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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2019)
B1 THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, OcTObER 3, 2019 CONTACT US ewilson@dailyastorian.com (971) 704-1718 COMMUNITY FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorian IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON A HECK OF A WEEK local Astoria Etsy business has gone viral on the Inter- net,” Shelby Chandler wrote. “Sandrine Froehle (pictured), owner of iheartpopcandles (bit.ly/heartpop), is slightly overwhelmed with orders for her ‘McDreamy’ candle. “The ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ candle (based on the character played by Patrick Dempsey) has been featured in Cosmopol- itan magazine, Insider, Yahoo Business, Pop Sugar, several other sites, as well as on news stations in Kentucky, Florida and who knows where else. “Sandrine and her employees have never seen such a response to one candle, and the orders keep coming in, from as far away as Iceland.” The candle label is a hoot: “Smells like a fresh Seattle breeze off the ferry boat on a beautiful night to save lives.” Actually, the aroma combines salt and shea. A note to the ultra-busy entrepreneur asking her about her shop brought a quick reply. “It’s been a heck of a week!” Sandine wrote. “Recently we were featured on People.com (bit.ly/peoplepop). Needless to say, we’re all hands on deck at the moment! “We’ve been making candles since 2015. Our first can- dle shop on Etsy, Define Design Etc., has all personalized candles. “We made a ‘Friends’ themed candle, and ‘Gilmore Girls’ themed candle, and they quickly became our best sell- ers:). It’s obvious people are very faithful followers to their fandoms. “I Heart Pop Candles just made sense … so we opened a completely separate Etsy shop, focused entirely on some of our favorite books, shows and movies. “We are a small team of ladies, who have way too much fun doing what we do. Every single candle is hand poured here in Astoria, Oregon. We hand-label each candle, and pack them with care to send off to their new homes.” “Our family moved to Astoria five years ago,” she added, “and we are so thrilled to be a part of this community!” ‘A WHERE’S JOANIE? onday afternoon was the 36th anniversary of the date that Warrenton High School student, 17-year- old Joan Leigh Hall, mysteriously vanished. Local law enforcement interviewed family, friends and Joanie’s fellow students to find out who had seen her that day. One young man, Mike, said he’d dropped Joanie off at the Mini-Mart around 2 p.m., and she was going to walk to the grade school, where she was supposed to tutor. Yet a girl at the Mini-Mart said she saw Joanie get into a car with a young man and leave. The girl later changed her story, and said it wasn’t Joanie, after all. Three of Mike’s friends claimed they saw Joanie with him and his car around 4 p.m. the afternoon she vanished. All three of them later changed their stories, too, saying it was not Joanie they’d seen with him. Foul play is almost certain, but no one was ever arrested and, despite extensive searching, Joanie, or her remains, have never been found. Some police reports and other links are at bit.ly/JoanHall “Somebody knows where Joanie Hall is,” missing per- sons advocate Dena Mattox Rush insists (fb.me/Joanie- HallMissing). “Find your courage.” Former District Attor- ney Josh Marquis agreed in a 2013 letter to the editor, “Someone knows.” But no one has ever come forward. “I often wonder if she would have married and had chil- dren,” her sister, Becky Hall, wrote in 2011. “I will never know — because someone took that away from her. “She never got to meet my two children or four neph- ews and one niece … (and) they never got to meet their Aunt Joanie — because someone took her away from us.” Charlotte Hall Packard’s biggest dream was to find Joanie, Dena recalled. “Charlotte’s son, Dan McGrath, purchased a double plot when Charlotte passed away in 2010, so that someday, when Joanie is found, she can be laid to rest next to her beloved older sister.” If you have any information about what happened to Joan Leigh Hall, or know where her remains are, please contact the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office at 503-325- 8635, or email sheriff@co.clatsop.or.us. Dena’s words are worth repeating: “Find your courage.” M LIA ROWS, AND ROWS autical writer Peter Marsh met long distance rower Lia Ditton (rowliarow.com) in August as she as drop- ping her boat onto the trailer at Schooner Creek in Port- land. She was about to embark on a row down the Oregon Coast to San Francisco Bay, and left Ilwaco, Washington, on Sept. 2. And what a journey it was. She rowed through rain squalls, howling winds, and at one point braved 60-foot waves, “rowing watery mountains.” You can read her blog at bit.ly/LiaRow One day a cruise ship stopped for her, thinking she was in distress. A tanker got way too close for comfort to check her out for the same reason, as did several fishing boats, all of which was pretty unnerving. And then there were whales, and the “heavy-breath- ing seal who joined me for dinner … (who) splashed around my boat all night, grabbing fish … and eating them loudly.” Finally, on Sept. 26, she pulled into San Francisco Bay. “I expected to be emotional when I finally reached the Golden Gate,” she wrote. “I wasn’t. I was overjoyed!” Next on her agenda: Rowing from Japan to San Fran- cisco, starting next March. N ‘THEIR GOOD EXAMPLE’ ‘OLYMPICS OF OBESITY’ LOCAL BREVITIES hile browsing around researching something else entirely, the Ear came across the Oregon Pioneer Obituaries website (bit.ly/oldobits), which are sepa- rated by county, and come from several different Oregon newspapers. Clatsop County has almost 100 entries, among them the obituary of Dr. B. A. Owens-Adair, a famous Asto- ria woman physician, and Caroline Van Dusen (pictured), wife of Astoria store owner Adam Van Dusen, who origi- nally lived in one of the houses built by the wrecked sloop Shark survivors. But it’s the obituary of Robert Shortess of Upper Asto- ria, who died May 7, 1878, that says it all: “He was a true pioneer, an honest man and lived to the good old age of 81 years. One by one, those who came here when Oregon was a wilderness are passing over to join the majority in the hereafter. Forever bright be the memory of their good example.” W ig doin’s at the Katmai National Park & Preserve in Alaska, home of the famous Brooks Falls salm- on-fishing bears (bit.ly/fallbears): Fat Bear Week started Wednesday, and it’s up to the public to vote in a tourna- ment that will decide who will be this year’s champion scale-buster. Will it be 480 Otis? Or 747 (pictured, courtesy of the National Park Service)? Or some new contender? Last year’s winner, 409 Beadnose, unfortunately has not turned up this year, leaving the field wide open. To vote, go to fb.me/KatmaiNPP. The champion of this “Olympics of Obesity” will be announced next week — on Fat Bear Tuesday, of course. B THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE F un rerun from Aug. 29, 2014: Sandie Kay Dod- son posted the photo shown with the caption, “I love my weird town.” Yes, that really is an upright vacuum cleaner strapped by its cord to a parking sign. It appeared Aug. 19 on 11th Street, near the corner of Commercial. “I have no clue why it was there, but I thought it was funny as hell,” Sandie said. “Around 2 p.m. a city worker took it down. He didn’t look as amused as I was.” A little bird mentioned that someone reported the offending vacuum for removal — the first such call in more than 30 years. Now in the city’s possession, no one has claimed the errant appliance. F rom The Daily Morning Astorian, Friday, Oct. 3, 1884: • The sunken steamer Joseph Kellogg was raised last Wednesday. The damage was about $500 (about $13,000 now). Note: The Joseph Kellogg, a sternwheeler, had sur- prisingly few mishaps, aside from this one, in her long career (1851-1929). She snagged at least three times, survived a collision in 1889, was wrecked and repaired in 1906 and went through at least two refittings and a reconstruction. She was sold in 1920, renamed Madeline in 1921, and ignominiously abandoned in 1929. (bit.ly/ joekell). From The Daily Morning Astorian, Friday, Oct. 3, 1890: •Work is still progressing on the extension of the horse car track at the eastern end towards Alderbrook. Note: Five horse cars took to the streets starting May 9, 1888, run by the Astoria Street Railway Company, covering 3 miles of track on Commercial Street. But by 1892, worried about competition from other transit modes (electric, steam motor, cable cars) the company took a gamble and converted four horse cars to electric motors. (bit.ly/horsecarz) • Robert Chabot, the Pacific County cranberry king, signed at the Occident yesterday. Note: Robert was the nephew of Anthony Chabot, who bought property on the Long Beach (Wash.) Penin- sula in the early 1880s because he (rightfully) believed the climate would be suitable for commercial cranberry growing. Robert moved to Ilwaco and oversaw the oper- ations, but left in 1892 to start his own cranberry business in Grays Harbor County. (bit.ly/chabotcran) Popular in 1893: • Dr. Gunn’s Onion Syrup for coughs, colds and croup. It is just as effective today as it was 40 years go. Sold at 50 cents ($14.25 now) a bottle. Note: Believe it or not, onion syrup was described in Dr. Nicholas Culpepper’s ”The Complete Herbal” in 1850 as an ancient cough remedy, and is still used today. It sounds awful — sliced onions layered with sugar or honey in a closed jar till it all liquefies — but some swear by it. Or at it. (bit.ly/onionsyrup, bit.ly/onionsyrup2) DID YOU KNOW? he Roberts family, founders of Westport Winery and Ocean’s Daughter Distillery, plan to build the world’s first International Mermaid Museum in Aberdeen, Washington (mermaidmuseum.org). The idea for such a project started when a family friend mailed them his entire shell collection, including a mer- maid’s comb. Kim Roberts said she was inspired by “imagining a mermaid running it through her hair because of its evocative name.” “First and foremost,” she explained, “we want to teach our local students and visitors about the world’s unique ocean ecology from seashore to the seafloor. We think that offering this through the mythology of merfolk will allow the museum to engage all ages in a fun and unique man- ner …” Say tuned; the planned opening date is sometime in 2020. T