75 years ago
Dec. 19, 1941
Aberdeen escaped practically unscathed today from a second 13–foot plus tide, with inundations confined to minor flooding of South Aberdeen streets, but Eastern Grays Harbor had several roads flooded from continued downpours.
Mail service to Aberdeen was delayed this morning when several tons of dirt cascaded off a bluff at Fuller’s station, three and a half miles west of Elma, blocking the railroad tracks.
The owl train, due here at 5:45 o’clock this morning didn’t arrive until 11 o’clock.
50 years ago
Dec. 19, 1966
When William Johnson, former owner of the Wirta Hotel, 104 South F St. in Aberdeen, returns from a California vacation, he’ll find he has a pile of silver dollars awaiting him.
A tidy treasure trove of $223 in plump silver coins will go to Johnson as the result of the remodeling project nearing completion at the Wirta. Clarence (Red) Gamst, owner of the Wirta, needed to move an old safe out to continue his remodeling work. He offered it to Kresting Earl at Acme Tool and Equipment.
Inside the safe were cigar boxes holding canceled checks from 1945, other papers and $223 in silver dollars. Earl said the money was being delivered to Elmer Johnson, brother of the former Wirta operator, and just in time for Christmas.
25 years ago
Dec. 19, 1991
Aberdeen City Councilman Lee Tolomei is a walking, talking definition of stubborn.
City Hall reporters over the past two dozen years have sprinkled their copy with words like feisty, cantankerous, obstinate and irascible to describe the 77–year–old Italian immigrant.
But Tolomei hasn’t been so curmudgeonly lately. In the last two years, he’s undergone major surgery several times — including multiple heart by–pass and colon cancer operations.
Last night, the ultra–conservative from the 6th Ward announced his resignation. He’s tired and frustrated — both with the modern way of running the city and the fact that his doctors are telling him not to get all het up about it.
Tolomei for years has been the council’s most senior member, seeing the appointment or election of 10 mayors.
“Ed Lundgren was the best mayor we ever had,” Tolomei stated unequivocally. “He didn’t spend money, like most of these mayors do. He was economical.”
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
