ONCE AGAIN--It seems like only yesterday we were beginning the first month of a new year, but lo and behold, here we are in the second month already. So, how are you doing with those new year resolutions? I hope you're having better luck than me, as it seems the snow, the freezing, the rain and a bug have slowed me down and I've just been spinning my wheels when it comes to plans that need to be worked on, but hopefully I'll kick things in high gear this month or at least that's my newest resolution if I ever get to feeling better!

While we had a couple of dry days at the end of last week, it seems our rains have returned, but hopefully not with the vengeance that they had been falling.

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from February 2-8 are Kyle Gribskov, Varsha Martin, K.C. Garrison, Ed Stornetta, Grant Johnson, Kathy Tarabochia, Alyssa Montgomery, Bob Montgomery, Bailey McKinley, Betty Brons, Maddox Moore, Pam Moore, Terry Ostling, Brian Holland, Alexis Baldwin, Troy Kyle, Dave Pedersen, Scott Pedersen, Annette Healy Miller and Madilyn Freeman is celebrating her very first birthday this week.

Happy Anniversary wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Randy Montgomery, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Ower and Mr. and Mrs. Bob Olsen. Happy days everyone!

NEW EXHIBIT--This Saturday, the Friends of Skamokawa will showcase their new exhibit in the River Life Interpretive Center, which features many local craftsman from our county, and it's entitled, "A Kaleidoscope of Wahkiakum Crafts." This exhibit will feature many of those folks you are already familiar with, like Ruth Doumit, Tom and Cora Irving, Genie Cary and Shannon Meeker, as well as some new talent, like Mike Linn, Daniel Tchozewski and Kay Lervick. There will be a wide variety of things such as fabric arts, ceramics, tiles, quilts and more. Kay Lervick, who is a basket weaver, will show her things in Wahkiakum County for the last time, as she has recently moved. The hall will be open on February 2 and 3 while they set up the crafts, but Saturday will be your chance to meet some of these talented crafters and enjoy a cup of hot cider and a cookie or two between 1 and 3 p.m. Head up to the hall and take in all that is new which includes the brand new outdoor sign made possible by all those who donated money for it and was put up by volunteers Brian O'Connor and Gary Emery.

DATE CHANGE--I have just been notified that the concert being held by the group Detour at the Skamokawa Grange Hall has been changed to March 31 instead of February 25, so please note that change on your calendar. This is a country group whose lead singer is Kristi Nebel and from what I hear, they have a great country sound.

COUNTING DOWN--The steaks (filet mignon) will be on the BBQ and head cooks Blair Brady and Bill Coons will serve them up at the Skamokawa Grange Hall when the Wahkiakum Fair Board's annual Valentine Diamond Dinner takes place on February 11, which is just nine days away! Your $25 ticket, available at the Bank of the Pacific, entitles you to a complete dinner with salad and dessert and a glass of wine, as well as a ticket that goes into the drawing for the diamond necklace that is being given away that night. You can purchase more tickets for the necklace at the dinner to up your chances of winning it or another prize for just a dollar each. There is always a lot to do at these events and if you'd like to help out in some way, like pouring wine or serving meals, give Becky Ledtke a call at 795-3434.

SYMPATHIES--Our sympathies to the family of Lila Garrison, who passed away at the age of 88 on January 24. Of her surviving six children, Cliff Garrison and his family live here in Skamokawa. She was also survived by a brother, Darryl Dow who had lived here as well. Lila had a huge family and extended family, with lots of grandchildren, and we send our sincerest condolences to all of them.

Also, when I mentioned the passing of Tom West (71) on January 8 in Bend, Ore. awhile back, I mentioned a surviving brother who I went to school with, Richard, but I failed to mention his sister who lives here in Skamokawa, Mary Baldwin. My apologies for the omission and sympathies to all of Tom's family, which includes his wife Diane and their children.

KAYAKING SEASON--The Columbia River Kayaking group will host a Wilderness First Responder Course at the Skamokawa Grange Hall from April 25-29. You can check this out online at the CRK website. Also, registration is open for the very first Pacific Northwest Power Paddle Camp which will take place June 22-25. This is a customized course limited to eight participants and will fill up fast, so sign up soon. Instructors will be Ginni Callahan and Ben Lawry. For more information, contact http://www.columbiariverkayaking.com/ppc.html or email Elizabeth at kayakcamp@earthlink.net.

FAIR FOUNDATION--The Wahkiakum Fair Foundation is holding an Open House on February 7 at 7 p.m. at the Skamokawa Resort Meeting room and would like to welcome everyone to come and meet the current members and check out their goals and plans for the upcoming year. This group raises money for our county fair that may not be covered by county funds, and is separate from the fund raisers held by the Wahkiakum County Fair Board. This group could be a perfect fit for you, so they hope you will come by on Tuesday.

WISH LIST--Some of our local artists have their work displayed at the Tsuga Art Gallery in Cathlamet, and like many organizations that depend on volunteers and donations, they have a wish list. If you'd like to help out, you can stop by the gallery and see what they'd like to have or contact David Goodroe at 795-8031 for a complete listing. However, a few things they'd like to have would be a bulletin board, a white board, and eight or 10 foot step-ladder, folding chairs, art supplies and others things, including more volunteer workers to man the gallery. Your help would be appreciated by all those in the Tsuga Art Association and memberships are available.

VALENTINES FOR VETS--I should have mentioned this earlier but I hope by now you have realized that Valentines Day is coming soon and I always encourage everyone, groups and organizations, students and Sunday school classes, to send Valentines to our veterans. You can look for a list of Veterans Hospitals in the phone book or online; there are many places to choose from, or if that's not something you want to do, why not take some Valentines up to our local nursing home? They too would love to see a cheery card with lots of hearts on it, so won't you get creative and make some cards that would put a smile on someone's face? Remember, they don't have to be fancy; just send them with lots of love in them!

POST OFFICE--I haven't talked about the Skamokawa Post Office for awhile, as we still want to keep it here in its historical building. Here's one more thing you can do to hopefully help save it. This is a petition to urge the House of Representatives on SignOn.org to vote for the H.R 1351 bill which will restore the financial status of the U.S. Postal Service by reversing H. R. 2309, which required advance funding of retirees health benefits which is totally outrageous. This petition already has over 11,000 signers. Will you sign the petition and help reach the goal of 15,000? Just go to this site and sign on, or go to http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268749&id=34251-19411035-RqpK4vx&t=1.

MORE STATION INFO--I have been getting more phone calls about the gas stations in our area and was thrilled to hear from Dorothy Lloyd, one of the owners of the Chevron station, who called all the way from Arizona to tell me about her time here at the station. Dorothy told me that she and her late husband, Don, had the station for a couple of years, 1959-61 and they got it from Bill Garrison. Dwight Reeves, relative of the Bond family, bought it from them. Now the station itself was called Don and Dot's and it had a sign over the station that said that, but the burger stand had a small sign on it, saying The In & Out, so that's probably why some remembered it as one thing and some the other. It was not operated year round, but from May to September. and often longer in September depending on the weather and how the fishing season was going. Dorothy had two little boys then and so she got her sister Shirley Hosley, now known as Sarah, and Don's sister Sharon Lloyd, now Ackerman, to work in the stand. They lived in a little house rented to them by Standard Oil that was right by the station. Dorothy said that some of the confusion about bulk oil may have come from the fact that they had tanks in back where there was a dock which allowed for boats of all sizes to come and fuel up, so they did fuel up more than cars, just not houses, as did the Madden/Exxon station. Don had worked for Howard Carriker before coming to work at the Chevron station, but after a couple of years, he had a chance to become a fireman over in Wenatchee so the family moved there. After a six month trial period, he was hired on full time and worked that job for 20 years and later moved to Yakima. Dorothy told me that they had lived in a house up by the city park at one time and then the house on Mattie Street which is where I remember dropping off Patty Hosley after church and Dorothy said her mother lived there for 30 years. It was great talking to her and hearing about her time in Skamokawa first hand; thanks for the call Dorothy!

According to a message from neighbor Linda McClain, her sister-in-law Jody Garrison (Gary) Havens, who was Bill Garrison's daughter, says that it was her mother Danella, who had the burger stand built and it was painted pink and was indeed called the In & Out. She believes that the original stand was one of the small buildings over at the fairgrounds and had been used as the office. I'll have to check that out, as currently the office is in the T-building but there was a small building near-by at one time anybody have any info on that?

Another call from Arizona came in and this time it was from Rod Prestegard, who was telling me that he thought the station at the end of town (Cathlamet) was a Mercury dealer, as he remembers his dad, Kenneth buying a brand new Mercury there one year after a good fishing season. I think I heard before that it was a car dealership, but not sure that it was limited to selling Mercurys, as I recall Ralph Keyser saying his dad bought a Chevrolet there.

And then comes a call from Robert Fritzie, who gave me some information about the Bunker Hill station, that never got opened. It seems this station used to sit around the area of 15th Ave in Longview about where the Jack in the Box restaurant is now and near where a Dairy Queen once was. According to Robert, there were three stations in that area, and they moved the one, which was a Richfield Station at that time, to the Bunker Hill site.

Of course, as an Islander, Robert had to give me a bad time for not recalling my favorite gas station of all time, and that was Canham's station there on Puget Island. Back in the day, Bill and Hazel Canham had the store, which started with it being right behind the pumps and then eventually moved to the north side of that. I can remember the pop machine outside, where you could put a nickel in and slide your chilled Nesbitt's Orange or Cream soda out around the maze of metal rods. I remember we had to go in the old building behind the pumps to get air for our bike tires, which always seemed to need air and I believe they used to have some appliances in there too. It seems we walked or rode our bikes to the store almost every day it was decent enough to do so, so the store was a special place for many of us Island kids and with so many memories of our times spent there, it was sad to see it close. Fritzie also remembered being able to grab a burger at Thornton's station at Nassa Point as when they'd go out fishing, they'd pull in there for a bite to eat, so they obviously had a small cooking spot at their place as well.

I've gotten some more information on the station by Oak Point and I'll be expanding on that next week. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to call; this has been great fun hearing everyone's stories of the stations and their lives connected with them.

SAY HI--Robert Fritzie is currently at the NW Continuum Care Center, 128 Beacon Hill , Room 301 in Longview and I bet he'd like to hear from some of his old classmates, friends and neighbors, so drop him a line or give him a call at 575-3748.