SINCE 1966

Published Quarterly by thePacific County Historical Society .

State of Washington

$.3.00;

i

George Burns,; Raymond, 1935 .

FALL

Volume XXXINumber 3

A uarterly Publication of Pacific County Historical Society and Museum

A Non-Profit Organization

Annual membership fees includes membership and Sou'wester subscription)$20.00,single$25.00` family

$50.00 corporate$50.00 contributing$100.00 benefactor

Address: P.O. Box P, South Bend, WA 98586

Pacific County Historical Society welcomes articles relating to Pacific County: Materialsaccepted for publication may be edited . Entire contents 0 1996 by Pacific County Histori-cal Society. All rights reserved . Second class postage paid at South Bend, Washington .

PUB . No. ISSN-0038-4984

Ruth McCausland and Jo

ann, Co-Editors

Printed by Midway Printery, Long Beach, Washington

Our cover: George Burns, named the American League's most valuable player in1926 while playing for the Cleveland Indians . He became player/manager of theRaymond team in 1935 .

PCHS# %.15s .

Remembrances - Part 2 by Mildred Colbert 14

Raymond's Saucy Seagullsand the Timber League

By Doug Allen, February, 1996

Dedicated to all the men who played in the Timber League and especially to two menstill living in Raymond, Ed Rosentangle and Jack Spurrell . Special thanks to JackSpurrell, Ralph Antilla, Gus Asplund, Jr., and Leo Rubstello for their information,and Donna Schneider for her assistance . Much of the information was acquired fromreading microfilm at the Aberdeen, Raymond, and Seattle Public Libraries .

Baseball lore and history and nostalgia are difficult to separate--especiallythe bush league variety played during the Great Depression days of the 1930s .Listening to the men still living who played the game makes it easy to under-stand the spirit and vitality they breathed into the times . They loved The Game .Before World War H, baseball was different from today's game -- it was one ofthe prime entertainers of small town America. Small town teams faced a varietyof problems- transportation was difficult, roads were poor or nonexistent. In thelocal area there was no road to Tokeland . The Raymond-Aberdeen highwaywasn't complete until the fall of 1930 . Although a bridge had replaced the ferrywhich crossed the Naselle River, the trip to Long Beach was long . Money wasscarce. The Raymond club charged 25 cents a game in 1935 and that could betrouble for someone earning a dollar and a half, more or less, for a day's work .That doesn't mean to say the promoters didn't organize teams and leagues, thatthey didn't spend money on players, uniforms, equipment, and ball parks, be-cause they did . There was a time in this country when every mill town andcrossroad had a baseball team, a "town" team. One writer quipped, "There wasa time when every town big enough to have a bank and a ball club could incitethe townsfolk to a fevered pitch whenever the bank was robbed or the team wona pennant." Aloha, Walville, Frances, Dryad, Doty - any place that had a millhad enough population to raise and support competitive ball clubs .

During the 1920s and 1930s the major league teams had farm systems . Theystocked the minor league clubs and purchased players from the lower leagues .Both Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams were purchased from Pacific Coast Leagueteams. Although the Pacific Northwest wasn't really included in the minor leaguesystem of organized professional baseball, the model dictated how baseballshould be organized. Ballplayers started at the lowest level ofleagues and workedtheir way up through the system . This usually took several years -- there wereno bonus babies signing lucrative contracts, and the future stars of the gamespent years in the minor leagues honing their skills . There were exceptions butmany players who would sign big contracts in today's game spent their entirecareers in the minors .

The great Jigger Stag, possibly the best player to ever play in the Pacific

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Coast League,. spent almost all of his career in the Coast league . Numerousballplayers never rose above semiprofessional leagues, though some had skillsequal to professional players .

The minor league system was extensive . The top minor leagues, the Triple Aand Double A leagues, were more prestigious and financially sound -- the Pa- .

Timber League team, Raymond, 1930. Back row : Floyd May, Al Guglomo, Ted Jones,Ed Ziel, Jack Spurrell, Pailey Anderson (mascot) . Front row: Danny Loon, Clifford JackJohnson, Frank Mason, George Newton, Ed Charron .

PCHS# 95.615

cific Coast League was thought to be the strongest of the minor leagues. Duringthe 1930s the Coast league (also referred to as the PCL) included the Los Ange-les Angels, Hollywood Stars, San Diego Padres, Sacramento Solons, San Fran-cisco Seals, Oakland Oaks, Portland Beavers, Seattle Indians (changed to theRainiers when Emil Sick bought the club in the 1930s), and for a short while,the Mission Reds of San Francisco. The PCL and its teams mostly operatedindependent of the major leagues, contracting players on their own and holdingtryout camps up and down the coast. There was many a young man during thosedifficult Depression years who dreamed of getting a tryout with the Stars, Pa-dres, or the Portland Beavers. The major leagues may have been the ultimategoal but there were only 16 teams, all east of St. Louis, Missouri . A much morerealistic step was the lofty Coast league and a chance for the big time and realmoney .

Although the lower minor leagues, classifications A, B, C, and D (the low-est), were desirable to the young ballplayers, there were problems -- money,stability, distances, and opportunity . The Pacific Northwest lacked towns thatcould entice major league influence and money to build up leagues and teams .

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Class C and D leagues were scattered throughout the midwest, east, and south-eastern U.S. -small town leagues, with names like the Anthracite League (1928only) or the Copper Country Soo League existed for short times. In the PacificNorthwest the Class B Western International League was established in 1937,with teams in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia . The leaguefolded in 1954 .

In western Washington semi-professional teams held forth, partly becausemajor league support or business backing couldn't be found to establish C or Dleagues and partly because local merchants and team owners could control their

Twin Harbor League. Standing : Tenoski, Sinko, Manager Clark, Janeo, Newton . 2nd row:Charron, Haines, Spurrell, Myers . 3rd row : Mascot Myers, AKA Paul Willis, Dahlgren,Younglove, Loop, Flithie . This team came in second inT.H.L. in 1931 . They lost thechampionship to Aloha in 10 innings, 2 to 1 .

PCHS# 96 .7 . 1

own pocketbooks and destiny without having someone looking over their shoul-der. Jobs were scarce during the Depression years and young (and some old)ballplayers were willing and eager to come to towns like Raymond to pick upsome cash.

The Timber League began in 1924 and during the first few years there wereteams from Tacoma, Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Everett, Shelton, Longview, Kelso,Centralia, and Chehalis . From the beginning to 1928 the league was mostlysuccessful, especially in Aberdeen, , Everett, and Tacoma . Regardless of suc-cesses, some teams folded, financial supporters withdrew to be replaced by oth-

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ers, and fan loyalties shifted on the success of the team on the field . In a Sep-tember 19, 1927 Aberdeen Daily World sports column, a reporter noted thatthe crowd attending the championship game numbered 2,000 and that the threegame series earned $1,500, to be shared by the players . The Aberdeen BlackCat victory over the Everett Seagulls, coupled with the gate receipts, indicatedgood times . But the good days seemed to be slipping away .. The Black Cat man-ager complained of prospects attempting to extort money from the club prior tothe 1928 season . The shifting of franchises continued with the Seattle Cubsentering in 1928, surviving through the 1929 season . Teams driving for pen-nants hunted for top players to bolster their chances for a championship. Theseplayers demanded and received higher salaries . By 1929 the six team leaguewas down to four teams, including a combined Aberdeen-Hoquiam team, theGrays Harbor Loggers. During these years Raymond's town team was in theLewis-Pacific County League . In 1929 this four team league included Frances,Dryad, South Bend, and Raymond. On May 17, 1930, at the Sports Shop inHoquiam, a new local league was organized which included teams fromRaymond, Aloha, Cosmopolis, Westport, and two from Aberdeen -- the Mes-sengers and South Aberdeen. The six team league was called the Twin HarborsLeague. Although there were local leagues and teams representing various mer-chants, lumber companies, fire fighters, and fraternal organizations, the "town"team which represented the community against other towns appears to be some-what of an all star team that included the top local players, some college stars,or journeymen ballplayers searching for a team and a paycheck .

By 1931, the Aberdeen World bemoaned the demise of the once "fastestsemiprofessional baseball organization in the country." There were concernsserious enough to consider folding the league early, something not unusual forlower minor leagues and semi-professional leagues around the country, beforeor during the Depression years . But the league survived beyond 1931 . During1931 and 1932 Raymond was a member of the Southwest Washington League.By 1932, the Timber League was concerned about more failing franchises . The1932 league included Grays Harbor, Tacoma, Chehalis, and three lower Colum-bia River teams - Longview, Kelso, and Cathlamet . In the following year, 1933,the lower Columbia River teams were dropped from the league and three newfranchises were added - Olympia, Shelton, and Raymond . Raymond, movingup from the Southwest Washington League, arrived during the tough days of theDepression, a diffi

tcult task for financial backers . It took money to improve the

ballpark, purchase uniforms and equipment, pay the players (some, not all),provide transportation to and from games, and cover other league expenses . TheRaymond Seagulls baseball club, as they were traditionally named, lasted through1937, the final year of the Timber League .The 1933 Raymond Club included many local players . Members of the team

included: Manager Ace Carson ; pitchers Danny Loop and Frank Mason; out-fielders Al Guglomo, Howard Norman, Jack Spurrell ; catcher Floyd Mays ; in-

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fielders Glen Campbell, Ed Charron, Ted Jones, Walter (Pug) Allen, GeorgeNewton, Cliff Johnson; and Harvey Haynes, Martin Myers, and (no first name)Mars. Although the management of the club had initially been led by CecilOwens, the eventual leadership was taken over by his brother, Lester Owens .The management included Lester (Doc) Owens, President ; John Lavinder, trea-surer, and Gus Asplund, Jr., secretary. Doc Owens, long time Raymond dentist,was the leading booster of the club ; John Lavinder, the office manager of theWillapa Electric Company, was also a top booster who later moved to Califor-nia. Gus Asplund's father, Gus Asplund, Sr ., was the owner of the Mission Clubtavern. Gus Jr. was a college student at the time, siphoning ballplayers toRaymond from Seattle and Tacoma, helping with the operation of the ball club,

Berle Garlick, 1935 .

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PCHS# 96.15 .2

Left: "Doc" Owens. Right: Loris Baker. Leo Rubstello is the boy entering We picture onleft.

PCHS# 96.26.2

Matt Pavalunas, 1935. PCHS# 96 .15 .1 .

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and writing a sports column forthe Raymond Herald. The fi-nancial support of the team wasthe responsibility of these menand backed by local merchants .It wasn't unusual during the1930s for sawmills and otherbusinesses to offer jobs to ball-players. However, by 1935, theplayers brought in to help theRaymond club drive to the pen-nant were paid about $25 a game .The local players weren't paid .The justification was expenses .Many of the out-of-townerswould drive to Raymond or else-where, play the game, and drivehome. The 1933 and 1934 sea-sons were rebuilding years forthe league - and losing seasonsfor the Seagulls .

The 1934 league grew to eightteams with the reappearance oftwo harbor teams -- the BlackCats and the Hoquiam Loggers,a second Tacoma entry, theWhite Sox, and new teams fromBremerton and Shelton . A sug-gestion from the northern teamsat a midseason league meetingsent the backers of the AberdeenBlack Cats into orbit. Attempt-ing to cut-travel expenses, thenorthern teams suggested two di-visions with separate schedules.Aberdeen, fearing the loss of fanswith a weaker draw from less es-tablished teams, threatened towithdraw on the spot . The pro-posal was withdrawn, but by1935 the two harbor teams wereback to one combined entry, theGrays Harbor Loggers .

Joe Malachnik .

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PCHS# 96 .15 .3 .

With two seasons under their belt, the Raymond backers were now ready tomake their move . By midseason in 1935, Pug Allen was the only ballplayerremaining from the 1933 entry . There were other local players : Walt Sinko,Matt Pavalunas, Ed Rosentangle, Berle Garlick, and Ray Odell . Garlick hadmoved to Raymond as an adult - he was an outstanding pitcher who had had atryout with the PCL's Los Angeles Angels . Ray Odell briefly played with thePortland Beavers and later became a Raymond school administrator . Young MattPavalunas was between his junior and senior years at Raymond High School .Matt went on to be the "sixth man" on the University of Oregon's 1939 NCAANational Basketball Champions and later to serve a long and well respectedcareer as teacher and head basketball coach at Auburn High School . EdRosentangle and Walt Sinko were college players and excellent ballplayers onthe local scene for many years. Pug Allen could hit the ball with the best ofthem. Pug's other claims to local fame were his punting talents on the RaymondHigh football teams of the late 1920s, one going for 70 yards, and his favoritestory -- his hit against a barnstorming team in Salem, Oregon off a pitcher namedSatchel Paige. The young batboy was Leo Rubstello, about 10 years old at thetime, who went on to single-handedly capture the Washington State High SchoolTrack Championships in 1942 with wins in the 100 and 220 yard dashes and thebroad jump. Before entering the military during World War II, Leo performedfor the track team at the University of Washington . Like other young men at thetime, the war years put an end to his college athletic career. Rubstello and hiswife now reside in Port Orchard .

There were a host of local players who were good athletes on the diamond forRaymond's Timber League club who were not on the 1935 team : long timepitcher Frankie Mason, who was still chucking the pill into the early 1950s ;Danny Loop, hometown and ex-Whitman College star, another excellent pitcher;Jack Spurrell, outstanding center fielder, who spent the 1935 season with theCathlamet club in a Columbia River league after being offered a job if he wouldplay with their local club. Other local stars were Ed Charron and South Bend'sGeorge Newton.

The out-of-town group was a varied and talented one. George Burns was themanager of the Seattle Indians (Rainiers) of the PCL from May, 1932 to April,1934. Burns played in the major leagues for sixteen years . In 1926, while play-ing with the Cleveland Indians, he was named the American League's mostvaluable player, batting .358, driving in 114 runs, and leading the league indoubles. Tioga George, as he was sometimes called, played in two world series,1920 and 1929. Burns, at the age of 42, began but didn't finish the season inRaymond. Age, which didn't bother his prolific hitting did hinder his speed andmovement. This led Burns to accept the position of manager of the YakimaIndians of the Northwest Semi-Pro League . Shortstop Willie Hewson was aformer captain of the University ofWashington baseball team. Loris Baker, anoutstanding first baseman, was from Tacoma and was later a university athletic

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director. Joe Trembly was a heavy hitting Tim-ber League veteran from Kelso. Rudy Tollef-son, a late season addition from Tacoma, hadbeen a star player at the College of Puget Sound(now UPS) and a veteran from the Timber-League's Tacoma Tiger club. Al Somerville,designated club manager and key player, wasa long time Timber League veteran fromTacoma. Roy Chesterfield, former Coastleague standout with Portland and the MissionReds, was the club's star pitcher who someclaimed had had a cup of coffee with a majorleague team. A noted beer drinker and taverncloser, Roy was a good of boy who had anuncanny ability to always pitch an outstand-ing game. With Garlick - and Chesterfield onthe mound the 1935 Seagull club was hard tobeat. With all the out-of-town talent, it's not-able that the league batting champion was oneof the locals, 23 year old Pug Allen, who bat-ted' .417 for the season .

The league consisted of six teams in 1935 : Pug Allen . Photo taken in Tokyo,the Raymond Seagulls, Grays Harbor Loggers, Japan,1946.

PCHS# 96.15 .4.Olympia Capitols, Bremerton Cruisers,Centralia Elks, and Tacoma Pirates. Olympia won the first half title and Raymondthe second half. The league's championship series was played out to a . full fivegames, the Raymond club winning the fifth and deciding game 4-0 in front ofabout 650 ecstatic fans. Steady Roy Chesterfield pitched the shutout for thelocals. Following the championship, Raymond accepted a challenge from theYakima Indians, runners-up in the Northwest League and managed by GeorgeBums, who had begun the season in Raymond . Raymond traveled to Yakima,splitting a doubleheader -- it was the third week of September and the teamswere still looking for games! Following the season, the team was feted by thelocal merchants . It had been a great year!

Two years later, in the final Timber League season of 1937, Raymond againplayed for the league championship, this time against the Grays Harbor club .Leading 4-1 in the 5th inning, the Seagulls couldn't hold the lead, allowing theLoggers to score five runs in the sixth inning . Raymond lost the game and thechampionship in the fifth game, 9-4. LaMear was the losing pitcher.

The Timber League folded after the 1937 season. It had been a good run -from 1924 to 1937 -- fourteen years of the best semi-professional baseball playedin these parts. Some big league and Coast league ballplayers in the twilightyears of their careers, traveled through the Tall Trees circuit-- including Bums,

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Carl Mays, Vean Gregg, and others. Some ballplayers hooked up with localteams and continued to play in other, less ambitious leagues . Like other de-cades, the era from the late 1920s to the beginning of World War II saw someexcellent athletes and teams from the northern end of the county . John Reischmanand Bill Remington of South Bend, Raymond's Paul Schwegler, a consensusfootball All American at the University of Washington in the early 1930s, MattPavalunas and Leo Rubstello, and Valley's 1936 state high school basketballchampions, led by Bob Tisdale .

But those ballplayers, especially that 1935 club, that was a team . An Aber-deen Daily World reporter, in writing about the Raymond club prior to the1937 championship series, referred to them as those "saucy" Seagulls . That wasdamn good baseball .

U

Left to right: Ray Odell, Harry Beall, Joe Bruzis .13

PCHS# 96 .26.1

Remembrances - Part 2By Mildred Colbert

Dec . 14, 1964 .The family has agreed to sell Mother's timber in the Quinault Reservation .

She owned 80 acres. When she made her will, she divided it into 7 parts . Shesaid, "I wish to leave a little remembrance to each of my children ."

There are only 2 children now living, Ruby and Mildred Colbert in Portlandand Ilwaco; depending on the weather. (Here she lists heirs, and how the be-quest was settled among members of the family in the years following--ed .)

June 21, 1965 .For the first time all commercial fishing, except for steelhead, has been closed

on the Columbia River until the last of July. The Yakima Indians have agreed tolimit their fishing to 3 days a week . Trawling on the ocean has not been includedin the closure .

This week fishermen from the lower Columbia have encountered Russianmother ships with fishing boats at the mouth of the Columbia . They took pic-

The Colbert house, llwaco, as it looked originally .

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Photo courtesy Wayne O'Neil

tures of them ; there is no doubt who they are . They came as near as 15 miles offshore. When first seen they were fishing west of the lightship . Supposed to begetting bottom fish .

January, 1967Portland.

We went to the funeral of Ella McLeod at the Little Chapel of the Chimes inPortland, Ruby and I . Ella was named for her aunt Ella McRoberts Parks, wifeof Dr. Theodore Parks who lived in llwaco at the turn of the century . We lived onQuaker Street in Ilwaco and the Parks lived 3 houses west of us on Lake Street .When we got to the funeral and were seated in the back, 2 women came in andsat next to us. To our surprise, they were Pearl Winship Blue and Lucile Stone.

After the service, we waited outside with the rest of the people, quite a num-ber, mostly strangers to us, when Pearl brought up to meet us Ada GrahamWoods, daughter of Will and Eva Graham of old time llwaco . Ada is short, withbrown eyes, good-looking and quite vivacious. She married and had a son . . .later married Gilford Woods, called "Giffy". He was there with her. He told ushe had recently seen Harlan (Herrold) at Cougar Bend . They had come downwith Lucile Stone .

The Robertson and Theodore McGrotty came out . They met us and invited

Mildred and Ruby Colbert .

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Photo courtesy Wayne O'Neil

us to the McGrotty home for coffee with the family .There we met Lois Jenkins Markham. She was very friendly and recalled the

time she had visited in Ilwaco, with a great deal of pleasure . Her daughter Ritawas there. The two had flown up from Los Angeles .

Robert McLeod had gone to school to me at Vernon School in the 4th grade .He remembered me when I explained who I was . He introduced us to his wifeand his five little daughters stood in a row according to age and were intro-duced. They went from 2nd grade to high school . The oldest girl asked for thename of my book, Kutkos, and said she was going to get one.

Theodore McGrotty looks very much like his father, Henry. I remember see-ing him around the Parks house .

Pearl Winship Blue has °kept up her relations with Lucile Stone and EllaMcLeod and was welcomed by the family. She had visited Ella during Christ-mas. I had not seen Ella since I taught Bob at Vernon years ago .

Ella was very religious . She was an active member of Jehovah's Witnessesand had outlined the Scripture for the minister to read at her funeral . The read-ing of these portions of Scripture was very good, They served us coffee and avery nice lunch . We did more visiting than eating . Everyone welcomed Rubyand me and told us it had pleased them to have someone from llwaco who knewElla there.

Lois Jennings Markham visited with us quite a while . She and her daughterflew to Portland through a very severe wind storm. Lois does not want to flyback. Lois (Loie) is very good-looking but thin. She is a little younger than oursister Pauline, somewhere in the 80s. She moved to California with her sonseveral years ago.

April 18, 1967 .We visited with friends of our own age bracket today . They are hunting for

spring and summer clothes and can't find anything suitable . The styles (cater)principally to the 16-year-old ; nothing for women over 40. There never hasbeen such a lack of style. The dresses look like the old chemise mother used towear, or you might say, the "moo-moo" worn in the Hawaiian Islands . Dressesare short, as much as 10 inches above the knees . These styles seem to comefrom England slum districts. They are Mod styles. A woman in London is mak-ing a fortune turning them out . An English 17-year-old girl called Twiggy hascome over to put across these styles . She is about 5'3" and weighs 100 lb. Straightup and down body .

April 18, 1967 .Our high school girls have taken to long hair. Sometimes it reaches the waist .

Not a curl in sight . If it does curl, they take a hot iron and iron it flat. They partit in the middle and let it cover most of their faces . None show eyebrows if theycan avoid it. Many girls and women wear stretch-cloth pants everywhere . These

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pants fit tight and show every wrinkle in the skin .Some of the women shoppers appear in the stores with pants on and rollers in

their hair to make the hair stand up high when the rollers are taken out .

Many of these women were born after '20 when even the small children,girls, had permanent waves. At first the curls were put in by hot irons, next camethe permanent, electrically attached to the hair. The underground says manywomen were burned, by the electric current. Next came the permanent fixed inby chemicals and no electric currents in the hair .

Now, 1967, the young girls are laying the long hair across the ironing boardand ironing it flat. Those of us who grew up with long hair, look at them inwonder. This is their first taste of long hair and the care it requires . Most of usold ladies stick to our permanent waves .

February, 1968 .A negro child told her teacher last month that she was having her "hair pressed"

after school that night .

March, 1968 .Skirts are shorter and the dresses are

like straight slips . All are above theknees. Many of the young girls wearlong hose, white or black, or colored.It is a weird experience to go totown. Television is full of it . Forformal wear on television there aremany beautiful long (floor-length)dresses. Many are of chiffon or alike fabric. Many of the necklinesare, high but there are no sleeves.

Long-haired men appear quite frequently. It grows quitepopular for small mustaches to appear . The hippies wear fullbeards. "Hippies" are the men and women who break all ourrules of dress, beards, long hair for men and women, tight pants for both sexes .The men and boys leave shirttails out . They are arguing against all things which

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our ordinary culture calls for. They march in bands and try to call a stoppage ofour war in Viet Nam . One of the questions in the coming election will be the warin Viet Nam. Our great-nephew, John Daniel Clancy, wrote us from Viet Nam,

swdwThe Colbert house as originally furnished : the dining and living areas . '

Photos courtesy Wayne O'Neil

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last week. His group has moved north near the Demilitarized Zone where theMarines are being located. He is in the 101 Division .

This quarter's NRTA Journal came this week. To our surprise we found thepicture of the North Head Lighthouse in color . It is very beautiful . WainoGranberg called on us a week ago . Her father was the light keeper for manyyears. She grew up at North Head . She is also a retired Portland teacher and hasa copy of the picture .

When she came to visit us a week ago last Sunday, she had Marcel Heinrichswith her. He attended school in Ilwaco when Ruby and I did. Elfreda taughthim. His father was Sergeant Heinrichs who moved to Fort Canby in the 1890sand was in command there for a long time . His daughter, Ruth, was born at FortCanby the day the lightship (arrived) off the mouth of the Columbia in 1898 .

Sergeant Heinrichs sometimes drove a wagon with seats in it which was pulledby a mule. He left the mule at the livery stable, which papa ran at that time, andpicked the mule up to go back to Canby after school . All the children fromCanby came together. The North Head children usually walked the 3 miles toschool in Ilwaco .

While they were here Clark and Anna Hedrick dropped in . Everybody talked .Clark and Marcel had much to say about Fort Canby and Ilwaco. Waino Granbergis quite crippled with arthritis . She walks with a cane and has to be helped also .She said she is the last one of her family to be' alive . She spent 4 years takingcare of her sister Ida (younger) and her brother John . Both were badly crippledby arthritis when they died. She has sold her home in Laurelhurst and lives atthe high-rise King Tower on the west side .

While the others visited, Anna and I had quite a visit. She, Clark, Gladys andMike Welk, and Emory and Pearl Marie Mea had been to see Nettie Carlson aweek ago. We could not join the party because Catherine and Neal Troeh werevisiting us. They left Sunday afternoon . . ..Anna thinks Nettie's time is short--Ruby and I must go out to see her soon . Clark and Anna have a new sedan - blue.

March 12Portland.

Betsy dropped in the night of March 11 . She went home on March 12, reachedIlwaco at 2:30 p.m. We had forgotten what the date was while she was with us .When we called her at 6 p.m., we came to and wished her a Happy Birthday. Wehad 4 grapefruit spoons for her which we did not give her .

She took Jim's (her son's) cat Skook with her . We had the cat for a couple ofweeks after Jim moved back to town from where he was living near Scappoose .

March 14 .John Oscar Herrold's birthday. Betsy is arranging a party for him today.

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llwaco March 17, 1968 . Games we played at school .

Black ManOur most popular game was Black Man. We would line up on the east and

west side of our flat clay playground, both boys and girls of all sizes . Our objectwas to reach the other side of the field without being caught . I do not rememberhow we named those who stood in the center of the field and caught us . Whenthey stopped us they patted us 3 times on the back and then we had to remain inthe center and catch the other runners .

They usually began with 2 or 3 catchers and by the time the game was overeverybody was in the center catching all comers . Only the very fast and thosewho could dodge easily were left . Each day when we reached school this gamewas going on. We played until the bell rang and at each recess period . As soonas lunch was over we returned to the field and played again . Somehow we nevertired. I was a strong runner and did fairly well . A person could dodge thru whenthe persons who were IT were catching someone . Sometimes those who wereIT would gang up and stop those who had gone through too many times . I thinkthe last ones or the first one caught had to be IT for the next game . The boysseemed to enjoy being IT .

Our playground was a flat surface left when they leveled the top of a clayknoll to build the schoolhouse . On the north and the south sides, the sides slopedabruptly down to Ilwaco swampland .

Back of the schoolhouse were tall spruce and alder trees which grew alongand in the swamp . There were trails north of the school but did not lead far. Onthe south a ditch drained off some of the water. Then a fence shut us out of theyards down below .

Hop-ScotchThe girls spent much time playing hop-scotch. There was a very fine place

under the east windows. It too was hard yellow clay but as smooth as a floor.Someone would scratch the outlines of the game on

the clay, and then 2 or more would take turns andplay. This was the shape of the game form on theclay:

You had to hop on one foot and kick a small pieceof wood out of the place it had fallen directly overthe starting line on #1 . You stood just before thetop line on #1 and threw the block .

You had to go to it properly, hop into #1, spread2 feet on #2 and #3 and at the same time, hop withone foot to #4, spread and skip onto #5 and #6 . Ifthe block was in number 5, you began kicking itto the beginning line, always with the hopping

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foot. When you reached the beginning line, you threw it again and hopped inafter it. In number 8, both feet could come down . #11 was wider than the otherstraight across places and was not too hard to hit . It seemed as if the hop-scotch

place belonged to a few girls and the rest of us had to be careful to get thereearly to hold it. Other hop-scotch places were drawn on the wooden walks butbecause they were bumpy were not so good to play on .

Crack the WhipWe also played Crack-the-Whip . A strong person would stand at the begin-

ning and the pupils playing would line up to him, the one nearest him holdingthe first man's hand firmly. Each player would hold the hands of those on eachside of him. When the leader thought he had enough in line, he would run outand turn sharply. Those in line held on tightly and those on the end would haveto run very fast to keep up. The leader did not have to run far if his turn had beensharp enough and those in the line had kept holding the neighbor's hands . Whenthe speed worked up hard, those at the end could not hold on and were switchedoff the playground, over the hill and down the steep bank . Girls did not oftenplay this with the boys . The pace was too swift and the hillside too steep .

It was fun to watch but now I wonder that we played such a dangerous thing .I do not remember anyone being hurt, but many must have been skinned whenthey slipped across the hard clay .

We played several singing games (such as) The Farmer in the Dell (thefarmer chooses his wife ; the wife chooses the child ; etc .)

March 21, 1968 .This morning spring began . All the radio and television programs have been

reminding (of) it all day. Our temperature in Portland was about 12 degreeswarmer than the normal temp. There are dreadfully cold areas along the Missis-sippi and the east coast .

We called Charlotte Davis and talked with Anna Ackley tonight. She will gohome Wednesday. They will go to Ilwaco . We will meet them over the weekend .Jim went to Vashon to meet Anna .

Friday, March 22, 1968 .We had visitors today we dice not expect. Anna called that she was in Vancouver

and her party would be over in a half hour. Shortly after 5 p.m. they came: EdgarDavis, Sr., Anna and Betsy Ackley from Pennsahauken, New Jersey ; Don andJill Davis from Bremerton, Edgar's adopted son and wife. We were very glad tosee them, and we had a good visit until they left about 7 :20 p.m. Edgar hadtaken them to see his two sisters in Vancouver and his mother who is in a resthome there . We found out that they were hungry and so we made cheese andsalmon sandwiches and coffee. We were lucky to have a loaf of fresh Pierre'sbread handy.

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The baby Betsy Ann is one of the brightest little babies we have ever seen .She is only 2-1/2 months old . Her eyes are large and blue . It looks as if her hairwill curl . She is so very healthy. Anna feeds her with a spoon and she ate foodbesides drinking her milk . We were both sorry they could not stay overnight .

The Colbert home interior: top, bedroom, bottom, library corner.Photos courtesy Wayne O'Neil

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Charlotte Davis is working and could not come and Edgar Jr. is in school .They plan to go to Ilwaco tomorrow to see the rest of the family. Betsy and theothers will surely enjoy seeing them. . . . They will visit with David and Avis,Harlan and family, and Betsy Trick . That baby will certainly be passed around .

Edgar Sr. enjoys it as much as or more than we do. Edgar and Charlotte Davistook Anna and baby Betsy to .Ilwaco. Edgar Jr. went along . They stayed over-night and returned to Vashon Sunday. Everyone enjoyed the visit .

March 26, 1968 .We (Ruby and I) had supper at an Italian restaurant with Ann Lindle and Ida

Olson. It was good and interesting . After the supper (meatballs and spaghettiwith a soup with tiny balls of macaroni in it) we went to Ann's home and played3 games of bridge . The next meeting will be with us . We'll take them to theBarbary Coast at noon and then play cards . It has rained most of the day.

Our whole country is upset, reporters, politicians and ordinary people . Ex-president Truman is the only one confident . He said the other day, while vaca-tioning in Florida, that (Robert) Kennedy and McCarthy running made it surethat Johnson could be elected . The final word will come with the Democraticconvention to nominate the man they back for president in August this summer(1968) .

March 27, 1968Portland .

Rain today and colder. Went to Dr. Frank Stevens, dentist, and had a gold capput- on one of my teeth . -The -Doctor is filling a few cavities . It is said to beunusual for anyone my age to still have her own teeth .

Turned in the information .needed for my Income Tax statement to Mrs .(Rodgers) Waldron. She has been doing this for Ruby and me for many years .She divorced her husband Rodgers some years ago . They lived not far off inLaurelhurst. It has not been long ago that she married Waldron . They live be-yond 82nd East. Her brother is now dead ; married one of the Patana girls fromIlwaco. Another brother used to fish on Nasel and was a friend of Harlan's . Weboth like Mrs. Waldron. She sometimes writes good poetry. She told me thatwhen her grandson, about 10, visited her not long ago she gave him Kutkos toread. He liked it very much . She speaks very well ofKutkos . One of Ida Olson'sfriends who ate with us at Mannings' last Sunday also spoke to me of Kutkos .She used it every year and is sorry it is now out of print .

Politics are still stewing . Bobby Kennedy spoke to students in Idaho yester-day. General Westmoreland who had charge of the war in Viet Nam will berelieved of his command by the first of July and be commander-in-chief of allthe U.S. troops . This has stirred up all kinds of talk . Johnson's handling of thewar in Viet Nam is the source of criticism by his political opponents which maycause him to lose his election this fall to the Presidency.

e first man to fly into space in the world was killed today in an airplane .Yuri Gagarin was his name. He was a Russian. Another person was killed withhim, Cosmonaut he was called. The first time Gagarin circled the earth in his(space) capsule, he came down in Russian territory by parachute. We do notknow his capsule reached the earth .

March 30,-1968.Gagarin's ashes will be placed in the wall of the Kremlin where other Rus-

sians are buried. The engine of his plane stopped and before the two men couldbail out, the small passenger plunged to earth and both men were killed .

Ruby and I go to Ilwaco tomorrow. The weather will be good, the newscast-ers say. It's been raining hard.

April 15, 1970 .An Indian logger from Quinault who lives at Oakdale, Wn., came in about 6

p.m. to make a deal for 40 A. of Ruby's timber. His name is . ..Sanders . Ruby hasnot decided. We want to do a little research first We went to the Main PostOffice downtown about 10 p .m. to mail a letter and the highway was jammedaround the building . Hundreds of cars were heading there to get their incometax in before 12 p.m- to avoid special penalties for those who are filing this lastday.

Readers were asked to help identifythe man in the picture on the back pageof The Sou'wester, Volume XXX, Num-ber 2, Summer 1995 . Our thanks toNatalie Cartier Cellars of Warrenton,Oregon, who confirmed that the pictureis of her father, George Cartier, formermill owner and mayor of South Bend .

George Cartier andhis brother-in-lawEd Gaudette, both of French Canadiandescent, came to SouthwestWashingtonfrom Luddington, Michigan, and "pur-chased the South Bend Mills and Tim-ber Company in 1906 . George andEmma Cartier were divorced in 1920 atwhich time Cartier. sold his interest in

the mill and moved to a lodge in the forest near Mount Rainier. He later met hissecond wife, Jessie, on a trip to California . They had a daughter, Natalie. Whenshe was of school age, the family moved to Portland, Oregon.

George Cartier