B1
THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, dEcEmbER 19, 2019
CONTACT US
ewilson@dailyastorian.com
(971) 704-1718
COMMUNITY
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
THE FINAL TOUCHES
AROUND TOWN
T
he Columbia River Maritime Museum’s Mini-
boat Program (fb.me/CRMMminiboats or crmm.
org), designed by Nate Sandel, the museum’s educa-
tion director, is back.
The 5-foot GPS-equipped miniboats, which will sail
to Japan, are designed, built, launched and tracked by
students, and this year, one of the teams is from War-
renton Grade School. Each U.S. team is matched up
with a team of Japanese students.
In Warrenton, students “… are putting the final
touches on their vessel,” Lisa Scholin of Noble Com-
munications wrote. On Friday, “they worked with
Pacific Power engineers and a solar expert to add solar-
power lighting to their vessel — which happens to be
Goonies-themed, complete with treasure map art-
work.” Pictured, center, Jon Connelly, field engineer-
ing manager; behind him is Stan Co, field engineer. The
photo is courtesy of Pacific Power.
“Students experimented with tiny watch batteries
and miniature, red LED lights,” Lisa explained, “which
twinkled on like Rudolph noses around the classroom,
as students successfully created circuits.”
Mark your calendar: The Goonies miniboat
is being launched by the Columbia River Bar
Pilots following a Miniboat Summit prelaunch event
at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 21 at the maritime museum. And
then the watching and tracking armchair fun really
begins — last year, one of the miniboats wound up in
the South Pacific, on a remote island in the Republic of
Kiribati.
DEAR SANTA …
SANTA’S LITTLE HELPER
‘S
F
rom the Wednesday, Dec. 19, 1883, issue of The
Daily Morning Astorian:
• Oolachan — A. W. Berry has six men employed
at Rainier putting up the finely flavored Columbia River
candle fish.
Note: This fish is better known as the anadromous
(moves between fresh and salt water) smelt, or eula-
chon. The nickname candle fish derives from being
such a fatty fish during spawning season, that if caught
and dried, it could be wicked and burned like a candle.
The name oolachan (aka oolichan, oulachon, and uthle-
can) is apparently from the Chinook language. (bit.ly/
candlesmelt)
• Out of the Depths — Among the articles jettisoned
on the Queen of the Pacific when she ran aground at the
mouth of the Columbia some time ago was a box con-
taining some beautiful wedding presents, the property of
Mr. B.L. Stone and bride. The jewels were thought irre-
vocably lost, but it seems that recently the case contain-
ing them was found by some wreckers on the coast …
Note: The Queen of the Pacific was wrecked in Sep-
tember 1893 while en route to Portland with notables
aboard to witness the driving of the last spike on the
Northern Pacific Railroad. It took five tugs to pull her
off and refloat her, at a cost of $60,000 (about $1.5 mil-
lion now), and she was nearly a total wreck. The captain
was not blamed; heavy fog and smoke caused the acci-
dent. (bit.ly/QuPac)
• The Clariona: Just the thing for balls and parties, a
complete orchestra with dance music, figures for calling
dances, etc., complete.
Note: A little research revealed this musical instru-
ment, a reed pipe “organette roller organ,” is 10 inches
square and 1 foot tall. When hand-cranked, the clariona
played paper rolls that had a range of 14 notes, and it
sounded like an accordion mixed with a calliope (bit.ly/
clariona). To hear a clariona waltz, go to bit.ly/clarwaltz
• Jottings around town ... The stove business is
lively. … B.F. Stevens & Co. have 4,000 pieces of sheet
music. … Jeff, the restaurant man, feeds 600 a day. …
There are no vacant dwellings or business houses in
Astoria. … The county jail has 10 inmates. … And the
rain cometh.
anta’s little helper is at it again for the second year,”
proud grandmother Brenda McKune posted on
Facebook about her 8-year-old grandson, Dante Wil-
liams, son of Cliff Williams.
Dante saves pennies all year long to be able to buy
Christmas presents for other children through the Wishing
Tree program, where children in need write gift requests
on paper bell ornaments, which are hung on Christmas
Wishing Trees in local businesses. People pick a tag off
the tree, buy the requested present, and turn it in at a Wish-
ing Tree collection center.
“We’re so proud of him,” Brenda declared. “Last year
he collected $96, this year it was $142. He tried harder,
and it shows. He filled all the wishes for nine children, and
even got candy canes. He was so proud.”
Dante is pictured, inset, with last year’s haul, and this
year with his grandpa, Lewis McKune.
“You know, Santa works hard,” she added, “and just
needs help, like others do, sometimes. Right? Sometimes
he can’t find some houses.” And that’s where Dante comes
in.
By the way, Dante has already started saving again.
“Grandma,” he told Brenda, “We gotta beat this amount
next year.” There’s no doubt he’ll do just that.
WHERE’S SANTA?
O
HEART WARMER
A
ccording to the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program,
children were writing Dear Santa letters to newspa-
pers by at least 1874, certain Santa could not miss a let-
ter that had been published in a newspaper (tinyurl.com/
santaltr).
Apparently, the oldest Oregon letter published is from
1890, in The Daily Morning Astorian, dated Dec. 19:
“Dear Santa Claus; bring my little sister a doll and a doll
wagon and some candy and some nuts and some peanuts,
and a tin horn. Bring me an air gun and a buck saw and a
knife and some candy and some nuts and some peanuts.
Frank.”
And, this whopper from The Sunday Oregonian is
dated Dec. 21, 1919: “Dear Santa Clause. I’ve been wait-
ing for you a long time. I am nine months old. I want a
trunk full of silk dresses and a necklace with my Moth-
er’s picture and a ring, with a ruby. I’ve been a awful good
girl. Arvilla.”
SANTA CALLING
W
ant to create a video from Santa for that special
child who puts a twinkle in your eye? Head on over
to the Portable North Pole and get going (portablenorth-
pole.com).
You can create a free short video — during which Santa
mentions the child by name — either on the website, or by
using the app, which is available on Google Play.
To see how it works, you can view one created for a
very mischievous cat named Ollie by Golly at bit.ly/
PNPsanta. A screenshot is shown.
It doesn’t cost anything, and the results are a chuckle.
Not to mention, the look on a child’s face when Santa is
speaking to them really is priceless.
n Christmas Eve, the North American Air Defense
Command knows exactly where Santa Claus is,
and you can track him on Tuesday night, too, on their
website, noradsanta.org. Of course, there’s also an app
for that.
Don’t have a computer or smartphone? Never fear,
you can call 877-HiNORAD for Santa’s up-to-date
location.
Santa is tracked by Rudolph’s bright red nose,
which gives off an infrared signature — similar to that
of a missile launch, apparently — allowing the defense
command satellites to detect the location of Santa’s
sleigh.
So how does Santa deliver all those presents in just
one night? Defense command thinks that since Santa
would only be able to stay only three ten-thousandths
of a second in each home to get the job done — and we
all know Santa takes his time getting down the chim-
ney, stuffing stockings and eating cookies — there’s
only “one logical conclusion”: Santa works in a differ-
ent time-space continuum. A dandy answer for inquir-
ing minds, don’t you think?
‘W
e have a house in Bay City that we love,”
Christine Nickerson wrote. “In the past cou-
ple of weeks I have brought friends and family to the
coast, and we spent time at local stores in Rockaway
Beach.”
On Dec. 8, she spent the day Christmas shopping,
carefully picking out items her family and friends loved
at each store they had visited. “It is just one of those spe-
cial years where I ‘nailed’ it on my Christmas gifts,” she
observed.
Packing up the truck to head home to Sherwood, she
put the gifts in a plastic bin that she secured with duct
tape in the back of the truck. But when they stopped in
Tillamook, she realized the tailgate was open … and the
bin was gone.
They drove back and forth to Bay City three times
searching for the bin, but to no avail. On the road again,
she posted on all of the local community Facebook
pages, asking if anyone had found the bin.
“A couple of hours later, we were having a very sad
dinner out,” Christine recalled, “and someone on Face-
book commented that she found my bin, and to contact
her.”
It turned out that Bob Woldt of Bay City found the
bin on the highway in Bay City and, worried it would
cause a wreck, he picked it up. Inside was a receipt from
the store Little White Church. Bob called the store,
and a woman there was able to track down Christine’s
name.
After that, a Facebook search revealed Christine’s
posts looking for the lost bin, and Bob and Christine
were able to connect.
Bob assured her that her presents were not only safe,
they were undamaged. Christine had the chance to meet
him and offer her heartfelt thanks last weekend, when
she retrieved her Christmas treasures.
“… People seem to be encouraged by Bob’s act of
kindness,” she added. “It’s one of those stories that
warms our hearts, especially at Christmastime.”
A PRETTY TRASHY TREE
T
his is such a good idea it bears repeating: The Coos
Bay World newspaper lauds artist and photographer
Steven Michael Smith, who has designed Christmas
trees for the North Bend Library for the last decade, for
coming up with a new concept this year, a “Beach Trash
Tree” — decorated with washed up items he picked up
while hiking along the beaches and dunes with his dogs
(tinyurl.com/trashtree). Photos of the tree are courtesy of
Gary Sharp at the library.
At first Steven thought he would mainly find flotsam
from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, but that wasn’t the case
at all. Most of what he picked up came from fishing and
crabbing gear.
“As an artist,” he noted, “I knew there was potential to
do something creative with such colorful trash and debris.”
Mission accomplished. (In One Ear, dec. 19, 2014)