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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, SEpTEmbER 9, 2021
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
JUST BEACHY
TRACKING THE TRACKER
GOOD NEIGHBORS,
GOOD DEEDS
he TV was on for background noise the other day,
when something caught the Ear’s attention. It was a
lilting melody with a foot-thumping beat, and a catchy
tune, and the music sounded so familiar. Actually, it was
a Corona Extra “Find Your Beach” ad. Finally, the pro-
verbial inter-cranial light bulb went off, and in a flash
of recognition, the Ear thought, “That sounds just like
Israel Nebeker and Blind Pilot!” Could it be?
Yup, it could. And is. The lyric is a snippet from their
song “We Are the Tide” from their 2011 album of the
same name, and the ad is all over the place. According to
ispot.tv, there are two versions of the ad, and as of Sept.
5, it’s had 7,301 national airings (tinyurl.com/beachpi-
lot). The group is pictured in a photo from their Face-
book page.
Want to hear the whole song? You can hear a rousing
version at tinyurl.com/beachpilot1, filmed at the Lol-
lapalooza festival in 2012. Or, you can hear Blind Pilot’s
new album, “And Then Like Lions” on Spotify (you’ll
need to sign in) at tinyurl.com/pilot-spot
All the Ear knows is — even though the song is actu-
ally about riding on a city bus — when that commercial
comes on, and Blind Pilot starts playing, you’ll want to
kick off your shoes and go running on the beach. (In One
Ear, 9/9/2016)
T
obert Beckwith of Brownsmead
took his sailboat out on her maiden
voyage on Sunday, Aug. 25, but by that
evening he was in trouble. At 12:02 a.m.,
he posted on Facebook that he was hard
aground on a sandbar in the Columbia
River at almost a 45 degree angle. There
was nothing he could do but settle in and
wait for the tide to rise.
The next morning, Bob “Pudgy”
Hunt (former star basketball player and
Oregon Hall of Fame member) and his
wife, Connie (pictured), of Svensen,
spotted the stranded boat, and Pudgy
went out on his Jet Ski to check and
make sure whoever was aboard was OK
— but he didn’t see anyone, so he went
back home.
Connie played detective, and started
posting on Facebook, trying to track
down the owner of the boat. That worked;
someone saw Robert’s post mention-
ing he was high and dry, and passed
the information on to Connie, who con-
tacted him. That’s how she found out he
was actually still aboard the listing boat,
“huddled down below with his dog.”
“I asked him if he needed water and
supplies, and he said ‘yes,’” Connie
recalled, “so I loaded up water and some
pasta salad … Pudgy drove the Jet Ski
and I rode shotgun with supplies.” Need-
less to say, the stranded sailor was very
grateful to have such good neighbors
come to the rescue.
Someone on Facebook called the U.S.
Coast Guard, which sent out a helicopter
to check out the situation … but since the
wayward sailor was clearly OK, there
wasn’t much to be done except wait for
high tide so the boat could be freed.
Robert and his dog left the sailboat on
Tuesday, Connie reported, and the boat
was finally towed home on Friday by yet
another good neighbor.
“Great adventure!” Connie noted of
Jet Ski food delivery to the sailor in dis-
tress. “Love where I live!”
“Pudgy is now answering his phone,
‘Hunt Search and Rescue,’” she joked in
a recent Facebook update. “Happy to be
of assistance.” (In One Ear, 9/5/2019)
R
PAINTED LADY
n 2012, the Ear reported that the Alderbrook Station
net shed, got a brand-new roof. Built in 1903, and once
part of the Union Fishermen‘s Co-Operative Pack-
ing Co., it is owned by architects Lisa Chadbourne and
Daren Doss, and is pictured, courtesy of chadbourne-
doss.com
“(The roof) was quite leaky,” Daren told
the Ear at the time. Fortunately, Alderbrook Station
is on the National Register of Historic Places, and was
therefore eligible for an Oregon State Historic Preser-
vation Office Preserving Oregon Grant to help with the
expenses.
But the building’s revival hasn’t stopped with a new
roof. According to the Alderbrook Station Facebook
page, in May, 36 single-hung six-over-six single-pane
historic wood sashes were installed. But that’s not all —
recently, the west side of the building received its first
coat of spiffy red paint in 70 years.
The ongoing preservation efforts on this historic land-
mark are enough to make even the crankiest curmud-
geon crack a smile of appreciation. As one commenter
noted, “What a gift to us all!” Indeed, it is. (In One Ear,
9/11/2015)
I
NEWSY NOTES
hile hiking on the northwest coast of Vancouver
Island, British Columbia, in June, a man found a
peculiar-looking object on the beach, the Campbell River
Mirror reported. He tossed it into the back of his truck, and
took it home.
What the man didn’t know was that it was a tsunami
debris tracking device that was still emitting signals
every 90 seconds. Researchers monitoring the transpon-
der, which was one of 12 devices placed in the Pacific in
January 2012, were utterly baffled when it appeared to be
moving inland.
Then the signal stopped. The unit’s signal pinpointed
the last known location of the device within a 1,600-foot
radius, and the search began. Agencies were alerted, and
press releases went out, but it was Gord Kurbis, a news
reporter, who went out and conducted a door-to-door
neighborhood search.
He did, indeed, find the “citizen scientist” who had
picked up the transponder. It is pictured, courtesy of Gord
Kurbis/CTV News. The man had kept the device for a
couple of days before opening it (thereby cutting off the
signal), then went out of town for work, not realizing the
device was being frantically sought.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and the transponder
is headed home. (In One Ear, 9/11/2015)
W
DISCOVERING ENDEAVOUR
or maritime history buffs: Back to the subject of
British navigator/explorer Capt. James Cook (pic-
tured inset) … did you know a story on CNN.com says
that in May they found the wreckage of the actual HMS
Endeavour — often considered one of the most famous
ships in nautical history — in Newport Harbor, off the
coast of Rhode Island (tinyurl.com/cookboat)?
For those whose naval history is a little shaky,
Cook, while commander of the Endeavour (1768
to 1771), made the first landing on the east coast of
Australia. He circumnavigated New Zealand to boot,
and was also famous for his accurate maps of the Pacific
Ocean.
After all of her adventures with Cook, the
Endeavour was bought by a private owner, renamed the
Lord Sandwich, and wound up taking part in the Amer-
ican Revolutionary War, albeit in not the way one
would expect. The ship, along with 12 others, was scut-
tled by the British in shallow water in Newport Harbor
to create a blockade during the 1778 Battle of Rhode
Island.
Although the ships have been known to be there
for some time, it was only recently that the Rhode
Island Marine Archeology Project managed to posi-
tively identify the Endeavor/Sandwich. (In One Ear,
9/9/2016)
F
CUPOLA MAKEOVER
TOP OF THE WORLD
ocal and world news tidbits from The Daily Morning
Astorian, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1884:
• Stonewall Jackson’s war horse, a sorrel gelding, once
fiery but now with less oxygen in his windpipe, is cared
for at the Virginia Military Institute. … The other day a
lock of his mane was presented to the Tennessee Histor-
ical Society.
• In Japan, where cremation is regularly practiced, it is
said the most expensive form costs $7 (about $168 now).
• Sheriff’s Sale, Tuesday, Sept. 9: Under instructions
from W. G. Ross, sheriff of Clatsop County, I will sell at
public auction, at the Point Adams Packing Co.’s can-
nery, in Upper Astoria: … 300 feet of lumber; 8 cords of
wood; 3,000 labels … 16 oars … B. S. Worsley, auctioneer.
Note: On Sept. 26, the business sold for $11,000 (about
$267,000 now) to Geo. W. Hume, who with his broth-
ers, are said to have brought the cannery business to the
Columbia River (on the Washington side) about 20 years
earlier (tinyurl.com/HumeBros). Then in 1885, G.H.
George and W.H. Barker bought the Point Adams Pack-
ing Company and ran it as “George & Barker” (tinyurl.
com/GeoBar).
• The gallows during the present year has filled more
graves than in any previous year in the history of the U.S.
• The U.S. has 143,940 miles of telegraph completed,
while the whole world has 550,000 miles.
• Seventy-nine fires have been caused in New York
City during 12 years by rats and mice nibbling matches.
(In One Ear, 9/8/2017)
L
ucien Swerdloff and his Clatsop Community Col-
lege Historic Preservation students have once again
worked their magic at the Knappton Cove Heritage
Center.
“Joe Cain and Jon Simmons were instrumental in
restoring the cupola (used for ventilation) that sat atop
the old water tower tank that served the historic U.S.
quarantine station at Knappton Cove,” Nancy Ander-
son wrote. “Water was an important part in the function-
ing of the station — lots of laundry, as well as numerous
showers for the immigrants and crew members arriving
at the Port of Astoria from 1899 to 1938.” Especially for
showers, no doubt, after long voyages in crowded sail-
ing ships.
The cupola now has a place of honor in the center’s
Artifact Alley. (In One Ear, 9/7/2018)
L
he Navy Times reports that the U.S. Coast Guard cut-
ter Healy, with its Seattle-based crew and scientists
aboard, arrived at latitude 90 degrees north on Saturday,
making it the first U.S. surface ship to arrive at the North
Pole unaccompanied (tinyurl.com/healypole). The ves-
sel and its crew are pictured, courtesy of the U.S. Coast
Guard.
The Healy — which is 420 feet long, weighs 16,000
tons, has 30,000 horsepower, and can break more than 10
feet of ice at a time — is an oceanic research vessel on an
expedition to measure “air, ice, snow, seawater, meltwater
and ocean bottom sediment baselines” for the pole area.
Why? The Coast Guard plans to increase its presence there
as more passages open up for fishing, shipping and oil
exploration in the Arctic Ocean. (In One Ear, 9/11/2015)
T