75 years ago
March 5, 1943
The war labor board approved today a wage scale for 201 women employees of the Grays Harbor Chair and Manufacturing Co., Hoquiam, under which women will receive the same pay as men in numerous classifications.
For example, the board said, men and women assistant foremen will receive $1.05 an hour, head packers 85 cents an hour and car unloaders 79 cents an hour.
50 years ago
March 5, 1968
Walter Kraus — a land developer who specializes in shopping centers — hit Hoquiam like a Russian ICBM last Thursday puffing on a panatella, and the town hasn’t been the same since.
Calling women “dollies” and merchants “Messiahs,” Kraus made quite an impression and about 35 concerned citizens converged on city hall last night to let down their hair about the flamboyant Oregonian and his plans for the downtown Urban Renewal parcel.
Krause has offered $155,000 for the Urban Renewal parcel, but did little to conceal his disappointment at the city’s inability to obtain the Hay’s property so that he could construct an enclosed mall shopping center.
“If the people of Hoquiam can come up with some proposal that will work out for us,” said Bobby Hay, co-proprietor of Hay’s Dairy with his uncle, Robert, “one that will be fair and equitable, then we’ll be happy to move. Remember people, we’re for this (deal). We want to get out of there as bad as you want to get us out of there, but we have to have a fair offer. That’s not too much to ask, is it?”
25 years ago
March 5, 1993
When the historical Seaport launches its first longboat Sunday afternoon in Aberdeen, don’t let the coxswain hear you singing a chorus of “Row, row, row your boat.”
Tokeland resident Peter Williams, 70, will be barking the orders and steering the longboat as the crew pulls, not rows, the oars.
“The landlubbers call it rowing,” he tsk-tsks in a crisp British accent.
Rowing, he explains, is done in a smaller boat and in fresh water. “It’s always referred to as ‘pulling’ in deep sea or salt water sailing.”
As coxswain (for you landlubbers, that’s pronounced “cock-s’n”) Williams’ job will be to keep the crew on task and the 26-foot boat on course.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
