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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2022
THE ASTORIAN
• TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2022
•
B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week – 2012
“When a soldier dies, we manage the pain. Did he
fi ght for freedom? Did he die in vain?
The answer is important, you can’t deny, to these
questions we ask when a soldier dies.
When a soldier dies, we think of a way
to remember forever the year and day
that he gave his life, and we think with a sigh,
we’ll never forget when a soldier dies.
So enjoy your freedom, your family and friends,
but stop to remember where it all comes from.
Freedom is triumph over evil and lies
and it’s paid for each time that a soldier dies.”
LeRoy Dunn, adjutant/quartermaster of the local
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10580, read the poem
“When a soldier dies” Monday to the nearly 75 people
gathered on the lawn and in the walkways of the Fort
Stevens National Cemetery in Warrenton.
The group was gathered to remember the fallen this
Memorial Day in the annual tradition of honoring sol-
diers, hosted by the local post.
He’s made it to the top of the world!
Local fi sherman Chris “Crunchy” Cameron
has made it to the summit of Mount Everest.
“The top of the world, made it!” he said Sun-
day in an email. “Just arrived in Kathmandu a
few hours ago via helicopter with three others
from Peak Freaks after reaching the summit of
Mount Everest two days ago.
“Harsh reminder of the mountain was put
in front of us as to how lucky we are for the
helicopter stopped at Lukla, dropping us
off , returning to camp to bring back tragedy
from the mountain. A body was lowered to the
ground before us as we waited for the Kath-
mandu ride.”
Four people died on Everest more than a
week ago.
SEASIDE – They’re back!
The ospreys have returned to Broadway Park, settled
into their new home and are about to hatch some eggs –
maybe as soon as next week.
When they do hatch, photographer Neal Maine and
Seaside Public Works Director Neal Wallace, who have
mothered the osprey relocation project for the past year,
will consider the project a success.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” said Maine, the
retired director of the North Coast Land Conservancy.
But they admit they already are thrilled that the birds,
which have nested in the same location since 2009 and
could continue to nest there for another 20 years, have
taken to the new 60-foot high pole placed near the
Neawanna Creek and the cedar-framed platform on top
of the post. That’s where the old nest – rescued from a
light pole on Broadway ball fi eld – was placed earlier
this year.
Admittedly, the ball fi eld location gave the ospreys
plenty to look at when games were played, but this new
waterfront real estate is more peaceful. It’s easier to dart
to the creek for fi sh and bring them home to the wife
and kids.
The new platform even has an outstretched arm for
m om and d ad to perch on when the kids get older and
rowdy in the nest.
“When the young are hatched, they pester their par-
ents constantly for food,” Wallace explained. The arm
gives them a place to be alone and still keep an eye on
the kids.
50 years ago – 1972
Memorial Day observances here and throughout the
nation Monday drew thousands to commemorate the
nation’s war dead. At ceremonies at Ocean View Cem-
etery in Warrenton, Mrs. Roy Snyder placed a wreath
at the base of the tomb of the unknown soldier fl anked
by a legion color guard. A member of the Sunsetters
Drum and Bugle Corps played taps to end the hour long
observance.
Emma Hunter, a teenage girl who lived in tiny Boals-
burg, Pennsylvania , gathered a handful of wild fl owers
and took them to her father’s grave.
It was May 30, 1894. Her father had been a Union
Army colonel, fatally wounded while commanding
Pennsylvania’s 49th Regiment at Gettysburg.
At the cemetery, the girl met a woman who was plac-
ing fl owers on the grave of her 19-year-old son, a pri-
vate who also died at Gettysburg.
The girls and the woman talked and found solace in
each others memories. As they parted, they agreed to
meet the next May 30 and decorate the graves of their
loved ones.
The following year, the girl and the woman were not
alone. Many townfolk joined them, including clergy-
man George Hall who delivered a short sermon. Instead
of two graves, every grave was decorated.
1972 – Several years ago, four lateral cracks appeared in
the Astoria Column. Though they were fi xed, they are still
visible from the outside, running through parts of the
mural.
2012 — Eagle Scout David Kelley of Warrenton plays ‘Taps’ during the Veterans of Foreign Wars memorial service at Fort
Stevens National Cemetery.
alone it will fl ake off . It’s typical for this type of climate
especially. So far, the surface has outlived its life.”
75 years ago — 1947
Flags were half-staff ed on downtown buildings today
in honor of the soldiers and sailors who have fallen in
America’s wars, as Astoria people began a quiet obser-
vance of Memorial Day under threatening skies.
A “runaway” car, owned by Joseph P.
Brady, Portland agent for the World Insurance
Co. , came to rest at a precarious balance over-
hanging the south driveway bulkhead of the
Hughes-Ransom M ortuary this morning after
“slipping its brake.”
Witnesses said that the driver apparently
fl ooded his carburetor while proceeding up
Franklin from 12th Street. “He backed into
a driveway on the south side of the Frank-
lin, set his brake and got out,” George Ste-
phens, a neighbor who was sitting on his porch,
observed. While Brady was standing on the
running board turning the wheel, the car broke
loose, coasting across Franklin. Brady jumped
free as the vehicle crossed the curbing and
headed for the top of the 10-foot high bulkhead
that overlooks the mortuary driveway.
2012 – Chris ‘Crunchy’ Cameron has made it to the top
of Mount Everest. The Astoria native traveled with the
group Peak Freaks, which keeps a live blog on its website,
peakfreaks.com
The simple act of two women blossomed into a
regional custom then into a national holiday, known fi rst
as Decoration Day and later as Memorial Day.
A 21-year-old singer from Aurora, North
Carolina , became the 11th Miss Tongue Point
Friday night at the Tongue Point Job Corps
Center theater . Two other corpswomen won
honors in new pageant categories.
Cydell Payne will wear the Tongue Point
crown for six months as she tells the center’s
story to civic groups throughout the area. She
succeeds Gloria Pate as the outstanding Tongue
Point representative.
The Point Adams Coast Guard may not long be
able to render prompt relief to fi shing vessels in dis-
tress on the bar because its moorage in the Fort Stevens
small-craft basin is shoaling. Coast Guard craft must be
moored elsewhere unless the basin is dredged.
Consequences of the shoaling are the more serious
because the Cape Disappointment station cannot reach
the bar at low tide except by going around the east end
of Sand Island.
During the prevailing east winds in winter, the Point
Adams station must tie up its boats in the Skipanon at
Warrenton unless the haven is dredged.
Already the haven is too shallow for the Triumph to
enter at low tide. The entrance is shoaling as well as the
moorage. Water is not as deep as it was formerly at the
boat house off the station where the 36-foot surf boats
are kept.
Threatened showers that failed to material-
ize Tuesday and Wednesday morning left Asto-
ria facing the driest May in its history unless
precipitation occurs before the month’s end
Saturday night.
Total rainfall for the month so far is only
0.71 inch, distributed in three mild showers,
and crops are threatened with damage as a
result. The Brownsmead pea crop, strawber-
ries and other berry crops are suff ering from
the drought.
Towering high above the city, the Astoria Column has
stood as a landmark overlooking the Columbia River of
some 46 years.
Except for several lateral cracks discovered several
years ago in the 125-foot structure, the monument has
withstood the erosive forces of the elements.
City offi cials, however, want to fi nd ways to protect
and preserve the mural that adorns its walls.
“Structurally, there is no problem with the C olumn,”
City Manager Dale Curry says. “But we do want to pro-
tect the mural. There are ways of preserving a mural
painted on concrete and we want to be sure we are doing
the right things.”
To that end, Dick Thompson, chairman of the c ity
Parks and R ecreation Committee, says concrete chips
from the C olumn’s mural have been sent to a professor
of chemistry in New York whose hobby involves study-
ing ways to preserve such forms of art exposed to sever
weather conditions.
“The mural part of the C olumn from the top to the
bottom needs restoration work,” Thompson says. “The
average surface life of concrete is 25 years and if left
Two years ago Betty McCrait Morrison, local art-
ist, began experimenting with a new method of lighting
mural paintings and got an idea.
The result is her perfected invention of a plexiglass
cold light projector that is now in commercial produc-
tion and is attracting wide attention in the plastics and
lighting industries.
Morrison conceived the scheme of applying the
property of plexiglass that enables cold light from a
light source to fl ow through an entire slab or panel of
plexiglass, somewhat as regular light fl ows through a
fl uorescent tube.
LEFT: 1947 – A Liberty Theatre movie poster. RIGHT: 1972 –
Memorial Day observances at Ocean View Cemetery.
2012 – Despite the relocation of their nest from a light
pole on Broadway Field in Seaside to a new platform 450
feet away near Neawanna Creek, the pair of ospreys have
taken to their new home.