25 YEARS AGO

July 20, 1993

The foundation was laid for Hermiston Campus Life’s building on South First Place last week. This Saturday it’s expected that volunteers will begin erecting the structure, and by October the building should be ready for occupancy, according to high school teacher Rod Bragato.

Campus Life has raised about $25,000 in funds and donations to build the youth building, but still needs about $12,000 to complete the project, Bragato said. Volunteers are also needed to erect the structure.

• Just as fall fashion designs come and go, so do the colors favored by architectural color consultants and their clients. This past summer, one of the West Coast’s leading color consultants has been working his magic on an apartment complex he owns in Hermiston.

Bob Buckner recently became the sole owner of the Tower Apartments and decided the time was right to change the look of the complex south of town.

While Buckner selected 10 different colors for the Hermiston project, he was careful to make sure none of the colors would “blow people away.”

Instead he chose Sorcery, which is gray, for the main body of the complex, and followed it up with such interesting names as Catawba for the roof fascias, Mississippi Delta for the deck and stair railings, Swiss Coffee for the ceilings of the hallways and Oyster for the letters on each building unit.

50 YEARS AGO

July 18, 1968

Dr. Alan Van Tyne, 31, Hermiston chiropractor, lost his life on Monday evening, July 15, when the light place he was piloting stalled and crashed as he was attempting to land.

According to reports, he was circling the field from west to south at approximately 100 feet when the plane went into a spin and out of control. The craft plunged into the ground nose-first and burst into flames shortly thereafter.

• As much as we dislike having anyone belittle a busy homemaker, we heard of an instance which illustrates an important and practical point.

It seems that a lady called a service man and asked for some new felt pads for her dryer. It dried slowly and she thought new pads might speed up the job.

In the three years since she bought the dryer, the lint trap had not once been cleaned. The collection in the trap looked like a felt pad.

So we emphasize, empty the lint trap regularly. Failure to do so will slow down the drying. This information and many other worthwhile suggestions are in the instruction book.

75 YEARS AGO

July 22, 1943

Wilfred J Thomas, army private, who recently made headlines for killing three Italians in the Cicilian campaign, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Thomas of Hermiston. The family resides in the Hanby trailer camp while Mr. Thomas is employed at the Umatilla Ordnance Depot. Pvt. Thomas made a visit to Hermiston in March to visit his parents. He has been in the service about one and a half years and apparently enjoys the “work.”

Thomas was among a group of paratroopers who dropped 600 feet from a transport plane to wreak havoc among the defenders of the large island. They prepared the way for the landing of other armed forces.

• A general exodus began Wednesday at Tertle Town west of Hermiston when about 20 families began moving to Ordnance. Regular caravans of furniture, clothing and other belongings could be seen moving all day. Other residents will continue to move to Ordnance until the entire 83 houses have been vacated with work of rebuilding Tertle Town slated to get underway soon after all the families have moved.

Included among the work to be done are the addition of a dinette to each unit. The houses will all be raised and placed on new foundations and all will be painted. New roofing will be placed on each house and conditions generally improved. A new community building will be erected for use of residents of Tertle Town.

Residents who are being forced to leave their victory gardens for a short time will be glad to learn that steps will be taken to guard them as much as possible.

100 YEARS AGO

July 20, 1918

Warnings are being sent out to towns in Oregon and Washington against a number of fake “war heroes” who are speaking at war rallies and taking up collections afterwards. Several of these men appear in Canadian uniforms, and there seems to be no law to prevent their so doing. The principal damage these men do is not the money they secure but the fact that they spread sedition and disloyalty and are in fact German propagandists. Posing as heroes, martyrs and patriots, they drop little remarks intended to sink in.

Five of these fraudulent war heroes have already been apprehended, but others keep bobbing up to take their places.

All towns before permitting self-styled heroes to address public gatherings should first check up on their reliability, regardless of whether they are called Canadian, British or American patriots. Before permitting them to speak it should been seen to that they have proper credentials from their county council of defense or from the state council of defense, or both.

• The rabbit drive that took place Sunday afternoon out in Columbia district was participated in by two-score farmers and a little over half as many townspeople. Even with this small number a goodly portion of the population of rabbitdom out in the neighborhood of the Henry Ott, Joe Craik and Henry Sommerer ranches were forever put to sleep by the shot gun route.

That the drive, even with so small a body of hunters, was ably managed by those in charge is shown by the fact that a close estimate of the demise of the pest was around 500. The lines remained intact throughout and the slaughter was greatest when the hunters had driven the jacks to a rabbit-tight enclosure a short distance west of the Craik place.