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

HOT ONE--If you are one of those folks who like the heat, you sure enjoyed this past weekend, as temperatures were close to 90 degrees, certainly toasty enough for me! Before that, there were several days that were in the upper 70s/lower 80s and it was quite a nice dry streak for folks who were sick of the cold and wet weather. This week looks to be much cooler and damper too, with the only real dry day being tomorrow, Friday, so I hope you're able to take advantage of any dry times that we get, as I swear the lawn needs to be mowed every few days lately!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from May 14-20 are Mike Iverson, Kris Parke, Shelly Hedges, Stacey Wegdahl, Steve Doumit, Patty Ingersol, Hannah Helms, Jamie Nelson, J.T. Luthi, Mark Phillips, Michelle Thomas Fladebo, Julie McKinley, Makayla Holland, Courtney Helms, Nikki Hoven, Tayler Stornetta, Lexi Grasseth, Kevin Wirkkala, Travis Heagy, Patrick Lee Thompson, Donna Moody, Kaelee Paulsen, Sheri Davis, Mike Phelps, Jeff Brewster, Rachael Blain Reynolds, Rian Blain, Lainie Ferguson, James Pedersen turns one year old and Brandon Chamberlain celebrates a half century! Those celebrating anniversaries this coming week are Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Deal, Rusty and Maiya Kiestand and Jon and Brenda Peterson. May you all have wonderful celebrations on your special days!

SYMPATHIES--We heard from Ed Stevens who told us of the death of his sister, Dawn recently, and we want to extend our sympathies to him and his family on their loss. To make matters worse, his mother, Kathy, was taken to the hospital and could certainly use some good thoughts and positive energy headed her way. We hope she gets better and is back in Skamokawa before too long.

Another sad loss happened this past week, as Amy Prestegard passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her family, which includes her son, Kevin (Stephanie) Prestegard of Puget Island. Our sincerest sympathies are being sent to all of the members in Amy's family.

According to Cindy Seaberg Faubion, her husband, Bill, lost his brother Joe Faubion last Friday and we want to send our condolences to all of them as well.

MOTHER'S DAY--I trust all of you mothers had a nice day this past Sunday, even though it may have been a little different than usual. I know I certainly enjoyed my gift box of goodies from my kids and hanging flower baskets from hubby, (via Skamokawa Gardens Nursery of course), so in spite of not being able to get together with the whole bunch this year as we had planned, it was still a very nice day with many great wishes from friends and family members both near and far.

I have to say, one of my favorite Mother's Days happened many years ago, when I had my first born son on Mother's Day; it was quite the day, so even though this Mother's Day's date was different, the sentiments of the day were the same.

Katie Sechler had a great day with lunch on the beach and a video chat with oldest son, Kyle, in Georgia and then the rest of the kids (Blake, Tessa & Luke) made a special "movie night" for their Mom, which meant staging a makeshift ticket booth and providing popcorn and all, and that was after a wonderful dinner to boot. That was all a great fun surprise.

New Mom Nicole Coleman was having a bit of a difficult first time Mother's Day, as baby Kaiden wasn't having the best of days, so Dad Austin Good said they were doing all the soothing techniques they knew to get him in a better mood. I do hope they got one to work!

Some Moms got to climb waterfalls, some headed to the beach, some had their kids over for a great BBQ and others were enjoying time off from cooking as "take out" seemed to be in order for those in places where one could get it, so in spite of everything, it sounded like a pretty good day. I think the sunshine helped a lot!

MEMORIAL DAY--It's another week and a half away before this major holiday, but I'm pretty sure we can do some social distancing while decorating our loved ones' graves at our nearby cemeteries. This holiday is held on the last Monday in May, regardless of the date, and is held to honor those that died while serving in the U.S. Military. It began as "Decoration Day" but was changed later and became an official U.S. holiday in 1971, even though its observation was held long before then. Americans also use this day to honor all of their loved ones that have passed, so decorating the cemeteries for everyone is commonplace these days. Here's to all those that have passed while serving our country; RIP.

PITFALLS--While the sunshine was great, it also brought out all the tourists, which wasn't exactly what many of the small coastal towns wanted to see and as I heard the roar of traffic headed west all weekend long, I knew there was bound to be some problems. Sure enough, people were over-running small towns, where businesses were closed, there were few places to eat and fewer places to go to the bathroom. Result: trash everywhere left behind by the "me, myself and I have rights people" as well as their human waste, as those same folks couldn't be gone all day without having "to go" somewhere, and there are not bathrooms at the beach! So, unless you were wearing diapers or Depends, you really should have stayed close to your own home! Hence the "Stay Home" advisory, which, by the way, does not mean stay inside. It does not mean you can't go anywhere; it doesn't mean you can't take a drive or a walk, but just remember, that when nature calls, there may not be facilities in that area and thus, to avoid contaminating other areas with a massive amount of human waste (and the spread of more diseases), it's better to stay home and just go to the store to get groceries, to the pharmacy to get medications, pick up a curbside food order and go get gas to fill up your tank, etc., but masses of people going to the beach? Nope, not a good idea!

VISTA PARK--I have already seen peoples' FB posts saying that there were no facilities open at our own little park, and so they were glad there were lots of trees around. Really?! We would like to remind you that Skamokawa Vista Park is for locals and that if you think "doing your business wherever you want" is going to be tolerated, well, think again! Your reckless actions could get the gates slammed shut again, so if you cannot contain yourself during your short stay there to walk on the beach and enjoy the view, then it would be best if you stay home, or bring your own "facilities" with you.

OUT OF THE PAST--This week back in 1950, Mother's Day was on May 14, which began a bit foggy but it turned out to be a nice day. Elsie Everest had a cold, so although all the "kids" stopped by, they didn't stay real long. She really enjoyed the cute card the grandkids made her along with the gifts they brought. On this day, Mrs. Mary Hard married John Hendrickson at the Congragational Church, which was decorated with lilacs and apple blossoms. The bride was given away by her father, L.L. Lupro and her attendant was her daughter, Darlene. The groom's best man was Jack Lawson. Marvin Sjogren played the wedding march and accompanied Miss Kate Holland while she sang "Through the Years" and "Because." The couple were honeymooning in Idaho and then coming back and living temporarily in Cathlamet before moving to Puget Island. On a sad note, this was the evening that Howard Wiester, Pioneer farmer of Cathlamet, passed away after a lengthy illness. The "Stork Heir-Lines" announced the birth of an eight pound baby boy, James Bradley to David and Betty West on May 16. May 18 was the birthday of Albert West and May 19 was the birthday of Mary Lang, all of which had beautiful weather in which to celebrate their special days.

In 1960, the week began with a beautiful day but quickly returned to being wet and several days were really nasty with lots of wind and rain and cold temperatures. Even Grandma Elsie, who was usually quite upbeat, said "she was sick of it!"

The whole world was worried this week, as Premier Nikita Khrushchev seemed to "torpedo" the Summit Conference that was being held in Munich and fueled fears of putting us all into another war with wild demands and threats against Berlin. President Eisenhower, Prime Minister Macmillan and President de Gaulle (Allied forces: U.S., Britain and France) have banded together and staying strong against this tyrant, while the world held its breath at the outcome of Khrushchev's wild demands.

The Skamokawa Grange hosted the Pamona District, so the Grays River Grange and the Elochoman Grange members gathered there in order to pick the winner of the talent program they held. Carlton Appelo, who was the Pomona Lecturer, was in charge of the program. The winning script, which included a cast of 15 members, was written and directed by Bethenia Foster, member of the Elochoman Grange. This was the seventh program that they had submitted and they had been the winners every time. Winners of these regional programs then go on to the State Grange held in Pullman in June. The prize money, which was $10, was paid for by the Grange Insurance Company. All this according to my Grandma Elsie Everest's diaries.

Speaking of Bethenia, she worked at the telephone office in Cathlamet while my Grandma was the manager there and was a dear friend of my Grandma Elsie. As mentioned above, her writing skills were pretty good it seems, as she was always on the winning side of these contests. However, I had to laugh out loud at an entry in my Grandma's diary as this is something else that Bethenia shared in regard to the recent world problems: "I'm glad I'm American and glad that I am free, but I wish I was a little dog, and Khrushchev was a tree!" This may not be "politically correct" in today's world, but these ladies said it like they saw it back then and I couldn't resist passing it along!