In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Friday, Nov. 8, 1935, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about Chehalis Senior High School students having to perform an entertainment program for their Centralia peers after they lost a season ticket sales competition to the Centralia High School students.
The season’s first snowfall had been observed in the Twin Cities, but most of it had melted by noon due to warm early fall temperatures, according to the Thursday, Nov. 8, 1945, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1955, edition of The Chronicle, it was reported three Green Hill School escapees had stolen Chehalis Police Chief Tom Murray’s 1950 sedan directly out of his home’s garage before taking it on a joyride and robbing another house in Mud Bay.
A Look Back in Time is compiled using Chronicle archives stored at the Lewis County Historical Museum — located at 599 NW Front St. in Chehalis — along with digital archives on newspapers.com.
Friday, Nov. 8, 1935
• Chehalis Senior High School students had to perform an entertainment program for their Centralia High School peers to pay a “debt” after losing a competition to see which of the two student bodies could sell more season tickets, The Chronicle reported. “The program started with a talk by Bill Bantz, followed by a tap dance by Edna May Coffman. Marylin Mason presented an acrobatic dance, a skit was given by a group of junior class boys, and a piano solo by Dick Post were also on the program. The boys’ quartet composed of Dick Blanchot, Roy Paulson, Clark Penner and Don Fiscus sang and a play, ‘Seven to One,’ with an all-girl cast, closed the program.”
• Several Centralia businesses stated they had 100% employee enrollment before a Red Cross membership and donation drive had started, according to membership drive manager Charles Sticklin, The Chronicle reported. The membership drive was set to start Nov. 11. “The firms which have announced their contributions three days before the start of the roll call are the J.C. Penny Company, Montgomery Ward and the traffic department of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. In addition to the firms listed, teachers of the Centralia public schools also reported 100% enrollment. Half the money collected during the roll call will remain in Centralia, to be used for local Red Cross purposes, while the other half will go to the central organization, Sticklin said.”
• Sears, Roebuck and Co. installed “what they claimed is the most modern radio service laboratory in Southwest Washington” in Chehalis, The Chronicle reported. “The house, or cage, is completely surrounded by two layers of copper netting which eliminates all outside electrical interference. Aided by such new scientific equipment as the oscilloscope, all-wave oscillator, power modulator, frequency modulator and other devices, radio technician H. Butcher is enabled to accurately align and adjust a radio perfectly through the means of light lines, not being dependent on sound as heretofore.”
• A six-room “modern house” and “Dr. Coon’s hospital bldg.” on two lots of land in downtown Centralia near the Lewis and Clark Hotel was listed for trade in The Chronicle’s classifieds for “good land or stumpland and pay cash difference.”
Thursday, Nov. 8, 1945
• The first snowfall of the year was seen in the Twin Cities, but being early fall still, it melted quickly, The Chronicle reported. “Thick, wet flakes making a two-inch covering that melted almost at once on the pavement. By noon little remained on the ground and surrounding hills. The first of the flakes sifted down shortly before midnight, and from that time to early morning the flurries continued. An inch of snow blanketed Tacoma at daybreak, and light snow was general over the state, with the temperature dropping to a low of 17 at Yakima.”
• Centralia residents elected Dr. Oscar E. Nelson as the Hub City’s new mayor along with choosing other city officials, The Chronicle reported. “Vernon A. Fear was elected commissioner of finance; John A. Raught was re-elected commissioner of public works for his third successive term, and a municipal bond issue of $95,000 for construction of a swimming pool as a World War II memorial was approved.” While Nelson and Fear both won with convincing margins and Raught ran unopposed, the bond issue, despite getting 1,223 votes of approval to 635 against, still barely passed. “The bond issue actually was approved by a margin of only 108 votes, as 60% of the ballots cast, or 1,115, had to favor the project.”
• The Chehalis police department claimed four out of five people who got tickets after leaving their cars parked too long in the city’s newly installed parking meters zones still liked the idea of parking meters, The Chronicle reported. “The only criticism they have is against themselves for negligence in moving their cars, according to Chief of Police Tom Murray. The meters have been in operation a week and have already done much to solve the city’s parking problem, Chief Murray said. Objections, he said, are coming principally from a few businesses and professional men who formerly enjoyed special privileges, but are now being requested to observe the same parking regulations as those enforced on the general public.”
• A six-room “modern home” on 50 acres of land with 18 cleared acres and “lots of timber” three miles outside of Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $4,500.
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1955
• In a bold and daring escape plan, three Green Hill School students successfully made their getaway after they stole Chehalis Police Chief Tom Murray’s 1950 sedan from his home and took it for a joy ride, The Chronicle reported. “The car was taken from the garage at Murray’s home at 1459 Cascade Ave. The youngsters wired the ignition, for no keys were in the machine. It was recovered near Bucoda Monday night, two fender skirts gone and showing signs of having been roughly used.” While two of the escapees were back in custody, the third, a 16-year-old Rochester boy, was still on the run. After stealing Murray’s car, they apparently drove to Mud Bay and broke into a house to steal the silverware and bedding before driving back to Centralia. There, the escapees visited one of their girlfriends, which is where Centralia police caught up to them, arresting two of them while the third gave them the slip. “Another car was reported stolen Monday night, that belonging to L.G. Reed, route 2, Centralia. His car is a yellow and green ‘54 coach with the license number 12860-L.”
• A new 143-foot tall oil derrick was set up on Coal Creek Road north of Chehalis in an attempt to “sink the deepest test hole yet in Lewis County’s active exploration for oil deposits,” The Chronicle reported. The derrick was capable of drilling as deep as 12,500 feet, but derrick crew members expected to strike black gold at around 8,000 feet. “Financed entirely by out-of-state interests, the Colorado-Wyoming Drilling Company of Denver has a 16-man crew on the site to drill day and night in three shifts a test hole many geologists claim should produce oil. Claude Womack, a Ponca City, Oklahoma, oil man, is the ‘tool pusher’ and head boss for the actual drilling operations.”
• A four-bedroom home with plumbing, an “almost new furnace,” utility room, garage and a yard near Centralia High School was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $11,000. A furnished duplex “three blocks from city center” in Centralia was listed for rent for $60 a month.
Monday, Nov. 8, 1965
• Students from the University of Oregon took home the top honors of the sweepstakes trophy at the end of the Centralia College Invitational Forensics Tournament, The Chronicle reported. “Three-hundred students from 28 northwest colleges competed Friday and Saturday on the campus. Marge Sanborn, Centralia College forensics coach and director of the tournament, reported Washington placed second behind UO for top honors. Third place went to Gonzaga University of Spokane. Centralia debaters placing in the top three winners in each section were Len Yarnell, third in men’s interpretive reading, and Jim Bacon and Bob McBride, third in men’s debate.”
• The Chronicle featured a Canadian Press story about University of British Columbia geophysics professor R.D. Russell saying it might be possible to detect secret Soviet underground nuclear weapon tests using seismic sensors meant for measuring earthquake strength. Russell made the claim after seismic sensors were set up in a string of 26 stations across Canada to measure underground energy waves after a U.S. hydrogen bomb was detonated 2,300 feet underground in a test in Alaska. “‘In my opinion it would be very hard not to be able to tell them (nuclear blast versus an earthquake) apart.’ He said preliminary information … indicates that shear waves, a sort of twisting motion common to all earthquake disruptions, were not recorded following the Alaska blast. ‘It looks pretty hopeful at first glance, but of course we have a lot of work ahead of us.’”
• A 14-year-old Portland boy was in Olympia police custody after he was caught there following a crash in a car belonging to Willfred Faul which he stole from the Yard Birds Shopping Center parking lot in Chehalis, The Chronicle reported. “Lewis County sheriff’s officers reported the car was taken by a 14-year-old runaway from Portland and recovered in Olympia. The vehicle was not drivable when found by police.”
• A seven-room home with “good outbuildings” and a “bachelor apartment” on 40 acres of land on Newaukum Hill was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $24,000. A furnished two-bedroom apartment in Centralia was listed for rent for $75 a month.
Saturday, Nov. 8, 1975
• While there were still ballots left to be counted from the general election, Chehalis residents appeared to have elected the first women to ever serve on the Chehalis City Council, while the race for Napavine mayor was still deadlocked, The Chronicle reported. Earlier in the year on Aug. 2, The Chronicle reported that a total of seven women candidates were among the field of 20 vying for Chehalis City Council positions in the primary election that year. “Chehalis Mardell Graham increased her lead by another nine votes over Paul V. McBride for a seat on the new Chehalis City Council. Robert I. Venemon, Lewis County auditor and supervisor of elections, said Lloyd Edmonds and Betty Williams each picked up five more votes. Both have 71 votes now for the position of Napavine mayor.” Graham was joined that year by Joyce Venemon and Vivian Roewe, as the first three women to serve on the Chehalis City Council.
• State Sen. Gary Odegaard, D-Centralia, announced the Washington State Highway Department awarded contracts for two highway construction projects in Lewis County, The Chronicle reported. “The largest contract, $2,183,291.40, went to Lakeside Industries, Centralia, for a three-mile improvement of the freeway from Koontz Road to the Newaukum River. The project includes the adding of a third southbound lane, widening of two bridges, realigning the Onalaska-Morton Highway interchange and the necessary drainage, paving, lighting and fencing. Work is to begin the fall and be completed by next summer. The second went to Columbia-West Materials and Constructors, Longview, on a bid of $438,470.80 for the improvement of the 13th Street interchange.”
• The Chronicle sent editor Chuck Wilfong to the town of Isabel Segunda on Vieques Island, just off the coast of Puerto Rico, for a feature story about the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines using the island for training and how the locals perceived it. “Manuel Ortega-Ramirez, better known as Manny, straightened and wiped the perspiration from his brow after loading a fifth case of India Beer into the cooler behind the bar. ‘Expecting a big night?’ I asked, questioning the veracity of stocking that much bubbly for just three patrons. ‘No señor, a big mañana,’ he replied, the wearied look on his face reflecting both tolerance and a bit of amusement. ‘The Marines, you know.’ … Each year it’s the same. In a sort of capsulized version of ‘The Longest Day,’ a flotilla of warships appears off the island, Naval batteries (firing blanks as big as boxcars) open up to soften the ‘enemy’ ashore and landing craft head for the beach. Marines storming up the sand meet token resistance in the form of a few wiry island cattle that stubbornly refuse to give up a choice patch of wilted grass. They are soon put to flight and a beachhead is established.” Opinions among locals were mixed as to whether they wanted their small island community to continue hosting the war games. While local businesses enjoyed the economic boost fueled by Marines spending money in town, local farmers and ranchers had a different view. “Vieques ranchers desire a return of a portion of the island used as a gunnery range by the U.S. Navy. They say it's prime grazing land. Besides, they point out, the alternative of having bovine bomb shelters and an early warning siren that ‘moos’ is impractical.”
• A “small” two-bedroom home and a barn on 10 acres of land in Silver Creek was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $32,500. A three-bedroom home in Chehalis was listed for rent for $175 a month.
