25 YEARS AGO

25 YEARS AGO

January 5, 1993

•Dona Savage, a 20-year-old from Hermiston, will compete in the first Special Olympics World Games held outside the United States on March 20 to 27. She will join some 1,600 athletes in Salzburg-Schladming, Austria to compete in a wide variety of winter sporting events. Savage qualified for the Team USA cross-country ski team by winning a gold medal in her events at the 1992 Oregon Special Olympics Games held on Mt. Bachelor. She prepared by attending a week-long training camp in Lake Placid, New York.

•Police came under fire in 1992 for not acknowledging the presence of gangs in Hermiston. Now that 1993 is beginning, and police have admitted the presence of gangs, many parents are wondering what is being done to protect their children. However, the police are doing quite a bit to rein in gang problems before they begin. In the latter part of last year, Officer Doug Smith was assigned to focus all his attention on the gang problem, a move which shows how serious HPD views the gang situation.

50 YEARS AGO

January 4, 1968

•Hermiston city police are investigating a possible break-in and entry of the new 4-H building at the Umatilla County Fairgrounds on W. Orchard Avenue. An officer on routine patrol at 3:38 a.m. on January 3 discovered that the southwest corner window of the fair building had been forced open, and then with another officer went through the building. An inventory of what, if anything, might have been missing had not been completed at press time.

•Monday, Dec. 18, was the busiest day ever recorded by the Hermiston post office, Postmaster Fred Reeves reported, both in cancellations and postage revenue. Postmaster Reeves said that there was about an 8 percent increase in the number of parcels mailed over the previous high, in comparison to the date equivalent in 1966. Postage revenue was up 11.5 percent over the corresponding date in 1966. On Dec. 18, there were 18,526 cancellations and 872 packages mailed at the local post office. From Dec. 2 through Dec. 18, 7,763 packages were mailed and there were 136,681 cancellations.

75 YEARS AGO

January 7, 1943

•After a layoff of two weeks the Hermiston Bulldogs traveled to Umatilla to take up basketball again. The game was an even contest throughout the first three quarters with Umatilla having a slight lead all of the way. Then in the last period the Vikings tightened their defense and held Hermiston boys scoreless while they piled up a safe margin. The first quarter plainly showed that both teams were a little out of practice, with fumbling and missed passes for each side. At the end of the quarter the score was 5 to 4 in the Vikings’ favor. Much of the game’s scoring was done in the second quarter, and at half time the count was Umatilla 19, Hermiston 15. The last half was a defensive one for both sides and the final score read Umatilla 28, Hermiston 21.

•The following letter was received by Roy Hale this week: “Due to the present national emergency there has arisen a critical shortage of .22 caliber, long rifle cartridges. The cartridges are so urgently needed by our armed forces that the government has directed this office to procure all of these cartridges that are available in this district. It is requested that you assist in this program by reporting all the full boxes of .22 caliber long rifle cartridges that it is possible for you to locate. On receipt of a report showing the number you have assembled, with their cost price to you, this office will issue a purchase order for the amount of your cost plus 10 per cent. This is an emergency request.” The U.S. army is also asking for hunting knives with blades four inches in length or longer. So pressing is the need for such weapons that the army has promised to ship the knives by plane, placing them in the hands of fighting men soon after their collection. It is not necessary to relate in this article to what use the knives will be put. Mr. Hale is anxious to cooperate in this matter and urges that the needed articles be brought to Hale’s Confectionery & Sporting Goods and they will be properly dispatched.

100 YEARS AGO

January 12, 1918

•The unveiling of the service flag donated to the city by the Girls Honor Guard of Hermiston will take place next Monday afternoon at 2:30 at the post office, at which time Rev. Graham will deliver an address and “The Star Spangled Banner” will be sung by the audience. The flag is the handiwork of the young ladies of the Honor Guard, and the 25 stars which it contains represent the boys who have enlisted in the service direct from Hermiston. It was to give honor to their patriotism that the Guard ladies conceived the idea of perpetuating the names of the following by making the service flag: George Prindle, Logan Todd, Herbert Sullivan, Bert Hiatt, Ed Hitt, James Todd, C.O. Wainscott, J.A. Campbell. Earl Boynton, Ed McKeen, Harry Todd, Walter Beasley, Robert West, Vane Boynton, Tom Campbell, Robert Hobbs, Floyd Ames, Arnold Shotwell, Floyd Hoisington, A.E. Winslow, Clarence Carson, Clarence Johnson, Dick Thom, Ross Shaw and Robert Bunch.

•One seldom hears much about our Red Cross, unless in connection with the raising of money in big drives, but an inside view into the workings of the local Red Cross organization reveals the fact that the ladies of this community are extending every effort to make the soldiers and sailors now fighting our battles on land and sea as comfortable as possible by making sweaters, mufflers and other garments for them to wear. That they have been doing yeoman service in this direction is shown in the packages leaving here at intervals containing these supplies, the records recording that in the past two months the Hermiston Red Cross has forwarded no less than 27 sweaters, two mufflers and that there are 15 more sweaters near completion that they will be shipped within the next 15 days. That’s the kind of work that counts.