75 years ago

Sept. 13, 1941

• Two 14-year-old Harbor boys — Fred Westrom and Ray Damitio — proudly wore official army medals today for of all things, spying on Uncle Sam’s soldiers. Of course, those ham sandwiches had something to do with it too.

The boys were visiting their grandparents, in Ford’s Prairie during the war games. They quickly made friends with the “red” soldiers, camped at Brady and before long were spying on the “blue” forces. “We stuck pins through the telephone wires in the “blue” camp. Shorted them out, you know,” said Fred. And one day, “we got a big ham out of grandma’s kitchen and made a lotta sandwiches and took ‘em to the ‘reds.’ We got mile for the soldiers, too.”

“In fact,” he said thoughtfully, “granpa said he figured he was about five gallons short each milking, but he knew where it was going.”

The medals arrived in the mail yesterday with a note from Corporal William Haslan in Fort Ord. “These medals are to be worn on the left breast pocket and are for all men who took part in the war games.”

• Frank J. Iskra, Aberdeen youth, who was awarded a scholarship to Massachusetts Institute of Technology will leave Monday to start school. He will major in chemical engineering.

Sept. 14, 1941

Sunday, no newspaper published

50 years ago

Sept. 13, 1966

County Commissioners yesterday gave temporary approval to a $1,200,000 expense budget for 1967. Final approval is due in October.

Under the preliminary budget, elected officials would get a raise from $6,300 a year to $7,900 beginning Jan. 1. Office employees (license clerks, secretaries and the like) would generally receive raises of $30 a month. Sheriff’s deputies would receive a monthly pay boost of $50.

Sept. 14, 1966

Johnny Hulbert, a prominent Aberdeen lumberman and golfer until he moved south to fulfill a long-time ambition to become a golf professional a few years ago, was demonstrating a unique putter at the GH County Club last weekend during the pro-am tournament. It was approximately 7 inches longer than the conventional putter or approximately the same length as a man’s driver.

Paul Runyon, who beat Sam Snead 8 and 7 for the PGA crown in 1938, has invented the long putter that he predicts “will find its way into the hands of 40 percent of the nation’s golfers in five or six years.”

Runyon, a national golfing celebrity and authority, is head pro at the 495-member LaJolla, Calif. club where Hulbert now works as a teaching assistant.

25 years ago

Sept. 13, 1991

“Dear Readers,” wrote Daily World Publisher Duane Langeliers, “We’re not superstitious, but the fact is this is Friday the 13th and some time around 3 a.m., our computers crashed. Big time. Thus we had no access to any of the local stories the reporters had entered Thursday afternoon and evening nor any Associated Press stories … Our friends at The Chronicle in Centralia scrambled to produce the latest AP stories for us while The Daily World news staff turned to a backup Macintosh system … We apologize for the delay and the abbreviated edition and appreciate your patience.”

Sept. 14, 1991

The Best of Show for this year’s Ocean Shores Arts and Crafts Festival was awarded to Nancy Bowman of Hoquiam. The Gunderson Award for the outstanding work in youth categories was presented to Fraser Rotchford of Ocean Shores.

In addition to the contest portion of the festival which continues today and tomorrow at the Convention Center, local craft artists have reserved about 50 tables to display and sell their original handiwork of all sorts. For the first time, a cash prize of $50 is being offered for the best booth display.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom