s advice about kissing raised some eyebrows and earned a few giggles Tuesday afternoon at Miller Junior High School in Aberdeen.
“You can kiss, but when you kiss, don’t lose control,” he told the group of seventh and eighth-graders who’d packed the school gymnasium to hear the widely-recognized Seattle speaker.
“This is the toughest time in your lives,” Rearick said frankly. “Your bodies are out-growing your minds.” With a mix of humor, common sense and forthright honesty, Rearick isn’t afraid to talk to young people about sex, relationships or drugs.
Better known as the “Iceman” — the coldhearted ruffian who once pulled out a fellow prison inmate’s eye with his hands — Rearick is a reformed criminal and mafia hitman. Now an associate minister and adviser to troubled teens, Rearick speaks to about a half million teenagers each year about life’s choices. He and his partner, Christian musician David Flaherty, spoke at several schools and churches on the Harbor this week.
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.
