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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
T
his year’s Astoria Air Show promoted itself as
“celebrating the 100th year of n aval aviation,
the 200th birthday of Astoria and Astoria being
a Coast Guard city.”
Since all that doesn’t fi t too well on a T-shirt, just call
it “Astoria loves airplanes.”
After all, air shows are recognized as one of the top
spectator sports in the world.
And on a cloudy, foggy and eventually rainy day
on the North Coast, some 1,000 or so showed up at the
Astoria Regional Airport to watch some aerobatics, an
F-15 fl y over and a U.S Coast Guard s earch and r escue
demonstration — not bad, considering a good portion
of the air show was scaled back because of the weather.
It was the year JFK became president of the
United States.
The year the Peace Corps was estab-
lished. Princess Diana was born. And “Ham”
the c himp became the fi rst chimpanzee to be
launched into outer space.
Judy Garland made her comeback, the Free-
dom Riders began making their rides and the
Berlin Wall was built.
All while the fi rst class to attend four years
in the new high school graduated in Astoria, the
“perfect place to grow up.”
It was 1961.
“We didn’t have a key to our front door.
When we left at 7 o’clock or 8 o’clock in the
morning, we never thought about coming
home until it got dark, we never worried about
a thing,” said Rick Williams, a 1961 Astoria
graduate who lives in Lake Oswego.
“We walked or rode our bikes everywhere,
and we went as far as Tapiola and the high
school all the way to Astor School, Alderbrook,
and never thought for a minute about our
safety because we thought everything was fi ne.
We had a great childhood and it was a great
place to grow up.
“I am proud to be an Astorian.”
Williams recalled the simpler times as he
gathered with other 1961 graduates for their
50th high school reunion.
What kind of country do we want to be?
That was the question David Findaque, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ore-
gon, posed to the North Coast Wednesday at the Blue
Scorcher Bakery & Cafe in Astoria.
Prior to his presentation, he stopped by the offi ce of
The Daily Astorian, where he spoke candidly on safety,
freedom and liberty 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, ter-
rorist attacks.
“I would answer that question as, I think we know
what kind of country we want to be, which is one that
follows the rule of law, that safeguards freedom, not just
for ourselves, but serves as an example for the rest of the
world.” Fidanque said.
“But right now, our country is acting hypocritically.
It’s not the fi rst time, it may not be the last, but most of
the world knows that.”
50 years ago — 1971
State support for Astoria’s sewage lagoon site fi rmed
Friday when the state Environmental Quality Com-
mission approved the lagoon at the old Hammond
mill near Tongue Point in east Astoria. In so doing it
accepted the Department of Environmental Quality’s
recommendation.
Hundreds of Astoria High School graduates, spouses, parents, teachers and more gathered at the Clatsop County
Fairgrounds in 2011 for the Astoria Bicentennial Super Homecoming.
But the U.S. Department of the Interior is still oppos-
ing Astoria’s site in favor of a location some 1,500
yards to the west.
City Manager Dale Curry said the City Council will
consider the new development at its meeting tonight
and determine what the city’s next step should be.
It almost doesn’t seem right.
It ruins the traditional image to be stopped
by a police car with a fl ashing blue light rather
than a fl ashing red light.
But that will be the case in Astoria from now
on. Police vehicles in Astoria will be equipped
with blue lights as well as red lights.
Acting Police Chief Charles Paetow
announced Thursday that blue lights would be
installed on four of the city’s patrol cars. The
blue light will be located on the left side of each
vehicle, he said.
75 years ago — 1946
Seven logging camps shutdown today in Clatsop and
northern Tillamook counties and 6,000 workers were
eff ected as the result of a strike called by the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America .
A union spokesman in Portland said that 55 compa-
nies are involved in the dispute which resulted from the
operators refusing to incorporating in contracts with the
union a War Labor B oard order of April 21, 1945, deal-
ing with working hours per week.
Logging operators in Clatsop County said that the
shutdown was complete with both loggers and truck
drivers staying off the job. Negotiations on the issue
have been conducted since March.
Loading of 2 million feet of lumber, a big
order in these times of dwindling forests, began
at Westport today as the seamen’s strike came
to an end.
Five gangs of local longshoremen went to
work on the freighter Robert M. T. Hunter,
which arrived in Westport Monday for the
large order of lumber.
An additional order of 600,000 feet of lum-
ber is being stowed on the freighter Palducah
Victory at Wauna. She was ready to sail when
the strike was called, but received orders to
pick up the additional lumber cargo.
WASHINGTON — Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser
said today that a profi t motive is necessary to win wars
but that if C ongress could devise a system whereby no
one would profi t during wartime he would go along.
About half of Astoria’s restaurant owners
locked their front doors today in an unoffi cial
“left handed” protest to the current OPA roll-
back of prices.
Rumors that the protest closings were insti-
tuted by representatives of the Oregon State
Association of Restaurant Owners or the
national association were discounted today
by Ransom D. Meinke, the secretary of the
organization.
The deer hunting season opens Saturday morning
with a larger than usual number of hunters expected
to take to the Clatsop County woodlands in search of
blacktail bucks, and many local hunters are leaving for
E astern Oregon to bag mule deer.
Hunting conditions in Clatsop County are not
expected to be good, due to the long spell of dry
weather, which causes buck deer to keep to the brush
and makes tracking more diffi cult than when the ground
is damp.
The dry weather also increases fi re hazards and hunt-
ers have been warned to be particularly alert.
Chinook salmon escapement at Bonneville
has been greatest since 1942, according to
fi sh count statistics released by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.
Apparently eager to get away from gillnet
fi shermen, salmon massed at the dam on Sept.
10 when the season opened. On that day fi shy
counters checked through 33,562 Chinook,
3,260 steelhead and 618 silverside, the daily
record for the year for all the species except
steelhead, and it was the month’s heaviest run
of steelhead.
The luxury yacht, Lady M II, was moored near the Columbia River Maritime Museum in 2011.
LEFT: Bridge moving day was a big event in Warrenton as dozens of people turned out to watch the opening of the Harbor Drive highway bridge and the Burlington Northern Railroad
bridge over the Skipanon River in 1971. RIGHT: A U.S. Coast Guard H-60 Jayhawk helicopter swoops in to perform a rescue demonstration at the Astoria Air Show in 2011.