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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, OcTObER 3, 2019
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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