75 years ago

Dec. 13, 1941

More than 30 men, his friends, neighbors, railroad officials and members of industrial plants he has served, assembled in a dining car of the Northern Pacific railroad last night in a testimonial dinner to W.E. “Pat” Patrick, for the past 33 years conductor of the Elma branch of the Northern Pacific.

The dining car was sent here for the occasion, the first time, according to J.L. Burnham, western traffic manager, such a thing has been done in the history of the railroad.

Six industries located on the “run” which Mr. Patrick has served for so long conceived and sponsored the dinner in tribute to the service he has rendered. In speech after speech, representatives of these concerns recorded their testimony to “Pat’s” fair dealing, his honesty and his manhood.

Dec. 14, 1941

Sunday, no newspaper published

50 years ago

Dec. 13, 1966

A unique bridge removal and towing operation was accomplished without a hitch in Raymond Sunday as the old steel span over the South Fork of the Willapa was removed intact from its center span, placed on a pair of barges and floated a couple of miles down river to South Bend for storage by Harbor Rock Co. The bridge was replaced by a $864,000 prestressed concrete structure located about five blocks upstream.

Dec. 14, 1966

Billed as the early season Central League basketball crucial, the Raymond-Elma clash last night in Raymond lived up to every exciting expectation with the tall and talented Gulls overpowering the smaller and speedy Eagles with a second half surge by a core of 79-65.

Ken Hoffer again paced the Seagull scoring with 28 points, Gene Ford wound up with 20 and Mike Hubbard with 16 tallies. For the Eagles, Herb Moxley was the high man with 19 followed by Larry Weld with 14.

25 years ago

Dec. 13, 1991

Sparks from a downed power line lit up the predawn sky “like the Fourth of July” as Doug and Joan Crawford watched helplessly as their cows were electrocuted.

Twenty-one Holsteins — bawling pathetically and twitching — died in their holding pen at the Crawford dairy farm in Menlo.

No one knows for sure why it happened but a Pacific County PUD power line came down in a shower of sparks and explosions for three-quarters of a mile along Highway 6 near the farming community east of Raymond.

The 21 dead cows were worth about $40,000 according to the Crawfords but with a year’s worth of lost milk production figured in, they estimate the loss at double that.

Dec. 14, 1991

• Don Forstrom, who graduated from Weatherwax High School in 1949, has returned to Aberdeen, and is now owner and operator of the historic Central Drug.

“It’s been fun seeing a lot of people I haven’t seen since I graduated from high school” said Forstrom.

After graduation Forstrom enlisted in the Navy and spent four years in Korea with duty some of the time on a hospital ship. He graduated from the UW with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and has spent time in Wenatchee, West Seattle and Ferndale.

He purchased the Central Valu-Rite Drug store from Mike Cundari, who had been with the same pharmacy since 1949. Cundari leaves a lot of memories and says retiring was painful, “But it was that time of life. I’m getting up there (67) you know. It was time to step out. I had a lot of loyal customers and I will miss those people.

• Taholah’s Chitwhins celebrated a pair of milestones in winning fashion Friday night.

Three players (Anthony Hobucket, Donald Waugh and Frank Pope) scored in double figures as the Chitwhins made their Pacific League boys’ basketball debut with a 64-38 victory over North Beach

It was also the first head coaching appearance for Taholah’s Jerry Walther, ironically a former North Beach hoop standout. Previously, the Chitwhins’ junior varsity coach, Walther was promoted when Jon Claymore (also Taholah’s football coach and athletic director) relinquished the position because of time constraints.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom