Dec. 23 --- The Argus Observes: Learning about Santa and the perfect sled
Dec. 20 --- Gladys Broadhurst brought to Vale for trial
Dec. 20 --- Polio epidemic ends in Malheur County after worst year across the U.S.
Dec. 17 --- The Argus Observes: “No evidence that athletes drank any beer”
Dec. 13 --- Investigation of juvenile beer drinking begins; four OHS basketball players suspended from team
Dec. 10 --- The Argus Observes --- Standing room only at new gym
Dec. 6 --- State Police break up a beer bust, arrest four teen-agers
Dec. 3 --- The Argus Observes --- Remembering Bob Morford
Oregon Frozen Food’s Nephi Grigg says company paid nation’s highest price for corn
Nephi Grigg, president of Oregon Frozen Foods --- soon to become the Ore-Ida company --- told a gathering of growers that the company had paid the highest contract price in the nation for sweet corn during the 1952 season, The Argus-Observer reported on Dec. 22.
The contract price was $25 a ton with quality bonuses that brought the top payment up to $40 a ton.
Grigg, who earlier announced that the company’s Ontario plant would begin processing frozen potato products in January, attributed the rapid success of the new business to its organization as a private company with features of a cooperative. Managers and key individuals are heavy investors he told 300 contract growers who gathered for an annual banquet at the Moore Hotel in Ontario.
That year the company paid $30,000 in dividends, $10,000 in bonuses and $400,000 in grower payments, according to its president.
Directors of the company at that time were Nephi’s brother Golden T. Grigg, Glen E. Call, who was company secretary-treasurer, Ross E. Butler, Dr. Leslie J. Emmett, Pat J. Gallagher, Ken Inahara, and Otis Williams.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Argus Observes: Learning about Santa and the perfect sled
By Don Lynch
From The Argus Observer for Dec. 24, 1953
Parents playing Santa Claus must often be reminded of their own childhood experiences at Christmas time.
My own first memory in connection with Christmas if of my father explaining the Santa Claus legend, perhaps in response to a query from me, before I was old enough to go to school.
I have no recollection of being shocked or disappointed. Instead it was rather a sensation being let in on a delightful secret.
My sister, Ruth, heard all of the explanation and I remember my childish annoyance at her sometime later when she had forgotten all about it and insisted on the reality of Santa Claus.
Then I remember the intense excitement of Christmas Eve. I was always sure that I would never be able to go to sleep for I could not wait for morning to come.
As I grew older the most pleasant association with Christmas came in helping my mother wrap gifts and fix the tree after the younger children had gone to bed.
When I was old enough to go to work shining shoes, selling papers, and later carrying papers, I got more fun out of having my own money to spend for Christmas than any other benefit.
I remember as if it were yesterday shopping on Christmas Eve when the stores were open late, and finding a sturdy little table and chairs for my sister Louise, 10 years younger than I.
They had been marked down very low for late clearance and I got them at quite a bargain or I could not have bought them. She played with them a great deal and they lasted a long time.
One Christmas gift now in recollection stands out above all others of my childhood because it fitted the year to perfection.
It was a sled received in about the best winter for sledding that this country ever had. It must have been the winter of 1923-24, although It might have been a year later.
We lived in the Sunny Slope community south of Caldwell and the mail carrier brought it just two days before Christmas. It couldn’t then be kept a secret and mother explained to the other kids that it had been sent ahead because Santa lacked room to carry it.
What a wonderful combination of circumstances. It started to snow within 24 hours and got a good foot deep. Then it froze hard, about 30 below zero, forming a thick crust on topof the snow --- thick enough to walk on and thick enough to hold up the sled with myweight. The snow lasted for six weeks.
We lived at the foot of a hill and there were other hills in nearby fields. I got in more sledding during that Christmas vacation than most kids are lucky enough to experience in their entire childhood.
That was a thrilling experience for I don’t knowwhat a kid ever does that ismore fun than sledding down a hill at breakneck speed.
There’s nothing like Christmas for a youngster.
From The Argus Observer for Dec. 24, 1953
Parents playing Santa Claus must often be reminded of their own childhood experiences at Christmas time.
My own first memory in connection with Christmas if of my father explaining the Santa Claus legend, perhaps in response to a query from me, before I was old enough to go to school.
I have no recollection of being shocked or disappointed. Instead it was rather a sensation being let in on a delightful secret.
My sister, Ruth, heard all of the explanation and I remember my childish annoyance at her sometime later when she had forgotten all about it and insisted on the reality of Santa Claus.
Then I remember the intense excitement of Christmas Eve. I was always sure that I would never be able to go to sleep for I could not wait for morning to come.
As I grew older the most pleasant association with Christmas came in helping my mother wrap gifts and fix the tree after the younger children had gone to bed.
When I was old enough to go to work shining shoes, selling papers, and later carrying papers, I got more fun out of having my own money to spend for Christmas than any other benefit.
I remember as if it were yesterday shopping on Christmas Eve when the stores were open late, and finding a sturdy little table and chairs for my sister Louise, 10 years younger than I.
They had been marked down very low for late clearance and I got them at quite a bargain or I could not have bought them. She played with them a great deal and they lasted a long time.
One Christmas gift now in recollection stands out above all others of my childhood because it fitted the year to perfection.
It was a sled received in about the best winter for sledding that this country ever had. It must have been the winter of 1923-24, although It might have been a year later.
We lived in the Sunny Slope community south of Caldwell and the mail carrier brought it just two days before Christmas. It couldn’t then be kept a secret and mother explained to the other kids that it had been sent ahead because Santa lacked room to carry it.
What a wonderful combination of circumstances. It started to snow within 24 hours and got a good foot deep. Then it froze hard, about 30 below zero, forming a thick crust on topof the snow --- thick enough to walk on and thick enough to hold up the sled with myweight. The snow lasted for six weeks.
We lived at the foot of a hill and there were other hills in nearby fields. I got in more sledding during that Christmas vacation than most kids are lucky enough to experience in their entire childhood.
That was a thrilling experience for I don’t knowwhat a kid ever does that ismore fun than sledding down a hill at breakneck speed.
There’s nothing like Christmas for a youngster.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Gladys Broadhurst brought to Vale for trial
The Dec. 19, 1946 Ontario Argus reported that Gladys Broadhurst of Caldwell had been indicted for murder and brought to Vale for trial, beginning the saga of one of the most infamous murder trials in Eastern Oregon history. The elements included a local cowboy who carried out the murder at the behest of his noir-type lover and well-to-do victim, a former chiropractor with a ranch in the expansive south county country surrounding Jordan Valley. For more on the opening of the case, follow our link to our T.C. Lessons blog.
Polio epidemic ends in Malheur County after worst year across the U.S.
Editor’s note: 1952 proved to be the worst year for polio in the history of Malheur County and across the nation. Nationally there were 57,628 reported cases that year, three years before the inject able Salk vaccine was declared safe for widespread use. The oral Sabine vaccine began to be administered in 1961, soon eradicating polio in this country.)
The Dec. 15, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer reported that the polio epidemic in the Malheur County area had ended on Nov. 5 with 78 cases treated in the polio ward of a Nyssa hospital, including 47 people from Malheur County.
There were five deaths from polio at the hospital during the year. Those five were Tony Liebag and his mother Dorothy of Hines, Oregon, Kathleen Lowe of Payette, Julia Ann Kirby of Baker and Gary Lee Denton of Baker County.
Another five Malheur County cases were reported receiving treatment at other hospitals or at home, bringing the total for the county for the year to 52.
L.A. Maulding, the Malheur County health officer, said he was surprised at how suddenly the epidemic stopped. The epidemic lasted four months, with polio patients were checking into the Nyssa hospital at a rate of almost one a day until Nov. 5, when they abruptly stopped. In 1947, the worst previous polio year in the county, the epidemic lasted seven months but with just 24 cases reported countywide.
With the epidemic apparently over, three patients who were treated at the hospital required rehabilitation including one 17-year-old boy who was paralyzed from the waist down, Maulding said.
Maulding told the newspaper that he hoped to raise awareness and funding for a rehabilitation wing at the Nyssa hospital, where patients needing such treatment from throughout Eastern Oregon could be served.
The Dec. 15, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer reported that the polio epidemic in the Malheur County area had ended on Nov. 5 with 78 cases treated in the polio ward of a Nyssa hospital, including 47 people from Malheur County.
There were five deaths from polio at the hospital during the year. Those five were Tony Liebag and his mother Dorothy of Hines, Oregon, Kathleen Lowe of Payette, Julia Ann Kirby of Baker and Gary Lee Denton of Baker County.
Another five Malheur County cases were reported receiving treatment at other hospitals or at home, bringing the total for the county for the year to 52.
L.A. Maulding, the Malheur County health officer, said he was surprised at how suddenly the epidemic stopped. The epidemic lasted four months, with polio patients were checking into the Nyssa hospital at a rate of almost one a day until Nov. 5, when they abruptly stopped. In 1947, the worst previous polio year in the county, the epidemic lasted seven months but with just 24 cases reported countywide.
With the epidemic apparently over, three patients who were treated at the hospital required rehabilitation including one 17-year-old boy who was paralyzed from the waist down, Maulding said.
Maulding told the newspaper that he hoped to raise awareness and funding for a rehabilitation wing at the Nyssa hospital, where patients needing such treatment from throughout Eastern Oregon could be served.
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Argus Observes: “No evidence that athletes drank any beer”
By Don Lynch
From The Argus-Observer for Dec. 18, 1952
“There was no evidence that the athletes in question actually drank any beer,” high school principal Robert McConnaha told me Tuesday.
He was explaining last week’s incident in which several basketball players were temporarily suspended from the team because of their association with an alleged student beer-drinking episode. I had told him that on the basis of the information we had gained in reporting the news, it appeared the affair had been mishandled by school authorities.
Here briefly is what we knew of what had happened:
School officials permitted police to use an office at the high school to question students in connection with the sale of beer to juveniles. Thus the school became by association entangled in a problem that was not a school responsibility except in so far as the violation of athletic training rules might have been involved.
A few athletes were in the party which was said to have had beer in possession. Members of the team were consulted on their opinion and they voted unanimously, according to report, to drop the players, three of whom were first team basketball men.
Two days later the school officials announced that the players had been returned to the squad and said the incident was “closed.”
Many basketball fans and school patrons were concerned with the appearance of the whole affair. Dropping of the players certainly made it appear that they were guilty of some infraction. Their quick return to the team indicated they had received little discipline.
I was concerned along with other people. Tuesday I told the school principal so and sought a further explanation.
It was then that McConnaha explained to me that there was actually no evidence the athletes had participated in any drinking. They were caught in the familiar and often disastrous situation of “guilt by association.”
He further revealed that the school authorities did not overrule the vote of the team to suspend the players. The team members reconsidered their decision and came to the principal asking that the suspended players be returned to the squad, he said.
It developed, McConnaha reported, that the original decision of the team to suspend the players was based not on the incident in question but on a succession of grievances accumulated over a period of a year or so. On reflection, the voting team members concluded many of them had themselves been guilty of shortcomings similar to those used as a basis for suspending the players. They reconsidered and decided the players should be returned to the team.
This is all a somewhat involved situation and it apparently never occurred to the school officials that any further public explanation was needed. They felt the situation had been satisfactorily solved and the matter settled so no further comment was needed.
Normally they might have been right. They are used to handling similar disciplinary problems that occur frequently and never come to the light of public attention.
The difference this time lay in the fact that this incident had come to public attention by a mere coincidence. There was a story of police investigation of the alleged sale of beer to miners. At the same time a sports story noted that some basketball players had been suspended or alleged infraction of training rules. The two stories automatically fitted together and revealed an incident of apparent involvement of athletes in a beer drinking party.
I hope that this further explanation which completes the information will help to answer doubts as to how the matter was handled.
During our discussion “Mac” and I disagreed on one point. I thought it a mistake to permit police to use a school office for investigating an incident that itself had no relation to the schools.
The principal said he would rather have such an investigation run where he would watch it than under police questioning elsewhere. He thought that within the school the matter could thus be better handled for the youngsters involved. He also thought it might be good for the other youngsters to see how easily an apparently trivial escapade could come to police attention.
I doubt it. An unnecessary police investigation in the school --- upsetting the atmosphere within the school and coluding the reputation of the school through needless “guilt by association” --- seems to me to be more damaging than helpful.
But that is simply a matter of opinion. The important thing is that the public had only half truths for its judgment of the basketball player discipline, and then the incident was considered “closed” by the school men.
The public is entitled to know what goes on it its schools. When chance reveals half of the information in an awkward situation, the full information should be provided in order to clarify public understanding.
From The Argus-Observer for Dec. 18, 1952
“There was no evidence that the athletes in question actually drank any beer,” high school principal Robert McConnaha told me Tuesday.
He was explaining last week’s incident in which several basketball players were temporarily suspended from the team because of their association with an alleged student beer-drinking episode. I had told him that on the basis of the information we had gained in reporting the news, it appeared the affair had been mishandled by school authorities.
Here briefly is what we knew of what had happened:
School officials permitted police to use an office at the high school to question students in connection with the sale of beer to juveniles. Thus the school became by association entangled in a problem that was not a school responsibility except in so far as the violation of athletic training rules might have been involved.
A few athletes were in the party which was said to have had beer in possession. Members of the team were consulted on their opinion and they voted unanimously, according to report, to drop the players, three of whom were first team basketball men.
Two days later the school officials announced that the players had been returned to the squad and said the incident was “closed.”
Many basketball fans and school patrons were concerned with the appearance of the whole affair. Dropping of the players certainly made it appear that they were guilty of some infraction. Their quick return to the team indicated they had received little discipline.
I was concerned along with other people. Tuesday I told the school principal so and sought a further explanation.
It was then that McConnaha explained to me that there was actually no evidence the athletes had participated in any drinking. They were caught in the familiar and often disastrous situation of “guilt by association.”
He further revealed that the school authorities did not overrule the vote of the team to suspend the players. The team members reconsidered their decision and came to the principal asking that the suspended players be returned to the squad, he said.
It developed, McConnaha reported, that the original decision of the team to suspend the players was based not on the incident in question but on a succession of grievances accumulated over a period of a year or so. On reflection, the voting team members concluded many of them had themselves been guilty of shortcomings similar to those used as a basis for suspending the players. They reconsidered and decided the players should be returned to the team.
This is all a somewhat involved situation and it apparently never occurred to the school officials that any further public explanation was needed. They felt the situation had been satisfactorily solved and the matter settled so no further comment was needed.
Normally they might have been right. They are used to handling similar disciplinary problems that occur frequently and never come to the light of public attention.
The difference this time lay in the fact that this incident had come to public attention by a mere coincidence. There was a story of police investigation of the alleged sale of beer to miners. At the same time a sports story noted that some basketball players had been suspended or alleged infraction of training rules. The two stories automatically fitted together and revealed an incident of apparent involvement of athletes in a beer drinking party.
I hope that this further explanation which completes the information will help to answer doubts as to how the matter was handled.
During our discussion “Mac” and I disagreed on one point. I thought it a mistake to permit police to use a school office for investigating an incident that itself had no relation to the schools.
The principal said he would rather have such an investigation run where he would watch it than under police questioning elsewhere. He thought that within the school the matter could thus be better handled for the youngsters involved. He also thought it might be good for the other youngsters to see how easily an apparently trivial escapade could come to police attention.
I doubt it. An unnecessary police investigation in the school --- upsetting the atmosphere within the school and coluding the reputation of the school through needless “guilt by association” --- seems to me to be more damaging than helpful.
But that is simply a matter of opinion. The important thing is that the public had only half truths for its judgment of the basketball player discipline, and then the incident was considered “closed” by the school men.
The public is entitled to know what goes on it its schools. When chance reveals half of the information in an awkward situation, the full information should be provided in order to clarify public understanding.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Investigation of juvenile beer drinking begins; four OHS basketball players suspended from team
(Editor’s note: This running story comes under the categories of kids will be kids and some things never change. There will be another installment next week.)
The Dec. 11, 1952 Argus-Observer reported that Malheur County District Attorney Charles Swan asked the county sheriff and state police to pursue an investigation into “alleged beer drinking parties indulged in by Ontario High School students.”
On the same day, The Argus-Observer reported on its sports page that four players had been dropped from the high school basketball squad for “violation of training rules.”
Robert McConnaha said that the activities of 18 students, including five basketball players, were being reviewed in connection with the alleged beer drinking parties.
The investigation grew out of a state police arrest almost two weeks earlier of four juveniles --- two girls from Ontario and two boys from Payette --- who were discovered drinking beer in a car just outside of Ontario.
The only formal charge from that incident was filed against a grocery store employee for selling beer to minors. The juveniles were released to their parents --- the girls immediately and the boys after spending a night in jail in Vale.
The Dec. 11, 1952 Argus-Observer reported that Malheur County District Attorney Charles Swan asked the county sheriff and state police to pursue an investigation into “alleged beer drinking parties indulged in by Ontario High School students.”
On the same day, The Argus-Observer reported on its sports page that four players had been dropped from the high school basketball squad for “violation of training rules.”
Robert McConnaha said that the activities of 18 students, including five basketball players, were being reviewed in connection with the alleged beer drinking parties.
The investigation grew out of a state police arrest almost two weeks earlier of four juveniles --- two girls from Ontario and two boys from Payette --- who were discovered drinking beer in a car just outside of Ontario.
The only formal charge from that incident was filed against a grocery store employee for selling beer to minors. The juveniles were released to their parents --- the girls immediately and the boys after spending a night in jail in Vale.
Monday, December 10, 2007
The Argus Observes --- Standing room only at new gym
By Don Lynch
From the Argus-Observer of Dec. 8, 1952
This community stepped into an advanced class this week in terms of the school facilities it enjoys.
Friday night sport fans watched basketball played for the first time in Ontario’s splendid new gymnasium.
Thursday night we shall see a class play in the new auditorium, which is comparable in size, comfort and appearance to any movie house in the region.
So we have moved from the extreme of inadequate facilities to the best of modern school facilities to be found in a community of this size.
Basketball was a good show even in the old gym and it is a colorful, magnificent performance in the new gymnasium which is as good as any in the region. Wonderfully lighted, well heated and generous in space, it provides the setting for Ontario to enjoy gymnasium recreation as good as any school has. … In a good gym, such as the new one, the crowd can see every detail of play, the cheering section has an opportunity to put on a sparkling performance and the band music lends a stirring atmosphere. The whole thing amounts to an exciting extravaganza produced by our own community and enjoyed by our own community. It’s lots of fun to watch. …
But heavy attendance created one drawback that marred the opening night of play in the new gymnasium. Some 1,400 persons turned out and only 1,200 seats were available.
Some fans evidenced sharp disappointment in their comment as they came in and found they had to stand to see the game. Their remarks indicated taxpayer surprise that a $700,00 high school with an elaborate gym failed to include enough seats for basketball spectators.
Their disappointment is understandable. However school authorities have had a difficult job in attempting to anticipate they need. They planned what they thought would be adequate seating. Construction funds are spent now, and the current budget is too tight to provide several educational facilities more urgently needed than gymnasium seats.
Superintendent Arthur Kiesz said, “I don’t think the Friday night game was any criteria of future crowds.” He surmises that a good many people came because it was the first night of play in the new gym and that crowds at future games will be smaller.
They certainly will be smaller soon if people have to stand. Hundreds of us who like basketball stayed away from the old gym because it was hard to see the play from some of the seats. It seems to me that the present season offers a unique opportunity to acquire a large new crowd of paying customers for basketball, customers who may be lost if there is no place to sit.
The patrons of school dramatics will surely fare better Tuesday night. There certainly are enough seats in the auditorium to accommodate the largest crowd that might attend a school play.
Let’s turn out in good numbers to see “Mother was a Freshman” presented by the senior class. We may find that our school actors have surprising talents when they work on a real stage in a real auditorium with good acoustics.
(Editor’s note: Ontario won that first game in the new gym, 57 to 54, over Vale. The Argus-Observer of Dec. 12, 1952, called play “typical for an early season game” with “clumsy ball handling” and a huge number of fouls – 61. The Tigers squeaked out the win in the final seconds on a free throw by Burke Nicholson and, when he missed the second free throw, a tip-in by Dave Burton.)
From the Argus-Observer of Dec. 8, 1952
This community stepped into an advanced class this week in terms of the school facilities it enjoys.
Friday night sport fans watched basketball played for the first time in Ontario’s splendid new gymnasium.
Thursday night we shall see a class play in the new auditorium, which is comparable in size, comfort and appearance to any movie house in the region.
So we have moved from the extreme of inadequate facilities to the best of modern school facilities to be found in a community of this size.
Basketball was a good show even in the old gym and it is a colorful, magnificent performance in the new gymnasium which is as good as any in the region. Wonderfully lighted, well heated and generous in space, it provides the setting for Ontario to enjoy gymnasium recreation as good as any school has. … In a good gym, such as the new one, the crowd can see every detail of play, the cheering section has an opportunity to put on a sparkling performance and the band music lends a stirring atmosphere. The whole thing amounts to an exciting extravaganza produced by our own community and enjoyed by our own community. It’s lots of fun to watch. …
But heavy attendance created one drawback that marred the opening night of play in the new gymnasium. Some 1,400 persons turned out and only 1,200 seats were available.
Some fans evidenced sharp disappointment in their comment as they came in and found they had to stand to see the game. Their remarks indicated taxpayer surprise that a $700,00 high school with an elaborate gym failed to include enough seats for basketball spectators.
Their disappointment is understandable. However school authorities have had a difficult job in attempting to anticipate they need. They planned what they thought would be adequate seating. Construction funds are spent now, and the current budget is too tight to provide several educational facilities more urgently needed than gymnasium seats.
Superintendent Arthur Kiesz said, “I don’t think the Friday night game was any criteria of future crowds.” He surmises that a good many people came because it was the first night of play in the new gym and that crowds at future games will be smaller.
They certainly will be smaller soon if people have to stand. Hundreds of us who like basketball stayed away from the old gym because it was hard to see the play from some of the seats. It seems to me that the present season offers a unique opportunity to acquire a large new crowd of paying customers for basketball, customers who may be lost if there is no place to sit.
The patrons of school dramatics will surely fare better Tuesday night. There certainly are enough seats in the auditorium to accommodate the largest crowd that might attend a school play.
Let’s turn out in good numbers to see “Mother was a Freshman” presented by the senior class. We may find that our school actors have surprising talents when they work on a real stage in a real auditorium with good acoustics.
(Editor’s note: Ontario won that first game in the new gym, 57 to 54, over Vale. The Argus-Observer of Dec. 12, 1952, called play “typical for an early season game” with “clumsy ball handling” and a huge number of fouls – 61. The Tigers squeaked out the win in the final seconds on a free throw by Burke Nicholson and, when he missed the second free throw, a tip-in by Dave Burton.)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
State Police break up a beer bust, arrest four teen-agers
Editor’s Note: This is a story that is going to have legs, as we say in the news business. Don’t miss next week’s installment.
State police said they broke up a Friday night beer party in a parked car and arrested two of the four juvenile participants at a location two miles south of Ontario when nearby neighbors complained of hearing a woman scream.
The Argus-Observer reported the incident in its Dec. 1, 1952 edition.
Officer William Bones said that investigating the scream he found two boys 16 and 17 and two girls 13 and 16 drinking beer in a parked car.
The boys were from Payette. The girls were from Ontario. They denied being the source of the screams.
The girls were released to their parents Friday night. The boys spend the night in the county jail in Vale before they were released to their parents.
District Attorney Charles Swan said he had yet to file formal charges against the four and before he acted he wanted to check their school records “and truant records if any.”
State police said they broke up a Friday night beer party in a parked car and arrested two of the four juvenile participants at a location two miles south of Ontario when nearby neighbors complained of hearing a woman scream.
The Argus-Observer reported the incident in its Dec. 1, 1952 edition.
Officer William Bones said that investigating the scream he found two boys 16 and 17 and two girls 13 and 16 drinking beer in a parked car.
The boys were from Payette. The girls were from Ontario. They denied being the source of the screams.
The girls were released to their parents Friday night. The boys spend the night in the county jail in Vale before they were released to their parents.
District Attorney Charles Swan said he had yet to file formal charges against the four and before he acted he wanted to check their school records “and truant records if any.”
Monday, December 3, 2007
The Argus Observes --- Remembering Bob Morford
By Don Lynch
From The Argus-Observer, Dec. 11, 1952
Bob Morford turned out to be just as good as we thought he’d be. The College of Idaho athlete has just been named to the backfield of the little all-coast football team. For the third consecutive year he was named to the all-star football team of the Pacific Northwest conference.
I can remember as if it were yesterday the magnificent body of that 15 year old boy when he stretched out on a dressing-room bench for us to rub the charley horses out of his legs. I remember the vigor with which he played. He glorified in rooting dirt on every tackle. He ran with complete abandon. How that kid played football!
He was a sophomore in Roswell high school when I was principal of the little 50-student school, the only year I ever taught in public schools.
We had a lousy football team with a clean record, all defeats. But it wasn’t Bob’s fault.
We knew he was terrific with promise of a great future ahead. We used to speculate on how good he was because we had no standard for comparison. All we knew was that he was the most promising 15-year-old any of us had ever seen.
We sometimes dreamed that some miracle of good fortune would permit him to go to one of the great football-playing universities and that he would become a nationally known player. Now I’m sure that the little group of students and teachers who were Morford fans in those days are abundantly pleased with what he did accomplish.
He’s a great football player. Any little all-coast back is just a shade removed from All-American caliber. At the right school, running behind the right interference, with the right coaching he might have made the Big Eleven.
Morford merited his honors. The coach of San Francisco State labeled him the best small college player he had seen this year.
Old high school friends of Bob’s know that the way hasn’t been easy.
It has been difficult for him to stay in school because he came from a farm home in modest circumstances. Even in high school days he had to work too many days that he should have been in school. Studies were hard as a result and he got discouraged. It took considerable persuasion to keep him in school.
Of course, it must have become more difficult to keep attending classes as the years moved along. After high school he married and assumed family responsibilities. That he was able to stay in college at all is a tribute to his perseverance.
For these reasons I count Bob Morford high on the list of successful men I have known. It takes real ability and character for any man to earn such athletic honors. For Bob it must have been doubly hard.
He had unique qualities of perseverance as a lad. I had him in one class. As a student he was methodical rather than bright. If limited in time he would drop below average on a test. But when given a long time, often twice as long as some other students, he consistently came up with good grades. He had a peculiar knack of being able to recall much detailed information after prolonged concentration. I’ll bet today he remembers the material in that course better than I do.
Success comes early in life to outstanding athletes. Then they often are lost in the shuffle during the difficult adjustment to normal occupations of life. Bob may get lost for a time, but I feel confident that the sturdy qualities of character which carried him to the top on the gridiron will stand him in good stead in other walks of life.
Editor’s Note: Morford was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in 1953 but does not appear in any later years on football records available on the Internet. If anyone remembers what became of him, we’d like to pass that information along.
From The Argus-Observer, Dec. 11, 1952
Bob Morford turned out to be just as good as we thought he’d be. The College of Idaho athlete has just been named to the backfield of the little all-coast football team. For the third consecutive year he was named to the all-star football team of the Pacific Northwest conference.
I can remember as if it were yesterday the magnificent body of that 15 year old boy when he stretched out on a dressing-room bench for us to rub the charley horses out of his legs. I remember the vigor with which he played. He glorified in rooting dirt on every tackle. He ran with complete abandon. How that kid played football!
He was a sophomore in Roswell high school when I was principal of the little 50-student school, the only year I ever taught in public schools.
We had a lousy football team with a clean record, all defeats. But it wasn’t Bob’s fault.
We knew he was terrific with promise of a great future ahead. We used to speculate on how good he was because we had no standard for comparison. All we knew was that he was the most promising 15-year-old any of us had ever seen.
We sometimes dreamed that some miracle of good fortune would permit him to go to one of the great football-playing universities and that he would become a nationally known player. Now I’m sure that the little group of students and teachers who were Morford fans in those days are abundantly pleased with what he did accomplish.
He’s a great football player. Any little all-coast back is just a shade removed from All-American caliber. At the right school, running behind the right interference, with the right coaching he might have made the Big Eleven.
Morford merited his honors. The coach of San Francisco State labeled him the best small college player he had seen this year.
Old high school friends of Bob’s know that the way hasn’t been easy.
It has been difficult for him to stay in school because he came from a farm home in modest circumstances. Even in high school days he had to work too many days that he should have been in school. Studies were hard as a result and he got discouraged. It took considerable persuasion to keep him in school.
Of course, it must have become more difficult to keep attending classes as the years moved along. After high school he married and assumed family responsibilities. That he was able to stay in college at all is a tribute to his perseverance.
For these reasons I count Bob Morford high on the list of successful men I have known. It takes real ability and character for any man to earn such athletic honors. For Bob it must have been doubly hard.
He had unique qualities of perseverance as a lad. I had him in one class. As a student he was methodical rather than bright. If limited in time he would drop below average on a test. But when given a long time, often twice as long as some other students, he consistently came up with good grades. He had a peculiar knack of being able to recall much detailed information after prolonged concentration. I’ll bet today he remembers the material in that course better than I do.
Success comes early in life to outstanding athletes. Then they often are lost in the shuffle during the difficult adjustment to normal occupations of life. Bob may get lost for a time, but I feel confident that the sturdy qualities of character which carried him to the top on the gridiron will stand him in good stead in other walks of life.
Editor’s Note: Morford was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in 1953 but does not appear in any later years on football records available on the Internet. If anyone remembers what became of him, we’d like to pass that information along.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
November Index AND Three duck hunters from Boise spend two hours in icy Snake River; football all stars named
NOVEMBER INDEX
Nov. 26: The Argus Observes -- State supervision of bridge projects seems inadequate
Nov. 26: Nephi Grigg says processing of frozen fried potatoes means year around payroll
Nov. 21: Class of ‘56 members celebrate Ore-Ida when the company was king
Nov. 21: New street signs confuse long-time residents
Nov. 19: The Argus Observes -- Carving the turkey and pleasing the ‘little woman’
Nov. 15: Bridge collapse kills two Nyssa brothers
Nov. 12: 2007 Argus Observer readers debate impact of area residents living in Idaho, working and shopping in Ontario
Nov. 12: Former mayor, father of Garth Cates, dies at 96
Nov. 12: The Argus Observes --- Near perfect fall weather
Nov. 8: Senior play, Mother is a Freshmen, set for new auditorium
Nov. 8: Two photos of students in 1952
Nov. 5: The Argus Observes -- An election night party with KSRV
Nov. 1: Photo of Oregon Street in Ontario circa 1952
Nov. 1: Narcotics agent reports a big haul in Nyssa bust
A MORNING OUTING ENDS WITH A COLD BATH
The Argus-Observer reported Nov. 24, 1952 that three duck hunters whose boat overturned spent two hours in the Snake River between Nyssa and Ontario before they could paddle the swamped boat to shore.
Drs. Max Gundmundson and Quinton Mack along with attorney Willis Sullivan, all of Boise, were warming themselves in the Idaho side home of Beul Clement when authorities caught up with them.
An observer who saw the men’s struggle alerted Oregon State Police about 7 a.m., and the police sent a power boat to the scene but by then the men were already ashore.
Police told the newspaper that the men suffered nothing more serious than exposure and the loss of seven shotguns and other hunting gear.
Three Ontario football players joined Payette’s Harmon Killebrew as league all-stars:
The Nov. 20 1952 Argus-Observer reported that Snake River Valley league coaches had named Ontario senior tackle Jess Jackson, Junior back Wayne Anderson, and senior end Sam Taylor to the league all-star teams along with Harmon Killebrew, a junior from Payette. Jackson, Anderson and Killebrew were named to first team, Taylor to the second team.
Nov. 26: The Argus Observes -- State supervision of bridge projects seems inadequate
Nov. 26: Nephi Grigg says processing of frozen fried potatoes means year around payroll
Nov. 21: Class of ‘56 members celebrate Ore-Ida when the company was king
Nov. 21: New street signs confuse long-time residents
Nov. 19: The Argus Observes -- Carving the turkey and pleasing the ‘little woman’
Nov. 15: Bridge collapse kills two Nyssa brothers
Nov. 12: 2007 Argus Observer readers debate impact of area residents living in Idaho, working and shopping in Ontario
Nov. 12: Former mayor, father of Garth Cates, dies at 96
Nov. 12: The Argus Observes --- Near perfect fall weather
Nov. 8: Senior play, Mother is a Freshmen, set for new auditorium
Nov. 8: Two photos of students in 1952
Nov. 5: The Argus Observes -- An election night party with KSRV
Nov. 1: Photo of Oregon Street in Ontario circa 1952
Nov. 1: Narcotics agent reports a big haul in Nyssa bust
A MORNING OUTING ENDS WITH A COLD BATH
The Argus-Observer reported Nov. 24, 1952 that three duck hunters whose boat overturned spent two hours in the Snake River between Nyssa and Ontario before they could paddle the swamped boat to shore.
Drs. Max Gundmundson and Quinton Mack along with attorney Willis Sullivan, all of Boise, were warming themselves in the Idaho side home of Beul Clement when authorities caught up with them.
An observer who saw the men’s struggle alerted Oregon State Police about 7 a.m., and the police sent a power boat to the scene but by then the men were already ashore.
Police told the newspaper that the men suffered nothing more serious than exposure and the loss of seven shotguns and other hunting gear.
Three Ontario football players joined Payette’s Harmon Killebrew as league all-stars:
The Nov. 20 1952 Argus-Observer reported that Snake River Valley league coaches had named Ontario senior tackle Jess Jackson, Junior back Wayne Anderson, and senior end Sam Taylor to the league all-star teams along with Harmon Killebrew, a junior from Payette. Jackson, Anderson and Killebrew were named to first team, Taylor to the second team.
Monday, November 26, 2007
The Argus Observes --- State supervision of bridge projects seems inadequate
By Don Lynch
From the Nov. 20, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer
What happens now in the Owyhee bridge tragedy that caused the death of the Corfield brothers, Chester and Joe?
The coroner’s jury said that lack of engineering supervision was the direct cause of the accident. It censured the state industrial accident commission for failure to inspect the job. But the jury couldn’t find evidence of criminal negligence on the part of any specific person.
State highway engineer R.H. Baldock disagreed with the jury’s verdict. He declared that, “it appears there was ample engineering supervision given to the job,” and further, “one of the men now says that just a few minutes before the crash he noted one of the jacks was out of plumb.”
By implication Baldock blames the accident on the jack being out of plumb.
The jury verdict and the Baldock report constitute official action and I suppose the matter will end, but somehow I can’t forget it. And neither can members of the coroner’s jury.
There are some things that don’t ring true in this case and it seems a shame to just let them go.
The highway department’s official explanation of the accident is in complete disagreement with the sworn testimony that workmen gave to the coroner’s jury.
Workmen who appeared before the coroner’s jury failed to report any jack out of plumb and did so under repeated questioning. They insisted they never noticed anything wrong prior to the accident.
Yet the highway department used a jack out of plumb as its official explanation of the accident.
The coroner’s jurymen were unanimous in a feeling that witnesses were withholding information, that they were not given the full story.
The highway department’s explanation of the accident suggests that the jurymen were right in their feeling that information was being withheld.
If this assumption is true, it raises serious questions. Why would the men refuse to give such vital information? How much more information may have been withheld? Does the implication of information withheld provide a basis for further investigation?
Perhaps these questions can be answered in a reasonable manner. On the other hand they pose some serious implications.
Baldock’s statement pointed out that an engineer visited the job October 29, more than a week before the accident and this date agrees with the testimony at the inquest.
The state highway engineer evidently considers this adequate supervision, but the coroner’s jury disagreed. They thought such a dangerous job should have been closely supervised and the death of the two men indicates that the coroner’s jury was right in its opinion.
The state of Oregon is extremely careful in maintaining safety standards in private industry and on private construction work through its industrial accident commission. But the commission had never even inspected this dangerous job.
Every citizen of Oregon has a right to be concerned with this situation. If the state departments are careless of human life on state jobs, it is a matter of genuine concern, and it should be remedied to avoid needless and shameful waste of life.
From the Nov. 20, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer
What happens now in the Owyhee bridge tragedy that caused the death of the Corfield brothers, Chester and Joe?
The coroner’s jury said that lack of engineering supervision was the direct cause of the accident. It censured the state industrial accident commission for failure to inspect the job. But the jury couldn’t find evidence of criminal negligence on the part of any specific person.
State highway engineer R.H. Baldock disagreed with the jury’s verdict. He declared that, “it appears there was ample engineering supervision given to the job,” and further, “one of the men now says that just a few minutes before the crash he noted one of the jacks was out of plumb.”
By implication Baldock blames the accident on the jack being out of plumb.
The jury verdict and the Baldock report constitute official action and I suppose the matter will end, but somehow I can’t forget it. And neither can members of the coroner’s jury.
There are some things that don’t ring true in this case and it seems a shame to just let them go.
The highway department’s official explanation of the accident is in complete disagreement with the sworn testimony that workmen gave to the coroner’s jury.
Workmen who appeared before the coroner’s jury failed to report any jack out of plumb and did so under repeated questioning. They insisted they never noticed anything wrong prior to the accident.
Yet the highway department used a jack out of plumb as its official explanation of the accident.
The coroner’s jurymen were unanimous in a feeling that witnesses were withholding information, that they were not given the full story.
The highway department’s explanation of the accident suggests that the jurymen were right in their feeling that information was being withheld.
If this assumption is true, it raises serious questions. Why would the men refuse to give such vital information? How much more information may have been withheld? Does the implication of information withheld provide a basis for further investigation?
Perhaps these questions can be answered in a reasonable manner. On the other hand they pose some serious implications.
Baldock’s statement pointed out that an engineer visited the job October 29, more than a week before the accident and this date agrees with the testimony at the inquest.
The state highway engineer evidently considers this adequate supervision, but the coroner’s jury disagreed. They thought such a dangerous job should have been closely supervised and the death of the two men indicates that the coroner’s jury was right in its opinion.
The state of Oregon is extremely careful in maintaining safety standards in private industry and on private construction work through its industrial accident commission. But the commission had never even inspected this dangerous job.
Every citizen of Oregon has a right to be concerned with this situation. If the state departments are careless of human life on state jobs, it is a matter of genuine concern, and it should be remedied to avoid needless and shameful waste of life.
Nephi Grigg says processing frozen fried potatoes will mean year-round payroll
On Nov. 10, 1952, the Argus-Observer led with a story quoting Nephi Grigg, general manager of Oregon Frozen Foods in Ontario, announcing that beginning in January the plant would process potatoes year around.
“Potatoes will be French Fried and frozen ready for the market,” the story noted. Grigg said he expected to employ at least one hundred persons 12 months of the year in the new processing operation. The new process would provide a market for the entire area potato crop, the general manager added.
At the time of the announcement, Grigg said the plant mainly produced a frozen vegetable mix of corn, string beans, lima beans and peas for a Safeway stores label.
“Potatoes will be French Fried and frozen ready for the market,” the story noted. Grigg said he expected to employ at least one hundred persons 12 months of the year in the new processing operation. The new process would provide a market for the entire area potato crop, the general manager added.
At the time of the announcement, Grigg said the plant mainly produced a frozen vegetable mix of corn, string beans, lima beans and peas for a Safeway stores label.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Street signs confuse old residents
By Hugh Gale, news editor
From the Argus-Observer issue of November 13, 1952
Some of the old timers were a little mixed up by the new street signs the city put up in Ontario.
One lady telephone street superintendent Herb Derrick and said that his men were putting up the wrong sign.
“I’ve lived here for years,” she said, “and I know I live on 8th street. Your men are putting up a sign calling it 9th. You better get out here and do something about it.”
Derrick did. The poor lady had been wrong for the 30 years she’d spent in Ontario.
The street department recently completed putting up street signs in most of the important intersections in the city. It is Derrick’s plan to have all streets designated with signs by next year.
One Ontario resident came out of his house one morning and saw the new sign at his corner. He exclaimed: “Egad, is there where I live?”
Fire Chief Bob Prahl said the new signs would be a great help to his department. He hoped that people calling in fires would now use the street address.
“Many times in the past they have said the fire was over there close to Zilch’s house, but couldn’t give the address,” Prahl said.
Derrick is proud of the substantial material the signs are made of and the easy to read four inch letters on them.
The only complaint about the signs came from an old timer who said it was a waste of taxpayers’ money: “Everybody knows where everybody lives in this here town.”
From the Argus-Observer issue of November 13, 1952
Some of the old timers were a little mixed up by the new street signs the city put up in Ontario.
One lady telephone street superintendent Herb Derrick and said that his men were putting up the wrong sign.
“I’ve lived here for years,” she said, “and I know I live on 8th street. Your men are putting up a sign calling it 9th. You better get out here and do something about it.”
Derrick did. The poor lady had been wrong for the 30 years she’d spent in Ontario.
The street department recently completed putting up street signs in most of the important intersections in the city. It is Derrick’s plan to have all streets designated with signs by next year.
One Ontario resident came out of his house one morning and saw the new sign at his corner. He exclaimed: “Egad, is there where I live?”
Fire Chief Bob Prahl said the new signs would be a great help to his department. He hoped that people calling in fires would now use the street address.
“Many times in the past they have said the fire was over there close to Zilch’s house, but couldn’t give the address,” Prahl said.
Derrick is proud of the substantial material the signs are made of and the easy to read four inch letters on them.
The only complaint about the signs came from an old timer who said it was a waste of taxpayers’ money: “Everybody knows where everybody lives in this here town.”
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Argus Observes: Carving the turkey and pleasing the “little woman”
By Don Lynch
From the November 24, 1952 Argus Observer
One way or another you can get the meat off the carcass so bolster up your nerve and carve your turkey at the table Thursday.
Nothing else you do will so endear you to your wife on Thanksgiving day. Put on your good suit accompanied by your best shirt and favorite tie with the tie closely clipped to your shirt front. Be appropriately brushed and manicured. You’ll cut quite a figure and the little woman will be just bubbling with pride.
The carving job is not so tough. The first essential is a sharp knife. Get it out now and hone it to a keen edge. Then if you are distracted just before dinner putting an extra leaf in the table, running out after whipping cream and welcoming guests at the last minute, you won’t have to sharpen the blade while the dinner cools. You’ll be all ready to go.
Did I hear you ask in a panic, “But how do I carve the crow?”
You just do it the obvious way. You cut off the leg, cut off the wing and there’s the turkey ready to slice. There are two schools on dealing with the leg. The precisely correct way is to slice the meat from the leg providing slices of dark meat to accompany slices of breast on the platter. But it’s quite satisfactory, especially if the bird is not overly large, to just cut the leg in two at the joint making two ample servings of dark meat.
Don’t worry and fret about getting the appendages removed from the bird. It will probably be so well done they will almost fall off, and in any event they are easy to cut free and remove with a simple twist. Clear the working area of tall glasses and goblets so you have room to maneuver freely. You’ll have no trouble at all and your home life will be bolstered for days to come by this special service on your part.
You can be helpful to your wife in another way on Thanksgiving, if you have a frozen turkey. You can remind her to allow ample time for the bird to thaw.
A frozen turkey needs a full day at room temperature to become completely thawed out, although its surface may appear to be thawed in less time. Then it should be stored in the refrigerator or other cold place over night until it is cooked the next day.
If it becomes necessary to cook the bird before thawing is completed, remember that it takes one and a half times as long as usual to cook a frozen bird and longer still if it is stuffed.
This care in the preparation of a frozen bird will pay off for the husband, because few things so upset the home atmosphere as having the turkey come to the table not quite done.
I do hope you have a pleasant Thanksgiving day dinner.
(Editor’s note: The chauvinism exhibited in this column makes me cringe when I read it 55 years after it was written. As I remember my father, he never referred to my mother as “the little woman” to her face. I think she would have had something to say about that. And he wasn’t so pompous as the writing makes him seem. Of course, there is also a good chance that his intent here was to warn others against mistakes he‘d made in previous years. I do remember an occasional Thanksgiving Day debate about whether the turkey was actually cooked through or not.)
From the November 24, 1952 Argus Observer
One way or another you can get the meat off the carcass so bolster up your nerve and carve your turkey at the table Thursday.
Nothing else you do will so endear you to your wife on Thanksgiving day. Put on your good suit accompanied by your best shirt and favorite tie with the tie closely clipped to your shirt front. Be appropriately brushed and manicured. You’ll cut quite a figure and the little woman will be just bubbling with pride.
The carving job is not so tough. The first essential is a sharp knife. Get it out now and hone it to a keen edge. Then if you are distracted just before dinner putting an extra leaf in the table, running out after whipping cream and welcoming guests at the last minute, you won’t have to sharpen the blade while the dinner cools. You’ll be all ready to go.
Did I hear you ask in a panic, “But how do I carve the crow?”
You just do it the obvious way. You cut off the leg, cut off the wing and there’s the turkey ready to slice. There are two schools on dealing with the leg. The precisely correct way is to slice the meat from the leg providing slices of dark meat to accompany slices of breast on the platter. But it’s quite satisfactory, especially if the bird is not overly large, to just cut the leg in two at the joint making two ample servings of dark meat.
Don’t worry and fret about getting the appendages removed from the bird. It will probably be so well done they will almost fall off, and in any event they are easy to cut free and remove with a simple twist. Clear the working area of tall glasses and goblets so you have room to maneuver freely. You’ll have no trouble at all and your home life will be bolstered for days to come by this special service on your part.
You can be helpful to your wife in another way on Thanksgiving, if you have a frozen turkey. You can remind her to allow ample time for the bird to thaw.
A frozen turkey needs a full day at room temperature to become completely thawed out, although its surface may appear to be thawed in less time. Then it should be stored in the refrigerator or other cold place over night until it is cooked the next day.
If it becomes necessary to cook the bird before thawing is completed, remember that it takes one and a half times as long as usual to cook a frozen bird and longer still if it is stuffed.
This care in the preparation of a frozen bird will pay off for the husband, because few things so upset the home atmosphere as having the turkey come to the table not quite done.
I do hope you have a pleasant Thanksgiving day dinner.
(Editor’s note: The chauvinism exhibited in this column makes me cringe when I read it 55 years after it was written. As I remember my father, he never referred to my mother as “the little woman” to her face. I think she would have had something to say about that. And he wasn’t so pompous as the writing makes him seem. Of course, there is also a good chance that his intent here was to warn others against mistakes he‘d made in previous years. I do remember an occasional Thanksgiving Day debate about whether the turkey was actually cooked through or not.)
Thursday, November 15, 2007
1952 Bridge collapse killed two Nyssa brothers
The Nov. 10, 1952 Argus-Observer reported that two workmen from Nyssa died the previous Friday while trying to raise a damaged bridge that crossed the Owyhee River nine miles south of Nyssa.
(A coroner’s jury would blame the collapse on a lack of engineering supervision, a conclusion that would be disputed by State Highway Engineer R.H. Baldock.)
Dead were brothers Chet and Joe Corfield. Both Chet, 35, and Joe, 28, were World War II veterans who left behind wives and parents as well as six brothers and sisters and a total of seven children.
At the time the accident occurred, the brothers were operating jacks beneath the bridge, attempting to raise it in an effort to repair damage caused by high waters the previous spring.
One of the three workman who escaped injury, Ralph Boyd of Union, described the collapse. He said that he and one of the others working at the far end from where the structural failure began were able to save themselves by jumping into the river and swimming to shore in overalls laden with heavy tools.
The bridge reportedly began to go down in a twisting motion, slipping sideways and sliding off supporting blocks in the area where the brothers were working.
(A coroner’s jury would blame the collapse on a lack of engineering supervision, a conclusion that would be disputed by State Highway Engineer R.H. Baldock.)
Dead were brothers Chet and Joe Corfield. Both Chet, 35, and Joe, 28, were World War II veterans who left behind wives and parents as well as six brothers and sisters and a total of seven children.
At the time the accident occurred, the brothers were operating jacks beneath the bridge, attempting to raise it in an effort to repair damage caused by high waters the previous spring.
One of the three workman who escaped injury, Ralph Boyd of Union, described the collapse. He said that he and one of the others working at the far end from where the structural failure began were able to save themselves by jumping into the river and swimming to shore in overalls laden with heavy tools.
The bridge reportedly began to go down in a twisting motion, slipping sideways and sliding off supporting blocks in the area where the brothers were working.
Monday, November 12, 2007
2007 Argus-Observer readers debate impact of area residents living in Idaho, working and shopping in Ontario
A November 2, 2007 story in the Argus Observer about an unnamed “big company” exploring a move into Ontario kicked off a lengthy debate among readers about the apparent problems caused when people who work and shop in Ontario decide to live just across the river in Idaho. A major contributor to that debate is Ray Dickerson of the Ontario High class of 1956. To read the full debate follow our link to the Argus Observer home page and, scroll down to the blogs and click on the “Big company” entry.
On November 10 Ray wrote:
In a free market society some businesses succeed and others do not. Wal-Mart’s strategy is to locate in small communities and suck the life out of them all the way back to Wall Street and Arkansas. They sucked the life out of the Ontario Mall and most of the main streets within 25 miles. Home Depot is doing the same thing to the hardware and building supply houses. These companies and many more like them do market research and will locate here when it looks like they may get a suitable return on investments for their stock holders. You can’t just call them up and say locate here in Ontario because I don’t like driving 45 miles to shop or having to pay the six cent sales tax. If you and 10,000 others were to do so, you might get some action. If you check around the state of Oregon, you will see a number of border towns just like Ontario. They are commercial hubs for the residents of the neighboring states that have sales taxes, like we are for Western Idaho. But that is not the only reason: Oregon’s land-use regulations have made it extremely difficult to develop residential property since they were passed in 1973, and generally has made housing more expensive and difficult to build in Oregon than in the neighboring states. This not living where you work and the associated travel back and forth through these border communities impacts the infrastructure negatively. It also causes increased police work associated with traffic, accidents, crime, and the list could go on and on. Certainly another area that is impacted is the schools. Without new residential development there is little interest or support for improving schools, when the majority of those families wanting modestly priced housing elect to live across the border. The Oregon Legislature knows what they’re doing and the impact their decisions have on the border communities but they don’t care, because we’re not their power-base. They also fail to provide funding to the affected communities to offset the imbalance. Therefore, when Mike Allen, and many others say they don’t want more commercial growth they do so with a complete understanding of the situation, not that they are wanting to deny anybody a place to shop. I don’t know what kind of business is shopping to locate in Ontario and it really does not matter, because most of the employees will choose to live in Idaho, shop in Ontario, travel through the community, have no vested interest in Ontario, and the cycle that happened when SRCI came to town will be repeated. That is the way it is and the way it will stay.
On November 10 Ray wrote:
In a free market society some businesses succeed and others do not. Wal-Mart’s strategy is to locate in small communities and suck the life out of them all the way back to Wall Street and Arkansas. They sucked the life out of the Ontario Mall and most of the main streets within 25 miles. Home Depot is doing the same thing to the hardware and building supply houses. These companies and many more like them do market research and will locate here when it looks like they may get a suitable return on investments for their stock holders. You can’t just call them up and say locate here in Ontario because I don’t like driving 45 miles to shop or having to pay the six cent sales tax. If you and 10,000 others were to do so, you might get some action. If you check around the state of Oregon, you will see a number of border towns just like Ontario. They are commercial hubs for the residents of the neighboring states that have sales taxes, like we are for Western Idaho. But that is not the only reason: Oregon’s land-use regulations have made it extremely difficult to develop residential property since they were passed in 1973, and generally has made housing more expensive and difficult to build in Oregon than in the neighboring states. This not living where you work and the associated travel back and forth through these border communities impacts the infrastructure negatively. It also causes increased police work associated with traffic, accidents, crime, and the list could go on and on. Certainly another area that is impacted is the schools. Without new residential development there is little interest or support for improving schools, when the majority of those families wanting modestly priced housing elect to live across the border. The Oregon Legislature knows what they’re doing and the impact their decisions have on the border communities but they don’t care, because we’re not their power-base. They also fail to provide funding to the affected communities to offset the imbalance. Therefore, when Mike Allen, and many others say they don’t want more commercial growth they do so with a complete understanding of the situation, not that they are wanting to deny anybody a place to shop. I don’t know what kind of business is shopping to locate in Ontario and it really does not matter, because most of the employees will choose to live in Idaho, shop in Ontario, travel through the community, have no vested interest in Ontario, and the cycle that happened when SRCI came to town will be repeated. That is the way it is and the way it will stay.
Former mayor, father of Garth Cates, dies at 96
The November 11, 2007 Argus Observer reported the death of former Ontario mayor Leonard L. Cates, 96, Ontario, who passed away Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007.
Born in Island City, near LaGrande, on April 17, 1911, he came to Ontario from Baker in 1947 to be a full-time agent for the State Farm Insurance Company. He served on the City Council from 1959 until 1972. After the passing of the late former mayor Morgan Beck, Cates was mayor from 1972 until 1977.
He is survived by four children, Dr. Gerald (Charmaine) Cates, Cottage Grove, Ore., Roger (Lisa) Cates, Boise, Meredith (Dr. John) Stiger, Milwaukie, Ore., Joyce Rankin, Portland; a daughter-in-law, Evelyn Cates, Boise; 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Leonard Cates’ wife Edna died in 2002.
His son Garth Cates, a leader and athlete in the Ontario High School class of 1957, died in 1997.
(For the full obituary follow our link to today’s Argus Observer home page and search the archives for Leonard Cates.)
Born in Island City, near LaGrande, on April 17, 1911, he came to Ontario from Baker in 1947 to be a full-time agent for the State Farm Insurance Company. He served on the City Council from 1959 until 1972. After the passing of the late former mayor Morgan Beck, Cates was mayor from 1972 until 1977.
He is survived by four children, Dr. Gerald (Charmaine) Cates, Cottage Grove, Ore., Roger (Lisa) Cates, Boise, Meredith (Dr. John) Stiger, Milwaukie, Ore., Joyce Rankin, Portland; a daughter-in-law, Evelyn Cates, Boise; 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Leonard Cates’ wife Edna died in 2002.
His son Garth Cates, a leader and athlete in the Ontario High School class of 1957, died in 1997.
(For the full obituary follow our link to today’s Argus Observer home page and search the archives for Leonard Cates.)
The Argus Observes: Near perfect fall weather
By Don Lynch
From the November 25, 1954 Argus-Observer
Fog this morning halted the beauty of a long autumn.
We always have continuous weeks of near perfect weather in the fall months. Sometimes it seems more like a late summer with the settled warmth running on and on into October. It was that way two years ago when summer never seemed to end until late October. If this tendency is too extreme, it slows beet harvesting, for the beets heat in the big piles unless it frosts at night. That October warmth of two years ago was followed by an unusually cool November with lower average minimum temperature than the mild December and January that followed it.
Sometimes autumn’s show is interspersed with rain so that the year’s most pleasant season finds it days tempered with moisture. Then autumn’s flaming color is intermittently subdued to dampened tones. That was the pattern of three yers ago, so wet indeed that some of the beets were never harvested.
This year autumn came early in the cool temperatures. And there it settled to stay almost the same for more than two solid months. When it started to frost late in September it continued at about the same pace through October and far into November. Just steady autumn temperatures slightly below freezing at night and just right for a light coat or jacket in mid-day. Ideal for harvest, perfect for living.
The dates of pheasant season marked the only noticeable breaks in this steady weather. There was one spell of wind and cold at the start of the pheasant season late in October. It was just enough to clearly handicap the hunting of the opening days and to discourage the gust hunters from out-of-Malheur. Soon the weather settled back to normal.
Rain came the last week at the end of the bird season in conditions of moisture that made it more pleasant to be in the fields.
These hours of hunting, at dawn and sunset, were the high moments of this fall’s beauty for me.
Earlier, my son, Larry, and I had hunted without much luck. Too much wind, too many conflicting activities, not enough roosters.
Then the hen season brought us out again into the tempered beauty of the fields softened by rain. We slipped out early before work and school hours began.
A few days earlier, on a dry day, we had seen the most birds in the willows and scrubby softwood trees in the draws high under the big ditch. That’s where we started, expecting it to be soaking wet in the brush. We were wrong both ways. No birds but not wet either. Although it had rained the evening before, there had been a light early morning breeze drying the branches and brush above shoe top level.
The country-side was filled with the stimulating but comfortable sensations of the season. Foft, good-feeling dirt under foot, the staid straw and red brown colors of the clover and willow stalks covering, in some places, a rich green of protected grass underneath.
We quickly hunted out the two draws at hand and moved into the fields. Our pint-sized dog, with whom hunting is strictly an avocation, found the scent on the moist ground easier than he had on the dry ground of earlier days. And then the birds were in the fields better than they had been earlier. Pretty soon we got some thoroughly satisfactory shooting.
All week the ground stayed moist for pleasant hunting conditions. As the season closed we were looking into the west at just the right angle to see a lace cloth of spider webs covering the green alfalfa stubble with all of the red and goldspendor of a November sunset for a centerpiece. I had forgotten how spiders blow in the autumn fields and spin their acres of covering webs.
Now the fog is here on schedule as it nearly always comes curing the holiday season. It, too, is beautiful for a time --- effecting in the mist distant shapes and forms unseen at other times; but let’s hope to avoid the temperature inversion that makes fog persist for days on end.
From the November 25, 1954 Argus-Observer
Fog this morning halted the beauty of a long autumn.
We always have continuous weeks of near perfect weather in the fall months. Sometimes it seems more like a late summer with the settled warmth running on and on into October. It was that way two years ago when summer never seemed to end until late October. If this tendency is too extreme, it slows beet harvesting, for the beets heat in the big piles unless it frosts at night. That October warmth of two years ago was followed by an unusually cool November with lower average minimum temperature than the mild December and January that followed it.
Sometimes autumn’s show is interspersed with rain so that the year’s most pleasant season finds it days tempered with moisture. Then autumn’s flaming color is intermittently subdued to dampened tones. That was the pattern of three yers ago, so wet indeed that some of the beets were never harvested.
This year autumn came early in the cool temperatures. And there it settled to stay almost the same for more than two solid months. When it started to frost late in September it continued at about the same pace through October and far into November. Just steady autumn temperatures slightly below freezing at night and just right for a light coat or jacket in mid-day. Ideal for harvest, perfect for living.
The dates of pheasant season marked the only noticeable breaks in this steady weather. There was one spell of wind and cold at the start of the pheasant season late in October. It was just enough to clearly handicap the hunting of the opening days and to discourage the gust hunters from out-of-Malheur. Soon the weather settled back to normal.
Rain came the last week at the end of the bird season in conditions of moisture that made it more pleasant to be in the fields.
These hours of hunting, at dawn and sunset, were the high moments of this fall’s beauty for me.
Earlier, my son, Larry, and I had hunted without much luck. Too much wind, too many conflicting activities, not enough roosters.
Then the hen season brought us out again into the tempered beauty of the fields softened by rain. We slipped out early before work and school hours began.
A few days earlier, on a dry day, we had seen the most birds in the willows and scrubby softwood trees in the draws high under the big ditch. That’s where we started, expecting it to be soaking wet in the brush. We were wrong both ways. No birds but not wet either. Although it had rained the evening before, there had been a light early morning breeze drying the branches and brush above shoe top level.
The country-side was filled with the stimulating but comfortable sensations of the season. Foft, good-feeling dirt under foot, the staid straw and red brown colors of the clover and willow stalks covering, in some places, a rich green of protected grass underneath.
We quickly hunted out the two draws at hand and moved into the fields. Our pint-sized dog, with whom hunting is strictly an avocation, found the scent on the moist ground easier than he had on the dry ground of earlier days. And then the birds were in the fields better than they had been earlier. Pretty soon we got some thoroughly satisfactory shooting.
All week the ground stayed moist for pleasant hunting conditions. As the season closed we were looking into the west at just the right angle to see a lace cloth of spider webs covering the green alfalfa stubble with all of the red and goldspendor of a November sunset for a centerpiece. I had forgotten how spiders blow in the autumn fields and spin their acres of covering webs.
Now the fog is here on schedule as it nearly always comes curing the holiday season. It, too, is beautiful for a time --- effecting in the mist distant shapes and forms unseen at other times; but let’s hope to avoid the temperature inversion that makes fog persist for days on end.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Scroll Down for some new 1952 photos
Editor's note: Don't miss these pictures of the freshman class officers at Ontario High School for 1952, and just how one of them promoted the Sadie Hawkins Day dance. Scroll down to see them.
Senior play “Mother is a Freshmen” set for new high school auditorium
The new 780-seat high school auditorium was used this month for the first time and drama coach A.B. Spears said the senior play, “Mother is a Freshmen” would be performed there “sometime in December,” the Argus-Observer reported in its Nov. 6 edition.
Cast and crew for the performance were to include Renae Lee, Edith Fitzsimmons, Holly Quigley, Loren Sevey, Arlene Keller, Skip Thayer, Curt Gilchrist, Jerry Cates, Jean Palmer, Donna Keegan, Shane O’Neil, Billie Ripley, David O’Neil, Joan de Bruin and Louise Atniip with Keller and Palmer in the leading parts.
The newspaper story announced that acoustics in the new facility pronounced the acoustics “excellent (because) you can hear equally well from all parts of the auditorium.”
Superintendent Art Kiesz said that the school board had established a fee program for public use after studying what other schools charge in the way of auditorium fees.
Cast and crew for the performance were to include Renae Lee, Edith Fitzsimmons, Holly Quigley, Loren Sevey, Arlene Keller, Skip Thayer, Curt Gilchrist, Jerry Cates, Jean Palmer, Donna Keegan, Shane O’Neil, Billie Ripley, David O’Neil, Joan de Bruin and Louise Atniip with Keller and Palmer in the leading parts.
The newspaper story announced that acoustics in the new facility pronounced the acoustics “excellent (because) you can hear equally well from all parts of the auditorium.”
Superintendent Art Kiesz said that the school board had established a fee program for public use after studying what other schools charge in the way of auditorium fees.
Monday, November 5, 2007
The Argus Observes --- An election night party with KSRV
By Don Lynch
From the November 6, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer
(Editor’s note: Don Lynch had explained in a previous column that the Argus-Observer office would be the center of an election night reporting effort, with the public invited to watch the tallies go up on a huge blackboard pieced together by news editor Hugh Gale and posted along the back wall of the office. In this column he shows his pleasure with how well the effort worked. )
Our big election night party is over. For the first time (radio station) KSRV and the three Malheur County newspapers combined resources to work as a team in reporting the election returns, and with marked success.
The various parts of the team functioned smoothly. Returns were gathered as fast as the precincts counted them, tabulated rapidly and broadcast to listeners immediately. The organization permitted the newspapers to place their resources at the disposal of the radio station so it could concentrate on the technical effort of keeping the broadcast right on top of the fast changing returns.
It was a pleasure for we news reporters to watch the radio people work. We moved rapidly ourselves in compiling returns, but we write our report rather deliberately. By contrast the radio crew works at top speed.
I don’t see how they hit the terrific pace when they’re on the air. They become razor sharp when they take the microphone. And the man at the mike on election night has to have a solid dependable team behind him. The radio people see to it that these requirements are met in order to insure a good performance for the listener.
Visitors seemed to enjoy being guests of KSRV and the Argus-Observer, watching the broadcast and the tabulating. They enjoyed the cider, coffee and doughnuts, too.
The (Vale-based) Malheur Enterprise and the (Nyssa) Gate City Journal have expressed gratification at the way our joint effort worked out. KSRV has expressed its satisfaction too. We feel just the same way and we certainly enjoyed joining with KSRV in giving an election party which was well received by the public.
From the November 6, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer
(Editor’s note: Don Lynch had explained in a previous column that the Argus-Observer office would be the center of an election night reporting effort, with the public invited to watch the tallies go up on a huge blackboard pieced together by news editor Hugh Gale and posted along the back wall of the office. In this column he shows his pleasure with how well the effort worked. )
Our big election night party is over. For the first time (radio station) KSRV and the three Malheur County newspapers combined resources to work as a team in reporting the election returns, and with marked success.
The various parts of the team functioned smoothly. Returns were gathered as fast as the precincts counted them, tabulated rapidly and broadcast to listeners immediately. The organization permitted the newspapers to place their resources at the disposal of the radio station so it could concentrate on the technical effort of keeping the broadcast right on top of the fast changing returns.
It was a pleasure for we news reporters to watch the radio people work. We moved rapidly ourselves in compiling returns, but we write our report rather deliberately. By contrast the radio crew works at top speed.
I don’t see how they hit the terrific pace when they’re on the air. They become razor sharp when they take the microphone. And the man at the mike on election night has to have a solid dependable team behind him. The radio people see to it that these requirements are met in order to insure a good performance for the listener.
Visitors seemed to enjoy being guests of KSRV and the Argus-Observer, watching the broadcast and the tabulating. They enjoyed the cider, coffee and doughnuts, too.
The (Vale-based) Malheur Enterprise and the (Nyssa) Gate City Journal have expressed gratification at the way our joint effort worked out. KSRV has expressed its satisfaction too. We feel just the same way and we certainly enjoyed joining with KSRV in giving an election party which was well received by the public.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Narcotics agent reports a big haul in bust near Nyssa
Jack Merrill, head of the Portland office of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, said he took two pounds of marijuana off a Nyssa man during his arrest at a secluded spot near that city, the Argus-Observer reported on Nov. 3, 1952.
An undercover officer arranged to buy the marijuana from Antonio Enriquez, 27, who had been living in the Nyssa area for six years. Enriquez was charged with felony sale and possession of marijuana. The prisoner was then taken to Pendleton for arraignment before a U.S. Commissioner.
In searching the Enriquez home after his arrest, officers said they found another two tobacco cans full of marijuana ready to be rolled and a cigarette package filled with hand-made “reefers.”
Merrill called the quantity a “big haul” valued at about $300. He said that most of Eniquez’s customers were migrant workers.
Oregon State Police and local district attorney Charles Swan developed the case before calling in the federal agent from Portland, the paper reported.
Merrill told the newspaper that the marijuana was of better quality than could be grown around Nyssa and may have been brought in from California.
An undercover officer arranged to buy the marijuana from Antonio Enriquez, 27, who had been living in the Nyssa area for six years. Enriquez was charged with felony sale and possession of marijuana. The prisoner was then taken to Pendleton for arraignment before a U.S. Commissioner.
In searching the Enriquez home after his arrest, officers said they found another two tobacco cans full of marijuana ready to be rolled and a cigarette package filled with hand-made “reefers.”
Merrill called the quantity a “big haul” valued at about $300. He said that most of Eniquez’s customers were migrant workers.
Oregon State Police and local district attorney Charles Swan developed the case before calling in the federal agent from Portland, the paper reported.
Merrill told the newspaper that the marijuana was of better quality than could be grown around Nyssa and may have been brought in from California.
Monday, October 29, 2007
October Index AND The Argus Observes: Military perils on first Veterans Day
Oct. 29: The Argus Observes: Military perils on first Veteran’s Day.
Oct. 25: In 1952 Medford pheasant hunter collapses and dies.
Oct. 22: The Argus Observes: Don Lynch writes about hunting with his two sons.
Oct. 18: 1952 story that Ontario is told to quit dumping raw sewage in Snake River.
Oct. 15: 1952 story that prominent wrestler Don Sugai was killed in car accident.
The Argus Observes --- Learning is a matter of simplification.
Oct. 11: 1952 story that Malheur Home Telephone Company wants to raise four-party rate to $3.50 a month.
Oct. 8: 1952 story that deer hunters quickly bring in 350 kills.
2007 story that federal government is declaring a disaster for county rangeland.
The Argus Observes --- Local schools avoid softness of California-New York style education.
Oct. 4: 1952 story that Ontario plant processes 15 percent of nation’s frozen corn.
State suggests county form a mosquito abatement district.
Oct. 1: 1952 story that city jail gets a cleaning and new blankets.
2007 brief links to a story about Ontario woman waiting on news of son in Afghanistan.
The Argus-Observes --- U.S. would have trouble ruling the world.
THE ARGUS OBSERVES --- MILITARY PERILS ON FIRST VETERANS DAY
From the Nov. 15, 1954 issue of the Argus-Observer
By Don Lynch
Ontario conducted an outstanding observance of its first Veterans Day.
Thursday’s parade and ceremony at the school field made the best recognition of a patriotic holiday that has been held here in many years….
The occasion justified a larger public attendance than it received even though there were some 500 persons at the ceremonies and a larger number watching the parade…
Col. D.P. Wood from Mountain Home AFB, who made the address at the school field, gave his listeners a strong reminder of the military perils of today’s world.
He told the standard public relations story of the Strategic Air Command --- that a Russian A-bomb attack could paralyze this nation in a matter of hours but that retaliation by the SAC would be swift and sure and even more devastating.
“If Russia struck now,” he said, “Thursday morning our bombers from Mountain Home would be out, deliver their bombs over critical Russian targets and be home before you get up tomorrow morning.”
In other attention to Veterans Day, Maj. Gen. John Walsh, adjutant general for Idaho, talked to the Ontario Kiwanis club.
He urged consideration be given to the idea of large scale military training for civilians.
“I know it sounds like militarism,” he said, “but we face either that alternative or the expense of supporting a large armed force which might be such a load that it could destroy our traditional way of life.”
Gen. Walsh explained that men can be given military training while they live at home and continue on their jobs and in school. By this method virtually all of the nation’s young men aged 19 to 26 (the prime military age) could be kept trained all of the time. As it is now, the nation’s reserve men are mostly over age and out of contact with their training.
All of these contacts with the new Veterans Day spoke well for Ontario. It is a good thing for a community to make some real observance of a patriotic holiday at least once a year and Ontario could be proud of its activity last week….(But) there may be a hue and cry against closing stores and schools for Veterans Day another year because some towns in the area (notably Boise) remained open this year….
Oct. 25: In 1952 Medford pheasant hunter collapses and dies.
Oct. 22: The Argus Observes: Don Lynch writes about hunting with his two sons.
Oct. 18: 1952 story that Ontario is told to quit dumping raw sewage in Snake River.
Oct. 15: 1952 story that prominent wrestler Don Sugai was killed in car accident.
The Argus Observes --- Learning is a matter of simplification.
Oct. 11: 1952 story that Malheur Home Telephone Company wants to raise four-party rate to $3.50 a month.
Oct. 8: 1952 story that deer hunters quickly bring in 350 kills.
2007 story that federal government is declaring a disaster for county rangeland.
The Argus Observes --- Local schools avoid softness of California-New York style education.
Oct. 4: 1952 story that Ontario plant processes 15 percent of nation’s frozen corn.
State suggests county form a mosquito abatement district.
Oct. 1: 1952 story that city jail gets a cleaning and new blankets.
2007 brief links to a story about Ontario woman waiting on news of son in Afghanistan.
The Argus-Observes --- U.S. would have trouble ruling the world.
THE ARGUS OBSERVES --- MILITARY PERILS ON FIRST VETERANS DAY
From the Nov. 15, 1954 issue of the Argus-Observer
By Don Lynch
Ontario conducted an outstanding observance of its first Veterans Day.
Thursday’s parade and ceremony at the school field made the best recognition of a patriotic holiday that has been held here in many years….
The occasion justified a larger public attendance than it received even though there were some 500 persons at the ceremonies and a larger number watching the parade…
Col. D.P. Wood from Mountain Home AFB, who made the address at the school field, gave his listeners a strong reminder of the military perils of today’s world.
He told the standard public relations story of the Strategic Air Command --- that a Russian A-bomb attack could paralyze this nation in a matter of hours but that retaliation by the SAC would be swift and sure and even more devastating.
“If Russia struck now,” he said, “Thursday morning our bombers from Mountain Home would be out, deliver their bombs over critical Russian targets and be home before you get up tomorrow morning.”
In other attention to Veterans Day, Maj. Gen. John Walsh, adjutant general for Idaho, talked to the Ontario Kiwanis club.
He urged consideration be given to the idea of large scale military training for civilians.
“I know it sounds like militarism,” he said, “but we face either that alternative or the expense of supporting a large armed force which might be such a load that it could destroy our traditional way of life.”
Gen. Walsh explained that men can be given military training while they live at home and continue on their jobs and in school. By this method virtually all of the nation’s young men aged 19 to 26 (the prime military age) could be kept trained all of the time. As it is now, the nation’s reserve men are mostly over age and out of contact with their training.
All of these contacts with the new Veterans Day spoke well for Ontario. It is a good thing for a community to make some real observance of a patriotic holiday at least once a year and Ontario could be proud of its activity last week….(But) there may be a hue and cry against closing stores and schools for Veterans Day another year because some towns in the area (notably Boise) remained open this year….
Thursday, October 25, 2007
One pheasant hunter dies of heart attack, others charged with trespassing and shooting from the highway
The Oct. 27, 1952, issue of the Argus-Observer reported that a 46-year-old pheasant hunter from Medford, Oregon died of a heart attack during the opening hours of the season.
Harold H. Hise, an accountant, was felled by the heart attack while hunting on the Cecil Shane ranch about ten miles from Vale. His wife had accompanied him to Vale for the opening of the season but remained in town when he took to the fields. His remains were shipped to Medford for services.
Other hunters found themselves confronted by the usual charges of trespassing. Sheriff John Elfering told the paper that at least three property owners filed complaints with the district attorney's office on charges of trespassing.
Vale Justice of the Peace Mary Graham issued $25 in fines and $4.50 in court costs against each of four hunters --- two from Staten, Oregon and two from Vale --- for shooting from a highway.
Harold H. Hise, an accountant, was felled by the heart attack while hunting on the Cecil Shane ranch about ten miles from Vale. His wife had accompanied him to Vale for the opening of the season but remained in town when he took to the fields. His remains were shipped to Medford for services.
Other hunters found themselves confronted by the usual charges of trespassing. Sheriff John Elfering told the paper that at least three property owners filed complaints with the district attorney's office on charges of trespassing.
Vale Justice of the Peace Mary Graham issued $25 in fines and $4.50 in court costs against each of four hunters --- two from Staten, Oregon and two from Vale --- for shooting from a highway.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Hunting pheasant with two sons and a dog -- four years apart
(RememberingTheArgus editor’s note: Today, in honor of this time of year, of pheasant hunting, and of my brother, I’m posting two of our father’s columns on hunting. At the top is one from the fall of 1956. In it, dad tells how proud he was of my brother’s hunting skill as a 14-year-old. But first he goes on at length about the great fall weather and his fondness for a loaner dog Buz who was all of 15 at the time. The second column is from four years earlier. As I remember well, my own untrained hunting skills at 14 were obviously improved by tramping after Buz, who was then going strong at 11.)
The Argus Observes from Oct. 22, 1956
By Don Lynch
Rarely in the post-war years has there been a better day for the opening day of pheasant season.
The weather was perfect. There had been a heavy rain the days earlier and a lighter rain just two or three days before. The ground was soft with a deep moisture, but neither slick enough to cause a walker to slide nor wet enough to ball on the soles of shoes. Dogs work best of all with this amount of moisture. Sopping wet foliage places them at a disadvantage and dry ground is far worse.
We have had years when the ground was bone dry and dust thick and deep for the first day of China season. Then a dog can hardly find a scent unless the bird is right there. The poor hound’s nose soon gets jammed with dust and many dogs develop a bad nasal condition something like hay fever.
Wind is the worst weather handicap to hunting. When the wind blows dogs can’t work well, hunters can’t shoot well and birds sit tight.
None of these disadvantages handicapped our hunting Saturday. Not only were ground conditions ideal but the weather was perfect for comfort and for shooting.
The temperature at sunrise was a nice, crisp 28. It warmed rapidly, and by mind-morning a light jacket was sufficient. Then light clouds moved in for an afternoon overcast and it never did get too warm to walk in comfort.
Even with perfect conditions this old man (Editor’s note: he was 41 at the time) spent himself too fast. I couldn’t keep from running in the beet fields to stay close to the dog during the first couple of hours. That did it. I’m still hobbling around.
We hunted the farm of Bill Moore on Foothill Drive with a party that had come over from Coquille with his uncle, John Moore, a native of Ontario. The party was large enough to drive the cornfields. The eight of us came within one bird of getting our limits, which is pretty good for a party that size hunting behind a single dog.
Poor old Buz. Or perhaps it would be better to say, “Magnificent old Buz.”
He is 15 or 16 years old, being born before World War II. Saturday morning he got as excited as a two-year-old hound but steadied down much faster. Sunday he was out at daylight raring to go after a full day of hard work. But he was too stiff to do much when he got into the field.
Never in his prime did he hold birds better nor find cripples faster. If his end comes in the field on the scent of a bird, he’ll die happy.
The most pleasant experience of the day for me was the shooting of my 24-year-old son, Dennis, on his first day with a shotgun. Two of his first three shots were dead-on kills shooting with a 20 gauge and a 7½ chill load. It will probably be a year or two before he does as well again.
Such an experience is almost as much thrill for the father as for the son. I can remember how each of his birds looked, how it flew, how he shot, how it fell; and I can’t specifically recall the details of a single hit that I made myself.
The Argus Observes from Nov. 10, 1952
Pheasant hunting companionship was provided for me this year by a boy and a dog.
My 14-year-old son bagged his first pheasant on the fly Saturday, at least the first time that he did not double with another hunter on the kill.
He really likes to hunt and will be a much better outdoor sportsman than I. Just now he is an ideal companion because he doesn’t wear out the old man. He is still willing to take it easy learning as he goes along.
He isn’t yet big and strong enough physically or a good enough shot at a moving target to outshine his father. That permits me to hunt the easy, lazy way that fits my limited abilities.
When I get out with good hunters and get to dubbing shots that should be sure and tire of the pace, I feel like so much excess baggage. So hunting with an adolescent son is really quite a treat.
The dog was a windfall and a wonderful companion too. He was Bill Moore’s hound, Buz. Son of a fine pointer, and an unknown father, he is just a hound, but I have never seen a dog work better on pheasants.
He has none of the temperament and little of the headstrong nature one ordinarily associates with good hunting dogs. He is friendly as any mongrel pup you ever saw, he minds well, and there never was a more tenacious and persistent hunter. He hates to quit, maneuvered very way he could to keep from returning to the house. He wanted to keep right on hunting after four hours of steady pounding.
It is quite a privilege for a man who doesn’t own a hunting dog to enjoy the service of such a friendly hound.
While we were out this week end, I got the impression that Malheur county is ending the pheasant season with a better than usual carry over of birds. Although they were wild, there were a good many roosters left and, of course, an abundance of hens. If the birds get a decent break on the weather this winter, next year should produce the best pheasant crop of its famous pheasants that this county has seen in several years.
The Argus Observes from Oct. 22, 1956
By Don Lynch
Rarely in the post-war years has there been a better day for the opening day of pheasant season.
The weather was perfect. There had been a heavy rain the days earlier and a lighter rain just two or three days before. The ground was soft with a deep moisture, but neither slick enough to cause a walker to slide nor wet enough to ball on the soles of shoes. Dogs work best of all with this amount of moisture. Sopping wet foliage places them at a disadvantage and dry ground is far worse.
We have had years when the ground was bone dry and dust thick and deep for the first day of China season. Then a dog can hardly find a scent unless the bird is right there. The poor hound’s nose soon gets jammed with dust and many dogs develop a bad nasal condition something like hay fever.
Wind is the worst weather handicap to hunting. When the wind blows dogs can’t work well, hunters can’t shoot well and birds sit tight.
None of these disadvantages handicapped our hunting Saturday. Not only were ground conditions ideal but the weather was perfect for comfort and for shooting.
The temperature at sunrise was a nice, crisp 28. It warmed rapidly, and by mind-morning a light jacket was sufficient. Then light clouds moved in for an afternoon overcast and it never did get too warm to walk in comfort.
Even with perfect conditions this old man (Editor’s note: he was 41 at the time) spent himself too fast. I couldn’t keep from running in the beet fields to stay close to the dog during the first couple of hours. That did it. I’m still hobbling around.
We hunted the farm of Bill Moore on Foothill Drive with a party that had come over from Coquille with his uncle, John Moore, a native of Ontario. The party was large enough to drive the cornfields. The eight of us came within one bird of getting our limits, which is pretty good for a party that size hunting behind a single dog.
Poor old Buz. Or perhaps it would be better to say, “Magnificent old Buz.”
He is 15 or 16 years old, being born before World War II. Saturday morning he got as excited as a two-year-old hound but steadied down much faster. Sunday he was out at daylight raring to go after a full day of hard work. But he was too stiff to do much when he got into the field.
Never in his prime did he hold birds better nor find cripples faster. If his end comes in the field on the scent of a bird, he’ll die happy.
The most pleasant experience of the day for me was the shooting of my 24-year-old son, Dennis, on his first day with a shotgun. Two of his first three shots were dead-on kills shooting with a 20 gauge and a 7½ chill load. It will probably be a year or two before he does as well again.
Such an experience is almost as much thrill for the father as for the son. I can remember how each of his birds looked, how it flew, how he shot, how it fell; and I can’t specifically recall the details of a single hit that I made myself.
The Argus Observes from Nov. 10, 1952
Pheasant hunting companionship was provided for me this year by a boy and a dog.
My 14-year-old son bagged his first pheasant on the fly Saturday, at least the first time that he did not double with another hunter on the kill.
He really likes to hunt and will be a much better outdoor sportsman than I. Just now he is an ideal companion because he doesn’t wear out the old man. He is still willing to take it easy learning as he goes along.
He isn’t yet big and strong enough physically or a good enough shot at a moving target to outshine his father. That permits me to hunt the easy, lazy way that fits my limited abilities.
When I get out with good hunters and get to dubbing shots that should be sure and tire of the pace, I feel like so much excess baggage. So hunting with an adolescent son is really quite a treat.
The dog was a windfall and a wonderful companion too. He was Bill Moore’s hound, Buz. Son of a fine pointer, and an unknown father, he is just a hound, but I have never seen a dog work better on pheasants.
He has none of the temperament and little of the headstrong nature one ordinarily associates with good hunting dogs. He is friendly as any mongrel pup you ever saw, he minds well, and there never was a more tenacious and persistent hunter. He hates to quit, maneuvered very way he could to keep from returning to the house. He wanted to keep right on hunting after four hours of steady pounding.
It is quite a privilege for a man who doesn’t own a hunting dog to enjoy the service of such a friendly hound.
While we were out this week end, I got the impression that Malheur county is ending the pheasant season with a better than usual carry over of birds. Although they were wild, there were a good many roosters left and, of course, an abundance of hens. If the birds get a decent break on the weather this winter, next year should produce the best pheasant crop of its famous pheasants that this county has seen in several years.
‘52 Pheasant Population averages 40 birds per hundred acres, half roosters
Cecil Langdon, district game agent, said a pheasant survey in Malheur County indicated there were 40 birds per acre, about half roosters, The Argus-Observer reported on Oct. 23, 1952.
Langdon said that was “about average and slightly more than a year ago.”
When a count was taken in the spring there were five hens for every rooster, but hens have a higher mortality rate during the non-hunting months, Langdon explained.
Hens are more susceptible to dogs, cats and hawks and more are killed by hay mowers and other farming machinery, he said.
Langdon said that was “about average and slightly more than a year ago.”
When a count was taken in the spring there were five hens for every rooster, but hens have a higher mortality rate during the non-hunting months, Langdon explained.
Hens are more susceptible to dogs, cats and hawks and more are killed by hay mowers and other farming machinery, he said.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Ontario told to prepare to quit dumping sewage in the Snake River
The Oct. 20, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer makes it clear why no one voluntarily swam in the Snake River as it coursed alongside Malheur County in those years.
The newspaper reported that the State Sanitation Board had just given the city of Ontario 90 days to submit a plan, including financing, for building a sewage disposal plant.
At a hearing in Portland the authority claimed Ontario’s pumping of raw sewage into the river was causing a serious pollution problem.
Earlier in the year the authority had issued a similar order to Vale and Nyssa, the paper said. Those cities were also being required “to make plans for adequate precautions against polluting streams.”
Horace Beal, an Ontario city councilman, responded to the order by noting that the city was proceeding on a schedule that would permit construction of such a plant without increasing taxes. But the estimated cost of $150,000 would have to be spread out over time.
He noted that because of tax override votes, “taxes were already high in Ontario,” and suggested that the sewage treatment plant could not be built until “sometime in 1955.”
The newspaper reported that the State Sanitation Board had just given the city of Ontario 90 days to submit a plan, including financing, for building a sewage disposal plant.
At a hearing in Portland the authority claimed Ontario’s pumping of raw sewage into the river was causing a serious pollution problem.
Earlier in the year the authority had issued a similar order to Vale and Nyssa, the paper said. Those cities were also being required “to make plans for adequate precautions against polluting streams.”
Horace Beal, an Ontario city councilman, responded to the order by noting that the city was proceeding on a schedule that would permit construction of such a plant without increasing taxes. But the estimated cost of $150,000 would have to be spread out over time.
He noted that because of tax override votes, “taxes were already high in Ontario,” and suggested that the sewage treatment plant could not be built until “sometime in 1955.”
Monday, October 15, 2007
Prominent Ontario wrestler Don Sugai killed in an auto accident
The Argus-Observer for Oct. 16, 1952 reported that Don Sugai, 39, who gained famed across the nation participating in popular wrestling events, was killed when his car went out of control early in the morning near the Seven Mile Inn on Highway 20 in Ada County, Idaho. He was thrown from his car and crushed by the vehicle.
Born in Portland in 1913 and an all-state football player as high school student in Salem, Sugai began professional wrestling right out of high school. He and his wife, the former “Pil” Chin, opened the Oriental Café in Ontario in 1943 and then opened the East Side Café on Jan. 1, 1947.
The accident occurred on a Tuesday following his victory over Wally Tsutsumi of Honolulu in a Riverside area wrestling event the night before. He was booked for the main even in the Ontario arena the following Saturday. Promoter Ted Hager cancelled the Ontario card out of respect for Sugai.
His service were to be held at the United Presbyterian church in Ontario on a Monday afternoon with Rev. Norio Yasaki of the Community Methodist Church officiating.
(Editor’s note: Don Lynch, my father and the editor of The Argus-Observer at the time, marveled at the size of the attendance at Sugai’s funeral years later in recalling for me some of the highlights of his years at the paper. He recalled how the family had a difficult time finding a place for the service because of Sugai’s lifestyle and lack of a formal religious affiliation. When the service was finally held at the Presbyterian Church, Sugai’s friends and associates from the wrestling world flew in from across the country in order to attend.)
Born in Portland in 1913 and an all-state football player as high school student in Salem, Sugai began professional wrestling right out of high school. He and his wife, the former “Pil” Chin, opened the Oriental Café in Ontario in 1943 and then opened the East Side Café on Jan. 1, 1947.
The accident occurred on a Tuesday following his victory over Wally Tsutsumi of Honolulu in a Riverside area wrestling event the night before. He was booked for the main even in the Ontario arena the following Saturday. Promoter Ted Hager cancelled the Ontario card out of respect for Sugai.
His service were to be held at the United Presbyterian church in Ontario on a Monday afternoon with Rev. Norio Yasaki of the Community Methodist Church officiating.
(Editor’s note: Don Lynch, my father and the editor of The Argus-Observer at the time, marveled at the size of the attendance at Sugai’s funeral years later in recalling for me some of the highlights of his years at the paper. He recalled how the family had a difficult time finding a place for the service because of Sugai’s lifestyle and lack of a formal religious affiliation. When the service was finally held at the Presbyterian Church, Sugai’s friends and associates from the wrestling world flew in from across the country in order to attend.)
The Argus Observes -- Learning is a matter of simplification
By Don Lynch
From the Nov. 5, 1953 issue of The Argus-Observer
Mrs. Sylvia Osborn, a capable Ontario teacher, brought her charts and illustrative material and various teaching helps to the weekly Kiwanis luncheon (to demonstrate how) information taught is worked into the child’s everyday living.
Each morning Mrs. Osborn’s class starts with the day’s news. At this time each day, the learning of reading is related to the habit of reading about the news.
First graders, she says, are very observant about the weather. So they keep a record every day and at the end of the year they know how many sunny days, rainy days, windy days, etc., there have been during the school term.
A major teaching effort is directed at making the first graders number conscious. Over and over again they are taught that the same combinations will produce the same results whether they are dealing with blocks, or apples, or people, or animals, or any other units. The little ones have a hard time making the transfer of mathematical reasoning from one subject to another and this is a slow learning process.
Six year olds have a different adjustment problem in getting used to the closeness of school work. The rate that reading is learned is much affected by the youngster’s natural ability to focus his eyes.
Adults who in mid-years have to adjust to bifocal glasses get some idea of what a first grader goes through in learning to focus his eyes in order to read, the teacher said.
The children make up the first stories they read, writing them in simple terms to learn simple words, and then re-reading what they have written. They also illustrate their stories, drawing the characters and situations in a group effort.
One evidence of the relation of education to everyday living is that the children in this year’s first grade classes insist on equipping their houses with TV antennas (Editor’s note: TV broadcasts from Boise began to be viewable by homes equipped with antennas just the previous summer.)
During Mrs. Osborn’s talk I was struck by the similarity of the learning process at all levels.
People starting to do advertising layout work have some of the same problems a first grader has in starting to draw numbers and letters. They have difficulty making their letters uniform in size and shape and in gauging the working space so that they make a balanced use of it. Both first graders and advertising layout beginners are helped by lines that indicate where the top and bottom of the letter should go and where the top of the lower case letters should go.
The whole learning process is one of simplification, like a blowup illustration of the parts of a machine to show how it works and where each part goes….
From the Nov. 5, 1953 issue of The Argus-Observer
Mrs. Sylvia Osborn, a capable Ontario teacher, brought her charts and illustrative material and various teaching helps to the weekly Kiwanis luncheon (to demonstrate how) information taught is worked into the child’s everyday living.
Each morning Mrs. Osborn’s class starts with the day’s news. At this time each day, the learning of reading is related to the habit of reading about the news.
First graders, she says, are very observant about the weather. So they keep a record every day and at the end of the year they know how many sunny days, rainy days, windy days, etc., there have been during the school term.
A major teaching effort is directed at making the first graders number conscious. Over and over again they are taught that the same combinations will produce the same results whether they are dealing with blocks, or apples, or people, or animals, or any other units. The little ones have a hard time making the transfer of mathematical reasoning from one subject to another and this is a slow learning process.
Six year olds have a different adjustment problem in getting used to the closeness of school work. The rate that reading is learned is much affected by the youngster’s natural ability to focus his eyes.
Adults who in mid-years have to adjust to bifocal glasses get some idea of what a first grader goes through in learning to focus his eyes in order to read, the teacher said.
The children make up the first stories they read, writing them in simple terms to learn simple words, and then re-reading what they have written. They also illustrate their stories, drawing the characters and situations in a group effort.
One evidence of the relation of education to everyday living is that the children in this year’s first grade classes insist on equipping their houses with TV antennas (Editor’s note: TV broadcasts from Boise began to be viewable by homes equipped with antennas just the previous summer.)
During Mrs. Osborn’s talk I was struck by the similarity of the learning process at all levels.
People starting to do advertising layout work have some of the same problems a first grader has in starting to draw numbers and letters. They have difficulty making their letters uniform in size and shape and in gauging the working space so that they make a balanced use of it. Both first graders and advertising layout beginners are helped by lines that indicate where the top and bottom of the letter should go and where the top of the lower case letters should go.
The whole learning process is one of simplification, like a blowup illustration of the parts of a machine to show how it works and where each part goes….
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Try links to local photos at the Ontario Argus, Nyssa City and Vale business web sites
The current web page of the Argus Observer leads the way to a local photo gallery that includes multiple photos of local community college and high school soccer, football and volleyball. You can also see some shots of the Ontario Air Faire and the Big Nasty Motorcycle Hill Climb.
Readers may also notice we’ve put up a link to Nyssa photos, where a very sophisticated city web master keeps things interesting. And we posted links to pictures of Vale’s Sears and Roebuck bed and breakfast and the Wilcox Horse and Buggy business in Vale. A cynic might think they are advertisers, but a realist would know that this site is not going to make that pay. We just like the idea of those businesses.
By the way, if anyone has stayed at the B and B, we’d like to hear what you think of it. We may be trying it out before the summer’s over.
Readers may also notice we’ve put up a link to Nyssa photos, where a very sophisticated city web master keeps things interesting. And we posted links to pictures of Vale’s Sears and Roebuck bed and breakfast and the Wilcox Horse and Buggy business in Vale. A cynic might think they are advertisers, but a realist would know that this site is not going to make that pay. We just like the idea of those businesses.
By the way, if anyone has stayed at the B and B, we’d like to hear what you think of it. We may be trying it out before the summer’s over.
Malheur Home Telephone Co. wants to raise four-party rate 75 cents, to $3.50
The phone company serving Nyssa, Ontario and Vale asked the state Public Utilities Commission to raise rates as much as 47 percent for residences and businesses across the county, The Argus-Observer reported on Oct. 13, 1952.
The cheapest rate offered, for a four-party personal line, would go from $2.75 a month to $3.50 in the towns. A rural residence line would climb to $3.75 a month, from $3.00.
Single party residential lines would be $5.50 a month in Ontario, up from $4.25. In Nyssa and Vale the single party rate would be 25 cents cheaper, at $5.25 up from $4.00.
Business rates would climb to $9.75 a month in Ontario, from $6.75. In the rest of the county the individual business rate would be $7.75 up from $5.25.
H.F. “Hap” Logue, the executive officer of the local chamber, said his group had formed a committee to study the increases which it might decide to oppose at a PUC hearing in Ontario later in the month.
The cheapest rate offered, for a four-party personal line, would go from $2.75 a month to $3.50 in the towns. A rural residence line would climb to $3.75 a month, from $3.00.
Single party residential lines would be $5.50 a month in Ontario, up from $4.25. In Nyssa and Vale the single party rate would be 25 cents cheaper, at $5.25 up from $4.00.
Business rates would climb to $9.75 a month in Ontario, from $6.75. In the rest of the county the individual business rate would be $7.75 up from $5.25.
H.F. “Hap” Logue, the executive officer of the local chamber, said his group had formed a committee to study the increases which it might decide to oppose at a PUC hearing in Ontario later in the month.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Malheur County deer hunters quickly bring home 350
The Argus Observer for Oct. 9, 1952 reported that Ontario Police Chief Walter Walker was the first Malheur County deer hunter to return home with a kill, bringing in a four-point buck at 9 a.m. on the October opening day of deer season.
The chief explained that he had just gotten out of the car and was scanning the hillside with his scope when a hunter shooting up the hill chased the buck right towards him, and he made the kill with two shots.
A man on horseback who appeared nearby helped him carry the deer to his car.
“Luck like that could never happen again,” Walker told the newspaper.
From the cynical distance of more than fifty years, one might imagine a host of other scenarios.
Overall the paper reported that hunters from Vale, Nyssa and Ontario brought in 350 to be butchered during the first week of the season.
The successful hunters included a 13-year-old Ontario boy, Chuck Lane, who also bagged a four point buck.
And then there was Larry McShane, the unlucky city engineer. He felled a buck that began crawling in the direction of his car so McShane simply followed along avoid doing the hauling himself. When the buck finally collapsed, the hunter was standing over the flattened animal thinking of his good fortune when the deer jumped up and raced away, never to be found again – at least by McShane.
The chief explained that he had just gotten out of the car and was scanning the hillside with his scope when a hunter shooting up the hill chased the buck right towards him, and he made the kill with two shots.
A man on horseback who appeared nearby helped him carry the deer to his car.
“Luck like that could never happen again,” Walker told the newspaper.
From the cynical distance of more than fifty years, one might imagine a host of other scenarios.
Overall the paper reported that hunters from Vale, Nyssa and Ontario brought in 350 to be butchered during the first week of the season.
The successful hunters included a 13-year-old Ontario boy, Chuck Lane, who also bagged a four point buck.
And then there was Larry McShane, the unlucky city engineer. He felled a buck that began crawling in the direction of his car so McShane simply followed along avoid doing the hauling himself. When the buck finally collapsed, the hunter was standing over the flattened animal thinking of his good fortune when the deer jumped up and raced away, never to be found again – at least by McShane.
Federal government declares a disaster for Eastern Oregon rangeland
The Argus Observer reported Oct. 8, 2007 that severe damage to area rangeland from wildfires and drought during the summer has resulted in a federal disaster declaration for five eastern Oregon counties.
Oregon congressman Greg Walden, R-Hood River, announced the US Department of Agriculture decision.
“Disaster declarations for these counties are an important piece of getting the federal assistance to those who need it most,” Walden said. “But there is still much work to be done for Eastern Oregon.”The U.S. Drought Monitor said conditions in Malheur County as severe. Rangeland grass losses ran as high as 50 percent in the county and pasture losses were up to 80 percent.
Other counties included in the declaration because of moderate to severe drought were Harney, Baker, Wallowa Walla and Union.
Follow our link to the newspaper web site for related details.
Oregon congressman Greg Walden, R-Hood River, announced the US Department of Agriculture decision.
“Disaster declarations for these counties are an important piece of getting the federal assistance to those who need it most,” Walden said. “But there is still much work to be done for Eastern Oregon.”The U.S. Drought Monitor said conditions in Malheur County as severe. Rangeland grass losses ran as high as 50 percent in the county and pasture losses were up to 80 percent.
Other counties included in the declaration because of moderate to severe drought were Harney, Baker, Wallowa Walla and Union.
Follow our link to the newspaper web site for related details.
The Argus Observes ---Ontario avoids “softness of New York-California style of education”
By Don Lynch
From the Nov. 3, 1953 edition of The Argus-Observer
Ernie Hill, Foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, has made an interesting report on the experiences of his son Jonathon in attending schools in New York, Tokyo and London.
The boy had lacked interest in school in the United States and Japan and had repeatedly been tardy, but has taken a real interest in his work in London.
Hill reports, “I once went this school in New York. When I put my head in the door, someone fired a book at me. All the kids were standing up and were screaming. The teacher was shouting and banging on the desk.
“They’re so spirited this morning,” she told me outside. “Their little personalities are expressing themselves. We do nothing to curb their ego.’ When she went back into the classroom, she was beaned by an orange.
“Then, at the American school in Tokyo six of them gave their egos a workout by pushing one boy through a window.”
Hill says that British schools don’t operate that way. Jonathon was never late for school in London. He started doing his homework conscientiously and even studying ahead. When asked what would happen if he didn’t get his homework done, the boy said:
“Well, the Head would send you down to his study. He wouldn’t talk or beg you to do your work. He would just give you six of the best . . . that’s wallops with his birch cane. And boy do they hurt.”
Asked what would happen if a student threw a book, Jonathon said, “That would be a Monday night detention of three to five hours plus six of the best, plus no more swimming or football for the rest of the term.”
Hill reported that under the British influence Jonathon said, “ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Yes, thank you,’ and ‘No thank you,’ just like a civilized human being.”
Hill said he wasn’t worrying about Jonathon’s personality or ego, but just “basking in the warm glow of an unbelievable transformation.”
Thank goodness the Ontario schools and other schools in this region are not so progressively minded that the kids are permitted to run wild. We have a healthy compromise here between the severity of the English system and the softness of the New York-California style of education.
My father, a lifelong school teacher now retired, made practical application of the birch-cane technique with good results. He didn’t abuse it, but he did require discipline and order in his school.
I remember very well one occasion when he marched all of his ninth grade boys around the room whacking each one across the back with his belt when they came by his desk. They had refused to leave the outside basketball court to return to class after the noon hour. They never did it again.
There was another time I remember better from personal experience. We kids were confined to a playroom in the schoolhouse basement because of severe weather. One boy used a wooden pointer teachers used for blackboard instruction, put it in the furnace until it was charred and then wiped it across the faces of some of the rest of us. I took it away from him and broke it over his head. About that time we got caught.
The next morning I watched the old man cut three good strong lilac branches, and then walked to school through the deep snow of that year with him and the lilac branches.
The three us of who were in that fight stood up before the room and one lilac branched was used on each of us. I was ashamed because I couldn’t keep from doing a little jig while the other boys were tough enough to stand and take it.
However, the old man wasn’t always so stern. He yielded to the idea of progressive education to the extent of spending considerable effort on directing the learning process along lines that appealed to the interests of individual youngsters. Students got a chance to work on projects they liked and to acquire their learning in terms they would understand.
With that background, it’s no wonder that discipline seem to me an essential prerequisite of education. Attention is essential to learning and discipline is necessary to get attention from most youngsters.
From the Nov. 3, 1953 edition of The Argus-Observer
Ernie Hill, Foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, has made an interesting report on the experiences of his son Jonathon in attending schools in New York, Tokyo and London.
The boy had lacked interest in school in the United States and Japan and had repeatedly been tardy, but has taken a real interest in his work in London.
Hill reports, “I once went this school in New York. When I put my head in the door, someone fired a book at me. All the kids were standing up and were screaming. The teacher was shouting and banging on the desk.
“They’re so spirited this morning,” she told me outside. “Their little personalities are expressing themselves. We do nothing to curb their ego.’ When she went back into the classroom, she was beaned by an orange.
“Then, at the American school in Tokyo six of them gave their egos a workout by pushing one boy through a window.”
Hill says that British schools don’t operate that way. Jonathon was never late for school in London. He started doing his homework conscientiously and even studying ahead. When asked what would happen if he didn’t get his homework done, the boy said:
“Well, the Head would send you down to his study. He wouldn’t talk or beg you to do your work. He would just give you six of the best . . . that’s wallops with his birch cane. And boy do they hurt.”
Asked what would happen if a student threw a book, Jonathon said, “That would be a Monday night detention of three to five hours plus six of the best, plus no more swimming or football for the rest of the term.”
Hill reported that under the British influence Jonathon said, “ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Yes, thank you,’ and ‘No thank you,’ just like a civilized human being.”
Hill said he wasn’t worrying about Jonathon’s personality or ego, but just “basking in the warm glow of an unbelievable transformation.”
Thank goodness the Ontario schools and other schools in this region are not so progressively minded that the kids are permitted to run wild. We have a healthy compromise here between the severity of the English system and the softness of the New York-California style of education.
My father, a lifelong school teacher now retired, made practical application of the birch-cane technique with good results. He didn’t abuse it, but he did require discipline and order in his school.
I remember very well one occasion when he marched all of his ninth grade boys around the room whacking each one across the back with his belt when they came by his desk. They had refused to leave the outside basketball court to return to class after the noon hour. They never did it again.
There was another time I remember better from personal experience. We kids were confined to a playroom in the schoolhouse basement because of severe weather. One boy used a wooden pointer teachers used for blackboard instruction, put it in the furnace until it was charred and then wiped it across the faces of some of the rest of us. I took it away from him and broke it over his head. About that time we got caught.
The next morning I watched the old man cut three good strong lilac branches, and then walked to school through the deep snow of that year with him and the lilac branches.
The three us of who were in that fight stood up before the room and one lilac branched was used on each of us. I was ashamed because I couldn’t keep from doing a little jig while the other boys were tough enough to stand and take it.
However, the old man wasn’t always so stern. He yielded to the idea of progressive education to the extent of spending considerable effort on directing the learning process along lines that appealed to the interests of individual youngsters. Students got a chance to work on projects they liked and to acquire their learning in terms they would understand.
With that background, it’s no wonder that discipline seem to me an essential prerequisite of education. Attention is essential to learning and discipline is necessary to get attention from most youngsters.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Sexual abuse and auto thefts attract interest this week of 2007
Use our link to visit the Argus Observer web site to check out the local bloggers debate about a story from last week of a Fruitland football player’s mother accused of sexual abuse.
Another item under “headlines” tells how police are getting together to try to solve a rash of auto thefts in Ontario.
Another item under “headlines” tells how police are getting together to try to solve a rash of auto thefts in Ontario.
Ontario plant processes 15 percent of nation’s frozen corn; state suggests area form a mosquito abatement district
Here are two stories from the Oct. 6, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer.
Nephi Grigg, general manager of the Oregon Frozen Foods plant in Ontario, said his plant processed 15 percent of the frozen corn sent to market in 1952.
The plant started its run July 13 and through the previous Saturday employed 500 workers in two shifts to complete the run. Grigg estimated the payroll for the period was a quarter of a million dollars.
“We think---we always have thought and still do---corn has a great potential as a money crop in this area. It’s getting stronger every year,” he told the newspaper.
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Following a survey in the Nyssa area by three members of the Oregon State Board of Health on Sept. 3 and 4, the state officials suggested “immediate consideration should be given by responsible officials in Nyssa and other towns in the vicinity, both Oregon and Idaho, to the formation of a mosquito abatement district.”
Malheur County’s health officer, Dr. L. A. Maulding, said he requested the state survey after a local polio case was listed as “symptomatically suggestive of equine encephalomvelitis.” The story said that is a virus carried by horses and “communicated to man by the Aedus mosquito.”
Nephi Grigg, general manager of the Oregon Frozen Foods plant in Ontario, said his plant processed 15 percent of the frozen corn sent to market in 1952.
The plant started its run July 13 and through the previous Saturday employed 500 workers in two shifts to complete the run. Grigg estimated the payroll for the period was a quarter of a million dollars.
“We think---we always have thought and still do---corn has a great potential as a money crop in this area. It’s getting stronger every year,” he told the newspaper.
------------
Following a survey in the Nyssa area by three members of the Oregon State Board of Health on Sept. 3 and 4, the state officials suggested “immediate consideration should be given by responsible officials in Nyssa and other towns in the vicinity, both Oregon and Idaho, to the formation of a mosquito abatement district.”
Malheur County’s health officer, Dr. L. A. Maulding, said he requested the state survey after a local polio case was listed as “symptomatically suggestive of equine encephalomvelitis.” The story said that is a virus carried by horses and “communicated to man by the Aedus mosquito.”
Monday, October 1, 2007
City Jail gets cleaning, new blankets
The Ontario city jail underwent a cleaning and was equipped with new blankets for its “guests,” Police Chief Walter S. Walker told The Argus-Observer for its Oct. 2, 1952 editions.
Walker said the jail’s mattresses were filthy and had to be tossed. Prisoners were to be provided only with blankets on their bunks.
“You can’t have the place too comfortable,” Walker said.
The clean-up came following two warnings that the jail was unfit for prisoners, both issued before Walker became police chief.
Walker said the jail’s mattresses were filthy and had to be tossed. Prisoners were to be provided only with blankets on their bunks.
“You can’t have the place too comfortable,” Walker said.
The clean-up came following two warnings that the jail was unfit for prisoners, both issued before Walker became police chief.
Janice Gates waits for word of her son in Afghanistan
An Ontario-area mother tells The Argus Observer what it’s like waiting for word about her son, who as an Airborne trouper has had his enlistment extended and been sent to Afghanistan for a second time.
The story in the Monday, Oct. 2, 2007 edition begins:
“It can be nerve-wracking, being at home and knowing your child is in a dangerous area, possibly in the line of fire. But having been in the Army herself, Janice Gates, Ontario, has a different perspective about what her son, Sgt. Joshua Brennan, who is in Afghanistan, has been going through than a lot of parents with children in the military. She admits, however, it was hard to accept when he his military service extended for another tour of duty.”
For the full story follow our link to the newspaper’s web site.
The story in the Monday, Oct. 2, 2007 edition begins:
“It can be nerve-wracking, being at home and knowing your child is in a dangerous area, possibly in the line of fire. But having been in the Army herself, Janice Gates, Ontario, has a different perspective about what her son, Sgt. Joshua Brennan, who is in Afghanistan, has been going through than a lot of parents with children in the military. She admits, however, it was hard to accept when he his military service extended for another tour of duty.”
For the full story follow our link to the newspaper’s web site.
The Argus Observes --- U.S. would have trouble ruling the world
From the October 29, 1953 edition of The Argus-Observer
By Don Lynch
Major Malcolm Rosholt, former Air Force officer in the C-B-I theater in World War II and former Shanghi newspaper publisher, debunked the value of the United Nations in his talk to the Knife and Fork club here Tuesday evening.
He told the crowd he had been re-reading Herodotus and was impressed by how little man’s heart had changed in 2400 years.
“Unless man has a remarkably sudden change of heart we will never have peace of much duration during the next 2400 years,” he said.
I asked him if he thought that with the scientific advancement in weapons, man could survive another 2400 years in a world of conflict.
He expressed the opinion that even though millions of people would be killed quickly in an atomic war, the human race would probably survive.
Then he added, “But it would become necessary for one country to rule the world.”
Sometimes that does appear to be the alternative if the United Nations or its equivalent eventually proves entirely futile.
Who would that nation be?
We know the world would be a tragic place if it were run by Russia. But what of the United States?
Could we actually rule the world intelligently? I doubt it. We have trouble enough trying to harmonize the widely diversified interests of our own nation into enough of a common pattern to govern ourselves. We haven’t done that very well. How could we really rule the world except by brute force, even if it was moderated by some awareness of justice as a principle and the Golden Rule as a desirable ideal?
The Romans were just, according to their own standards, and they were intelligent, but they flubbed the job of world rulership when it was much more simple that it would be now. And although they were rugged where we are soft, they couldn’t maintain enough character to handle their responsibilities.
Things are far more complex, travel at a far faster pace in in our world today. If in the decades ahead, circumstances require us to assume the task of ruling the world, the speed of our physical and moral degeneration will probably make the Romans look slow indeed.
Let’s not kid ourselves that we are qualified to rule the world. Far better to keep talking in the United Nations in the hope, however slim, that the world can find solutions and compromises that are at least temporarily acceptable to the diverse interests of its diverse people.
By Don Lynch
Major Malcolm Rosholt, former Air Force officer in the C-B-I theater in World War II and former Shanghi newspaper publisher, debunked the value of the United Nations in his talk to the Knife and Fork club here Tuesday evening.
He told the crowd he had been re-reading Herodotus and was impressed by how little man’s heart had changed in 2400 years.
“Unless man has a remarkably sudden change of heart we will never have peace of much duration during the next 2400 years,” he said.
I asked him if he thought that with the scientific advancement in weapons, man could survive another 2400 years in a world of conflict.
He expressed the opinion that even though millions of people would be killed quickly in an atomic war, the human race would probably survive.
Then he added, “But it would become necessary for one country to rule the world.”
Sometimes that does appear to be the alternative if the United Nations or its equivalent eventually proves entirely futile.
Who would that nation be?
We know the world would be a tragic place if it were run by Russia. But what of the United States?
Could we actually rule the world intelligently? I doubt it. We have trouble enough trying to harmonize the widely diversified interests of our own nation into enough of a common pattern to govern ourselves. We haven’t done that very well. How could we really rule the world except by brute force, even if it was moderated by some awareness of justice as a principle and the Golden Rule as a desirable ideal?
The Romans were just, according to their own standards, and they were intelligent, but they flubbed the job of world rulership when it was much more simple that it would be now. And although they were rugged where we are soft, they couldn’t maintain enough character to handle their responsibilities.
Things are far more complex, travel at a far faster pace in in our world today. If in the decades ahead, circumstances require us to assume the task of ruling the world, the speed of our physical and moral degeneration will probably make the Romans look slow indeed.
Let’s not kid ourselves that we are qualified to rule the world. Far better to keep talking in the United Nations in the hope, however slim, that the world can find solutions and compromises that are at least temporarily acceptable to the diverse interests of its diverse people.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
September Index AND 1952 story that times were good for sugar beet growers
Sept. 27: Times were good for sugar beet growers
Story from 1952 Argus-Observer predicting a record sugar beet crop.
Sept. 24: Regional news -- Halfway Oregon, once half.com, finds a bidder
Account from 2007 Argus-Observer about Halfway Oregon’s successful Ebay auction of the town sign.
1952 Argus-Observer reports state police to move to Snake River Bridge location.
The Argus-Observes ---Public interest will determine the fate of school patrol
Sept. 20: Readers look back ---“Number please?” and how did the Doman twins get away with that car.
1952 story reporting state police promise to study school patrol.
2007 story saying potato harvest will be high in quality, low in quantity.
Sept. 17: The Argus Observes --- Brevity in feminine attire
1952 story reporting two polio deaths
2007 OHS Tiger footballers beat vale
Sept. 13: 1956 OHS classmates remember Ore-Ida start, dancing lessons, “whirlwind” Don Lynch, and Native Indian artifacts.
1952 flying saucer likely was a weather balloon.
Sept. 10: The Argus Observes: On football stirring the blood
Sept: 6: Coach Ken Glore says defense is troubled on his 1952 Tiger football team.
Sept. 3: 1952 student body moving into new high school is record in size.
Local riders win honors at 1952 County Fair.
The Argus Observers --- Don Lynch explains his reasons for starting a personal column.
FALL OF 1952 SUGAR BEET CROP EXPECTED TO BE A GOOD ONE:
The Sept. 29, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer reported that a record sugar beet crop was about to be harvested for processing at the sugar plant in Nyssa.
Jared Lewis, district manager of the Amalgamated Sugar Beet Company told the newspaper that yield per acre, total yield and the price of beets were all expected to be the highest in history.
He predicted better than 22 tons per acre average yield, exceeding the year before and the average over the previous five years.
The sugar content of the beets was also testing high.
“It looks like a good year,” Lewis said, noting that his company’s plant would begin processing Oct. 6.
Story from 1952 Argus-Observer predicting a record sugar beet crop.
Sept. 24: Regional news -- Halfway Oregon, once half.com, finds a bidder
Account from 2007 Argus-Observer about Halfway Oregon’s successful Ebay auction of the town sign.
1952 Argus-Observer reports state police to move to Snake River Bridge location.
The Argus-Observes ---Public interest will determine the fate of school patrol
Sept. 20: Readers look back ---“Number please?” and how did the Doman twins get away with that car.
1952 story reporting state police promise to study school patrol.
2007 story saying potato harvest will be high in quality, low in quantity.
Sept. 17: The Argus Observes --- Brevity in feminine attire
1952 story reporting two polio deaths
2007 OHS Tiger footballers beat vale
Sept. 13: 1956 OHS classmates remember Ore-Ida start, dancing lessons, “whirlwind” Don Lynch, and Native Indian artifacts.
1952 flying saucer likely was a weather balloon.
Sept. 10: The Argus Observes: On football stirring the blood
Sept: 6: Coach Ken Glore says defense is troubled on his 1952 Tiger football team.
Sept. 3: 1952 student body moving into new high school is record in size.
Local riders win honors at 1952 County Fair.
The Argus Observers --- Don Lynch explains his reasons for starting a personal column.
FALL OF 1952 SUGAR BEET CROP EXPECTED TO BE A GOOD ONE:
The Sept. 29, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer reported that a record sugar beet crop was about to be harvested for processing at the sugar plant in Nyssa.
Jared Lewis, district manager of the Amalgamated Sugar Beet Company told the newspaper that yield per acre, total yield and the price of beets were all expected to be the highest in history.
He predicted better than 22 tons per acre average yield, exceeding the year before and the average over the previous five years.
The sugar content of the beets was also testing high.
“It looks like a good year,” Lewis said, noting that his company’s plant would begin processing Oct. 6.
Payette teachers accept 2 percent raise
Payette school teachers and the board of education both signed a mediated agreement this week that gives teachers a 2 percent raise, the Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007 issue of The Argus Observer reported. Andrea Tuttle, president of the Payette Education Association, said the agreement was accepted “reluctantly” by teachers because otherwise they could have received no raise at all. “It was the best they could offer,” Tuttle said.
For more details follow our link to the newspaper’s web pages.
For more details follow our link to the newspaper’s web pages.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Regional News --- Halfway Oregon, once half.com, finds a bidder
Halfway, Oregon --- more than halfway along the highway 86 from Baker, Oregon to Hells Canyon National Recreation Area --- has sold a sign from it’s recent past for $1,000 on eBay.
The buyer: Josh Kopelman, the man who convinced the town of 350 people to change its name to half.com for year. He won out over 45 other bids.
Kopelman, who founded half.com, could obviously afford the memento. He sold his company to eBay in mid 2000 for some $350 million, according to an Associated Press report published in The Argus Observer on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.
In exchange for changing its identity to “half.com Oregon, America’s first Dot.com city” on Jan. 19, 2000, the town received $100,000 in cash and school computers. And it found itself on NBC’s Today show the day of the changeover.
The town’s two signs from that year lasted well beyond the deal, and beyond the dot com bust, but were finally taken down so that one could be placed in the town museum and the other sold on eBay. According to the Associated Press, Halfway Mayor Gordon Kaesemeyer, allowed that townsfolk “would have been tickled” if the auction had brought in an extra $50 for the town coffers.
For the full Associated Press account, follow our link to the local pages of Monday’s Argus Observer
The buyer: Josh Kopelman, the man who convinced the town of 350 people to change its name to half.com for year. He won out over 45 other bids.
Kopelman, who founded half.com, could obviously afford the memento. He sold his company to eBay in mid 2000 for some $350 million, according to an Associated Press report published in The Argus Observer on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.
In exchange for changing its identity to “half.com Oregon, America’s first Dot.com city” on Jan. 19, 2000, the town received $100,000 in cash and school computers. And it found itself on NBC’s Today show the day of the changeover.
The town’s two signs from that year lasted well beyond the deal, and beyond the dot com bust, but were finally taken down so that one could be placed in the town museum and the other sold on eBay. According to the Associated Press, Halfway Mayor Gordon Kaesemeyer, allowed that townsfolk “would have been tickled” if the auction had brought in an extra $50 for the town coffers.
For the full Associated Press account, follow our link to the local pages of Monday’s Argus Observer
State Police announce move to Snake River Bridge location
The Sept. 25, 1952 edition of The Argus-Observer quoted State Police Sergeant Wayne Huffman announcing that the local office would move from 4th Avenue SW to the site of the State Line Drive Inn property on Highway 30 near the Snake River Bridge.
Sgt. Huffman said that the move would provide a parking lot for out-of-state trucks to park during nighttime hours to wait for the office to open in the morning. The state Public Utilities Commission office was to move along with the State Police to provide a one-stop location for the trucks, which were required to stop for inspection and then secure permits from the PUC allowing them to proceed into Oregon.
The drive-in property along with a residence across the street was purchased form Derby Smith who told the newspaper he was returning to California.
Huffman said that pending the move five or six big transports on city streets near the 4th Avenue overnight, waiting for the state office to open.
Sgt. Huffman said that the move would provide a parking lot for out-of-state trucks to park during nighttime hours to wait for the office to open in the morning. The state Public Utilities Commission office was to move along with the State Police to provide a one-stop location for the trucks, which were required to stop for inspection and then secure permits from the PUC allowing them to proceed into Oregon.
The drive-in property along with a residence across the street was purchased form Derby Smith who told the newspaper he was returning to California.
Huffman said that pending the move five or six big transports on city streets near the 4th Avenue overnight, waiting for the state office to open.
The Argus Observes --- Public interest will determine fate of school patrol
From The Ontario Argus-Observer Sept. 27, 1952 edition
By Don Lynch
The suggestion of … a school safety patrol has been raised by safety committees of various civic and service clubs here on former occasions, but it was always dropped. This time, with the help of a state officer who is an expert at traffic management, it appears that the plan will get serious study….
Although no child enroute to school has been struck by a car so far as I can recall, Ontario does have a dangerous situation in that so many of its grade school youngsters must cross a major highway in order to get to school. Conklin School draws heavily from the area south of Southwest Fourth Avenue. Quite a few Lindbergh students must cross East Idaho Avenue. These streets are main highway approaches into the city.
The school patrol system has been the answer to this problem in scores of cities. A thorough study of such a system here has been in order for at least several years. Sidewalk facilities which would channel children to safe crossings should be studied as one aspect of the plan. In some places, for instance along Southwest Fourth street, and along the south side of Southwest Fourth Avenue, more sidewalks will be needed in order to bring the students to any common crossing place.
Public interest may be a determining factor in reaching a decision on establishing school patrols. Those parents of school children who think such a patrol would be helpful should make their opinion known to school authorities, to the state police and to Parent-Teacher officials
By Don Lynch
The suggestion of … a school safety patrol has been raised by safety committees of various civic and service clubs here on former occasions, but it was always dropped. This time, with the help of a state officer who is an expert at traffic management, it appears that the plan will get serious study….
Although no child enroute to school has been struck by a car so far as I can recall, Ontario does have a dangerous situation in that so many of its grade school youngsters must cross a major highway in order to get to school. Conklin School draws heavily from the area south of Southwest Fourth Avenue. Quite a few Lindbergh students must cross East Idaho Avenue. These streets are main highway approaches into the city.
The school patrol system has been the answer to this problem in scores of cities. A thorough study of such a system here has been in order for at least several years. Sidewalk facilities which would channel children to safe crossings should be studied as one aspect of the plan. In some places, for instance along Southwest Fourth street, and along the south side of Southwest Fourth Avenue, more sidewalks will be needed in order to bring the students to any common crossing place.
Public interest may be a determining factor in reaching a decision on establishing school patrols. Those parents of school children who think such a patrol would be helpful should make their opinion known to school authorities, to the state police and to Parent-Teacher officials
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Readers look back: “Number please?” and how did the Doman twins get away with that car?
Two members of the Ontario High School Class of 1956 have been thinking back on their lives during the 1950s.
Pat Jacobs McCrary notes:
The many changes since the 1950s include “the telephone, for example, going from picking up the receiver and getting an operator on the line asking “number please,” giving her the number and her connecting us to the party we wanted to call.
“Now there are cell phones everywhere. My son one day called me from Hawaii and I head the ocen lapping the beach from my home in Utah.
“The first time I saw a micro wave oven was at a demonstration in Blacker’s department store. At the time I wondered if I would ever have one and now I don’t think I could function without one.
“Miss Root, who taught us high school typing, would marvel at how her typing students have come through the years, now being able to use the computer without the hunt and peck system. These are just a few of the things we have been privileged to experience.”
Verl Doman remembers:
“Earl and I got our first car when we were still 14 years old so we could get home from ball practice. It was a 1937 Plymouth and we paid $25 cash for the full purchase price. Other than the fact that we could see the road through the floor board and that it featured four bald tires, it got us around pretty well. As I recall, it was sort of a novelty with the girls as Jerry (Doman) had a nice ‘49 Ford Victoria Hardtop, but more girls would pile into our clunker than in his hot wheels (in our dreams).
“The thing that amazes me when look back on that experience was that with those bald tires, the car was often left alongside the highway with a flat until we raked up a dollar or two to buy another used baldy and get it going again. The Oregon State Police had an office in Ontario and I cannot now imagine that they were not aware of who owned that car and that we were driving without licenses. I think they must have decided to look the other way, don’t you?”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Verl is almost certainly correct in his assumption. State Police Officer Bones had two sons in high school, Bob a year ahead of us and Dick a year behind. Officer Bones was always watching out for us, at least for me, or so I heard from my father. In the case of Verl and Earl (and no doubt Jerry) Officer Bones was also nurturing the success of the Ontario High School sports program.
Pat Jacobs McCrary notes:
The many changes since the 1950s include “the telephone, for example, going from picking up the receiver and getting an operator on the line asking “number please,” giving her the number and her connecting us to the party we wanted to call.
“Now there are cell phones everywhere. My son one day called me from Hawaii and I head the ocen lapping the beach from my home in Utah.
“The first time I saw a micro wave oven was at a demonstration in Blacker’s department store. At the time I wondered if I would ever have one and now I don’t think I could function without one.
“Miss Root, who taught us high school typing, would marvel at how her typing students have come through the years, now being able to use the computer without the hunt and peck system. These are just a few of the things we have been privileged to experience.”
Verl Doman remembers:
“Earl and I got our first car when we were still 14 years old so we could get home from ball practice. It was a 1937 Plymouth and we paid $25 cash for the full purchase price. Other than the fact that we could see the road through the floor board and that it featured four bald tires, it got us around pretty well. As I recall, it was sort of a novelty with the girls as Jerry (Doman) had a nice ‘49 Ford Victoria Hardtop, but more girls would pile into our clunker than in his hot wheels (in our dreams).
“The thing that amazes me when look back on that experience was that with those bald tires, the car was often left alongside the highway with a flat until we raked up a dollar or two to buy another used baldy and get it going again. The Oregon State Police had an office in Ontario and I cannot now imagine that they were not aware of who owned that car and that we were driving without licenses. I think they must have decided to look the other way, don’t you?”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Verl is almost certainly correct in his assumption. State Police Officer Bones had two sons in high school, Bob a year ahead of us and Dick a year behind. Officer Bones was always watching out for us, at least for me, or so I heard from my father. In the case of Verl and Earl (and no doubt Jerry) Officer Bones was also nurturing the success of the Ontario High School sports program.
State police promise to study need for school crossing patrol
State Police Sergeant Wayne Huffman promised that his department would study the need for a “school patrol” to assist students at dangerous street crossings, particularly those across Fourth Avenue, the Sept. 22, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer reported.
Huffman called street crossing markings on Fourth Avenue “inadequate.”
The safety division of the state police committed by letter to “send a man” to study the situation and talk with interested parties, Harold Reid of the Lions Club told the newspaper.
Reid was named chairman of a Lions Club committee to study the feasibility of the patrol after a city police officer appeared before the club and suggested the school patrol as a possible club project.
Ontario schools Supt. Arthur Kiesz responded that patrol was a good idea “if administrative details could be worked out.”
Huffman called street crossing markings on Fourth Avenue “inadequate.”
The safety division of the state police committed by letter to “send a man” to study the situation and talk with interested parties, Harold Reid of the Lions Club told the newspaper.
Reid was named chairman of a Lions Club committee to study the feasibility of the patrol after a city police officer appeared before the club and suggested the school patrol as a possible club project.
Ontario schools Supt. Arthur Kiesz responded that patrol was a good idea “if administrative details could be worked out.”
2007 potato harvest up but down
The fall 2007 potato harvest in Malheur County may be high in quality but represents a decline in quantity from the boom years of the 1970s, Lynne Jensen or the Oregon State University Extension told The Argus Observer.
Jensen said local farmers will harvest about 5,000 acres of potatoes down from 15,000 to 20,000 in the 1970s.
Use our link to check the Sept. 19, 2007 issue of The Ontario Argus Observer for the full story.
Jensen said local farmers will harvest about 5,000 acres of potatoes down from 15,000 to 20,000 in the 1970s.
Use our link to check the Sept. 19, 2007 issue of The Ontario Argus Observer for the full story.
Monday, September 17, 2007
The Argus Observes -- Brevity in feminine attire
From the Sept. 20, 1954 issue of The Ontario Argus-Observer
By Don Lynch
Brevity in feminine attire has become about as commonplace and unexciting as an old print dress.
The utter indifference often accorded a scantily clad female was brought to my attention last summer by a chance observance.
On one of the warmer days in late summer, I sat in a barber shop getting a shoe shine and watched a junior miss in high cuffed shorts and a scanty shirt wend her way through and past the groups of men that dotted the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.
Her blouse may have been what the women call a halter scarf. At any rate, it wasn’t quite as diverting as the skin tight T shirts sometimes seen this past summer which, unfortunately, seem to appear most often on the fat girls.
This girl was strictly a youngster who looked so young in fact that the average man would feel a little hesitant to note that she was a candidate to be quite a woman.
At first I thought that she might be unaware of the rather obvious display of her charm. But not so. After she had walked the block one way she soon came back the other direction and it was plain that she was conscious of her feminine attractions. At least it was plain from where I sat.
Yet not a single one of a couple dozen men standing on the street gave her a second glance. Most of them didn’t even give her a first glance.
Perhaps if she had been dressed in snug fitting denim waist overalls, she might have rated more attention. She would have looked like a more approachable type to her audience.
The contrast in today’s attitude toward women’s dress and that of a generation ago is well illustrated by an incident I remember from my childhood.
My country-school teacher father sent two of his high school girl students home to get appropriately dressed when they rolled their stockings down below their knees and wore short knee-length skirts in the first of the flapper days.
I don’t think he was shocked but he thought the community would be horrified. So he made the girls cover a little more before he would let them stay in school.
Where will we be in another generation? Will it be bikini suits or less on the girls by then?
I hope not. There are still some things I’d prefer to leave to my imagination.
However, I shall try to ride with the times, adjusting to the trends whatever they may be to keep from being separated from the youthful part of society by the devastating attitude generally accorded to disapproving elders.
By Don Lynch
Brevity in feminine attire has become about as commonplace and unexciting as an old print dress.
The utter indifference often accorded a scantily clad female was brought to my attention last summer by a chance observance.
On one of the warmer days in late summer, I sat in a barber shop getting a shoe shine and watched a junior miss in high cuffed shorts and a scanty shirt wend her way through and past the groups of men that dotted the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.
Her blouse may have been what the women call a halter scarf. At any rate, it wasn’t quite as diverting as the skin tight T shirts sometimes seen this past summer which, unfortunately, seem to appear most often on the fat girls.
This girl was strictly a youngster who looked so young in fact that the average man would feel a little hesitant to note that she was a candidate to be quite a woman.
At first I thought that she might be unaware of the rather obvious display of her charm. But not so. After she had walked the block one way she soon came back the other direction and it was plain that she was conscious of her feminine attractions. At least it was plain from where I sat.
Yet not a single one of a couple dozen men standing on the street gave her a second glance. Most of them didn’t even give her a first glance.
Perhaps if she had been dressed in snug fitting denim waist overalls, she might have rated more attention. She would have looked like a more approachable type to her audience.
The contrast in today’s attitude toward women’s dress and that of a generation ago is well illustrated by an incident I remember from my childhood.
My country-school teacher father sent two of his high school girl students home to get appropriately dressed when they rolled their stockings down below their knees and wore short knee-length skirts in the first of the flapper days.
I don’t think he was shocked but he thought the community would be horrified. So he made the girls cover a little more before he would let them stay in school.
Where will we be in another generation? Will it be bikini suits or less on the girls by then?
I hope not. There are still some things I’d prefer to leave to my imagination.
However, I shall try to ride with the times, adjusting to the trends whatever they may be to keep from being separated from the youthful part of society by the devastating attitude generally accorded to disapproving elders.
Two polio deaths reported
A mother and son from Hines, Oregon, near Burns, died of polio in the Malheur Memorial hospital in Nyssa, the Ontario Argus-Observer reported in its Sept. 18, 1952 edition.
Tony Liebig, who was seven, died the previous Monday night and his mother, Dorothy Liebig, died at 3 a.m. Wednesday. Both suffered from what doctors identified as bulbar type of polio, which attacks the neck and throat.
The deaths made a total of four from polio at the hospital in 1952. Mrs. Pete Lowe of Payette and Judy Kirby of Baker died earlier.
Three new patients thought to be in less critical condition were brought to the hospital over the previous week, bring to 35 the number admitted during the year. This was the largest number treated at the Nyssa facility in any one year although 1952 was the first year patients were brought to the hospital from Baker and Harney counties, where many of the 1952 cases originated.
Tony Liebig, who was seven, died the previous Monday night and his mother, Dorothy Liebig, died at 3 a.m. Wednesday. Both suffered from what doctors identified as bulbar type of polio, which attacks the neck and throat.
The deaths made a total of four from polio at the hospital in 1952. Mrs. Pete Lowe of Payette and Judy Kirby of Baker died earlier.
Three new patients thought to be in less critical condition were brought to the hospital over the previous week, bring to 35 the number admitted during the year. This was the largest number treated at the Nyssa facility in any one year although 1952 was the first year patients were brought to the hospital from Baker and Harney counties, where many of the 1952 cases originated.
Tigers beat Vale; police sting inattentive motorists
The 2007 Ontario High School football team traveled to Vale on Friday night to provide some payback to the Vikings for the OHS loss at home last year. Byron Sap passed for 128 yards and Loren Stewart added a 72-yard touchdown run as Ontario won 16-3.
Ontario police handed out 16 tickets to inattentive drivers in a kind of pedestrian sting in school zones and along Southwest Fourth Avenue last Wednesday. A police officer crossed the street in crosswalks in those areas and police ticketed drivers who did not stop as the law requires.
For the full stories take our link to the current on-line edition of the 2007 Argus Observer.
Ontario police handed out 16 tickets to inattentive drivers in a kind of pedestrian sting in school zones and along Southwest Fourth Avenue last Wednesday. A police officer crossed the street in crosswalks in those areas and police ticketed drivers who did not stop as the law requires.
For the full stories take our link to the current on-line edition of the 2007 Argus Observer.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Classmates remember Ore-Ida start, dancing lessons, “whirlwind” Don Lynch and Native American artifacts
Thanks to four OHS class of ‘56 classmates for sharing some great reminiscences of the 1950s and environs in and around Ontario:
--- Roland Whitsell talks about his mother’s ties to The Argus-Observer and the beginnings of Ore-Ida Foods.
--- Shari Smith Schoenleber remembers dancing lessons at our house.
--- Loren Cox recalls Don Lynch as the only person in town not a pastor who wore a tie.
--- And, after some urging, Ray Dickerson tells us briefly about the book he and a friend wrote based on Ray’s youthful years in Warner Valley.
Note: We’ve added a link on our page to Delores Miyamoto Goto’s personal blog, The Goto Company. Go there to read some of her thoughts on life, as well as what is happening with her and husband Sam.
Roland Whitsell writes:
I don't remember the exact year but at about this time Bridgford built a frozen food processing plant in Ontario. Bridgford didn't make it. The plant was purchased by Grigg Brothers and Butler. (I believe that Delma [Delma Grigg Saunders] was the daughter of one of them.) They were trying to develop a successful frozen potato product.
My mother wrote for the Argus at that time and was on the taste panel for their potato products.
They were eventually successful and Or-Ida Tater Tots became one of the first if not the first successful frozen potato product sold in grocery stores.
Bridgford froze peas and sweet corn and may have sold some other items as well. I don't know what products were being developed when the firm was bought out. We raised peas for them for several years and sweet corn once or twice.
My mother wrote a neighborhood news item. She wrote the local news for Lincoln Heights for a good many years. We got our paper free in exchange for her writing the local news.
My mother belonged to a women's club called "The Patch and Chat Club". The entire club would go in and evaluate the new developments in the frozen food attempts. It was a big social event for them and having twenty or so farm ladies who did their own cooking evaluating your products was positive for everyone.
Shari Smith Schoenleber writes:
I remember (the Lynch) house in Ontario and the basement where a group of us learned to dance! I may have mentioned this to you at the reunion last year. It was around the time that you're focusing on. Your mom (Agnes Lynch) got us all set up with a partner. Music was 45's on a phonograph and we all "danced" moving two steps forward and one back in a circle around the room!
Your mom had made sure that the boys put their right arm around the girls waist and the girls put their left arm on the boys shoulder! As I recall that was MY introduction to dancing before we entered high school. I'm trying to remember the town kids who were there, Dick Beem, Kenny Osborn, Sue (Hills) Manion....probably a dozen in all. Must have been a highlight to me!
I remember Ontario with many more trees growing around the downtown area. If I were living there now, I'd be on a community tree planting campaign!
Loren Cox writes:
My memories are spotty and dim, but I do remember your father (Don Lynch), who seemed to me at the time to be a powerful and enormously energetic guy. He may have been the first (non-farmer) person I recall who seemed to be in perpetual motion--a revelation to a before-dawn to after-dark chores life. He must have been a powerful influence on life in Ontario, lifting eyes beyond Malheur County while covering news there with wit, compassion and intelligence.
Sports loomed large there, perhaps disproportionately, in part because of our relative isolation, and in part because it was a bonding mechanism for the farm and non-farm student population.
I think your father understood that. I also remember him as the only person not a pastor who wore a tie, at least a couple of times when I saw him.
My work with MIT still continues--I have been to Europe seven times already this year, three more planned and possibly a trip to China squeezed in before the year is out. I plan to work through next year at least, and likely longer than that.This rumination does recall Ed Aspitarte as JV coach, and other such glimmers. As time and recollection permit, I will try again.
Ray Dickerson writes:
My book is maybe one-half about me and my experience living in Warner Valley, Oregon, during the summers of 1949 thru 1954, and one-half about the Indian Artifacts I collected in Warner Valley. I co-authored the book with Dr. Tyler, a neighbor and friend of mine who was born here in Ontario about 80 years ago and has written a number of books. My half of the book is only twenty some pages.
Dr. Tyler had an Indian skull I had found carbon dated and wrote his half describing the skull and his contrary view of how America might have been populated. We only had a couple hundred copies printed and they mostly sold out on Amazon.
I am out of town starting tomorrow for a week and then will be back for a week and then gone again. Inge and I are playing Bridge in some regional tournaments. It is our way of getting away from our land lording duties and responsibilities for short periods of time.
--- Roland Whitsell talks about his mother’s ties to The Argus-Observer and the beginnings of Ore-Ida Foods.
--- Shari Smith Schoenleber remembers dancing lessons at our house.
--- Loren Cox recalls Don Lynch as the only person in town not a pastor who wore a tie.
--- And, after some urging, Ray Dickerson tells us briefly about the book he and a friend wrote based on Ray’s youthful years in Warner Valley.
Note: We’ve added a link on our page to Delores Miyamoto Goto’s personal blog, The Goto Company. Go there to read some of her thoughts on life, as well as what is happening with her and husband Sam.
Roland Whitsell writes:
I don't remember the exact year but at about this time Bridgford built a frozen food processing plant in Ontario. Bridgford didn't make it. The plant was purchased by Grigg Brothers and Butler. (I believe that Delma [Delma Grigg Saunders] was the daughter of one of them.) They were trying to develop a successful frozen potato product.
My mother wrote for the Argus at that time and was on the taste panel for their potato products.
They were eventually successful and Or-Ida Tater Tots became one of the first if not the first successful frozen potato product sold in grocery stores.
Bridgford froze peas and sweet corn and may have sold some other items as well. I don't know what products were being developed when the firm was bought out. We raised peas for them for several years and sweet corn once or twice.
My mother wrote a neighborhood news item. She wrote the local news for Lincoln Heights for a good many years. We got our paper free in exchange for her writing the local news.
My mother belonged to a women's club called "The Patch and Chat Club". The entire club would go in and evaluate the new developments in the frozen food attempts. It was a big social event for them and having twenty or so farm ladies who did their own cooking evaluating your products was positive for everyone.
Shari Smith Schoenleber writes:
I remember (the Lynch) house in Ontario and the basement where a group of us learned to dance! I may have mentioned this to you at the reunion last year. It was around the time that you're focusing on. Your mom (Agnes Lynch) got us all set up with a partner. Music was 45's on a phonograph and we all "danced" moving two steps forward and one back in a circle around the room!
Your mom had made sure that the boys put their right arm around the girls waist and the girls put their left arm on the boys shoulder! As I recall that was MY introduction to dancing before we entered high school. I'm trying to remember the town kids who were there, Dick Beem, Kenny Osborn, Sue (Hills) Manion....probably a dozen in all. Must have been a highlight to me!
I remember Ontario with many more trees growing around the downtown area. If I were living there now, I'd be on a community tree planting campaign!
Loren Cox writes:
My memories are spotty and dim, but I do remember your father (Don Lynch), who seemed to me at the time to be a powerful and enormously energetic guy. He may have been the first (non-farmer) person I recall who seemed to be in perpetual motion--a revelation to a before-dawn to after-dark chores life. He must have been a powerful influence on life in Ontario, lifting eyes beyond Malheur County while covering news there with wit, compassion and intelligence.
Sports loomed large there, perhaps disproportionately, in part because of our relative isolation, and in part because it was a bonding mechanism for the farm and non-farm student population.
I think your father understood that. I also remember him as the only person not a pastor who wore a tie, at least a couple of times when I saw him.
My work with MIT still continues--I have been to Europe seven times already this year, three more planned and possibly a trip to China squeezed in before the year is out. I plan to work through next year at least, and likely longer than that.This rumination does recall Ed Aspitarte as JV coach, and other such glimmers. As time and recollection permit, I will try again.
Ray Dickerson writes:
My book is maybe one-half about me and my experience living in Warner Valley, Oregon, during the summers of 1949 thru 1954, and one-half about the Indian Artifacts I collected in Warner Valley. I co-authored the book with Dr. Tyler, a neighbor and friend of mine who was born here in Ontario about 80 years ago and has written a number of books. My half of the book is only twenty some pages.
Dr. Tyler had an Indian skull I had found carbon dated and wrote his half describing the skull and his contrary view of how America might have been populated. We only had a couple hundred copies printed and they mostly sold out on Amazon.
I am out of town starting tomorrow for a week and then will be back for a week and then gone again. Inge and I are playing Bridge in some regional tournaments. It is our way of getting away from our land lording duties and responsibilities for short periods of time.
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