4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ MAY 23, 2015
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
NEIGHBORS
Westlake crab feed
B OB J ACKSON
N EIGHBORHOOD C ORRESPONDENT
For the Siuslaw News
I
have heard it said that when
names appear in print of people
long departed from this earth,
they live again, if only in memory.
And so it is with all the honest, hard
working souls that made the Westlake
crab feed possible.
George Miltonberger, a local con-
tractor, had designed the building for
the Western Lane Sportsman’s Club
that had been sponsoring shotgun trap
shoots in the dunes behind Fred
Cheek’s house in Westlake for years
(pieces of black “clay pigeons” still
can be found in the area). George
supervised the construction, including
the framing, the roof trusses, the
plumbing, electrical, etc. The labor
was all done by volunteers.
A little history: the Westlake ele-
mentary school house where I went
through all eight grades, once stood
here, with an outside pit toilet and
even a slide and a swing set.
Eventually the school building caught
fire and burned to the ground.
A big crab feed was dreamed up as
a way to make some money to pay for
the construction of the building —
lumber, concrete, etc.
Unfortunately, I doubt that anyone
involved in these ventures still exists
to help in coming up with accurate
dates and figures. However, fortunate-
ly for myself it is also doubtful there
will be any challenges to what I can
remember.
Many hours with no success have
been spent trying to find a copy of the
flyers I made up advertising the crab
feeds. It may have been $1.50 or per-
haps even $2.50 for the all-you-can-
eat crab feed, which included
coleslaw, potato salad, garlic bread,
coffee, etc.
The Westlake men manned a crab
cooker, which was set up just outside
the kitchen door, also a crab cleaning
station where the crabs were backed
and cleaned, then delivered to the
women inside the kitchen who were
busy making coffee, potato salad,
slaw and garlic bread, plus acting as
waitresses at the long tables that were
always full of hungry customers.
It became a yearly event, popular
beyond belief. Doctors and lawyers,
merchants and chiefs came in droves.
A dentist and a druggist might be
seated alongside a choker setter just in
from the woods, or a deckhand from
an offshore fishing boat, or on rare
occasion a tourist who may have in a
rare case of serendipity just luckily
stumbled onto the event. The crab
feed was a great leveler of persons —
an evangelical hellfire and brimstone
pastor might be seen rubbing elbows
and chatting with a lifelong incorrigi-
ble and openly iconoclastic town
drunk.
The men outside the building were
tireless, working far into the night.
There were Harvey Hanson, Elmer
Peterson, Glenn Puderbaugh, Bill
Risenhuber, Art Roos and Bud
Entgelmeir, to name just a few.
Sometimes, men who had just eaten
their dinner would pitch in at the back
of the building and relieve the work-
ers for a spell. Inside, there were
always Zelpha Peterson, Gladys
Entgelmeir, Maxine Risenhuber, Rita
Hansen, Peggy Jackson and many
others whom I cannot recall, includ-
ing some teenage gals.
We were aided in many ways. One
year when we were running low on
our supply of crabs, a miracle hap-
pened. Dave Holman, publisher of the
Siuslaw News at the time, heard of
our problem and offered to fly his lit-
tle Piper tri-pacer down to someplace
like Bandon or Gold Beach and bring
back a plane load of live crabs — thus
saving the day, and all just from the
goodness of his heart.
One year I became the club presi-
dent, and I remember with a deep
sense of chagrin how in an overly
zealous act I had advertised our feed
on a radio program. I was probably
proud of this brainstorm, but as it
turned out, it was to become a disas-
ter.
One of the club’s most respected
founding members was concerned
that I had purchased way too many
crabs and began selling jumbo crabs
in the parking lot for 50 cents apiece.
They were disappearing like grease on
a hot skillet. The ladies in the kitchen
informed me later that evening that
we were about to run out of crab, and
I should go out to the street and tell
this to the people as they turned in.
It was a nightmarish scene that I
will always remember. From where I
stood in the middle of the street, I
could see the headlights of the
bumper to bumper cars turning in off
101, and they were all headed for me.
Would they never stop? And they
were mad.
I made no attempt at adopting a
suave, unctuous cover up. I had
goofed up and had to grovel shame-
lessly, over and over again to these
people who informed me that they
had driven all the way from Corvallis,
or Salem or Newport, and we were
out of crab? It wasn’t one of my best
days — ever.
Eventually Dunes City was formed
to thwart the national park services
interest in the area. The new city
needed a hall, the Sportsman’s Club
was unable to keep up with taxes and
upkeep on the building, so it was
decided to let our beloved community
building become the new city hall.
I may be wrong, but I believe it had
been a gift from the people of
Westlake with the understanding that
the club could continue to use the hall
for occasional functions. However,
because the years were taking their
toll on Westlake’s aging population,
there was never to be another crab
feed.
Peggy, my wife, tells me in retro-
spect, that despite being a lot of work,
it had also been a lot of fun.
LETTERS
for allowing us to use the gym, Vonnie
McClellan and Jessica Rowbotham for helping
coordinate the use and the wonderful team from
the facilities department that let us in.
We live in a great community with a caring
school district.
Michael G. Rose
Club Director
Siuslaw Volleyball Club
Voters punished
Was anyone else surprised by Lane County
Commissioner Jay Bozievich’s interview on TV
after the defeat of his road use fee by the voters?
Instead of saying that he regretted not being
able to increase the funding for the roads, he
announced that they were going to punish the
voters by taking away over a million dollars
from the road funds.
Who does he think he represents? It certainly
does not appear to be the voters and road users
in Lane County.
Maybe we should look into resurrecting the
“State of Jefferson” movement.
Robert Miller
Florence
Saving Palmyra
So ISIS now has control of the historic
ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. Where is the
moderate Syrian opposition when we need it?
To paraphrase what FDR once said about the
dictator Somoza in Nicaragua, Assad may be a
sociopathic mass murderer, but he’s our socio-
pathic mass murderer.
We should have danced with the one who
brung us.
Rob Spooner
Florence
School district that cares
The Siuslaw Volleyball Club would like to
thank the Siuslaw School District and the
Siuslaw Middle School for once again opening
up their gym for our girls to practice volleyball.
This is the 12th consecutive year that they
have let us use the gym so the teams can prac-
tice for the season.
This year the club had two teams with over
25 girls, ages 9 to 14, playing. These young
ladies practice two to three times per week from
mid-November through April.
Through the generosity of Siuslaw School
District, the club uses the middle school to prac-
tice. They played in one to two tournaments per
month competing against teams from all over
Oregon and Southern Washington. These tour-
naments are usually one-day tournaments that
start at 8 a.m. and continue into the early
evening. Each team plays an average of five
matches per day.
These young athletes, the volunteer coaches
and families have come to embrace these times,
have fun and have had great success. This year
the teams finished in the top half of the leagues,
each taking second place in their bracket at the
yearend regional tournament.
All this would not have been possible if it
was not for the school district and the middle
school letting us use the gym. We would espe-
cially like to thank Principal Andy Grzeskowiak
USPS# 497-660
L ETTERS TO THE
E DITOR P OLICY
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Write to:
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Copyright 2015 © Siuslaw News
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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
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FAX: 503-986-1080
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State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
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U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us