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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2019)
COFFEE BREAK Saturday, March 2, 2019 East Oregonian C5 OUT OF THE VAULT Worm association profitable for junior high entrepreneurs By RENEE STRUTHERS East Oregonian An octet of Pendleton junior high school entrepreneurs in November 1967 made some serious bank with the ickiest of businesses: worms. In a room the size of a closet at Pend- leton’s John Murray Junior High School, eight students constituting the Round Up Worm Association kept busy with the main duties of their fledgling business on a blustery November day: acquiring, sorting, packaging and shipping night crawlers to a worm distributor in Cali- fornia. Larry Ables, Dennis Edgerly and Bruce Cable, along with five other stu- dents and adviser Bill Harris, thought up the business as a way to make money for school field trips. Each Wednesday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the boys bought worms from other students and the junior high teach- ers and staff for a half cent each. The worms were packaged in boxes of 500 worms each, cushioned by a mixture of damp peat moss, sawdust and leaf mold. On Nov. 2, 1967, the Worm Association shipped 2,500 worms to their buyer. It was busy work. Harris said that the boys learned bookkeeping and how to apply other school subjects to their work. Edgerly drew the association’s letter- head, and designed advertisements and posters for the organization. The group also placed an article in the school news- paper seeking worms, but warned, “Do not use electric prods to get the worms EO File Photo Showing off their stock in trade on Nov. 3, 1967, are, from left, Larry Ables, Dennis Edgerly and Bruce Cable, members of the Round Up Worm Association. and get night crawlers only. Please bring the worms in multiples of ten.” It could also be frustrating. One boy lost the bottom out of a box of worms he was carrying into the building, scatter- ing worms up and down the stairs. In addition to buying worms, the boys also foraged for their own. Bruce Cable’s neighbor let him hunt for night crawlers in her yard. All you needed, he said, was a flashlight and a bucket, espe- cially after a heavy rain. The worms crawl to the surface and are “thicker than blazes.” He collected 500 worms in one night. “You can get that many in one hour — if they’re out good. You spot them with a flashlight, then turn off the light and grab them with your hands. I was getting three at a time,” Cable said. Ron Hathaway, a veteran worm raiser, made a tidy sum several years prior by selling night crawlers to local fishermen. They didn’t get many girls willing to help them in their endeavors, however — something none of the boys could understand. DAYS GONE BY 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian March 2-3, 1919 “We had two big fires here last month and two hangers and some flying boats and seaplanes were burned,” says William Barnhart, who is in the naval air station Rockaway Beach, Long Island, in a letter to his father, James Barn- hart, at Pendleton. William Barnhart is a full blood Indian, born on the Umatilla reservation. He enlisted in the navy in December, 1917, and for some time has been in the aviation service. He has had experience in flying, and is probably the only pure-blood Indian who has served his country in this way, though he failed to get overseas. He has told of flying in previous letters. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian March 2-3, 1969 A young Hermiston farmer, John Walchli, 34, has been named Oregon’s outstanding young farmer of the year by the Oregon Jaycees. Walchli, who started farming in the Cold Springs Reservoir district as a high school student, has built the operation into an 840-acre irrigated farm, raising diversi- fied crops. He is a major Eastern Oregon potato grower. Prior to winning the state award the young farmer was named the outstanding young farmer of the Hermiston area by the Jay- cees. He will become a candidate in the national Jaycee spon- sored competition, as the result of winning the state title. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian March 2-3, 1994 A tiny quarter-watt radio station broadcasting commu- nity news, high school sports, Big Band and country music to the 700 residents of Condon is illegal, a Federal Com- munications Commission agent says. “The FCC takes an extremely dim view of people just going on the air without a license,” FCC agent Larry Stuker said Wednesday. Bill Rob- erts, a 69-year-old retiree, claims his radio station, run out of a spare bedroom in his home, is allowed under FCC regula- tions that allow unlicensed low-wattage or “micro” broad- casting operations. “There’s no such thing,” Stuker said. But Roberts countered that his station is hurting no one. “A quar- ter watt won’t even run a light bulb,” he said. Universal Crossword Edited by David Steinberg March 2, 2019 ACROSS 1 Floating in the air 6 Movie explosion FX 9 Word before “hole” or “twist” 13 Dog walker’s need 14 A4 automaker 16 Previously chopped 17 Maximum absorption 20 Special ___ (SEALs’ missions, e.g.) 21 Mordor creatures 22 Many a first-time reader 23 Coming back from a breakup 28 Dots of land 30 Odysseus’ rescuer (hidden in “Minotaur”) 31 “Cortex” prefix 32 Opposite of pos. 33 Gaga or Godiva 34 Dubai’s land, briefly 35 Technique to “slingshot” spacecraft 40 Say “Pretty please?,” say 41 Seth’s son 42 EGOT winner Brooks 43 Fannie ___ 44 “Immediately!” 45 Subject to emotional swings 47 Book stall? 51 Fair-hiring inits. 52 Hit with snowballs 53 Monk’s condition: Abbr. 56 Basketball feat hinted at by the ends of 17-, 23-, 35- and 47-Across 61 Hairless on top 62 Sightseeing trip 63 Alcohol strength 64 Influence 65 Windy road curve 66 Bumbling DOWN 1 Too 2 Jump 3 Breakfast grains 4 Tallahassee sch. 5 High chair? 6 Simple ball game 7 Semblance 8 Vow on the big day 9 Snapshot 10 Hawaiian garland 11 Totally dominate 12 Blaster’s palindrome 15 Is resolved (to) 18 Bachelor of ___ 19 Mardi Gras sandwiches, informally 23 Gymnast Korbut 24 Album-certifying org. 25 Sitting in the box 26 With precision 27 Female deer 28 Ready to roll “BALL FOUR” By John Guzzetta sudoku answers 29 Composer Rachmaninoff 33 Fleur-de-___ 36 Thin wood layer 37 Poker dealer’s question 38 Drags from behind 39 “Don’t worry about me!” 40 3 Series automaker 45 Loaf growth 46 Squids’ relatives 48 Huggable bear 49 89 or so, grade-wise 50 Stares at creepily 53 Double-reed instrument 54 Gallop sound 55 Agile 56 Most Super Bowl MVPs 57 Motor City org. 58 Pie-mode connector 59 “The Cask of Amontillado” author 60 Large tea container
