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

SO SO--If you were one of those folks who went camping this Memorial holiday, I do hope you didn't get too soaked, as often times it was just a little bit on the wet side around here. Of course, while we were having rain, it was sunny and dry in Portland, so maybe you got lucky and went to an area where it was a little bit drier than we were, as it seemed to differ every 10 or 20 miles. Memorial Day was actually quite nice so at least many of the services held for veterans on that day were made much more pleasant. The Greenwood Cemetery looked very colorful with all of the flowers and flags that were placed at the gravesides with special thoughts of those who served in the military and gave their lives serving our country.

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from May 29-June 4 are Serene Snow, Justin Rainey, Wes McClain, Benjamin McClain, Gale Luthi, Tim Rushing, Jeanne Paulsen, Al Bergseng, Stephanie Prestegard, Amy Knowles, Barb Bain, Gary Emery, Terry Vik, Mike Wegdahl, Leroy Beard, Sharon Hart, Jill Havens, Shannon Cochran, Mason K. Pittman, Pearl Cortay, Lisa Sechler and Brian Good. Enjoy those birthdays everybody! Celebrating their anniversaries this week are Sharon and BJ Servis and Robert and Karla Kyle. Here's wishing that all of your special days will be memorable!

THIS IS IT--The Saturday we've all been waiting for is here, as the Eighth Annual Wahkiakum Dollars for Scholars Car Show is here in Skamokawa at the Wahkiakum County Fairgrounds. Let's hope everyone has done a "sunshine" dance and we get a nice day! Only car entries will be allowed to park inside the gates of the county park near the Skamokawa Grange, and adjoining the fairgrounds, but there's plenty of parking in the big fair parking lot between the Oasis and the Skamokawa Fire Station. As I've said before, it is free to just walk around and look at the cars but we hope you'll enjoy lunch (11:30 - 2) at a reasonable cost of just $8 per adult and only $5 for children, and buy some raffle tickets for one of the many awesome prizes they'll be having. Don't forget, the kids get to fish for trout for free too, so that's a blast for them. (You might want to bring a cooler so your catch will stay fresh while you enjoy the rest of the day there.) There will be dart games to win prizes and music and lots of great cars, so come on down and help support our high school seniors! The gates are open at 8:30 and all the prizes will be given away in the afternoon.

WEDNESDAY--The members of the Sons of Norway lodge meet on the first Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m., but guests are always welcome so come to the Norse Hall on Puget Island that evening if you'd like more information about the group or you're interested in becoming a member. The second Saturdays of the month are set aside for Bingo, unless another event is going on at the time, but otherwise you can start showing up at 5:30 p.m. at the hall and buy cards for $5 each and have a great time while possibly becoming a lucky winner of a cash prize! Goodies are also for sale at the hall.

Every year, all of Norway celebrates Constitution Day on May 17, which marks their independence from Danish autocracy. This year was special as it was their Bicentennial, so 200 years have passed since they first gained their freedom and thousands upon thousands celebrated around the country with the largest of these "Syttende Mai" celebrations taking place in Oslo. My apologies for being late in mentioning this grand day for all of us who share our Norwegian heritage.

IN JULY--As you know, May is coming to an end and we'll begin June this Monday, so with time flying by, it won't be long and Bald Eagle Days will be here. The usual Wooden Boat Festival that follows on Sunday, is no longer taking place at that time. The Wooden Boat Festival has been moved to August 30 and will be combined with the Chili Cook-off weekend festivities. So if you want to take part in the fun, contact the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce and they can send you all the rules and get the vendor's contract to you if you'd like to be one of those. You can call 795-9996 or email them at wchamber@cni.net for all the details.

FAIR THEME--Just in case you missed it, the new theme for this year's Wahkiakum County Fair is "Red, White and Moooo!" Now all you have to do is think of that theme when you're going to be decorating a booth or making something to enter into it, or not. You see, the categories are wide open, so you can do whatever you want, but sometimes it's just more fun when you incorporate the fair's theme into it, so now's the time to put your thinking cap on and see what you can come up with, as August will be here before you know it! If you'd like to be a vendor, call the fair office (795-3480) and manager, Patty Dursteler will get back to you.

WATER SCARE--If you saw any news at all last weekend, it was hard to miss the "hoopla" that was going on in Portland, when 670,000 water customers, which included a whole lot of downtown businesses, wound up under a boil water order. This came at a bad time with Rose Festival activities and City Fair going on, and people flocked to the stores to stock up on bottled water. Now, while many stores were emptied out in hours and more water was rushed to the area, I found it quite interesting that in all the frenzy to get this water, that no body addressed the obvious: In case of an emergency, you are supposed to have clean, drinkable water on hand for each member of your household to sustain you for three days! Our emergency services people have been hounding people continually to have emergency kits ready and they should include all the basic items you will need to take care of yourself for at least 72 hours or three days. While this particular "emergency" allowed people to go to the store and buy the water they needed, and more was able to arrive, there is going to be a time in which that will not be possible, and then what? So, you might want to ask yourself, if that kind of water problem happened here, how prepared am I? Do you have three days worth of everything you'll need to get by until help can come? What if it's longer? Whether it's a flood, slide, earthquake, fire or just a temporary bad water situation or power outage, it's our responsibility to be prepared.

COMMISSIONER--Also featured on telelvison and in the news last week was County Commissioner, Dan Cothren as he expressed his displeasure with the Department of Fish and Wildlife over our elks' hoof rot problem, which continues to grow worse with every passing year. Their "study" of this problem has been ridiculously slow and when asked how much money has been spent on it over the last five years, they quoted an amount of $50,000. If you've ever seen the dollar amounts of other studies and costs, you'd know that this was really next to nothing in comparison. The DFW wants hunters to kill those crippled animals and then cut off and leave the hooves in the field so as not to spread the disease. However, most of the people I talked to thought that just the opposite should be happening, as we should take the diseased part and destroy it, not let it lay there and decompose into the soil and possibly spread some more. I watched a lone cow elk hobble across my field the other day and all I could think about was her pain and suffering, and wishing she'd be humanely put down and harvested and then there would be one less animal suffering and possibly spreading this disease. With these animals being hunted for long, long periods of time and being pushed out of the woods where there is cover but really little food, and down into the soggy lands that are being created, their dry, nourishing habitat is disappearing. While opinions differ, the one thing agreed upon is that not enough has been done or is being done to curb this problem. Kudos for Mr. Cothren's adamant stand against DFW and their lack of action.

OUT OF THE PAST--This week back in 1944, the week began nice, but then got wet, cold and down right nasty before ending on a nice day. Grandma Elsie was a bit concerned for grandson, Frankie (Pedersen) as he'd fallen out of a tree and taken quite a nasty tumble. In 1949, it was only gloomy one day and then nice all week long and even hot by the end of it. Elsie Everest was busy as could be as she was getting ready to head to Bellevue, WA where her nephew, Bob Shane would be getting married later on that week. In 1954, it was miserable all week long except for one day. On that particular day, the Leon Healys were all headed to Krist and Carol Pedersen's to watch some special on TV and have dinner. Frog legs were the main course that night! Grandma Elsie went to the Pochantas meeting with guests Mrs. Lagrange and Mrs. Nelson from Puyallup there. A visit to Mary Ann Risk's meant meeting up with Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Bunn as well where they had a nice visit. Son George stopped by on his way home from the beach where he handed over a nice batch of clams. They made for a very good dinner. All this according to Grandma Elsie Everest's diaries.