The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

The last three months have seen a great deal of musical activity with Walla Walla Music Organization, the music training youth advocacy program I joined mid-pandemic, teaming up with founder Rodney Ou...

Music Studio Receives an Upgrade Move over, Beethoven The older you get, the faster time flies. And I’m a firm believer in the notion that whatever you’re doing now is just training for what you...

Sometime during the next few weeks, a transformation will take place on my property at the intersection of lower West Seventh Avenue and Coppei Creek. Our house faces southwest, and the driveway runs...

Groovy Session One of Walla Walla Rock Camp is in the history books. As I write this, Session Two is in progress. I've been aware of Rock Camp for years through the involvement of friends in the...

Recently, we stepped into a movie house for the first time in over a year to watch A Quiet Place II. I had seen the first film, A Quiet Place, at the cinema in 2019. The sequel had been scheduled for...

In my last article about becoming a part of Walla Walla Music Organization (WWMO), I quoted Director Rodney Outlaw saying, “When I enter my creative space, I am thinking about the signal flow of my...

Pam was an Elder in the Christian Church of Waitsburg. Her husband Larry’s family helped build that church. I am not talking about the structure at the corner of Main and 6th Streets but the... Full story

It's been a while since many of us have heard from the Frog Hollow Band, a local music group composed of five men from Walla Walla and Waitsburg who are friends to many of us. Knowing how frustrating...

If you had asked me about shed hunting a few weeks ago, I would have assumed we were talking about rotting pieces of pioneer carpentry that folks love to photograph or scrap out for projects. I was...

Perusing a resume of Susan Matley's entire work history would be a kick. She has been an actress, an accountant, a family historian, a life-long journalist, and a musician. Her "right" and "left"...

If you've had the pleasure to walk into Locally Nourished, the coffee shop and eatery at 217 East Main Street in Dayton, you've had the opportunity to enjoy some of Danielle Barnes' kitchen...

Liberty Theater in Dayton will be streaming a live production of this year's community variety show. The free show is scheduled for Saturday, March 26, and will be available on YouTube. This year's...

In February 17, I was at the local YMCA listening to Rodney Outlaw, the Executive Director of Walla Walla Music Organization (WWMO), give a lecture to his students. What started out as a flow of...

Over the last four years, former Waitsburg Schools Superintendent Carol Clarke has spent significant time in Panama City, Panama. She began working with Crossroads Christian Academy (CCA) after close...

Let me tell you about my most recent tech acquisition: the ReMarkable pad. I ordered it in April 2020 and received it seven months later. Due to Covid-related restrictions, the Norway-based company...

When she was in the fourth grade, Kennie Lamming's grandmother's cow was going to have twins. Kennie wanted to watch. However, it was her bedtime, and she wasn't allowed to participate. She was angry...

This past week we have received more information about the subject of last week’s column: Maude (Baim) Brown. Her little autograph book, discovered in Dayton in 2019, holds a series of handwritten...

My column this week is different since my chat is with a young lady from 1912. Heather Kaas, a friend in Dayton, shared the story of how a 109-year-old autograph book from Waitsburg came into her life...

I've known Roz Edwards for almost thirty years. I've also known how fun storytelling can be for kids and what she began to do when the world shut down with COVID-19 is a story I needed to hear. Edward...

Patti Jo Amerein lives a relatively quiet life in rural Columbia County. She rides dressage, keeps chickens, and teaches Pilates. But in the 1980s and 90s she lived another life as a Las Vegas show da...

Before visiting Greg Petersen at his Dayton home, I'd not heard the term "Antiquarian Horologist." But that's what's on his calling card. Horology - from the Greek "hora," meaning time - is the study... Full story

Twelve miles up and out of the Touchet Valley, I sat down with friends Robert and Janet Phinney to discover we have more in common than I might have thought. I'm a musician; the Phinney's are...

Jon Rampey: Wand Maker 2020 has taught us how to make lemonade out of lemons. Jon Rampey, a newcomer to Dayton, makes art using this philosophy of resourcefulness. "Creating something is better than...

Like many Christmas trees, ours is a time-measuring tree. We have so many ornaments now, there are too many for one tree to hold! We have a couple of small table trees that help out, but when you...

I've known Waitsburgian Erin Murphy and her husband Nathanial for many years. It occurred to me recently: these people are always in school, always taking classes, always working toward another...