The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

DRIED UP--After a thunder storm last Friday night that brought pounding rain to our area, along with some breezy conditions, it was nice to have things start to dry up a bit, as I think we were all getting webbed feet from all the rain we've had. Here at our house, we had over 20 inches of rain for the month of January so it was definitely a wet beginning to our new year! This week began with lots of sunshine though and that meant getting outside and doing some of those chores before the next band of rain comes through, so I hope you managed that and also got to kick back and enjoy those rays for a little bit!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from Feb. 11-17 are Reese Gullickson, Mykall Stensland, Bob Wegdahl Sr., James Hoven, Wendy Havens, Brandon Souvenir, Sean Brennan, John Thompson, Connie Shrum, Diane Garrett, Roberta Backman, Derek Phipps, Austin Havens, Angel Thompson, Angela Stensland, Selah Hoven, Cindy Grasseth, Brody Brown, Vickie Reid, Kris Baldwin, Blake Hess and 67'er Pam Below Lazor.

Those celebrating anniversaries are Stan and Becky Thacker, David and Julie Black, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry DeBriae, and Mr. and Mrs. Troy Gorley. Enjoy all those special days everybody!

SYMPATHY--We'd like to send our sympathies to Skamokawa resident Glenn Wiest, as he recently lost his sister, Jenny Lynne Wiest, of Seattle, at the age of 65. She passed away January 27. Our condolences to her entire family.

MOVIE NIGHT--Once again it's time for a movie at the Community Center in Cathlamet this Friday (tomorrow) at 7 p.m., but this one is rated R so this would be an adult movie. Enjoy the free snacks but remember, you can order a pizza from Sharon's pizza (795-3311) and pay for it when they deliver it to you about 15 minutes before the movie; enjoy!

CHOCOLATE--Prior to the movie, you might want to stop by the Hotel Cathlamet and pick up a box of chocolates during the 17th annual Chocolate Extravaganza fund-raiser for the Charlotte House. It's taking place between 4 and 7 p.m., so the timing would be perfect! To order yours ahead of time, call 795-6401.

THIS IS IT--Yes indeed, this is the big Valentine weekend, so I hope you have your dinner reservations made, the cards bought and either candy or flowers on the way, or you guys are going to be in big trouble come Sunday! Of course, you ladies may want to remember to treat your guy to something a little special too. The above mentioned chocolates would probably work great for him as well! But then, maybe you and your special someone are going out Saturday night to the Duck Inn, where you'll enjoy a special dinner and the "King Brothers" band in the lounge from 8 to midnight. They are always great and there's nothing like a saxophone to round out a great sounding band! If you'd like to enjoy some quieter dinner music, that will be available to you at the Duck on Valentine's Day as a duo will be playing those wonderful love songs for the special Valentine's Day occasion that evening.

Of course, you could be enjoying dinner at the Skamokawa Grange Hall on Saturday evening, as the Wah. Fair board puts on their annual fund raiser with their Valentine Diamond Dinner, and then you could head to the Duck afterwards to enjoy the music. I know some are enjoying anniversaries and birthdays on Valentine's Day as well, so maybe you're headed out of town to do something super special, but either way, we hope you have a great Valentine weekend!

HOLIDAY--Besides Valentine's Day being on Sunday, we have another holiday on Monday, and that's Presdent's Day. This means that there will be no school on Monday as well as other closures, so this is just a little reminder that if you need to get things sent out in the mail, the post office will be closed on Monday. This will also pertain to all businesses that are usually closed during these types of holidays.

BINGO TIME--This Saturday is also the time for all bingo lovers to head to the Norse Hall for their monthly bingo games. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the games to start at 6. Each card is $5 and cash prizes are given to the winners of the games. So if you are a real bingo lover, this Saturday evening is the time to head to Puget Island and enjoy some good company and goodies.

The Sons of Norway holds their monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m., and anyone is welcome to attend. Bingo is usually the second Saturday of each month. You can contact Jan Silvestri with any questions.

CRAB FEED COMING SOON--Speaking of the Norse Hall, it will be the place to be next weekend for the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce Crab and Oyster feed. If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you should do that right away. With three different seatings, 3 p.m., 5:15 p.m. & 7:30 p.m., there should be a time slot to fit your sechedule. Don't forget, there's tons of prizes to be given away and you don't have to be there to win, so buy some of those raffle tickets and good luck on being one of the lucky winners. Remember, this fund raiser by the Chamber benefits our entire community as the money raised goes towards Bald Eagle Days festivities in mid-July and we all know how much fun that is!

INTERIM CHAMBER DIRECTOR--Speaking of the Chamber, we'd like to welcome Donna Alija to her temporary job as the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Center Information director until they hire a permanent director. It's a big job and we hope everyone will keep in close contact with her with any of their big events and double check that all your information is correct, as things do have a habit of changing dates and times, and she will need to know if you want her to send out the correct info for you. You can contact her at 795-9996.

GOOD JOB--Our local volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel are to be commended for their recent "Boot Drive," which raised almost $4500 from the generous folks of our area, and which will go to help with Doernbecher's Children's Cancer Program at OHSU. We certainly appreciate the sacrifice of time by our fine volunteers to help raise money for such a worthy cause and to those who donated money as well.

SUPER BOWL ROUND-UP--Did your favorite team win the Super Bowl? If you're like me, my favorite team wasn't playing so when that happens, and there's a west of the Mississippi team playing against an east side team, well, I'll just cheer for the west side team. This year, that was the Denver Broncos and in spite of a lot of talk of the Panthers winning, the "old guy," Peyton Manning, came out and took his team to victory. Of course, a lot of that was on the defensive side of things, but none the less, he broke a lot of records and brought a lot of happiness to his "west side" fans!

COMING UP FAST--Have you noticed how this new year is just flying by already? With something planned almost every weekend and holidays happening in there to boot, well, the weeks just seem to fly by. Here's a little warning, as next month, there are two holidays! St. Patrick's Day and Easter are in March, so you'll be dining on corned beef and cabbage one day and two weeks later, you'll be enjoying the typical big ham dinner after church. That also means you'll be out shopping early for those new Easter dresses and shoes, so hang onto your pocketbook, as March may find you really wishing that you'd find that pot 'o' gold!

OUT OF THE PAST--Back in February, 1989 the weather was much different than now, as we'd had lots of snow and freezing temperatures, with temps down to zero out here in West Valley, and that came along with power outages and phones beings out. The biggest news however was the freezing of the Puget Island Bridge water line and the whole Island being without water. With everyone "freezing up," it was a disasterous time but water supervisor, Bill Chamberlain, linked up fire hoses for a temporary fix (which "experts" said wouldn't work) and everyone had water by that same evening. This was a time of a massive amount of water issues throughout the county as well and we even made the Channel 8 news. By Valentine's Day, we warmed up to 25 degrees, but we didn't warm up to rain until Feb. 16, and then everybody was flooding due to the frozen ground, melting snow and the relentless rain! Nobody was enjoying the first two months of 1989!