10 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
NEW YEAR’S
PEOPLE
LOCALS REFLECT ON THEIR LIFE
STORIES — AND HOW THEY
HOPE TO SHAPE THEM IN 2018
By DWIGHT CASWELL
FOR COAST WEEKEND
A
s 2018 draws near, some of our region’s residents spoke with Coast Weekend
about where they came from, and what they plan to do in the year ahead.
BOB T McEWAN
JOANNE T RIDEOUT
DWIGHT CASWELL PHOTO
DWIGHT CASWELL PHOTO
Bob McEwan with his donkey, Poncho
Bob McEwan celebrated his 95th birthday at Gear-
hart’s Sweet Shop, and it seemed as if half the town
showed up for the affair. McEwan, with his cart and
donkey, Pancho, have been a Sunday afternoon fixture in
Gearhart for years.
McEwan arrived at the Gearhart train station in 1929
and followed the boardwalk to the house his mother had
bought sight unseen, and where he still lives. He worked
COURTESY BOB MCEWAN as a milkman, then for the county, and then in 1956 found-
ed Bob McEwan Construction, in which he was active
A young Bob McEwan
until the turn of the century.
Recent surgery has slowed McEwan down a bit, and for the future, he said, “I want to get
back on my feet and be a little more useful, and I’m really looking forward to going back to
Pioneer Church.” He’s been a member there since the 1950s.
Joanne Rideout
COURTESY JOANNE RIDEOUT
A young Joanne Rideout
When Joanne Rideout moved to Brownsmead, a neighbor
told her she should volunteer at the community radio station.
She had no radio experience, but “before I knew it I was on the
radio, reading ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ on ‘Bedtime Stories.’”
Rideout has worked at KMUN ever since, and many will
not start the day without her “Ship Report” program. For the
past seven years Rideout has been station manager, but she
recently decided to leave that position, feeling it was “time for
new ideas and younger management.”
Rideout hasn’t left the station, of course; she’s now the news
director. “I want to have fun,” she said, “to do creative work that
makes me happy, more writing and radio production.”
She’s also building a boat with her father, and “we’re
hoping to get the boat project in the water this spring.”