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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2018)
History Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, February 28, 2018 A9 O UT OF THE P AST 75 years ago Feb. 26, 1943 Ferris Mining machinery and building sold The Ferris Mining Compa- ny, which has been operating in this neighborhood for about 10 years, has now finished its work. All the dredge machin- ery has been dismantled and stored on the Dick Danby ranch which is now owned by the Wayside Market. Then the machinery was sold to some Portland concern and the buildings and shops were sold to P. A. Retrum. Ferris was killed in an auto accident on his way to San Francisco. Since then the business has been managed by Steve King. They have turned upside down millions of tons of Grant County soil, but there is no record of how much gold has been trans- ferred to underground vaults in Kentucky. 50 years ago Feb. 29, 1968 Prairie City F-100 pilot completes Viet Nam duty Air Force Captain Ronald Drinkwater, of Prairie City, Eagle file photo From Feb. 29, 1968: AWARD WINNING CUBS — This group of Cub Scouts of Pack 895 were presented awards at the annual Blue and Gold Banquet held Feb. 22 at the Alec Gay hall. Over 100 people attended the annual potluck affair. recently completed his 426th and final combat mission over Viet Nam. He’s the son of Mr. and Mrs. Billy Drinkwater. During his combat tour, Captain Drinkwater served as an F-100 Super Sabre pilot with the 308th Tactical Fight- er Squadron, Tuy Hoa AB, Viet Nam. The captain’s outstand- ing skill as a pilot was laud- ed many times by Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Skidmore, commander of the 308th and by Colonel William Evans, commander of the 31st Tacti- O utlook cal Fighter Wing. His efforts to assist ground forces at Dak To in November of 1967 brought him special recognition. Captain Drinkwater re- called his most memorable mission, an air strike in aid of Republic of Viet Nam troops and advisors manning the Bu Dop special forces camp. “We could see by the light of the flares being dropped that the enemy was about to storm the perimeter of the compound. We dropped 500-pound bombs on the muzzle flashes and did some strafing. The forward air controller told us our efforts had broken the attack, so we headed home,” the F-100 pi- lot concluded. Captain Drinkwater is scheduled for reassignment at Ramstein AB, Germany. A 1960 graduate of Prairie City high school, the captain received his B.S. degree and commission in 1964 upon graduation from the Air Force Academy. He attended combat crew training at Luke AFB, Arizo- na, and was then assigned at Tuy Hoa. 25 years ago Feb. 25, 1993 Prairie City inches closer to new health clinic The Prairie City City Council made another step toward the establishment of a rural health clinic in Prairie City by going on record as approving the pursuit of es- tablishing the clinic in the old museum building. The Prairie City Lions Club uses this building, but it would still have enough space if a clinic is put in, said Blue Mountain Hospital Adminis- trator Ron O’Halloran at the Feb. 9 council meeting. Sev- eral other locations had been investigated. The proposed clinic would provide primary care and would be staffed by nurse practitioners or physician as- sistants. The clinic location would also house an ambu- lance. Also at the meeting, Terry Edvelson from Eastern Or- egon State College and Pat Middleburg from the Univer- sity of Oregon were on hand to discuss a strategic plan for improving health care that they were asked to do by the hospital district. Developing the strategic plan is a free service to the hospital district, but to devel- op a plan Edvelson needs to know what the community’s priorities, needs, criticisms and suggestions are. SENI R I’m writing this column on the 286th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. And this will be the 242nd Rose Coombs anniversary of the birth of the USA. Wonder what he would think of what our country has become… Then there is the Olympics. Whew. I get so out of breath watching the skate and ski racing. Then they show how high the ski jump start place is. Yikes. My hands get all sweaty just looking at that. Finally caught the KGW gal commenting on the snow dispersal. There isn’t any on the mountains, but there is on the ski and snowboard areas. She decided that they must be making it someplace and hauling it in. At least they can, huh? And can anyone explain ‘curling’? The commentators get all excited, but they may as well be speaking Vulcan or Romulan. Here is a conundrum from Facebook: take 77 beers, subtract your age, add $40 and the answer is the year of your birth. Wonder who figured that out? On to things closer to home: Drew Harmer (who drove all the way from Boise to join us for lunch) led the flag salute; Carla Wright asked the blessing; Larry, Carlos, Ken and Scott took care of the deliveries; and Louise LaBaugh won the gift certificate donated by Prairie City Seniors Today, I have a new respect for those who deliver meals. Gene and I went out with about 60 meals for delivery on Monday, February 19. It took us two full hours Nicky Essex and we went all over John Day and Canyon City. Gene drove and I delivered. I was beat. Sherry Feiger and Veanne have both done it alone. I need to know how long it took you. That must be at least a 2.5 to 3 hour job…just getting in and out of the car and trying to negotiate the directions was enough. Next time one of you is alone, call me. If I can, I will help you. Altogether including the Step Forward crew, we delivered 33 regular and 36 frozen meals. Greeting were Olivia Cornell and Everett King. Since it was a holiday, President’s Day, the diners all pitched in and helped with table set up and service and clearing. Just like family, we helped each other. Abe Lincoln led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then, as Tom Roark, gave us a recitation of a portion of the Gettysburg Address. It was very inspiring. We drew Karen Barrietua’s name for the Len’s Drug certificate and Tom won the free meal. Ron Dowse gave thanks for our meal. Our meal of Thai chicken with rice noodles and peanut sauce, zucchini, and cantaloupe with chocolate mint ice cream for dessert was wonderful. We served 28 guests. John Day Seniors We had a great meal made by our wonderful chefs, Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell. They made us BBQ beef sandwiches, french fries, macaroni salad, and blueberry tart for our dessert. We are Soo Yukawa very grateful for them and their efforts. Our greeters were Bodean Andersen, Jimmy Cole, and Linda Blakeslee. Bodean led us in the flag salute, made the announcements, and prayed the blessing over our meal. Jimmy and Linda collected and counted the money. Sharon Falls was the lucky winner of the Len’s Drug gift card. Judy Bustardo and yours truly won the free meal tickets. We had the granddaughter of both Jan Ensign and Lonnie Lawrence, Mackenzie Lawrence and her daughter, join us for lunch. Jimmy gave a business report on the senior center. The board has all the information available and it is located on the board in the foyer or lobby of the senior center for anyone to read. Tai Chi is coming to Monument! This will be taught by Nora Healey of John Day. It is great exercise for stretching and relieving of muscles and stress. It will be held either before or right after our Tuesday lunch. Lastly, Lisa Neuburger has lost her cell phone between somewhere in the Monument/Kimberly area. If you happen to find it, please return to her or the senior center. It would be greatly appreciated. Monument Seniors Chuck’s Little Diner. The menu for our meals is now being included on KJDY’s 7:30 a.m. school lunch announcement. And Ken climbs the ladder and inserts the letters for the next meal on our big board beside the kitchen door. So plan ahead… Today was divine meatball sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit cocktail, and a cherry misu with vanilla ice cream. Don’t ask me to describe the misu; just take my word that it was good. Lorna and Krystin brought Marilyn Randall and Gordan Sindt from the Blue Mountain Care Center. Were informed by Drew that Jack and Betty Retherford have been ill, too. Anyway, we had 43 names on the books on this cold winter day. The center has a large antique desk for sale. Needs to be refinished. Could be oak. $75 and it’s yours. Fling me a ring or come to lunch and see it. Guess what? We made another trip to Bend. Sure wish I could just say, “Beam me over there, Scotty.” This appointment was an hour later so we didn’t have to leave so early. Got Derrol’s new Baha (bone-assisted hearing appliance). It comes with a mic that I can wear so he can hear me better. Hmmm. We’re still working on that. On March 7, at 9:30 a.m. there will begin a “Cabin Fever” time of card and/or board games. Finally got several more people to admit that they used to play pinochle, so we’re gonna have at it. Hallelujah. Job 38:22, 30 “Have you entered the storehouse of the snow… when the waters became hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?” We were surprised by Kade Blood, Cody Combs, Savanna Randleas and Kobe Cantrell, who came for lunch from Grant Union. We were also joined by Yvonne Moon from Umpqua Bank. Welcome, all! Thursday, Feb. 22, Olivia Cornell and Jeanette Julsrud were our greeters. David Turner, Jimmy Maple, and Walt and Agnes Hall were our servers, from St. Elizabeth Catholic Church. David and Jimmy did meal deliveries in John Day and Canyon City, while David Gill and Rodney Brunson from Step Forward took the Mt. Vernon route. Thank you all, deliverers. Altogether, 38 people had fresh, hot meals. Walt led us in the Pledge of Allegiance as only he can. Randy Persinger won the Chester’s Thriftway card and Maria Strawn won the Valley View meal. Jimmy Maple gave devotion from Psalms and said grace for our meal. This week we were joined by Valley View residents and friends Leone Meador, Norma Rynearson, Dawn Hindman, Lois Bidasolo, Chuck Corwin, and Randa Persinger, and their fearless leader, Kim Ausland. We had eight tables full. We want to thank John Short for many blessings from his pantry as well as the gifts of food, which will extend our supplies to do much more. We missed thanking Linda Stoltz, the sponsor of last Thursday’s entrée, pepper steak, in memory of Fred. This week, we enjoyed lasagna, fresh tossed salad, veggies, bread sticks and berry cobbler! Coming up Thursday, chicken fried steak. Monday is shrimp fettuccine. Philippians 1:3 NIV “I thank my God for every remembrance of you.” Well, I think winter has definitely arrived here to Monument or all of Grant County for that matter. There’s at least a foot of snow on the ground and it’s cold enough that my chickens refuse to come out of their coop. We did hit negative temps one of the nights, it got down to minus four. On cold mornings like that, one has to drag themselves out of a nice warm, cozy, house to do their chores. We’ve been dodging that nasty flu/cold that’s been going around for the most part. We refuse to succumb to it and have been taking lots of precautions for preventative measures. I hope we can get through the season unscathed. Steve, my old billy goat, was constantly rubbing up against a heifer that had been penned with him. I did not want her to become stinky so I released him to the acreage with Felix. So what happens? They got in a fight and I guess Steve lost. His already broken horn now got broken again at the base. He was a bloody mess. Poor Steve, so I brought him back into the pen. He is pretty pitiful looking. I might have to get rid of Felix soon. The baby goats are growing up. My kids have tamed them down pretty well. Bonnie knows her name and comes running when called. They all like to jump onto our laps and play around us. They really are cute little things. Two of the male kids have been sold and will leave in a couple of weeks. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I will miss them. Proverbs 14:18 “The simple inherit folly: But the prudent are crowned with knowledge.” 36642