85 years ago
January 18, 1941
Russell “Buck” Gurrad has a talent for remembering names and addresses. And he puts his remarkable memory to good use, for Gurrad, is the man at the Aberdeen postoffice who sorts the mail for local distribution.
Asked if Gurrad really knows the names and addresses of all Aberdeen’s patrols by memory, Postmaster George Magee merely responded, “Try him out, yourself.”
Names taken at random from the telephone book were put to him. “What about George Batinovich?” he was asked.
“George? — He lives on Cushing Street. and Joe lives on Curtis,” he responded.
“What about Rev. Sylvester Robertson,”
“That’s easy,” Gurrad said. “Box 23, right here. There’s no mail delivery on Bel Aire.”
“And Richard Scroggs, new chamber of commerce president,” he was asked.
“1604. W. Sixth.”
“Miss Terpening?”
“Eleanor Terpening, 114 East Second. There’s a whole lot of teachers here. She’s an easy one to remember, being the only Terpening in town.”
Gurrad started in the postoffice nearly 20 years ago just after he finished high school. here. He has been tossing mail into pigeonholes for local distribution for 12 years.
January 20, 1941
For a quarter of a century, Hoquiam City Attorney James P.H. Callahan, has been preparing ordinances, revamping some and abolishing others in keeping with the city’s needs.
“In the early days the people took city laws more seriously,” he said. “For instance, the curfew law was rigidly enforced and obeyed. In act, it might be well to adopt the curfew law again.”
Callahan said the regulation of dancing has been amended many times as social conditions change. Back in 1913 dance halls could not open before sunset and all lights had to be turned on before dancing started. Another ordinance forbid “tight squeezing” while dancing.
Cows and chickens used to be a big source of annoyance and often resulted in some unusual or humorous predicaments. “I remember,” said Callahan, “when an early day chief of police picked up a cow roaming at large and took it to the city pound. The enraged owner knocked the chief down and took the cow home.”
January 23, 1941
Interest in the Grays Harbor region as the search continued for the lost McChord field bomber was revived today when two more persons reported having seen a “large military” plane roaring over this section Thursday.
Guy Wood, foreman for the Provo logging camp in the south bay region, reported he had seen a large plane flying west Thursday morning. This was about the time that C.C. Coghlan, Ocosta farmer, said he saw a plane winging over Ocosta.
The Washington state patrol here notified the Tacoma patrol office this morning and Tacoma in turn notified McChord field officials. It was reported that the field earlier had said it would send three planes on a search if the tips “looked good.”
January 24, 1941
A seven-man crew from McChord field was combing canyons some 10 miles northeast of Aberdeen today for felled trees sighted yesterday from an army plane, which might mark the crash trail of an army bomber missing since January 16.
William Hamm, state patrol sergeant, said he escorted the men up the Wynooche Road to Black Creek.
A major, heading the crew, told Hamm he had seen some broken off trees when he flew over the Harbor yesterday in an army plane searching for trace of the lost bomber.
65 YEARS AGO
January 18, 1966
U.S. military strength in Viet Nam today soared to more than 190,000 men with the twin landings of thousands of fresh Marines and infantrymen from Hawaii and Okinawa.
U.S. military commander Gen. William C. Westmoreland was on the beach at Vung Tau, 40 miles southeast of Saigon, when the first elements of the 4,000-man 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, moved ashore.
January 19, 1966
For a week Aberdeen firemen had been apprehensive over a meeting called by Hank Loman, fire committee chairman, for last night in the new South Aberdeen fire station.
Then suddenly down the street came the whine from the electric siren of the Cosmopolis fire truck. Members of the Cosmopolis Volunteer Fire Department hopped out and began bustling benches and tables into the station.
A fine feast of two hams, potato salad, olives, bread and a large two-layer cake, made in the image of the new fire station, appeared before the bewildered gaze of the Aberdeen firemen.
January 20, 1966
Astoria Seafood, located at 15 South E Street in Aberdeen is advertising fresh smelt for 55¢ a pound; whole crab for 35¢ a pound and crab meat for $1.50 a pound.
30 YEARS AGO
January 18, 1991
Stunned, but supportive of the men and women in the armed services, Hoquiam High School students pondered history in the making during Ed Dawson’s fourth period Global Issues class.
“I never though I’d be sitting in a classroom, talking about ‘The War’ in present tense,” said Diane Myers, 18.
The students discussed a wide range of issues — the importance of maintaining troop morale, the place of war protesters, the role of journalists, the economic reasons and reactions for the conflict, cultural differences, war strategies and even detailed questions about various kinds of high-tech weaponry.
January 19, 1991
It was a peace gathering of a different spirit along Riverside Dike in Hoquiam Friday afternoon. Instead of rousing anti-war speeches and protest banners, this rally featured yellow ribbons of support for the troops in the Persian Gulf.
“We’re not here as war supporters,” said Hoquiamite Jill Bellis, a city councilwoman and manager of Channel Point. “But now that our troops are over there, we need to give them our full support, and we need to pray for peace.”
“If they have to be there, let’s support them,” said Hoquiamite Joe Connelly, a Vietnam veteran. “I know how they feel right now, and I’d hate to see them come home and feel the same way I did.”
Aberdeen tight end Mark Bruener, one of the state’s most highly-recruited prep football payers, verbally committed Friday to attend the University of Washington.
The 6-5, 225-pound senior, an all-state selection at tight end and outside linebacker, said yesterday afternoon that several factors figured in his decision.
“The combination of academics and a strong football team, it’s closer to home and I was very impressed with their coaching staff,” he said. “They’re really a classy operation.”
January 20, 1991
When Doug McCarty set Jan. 17 for a talk to Simpson Elementary School sixth-graders, he had no idea he would be fielding their questions 20 hours after the allied attack on Iraq.
A Montesano High School graduate and former Simpson student himself, the 21-year-old military policeman told the kids that he had been up most of the night watching the news. He is on 30-day leave from the Army.
McCarty, a specialist four and in 615 M.P. Company, has been stationed mainly in West Germany since he enlisted three years ago.
• Wishkah’s Loggerettes pre-empted a slice of North Beach history Saturday downing the Lady Hyaks 49-32 in the first-ever girls’ varsity basketball played at the new NBHS gym.
Shannon Taylor scored all of her 11 points in the first half. Wishkah center Molly McDougall was the only other player in double figures with 10.
January 23, 1991
The strike is over — but there is no deal.
ITT Rayonier’s 270 pulp mill workers are going back to work after nearly five months on the picket line without a ratified contract.
The “equal pay for equal work” issue that they struck over is unresolved, union officials say. Tom James, president of Local 169 of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, said the decision to return protects the seniority of the union members and allows negotiations to continue.
The company had issued an ultimatum, saying it would hire permanent replacements by Friday unless the union members accepted the company’s “last and final offer” of Jan. 3.
Led by Lisa Landreth’s 19 points and 16 rebounds, Hoquiam pulled away in the final quarter for a 65-48 victory over Aberdeen in the season’s first meeting of the trans-Myrtle Street girls’ basketball rivals Tuesday night at Hoquiam Square Garden.
The victory, before a crowd of perhaps 250, was the Lady Grizzlies’ third straight and kept them in a tie for second place in the BHL.
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.
