75 years ago
Aug. 23, 1941
Ray and Roy Craft, widely known McCleary twins, returned to their “battle-scarred” home town for a brief visit yesterday and might have called on their friends in Aberdeen had they not been held back by “red” invading forces who made further gains on the eastern Grays Harbor front.
The boys, both with commissions in the defending “blue” army, toured the front as public relations officers. Ray formerly was an Aberdeen World reported and Raymond chamber of commerce manager. Roy is editor of the Fort Ord Panorama which was described by newsmen as a model for camp papers.
Aug. 24, 1941
Sunday, no newspaper published
50 years ago
Aug. 23, 1966
A year ago they were penniless and happy on the beach in the Virgin Islands. This year they are apt to earn a million dollars, yet they manage to remain happy.
They call themselves the Mama’s and the Papa’s though none of them is. They look odd, but they sound good as demonstrated by their biggest hit record, “Monday, Monday.”
Who are they?
There’s John Phillips, 25, who attended two years of Annapolis before cutting out for the music world; Cass Elliott, 22, a girl of Kate Smithian proportions; Dennis Doherty, 24, a motorcyclist with Prince Valiant hair and Michelle Gilliam, 22, petite and lovely — she recently returned to the group after reconciling with John, her sometime husband.
Aug. 24, 1966
• Mrs. Ray Key of Sunset Drive in Hoquiam won a mink stole from the Aberdeen Thriftway Store during its grand opening celebration. The coat was presented to Mrs. Key by Joe Tolomei, owner, and John Detomasi, store manager.
25 years ago
Aug. 23, 1991
Seventeen-year-old Delbert King of South Aberdeen left the Harbor last night in an ambulance, paralyzed from the neck down.
He had hit his spine “dead center” in a game of sand-lot football with two friends.
But at 5 o’clock this morning, the staff at Capital Medical Center in Olympia brought an early breakfast to the teenager.
He fed himself. He had regained the use of his body an hour earlier.
“All you can say is that it was a miracle,” his mother said in a phone interview from his bedside.
Aug. 24, 1991
• If this Labor Day is anything like last Labor Day, about 500 people will stand on the back of a ferry and overfeed the seagulls between Westport and Ocean Shores.
They will also pay Bill Walsh 25 cents for three slices of bread.
Walsh is the owner of The El Matador, a former charter fishing boat which now serves as the Westport-Ocean Shores ferry.
The Matador runs six round-trips daily June through August — only on weekends in May and September. A tickets costs $4.50 or $9 for a round-trip.
Anyone wishing to travel between the two cities has two choices — a roughly 90-minute drive around the Harbor or a relaxing 30-minute ferry ride. With 800 horse power and a top speed of about 20 knots, The El Matador can make the trip quicker than 30 minutes but the captain stops for such tourist delights as whales and seals.
And on occasion, he has stopped to pull swamped boaters out of the water.
• Where once multiple murders occurred, a group of businessmen are hoping to make a killing of their own.
The foot of the Heron Street Bridge was headquarters to the Sailors Union where Billy Gohl, who ranks as one of the most prolific killers in American history, was dropping his victims into the river through a trap door.
Now the owners of Breakwater Seafoods, Inc. — Sandy Bridges, Jack Thompson and John Mertz — hope to display the catch of the day at the historic corner where thousands drive by each day. They hope to have relocated their seafood market to the remodeled building by Labor Day.
