PIONEER PORTRAITS

Ten Years Ago

January 31, 2013

Kate Hockersmith, the instigator and, some might say "mother," of Waitsburg's bluegrass scene, remembers the first local jam night. It was some time in December at the old Carmen's Deli on Main Street. She put the youthful Troublemakers, fresh from their musical exchange in Japan, in the same room with several veteran bluegrass musicians from Walla Walla and created a Touchet Valley tradition marking its fifth anniversary this winter. Together with bluegrass lessons Hockersmith teaches at home and an after-school program she runs in the Waitsburg High School band room every week, the jams have generated a bluegrass culture that has become the envy of some observers in other, bigger towns. It also echoes the genre's popularity in Waitsburg during the 1930s and '40s.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

February 5, 1998

Local pilot George Downing, a member of the Walla Walla Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, has given more than 100 young people a free demonstration airplane flight as part of the EAA Aviation Foundation's "Young Eagles" program. The Program's goal is to introduce a new generation of potential aviators to the world of flight. All pilots in the program explain the safe operation of airplanes and principles of flight before the short trips. All participating young people also receive a certificate signed by the pilot after the flight, making them members of Eagle Flight. The names of the pilots and the participants are also included in the "Worlds Largest Logbook," which is on permanent display in the EAA Air Adventure Museum in Oshkosh, WI.

Fifty Years Ago

February 1, 1973

[Photo Caption] Concentration usually involves some activity on the part of the tongue, and Troy Crowfoot is no exception. He goes up for a lay-in during one of the halftime PeeWee games played in the Waitsburg gym last weekend, while Patrick McConnell stretches to block the shot. PeeWee basketball is the only game we can think of where ten gradeschool players can run up and down the court giving the appearance that there are at least fifty of them taking part in the game. Lots of spectator interest in these miniature contests.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

February 6, 1948

Stanley Seaton won third prize in the snowplane races at DuBois, Idaho on January 25.

J. V. Glover, Glen Howard, Herman Gohlman and Sam Erwin attended the WSC-Oregon Basketball game in Pullman Wednesday evening.

Mr. and Mrs. Jim Hansen are the parents of a son, Norman James, born Feb. 3.

A. S. Dickinson is in a Walla Walla hospital with a broken collar bone and other injuries suffered in a fall.

One Hundred Years Ago

February 9, 1923

A surprise party on Mr. Charles Neace was enjoyed by friends on Thursday evening. A basket lunch was taken by the ladies. The evening was spent in dancing and card playing.

Mr. and Mrs. Carl Dunn are the parents of a daughter born Jan. 29th.

Roland Allen, who recently purchased the old Masonic hall on lower Main Street, is making a number of minor repairs this week on the building preparatory to renting it for garage purposes to the construction crew of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

February 4, 1898

R. O. Sanders this week purchased for his daughter, Miss Addie, a fine Fisher piano.

Clarence Wilson last week sold his entire crop of blue stem wheat for 70 cents per bushel.

Born in this city, Saturday, Jan. 29, 1898 to F. T. Keiser and wife, a daughter. Mother and child are doing well.

A. N. Brown has leased a fine farm near Prescott and with his family intends to move there about the 15th of this month.

Charles and Dale Preston and Guy Wheeler made a trip to Dayton last Sunday on their wheels. They came back on the train.