Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 1967)
2 HEPPNER GAZETTE-TIMES. Thursday. August 10. 1967 THE WV Xv GAZETTE-TIMES Heppner. Orqon 97836 Fhon 676-9228 MORROW COUNTY'S NEWSPAPER The Heppnor Gazette established March 30. 1SS3. The Hoppnor Times established November IS. 1S97. Consolidated February 15, 1912. NEWSPAMt USHItf SOCIATION WESLEY A. SHERMAN HELEN E. SHERMAN MARION ABRAMS Society Circulation JIM SHERMAN Pressman RANDY STILLMAN Apprentice Subscription Rates: $450 Year. Single Copy 10 Cents. Published Every Thursday and Entered at the Post Office at Heppner, Oregon, as Second Class Matter. Office Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. until noon Saturday. Why a Weekly Press? Surrounded by hefty daily newspapers, on-the-spot tele vision newscasts, frequent radio news broadcasts, all cover ing important events foreign and domestic what does the suburban reader get out of his local weekly? What he gets, if his weekly is a good one, is a detailed knowledge of the community in which he lives. In which his children are raised, in which his private life Is passed. Daily newspapers, television, radio all are called the "mass media." And rightly so. They deal, as they should, with mass events, mass movements when an Individual enters, he is, almost always, an individual whose actions have had an effect on a large number of people for good or for bad. The mass media are, and pride themselves on being, the voice of The People. But I am not a people. You are not a people. We are persons, you and L and we need to know what Is happening that affects us as persons, and what the persons we live among are doing that will touch our daily, private lives. We want to know, also, how larger events touch us. We may read in the dailies, for example, that the State education department has decided that all schools must offer certain courses in this or that field. This means little until we find, on reading our local weekly, that the high school our child will attend next year has shifted its curriculum to of fer the mandated course. The local paper, also, can act as a lever to raise stand ards in local government, to improve local facilities, to ac quaint the individual voter with actions of his particular rep resentative in government and to acquaint the representative with the principal subjects of concern to the local commu nity. The local weekly can help preserve the importance of each man in his own right It is a cynical old saying that everyone is created equal, only some are more equal than oth ers. The engagement of your daughter is as important to you and to God as the engagement of the president's daugh ter and, though the metrolopitan daily may find little or no room for this supreme event, the local weekly can and will tell your world of her happiness. There are other functions for the slim, sometimes un polished little sheet to perform it can trumpet the merits of your own home town, tell you where you can buy that dress without going miles away, warn against community blight and tell you that Aunt Millie is back from Florida and your fourth grade teacher is in the hospital maybe you should send her a card? All these things the dailies, television or radio cannot do. Their news must interest everybody, must affect The People. They deal with the great of this world. For news about you and me, read us. Baldwin (N. Y.) Citizen Chaff and Chatter Wes Sherman A LIGHT plane landed at the Lexington airport one day last week, and the pilot reported to Mel Boyer, airport operator, that .he had spotted a fire in prog ress in an area southeast of the field. Boyer, who did a great job of stopping a field fire near Lex ington recently by drenching it from the air with his spray plane, was ready for this one. He had his plane loaded with 150 gallons of water and ready to go. He took off for the fire scene and had no trouble locating it. He could see a man apparently trying to stop the fire with a spray hose. Boyer swooped low, cut loose the 150 gallons and was right on target. Both fire and the man took a drenching. The pilot banked around and came back to assess his effect iveness. Then he could see that the man held a weed burner and not a hose. Nobody was in the air with Boyer to see wheth er his face was red or not. Bernard Doherty later called Boyer and thanked him for his help, but politely asked that he be allowed to burn his weeds henceforth without having them wet down. At least that's the way it was reported to us. But let this not discourage Pilot Mel. He surely can be a great help on a fire as he proved at the field fire at Lexington. ANOTHER REPORT we heard the other day, but can't con firm for sure, was that the Dick Carpenters were competing for a new record on flat tires, gun ning for the 4 flats recorded in one day held by Mr. and Mrs. Bob Abrams. The Carpenters took off last week headed for Round Butte in order to get a few days "away from it all." Carpenter had some tough little mid summer school problems that were bugging him and wanted to be free from pressure for a few days. The report is that he had three flats on the trip, and the days were hot, too. That, of HEPPNER NATIONAL NEWSPAPER t v fcliJllLII l.'.l I '1 111 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHES ARNOLD RAYMOND Shop Foreman Printer REGGIE PASCAL Linotype Operator course, is short of the Abrams record. Nice try, anyway, Dick. One nice thing about it is that it is pretty hard to worry about school problems when you're jacking up the rear of a car with one of those ungainly bumper jacks the manufactur ers harass you with. THOSE ZEALOTS who encour age people to go on vacations so that they can come back all refreshed, rejuvenated, and rar in' to go hadn't better take a look at Bill Hust. Poor Bill is one of those un fortunates like us who is a sucker for the sun. Just a short while under the bright summer rays, and he turns the color of a lobster. When he went fishing on the Rogue last week, he tried to protect his face with a cap, but the sun got to him, and he re turned home badly blistered and swollen around the lips, cheeks and chin. For a couple of days, he could hardly talk Decause of. trie swelling. Fortunately, Bill found plenty of office work to do at Penney's when he got back this week. He didn t want to be on the floor, since exposure to sympathetic remarks of customers and to the ribbing of his fellow mer chants might be worse than the sunburn. We're surely not going to jibe him lor we ve been that sun burn route. Best thing we can do is stay inside and hide un der the rug when the sun is barreling down. MANY IN THIS area were tick led to see Gene Heliker and Bob Baker on the KGW-TV Tel escope program Friday morn ing, appearing as members of tne combo, "The Morning Reign." The group, with six in tne combo, played several num bers on the program. The Wil lamette U. boys, playing out of Salem, are gaining fame with their group. GENE WINTERS saw the pic ture of the Giants in connec tion with this column last week Peterson Recalls Great 1903 Flood From Valby Area (Editor's Note: When C. K. ( Richard Potorson of Corval lis returned to Heppner for the Memorial Dav Reunion Picnic, ho said that he would like to toll his story of the UXVJ Hoppnor flood. The following is his account. Potorson, now SO years of nee. came to the Valby district in 1SSS and was J there when the storm came that "washed Hoppnor away. Potorson is a cousin of Os car Potorson, former county judge). Dear friends, relatives, school mates and friends, so many I cannot enumerate them: My father, mother and I came from Sweden to Arlington in June of 1SS8 and got off the train there. There was someone there who could speak both English and Swedish, so we got a ride on a freight wagon to Lexington with all our worldly possessions a home-m a d e trunk, crammed full, a Swedish spinnlne wheel, a so. u are box coffee grinder and the clothes we had to protect us from the cold and heat. Dad had $5.00. Uncle John E. Peterson. Dad's oldest brother and the father of former County Judge Oscar Pe terson, met us at Lexington with a freight wagon and took us to his homestead cabin two miles northwest of Valbv church. Enough of this, I was to con centrate on some of my mem ories of the Heppner flood of June the 14th. 1903. Dad and mother had taken a team of horses, hitched to a wagon, and loaded my other brothers and sister Esther aboard for a visit to Charles Anderson at the head of Eight- mile Canyon for the day. Since it was Sunday, no one was working in the fields. Charles Anderson was the. father of Frank. Charles, Howard, Victor, Alfred and Ben. Mv brother, Ture, and I were at home, watering and taking care of 10 or 15 head of cows and calves including our milk cows. It had been sunshine and warm. At about 1 o'clock or 1:30 some dark stormy clouds began to show up in the southwest. So I said to Ture, "It looks like it is going to storm." We began to get the cattle rounded up and get home where we could be protected. The clouds were getting darker and heavier very fast. We got to the house and got the cattle gathered around the buildings and barn; by that time, we had big hail stones as big as marbles and rain in showers. We got the pony into the barn but the rain was pour ing down so hard we just made it to the house. These are the buildings one-half mile north of Valby church. Of course, we did not have as many buildings there then as there are now. Ture and I got into the house and we were in the dry. We watched the water come down in sheets and the ground was covered with water in a very few minutes. It looked as if it was about three to four inches deep all over the ground. It just came so hard that everything was floating. The calves were huddled under their mothers. If they had been out by them selves, it would have been a guess whether they would have made it. The folks made it home be fore dark and everything was okay. The next morning Dad and I wanted to see how every thing was in Eight Mile can yon. There were no fences across the channel of the creek that carried away the surplus water. We had gone about one-half or three-fourths of a mile when Mr. Courter, our neighbor, came over the hill, and we waited to see what news he had about the storm. Mr. Courter was the father of William (or Bill), Bert and Effie. It was not hard to strike up something to talk about; Mr. Courter had a phone in his home a barbed wire line with some seven or eight phones out west of Heppner to the ranch ers. He said, "Have you heard of Heppner being washed out and hundreds of people just washed away and the buildings demol impression of such a disaster. and recognized right away the blond gridder who was uniden tified in the photo. Gene says that he is Bill Austin, e.x-OSU, who was there at the same time he was a "few" years back. Austin was among the possi bilities we considered in tick ling the memory cells of the cranium, but we didn't know for sure. Thanks for your con firmation, Gene. King of Beasts DANCE Live Music EVERY Friday & Saturday At The WAGON WHEEL CAFE Heppner 676-8997 4-H Club Hears Talk Sixth mooting of the South Springs Riding Club wis called to order bv Gwon Drake on July 2i at lor homo. Roll call was answered bv naming tho parts of a saddle, f.vvoti gave an Interesting ropoit on Arabian horses. Sherry Kemp, ivportor Mr. and Mr. Don Hough traveled to Cascade Park, In-low Foster Dam, last Sunday where they attended the Canoy family reunion. that anyone has ever hoard of." And of course we had not bo cause we had no phone and no one could otherwise get tho true impression of such a holocaust. Mr. Courter said, "They are cull ing for help from everywhere; help of any kind is needed." Dad and I got one team of horses and a wagon and went to see what could be done to help. There was hail as big as hen's eggs. Ice, debris of every des cription, hogs, sheep, chickens and human bodies piled up. On ly teams of horses were strong enough to pull and break things up to find more bodies. There was a continuous pro cession of corpses and mutilat ed bodies up the stairs of the Roberts Building and some of the missing were never found. They had got some of the old wood stoves lined up on the higher ground and some cook ing was being done there. They had to carry water in pails and wash tubs. Working night and day used up lots of energy. The water in lone spread ty phoid germs and some families had several taken away by ty phoid fever. It was a long time before the water was safe for human consumption. Years passed before Heppner got back into the business of progress. Farming was mostly stock until that time. Sheep, cattle and horses accounted for most of the area's income, but the grass was being eaten close to the ground in overstocking. So all the tillable land was plowed and cultivated to pro duce our grain crops which are now the main source of income. Richard Peterson QUEEN - r J J : : b '.y'&g " " '" !' l ' , A FA 'lonccr Pondcrings Bv W. S. CAVERHILL Fact or Fantaayf The render muv Judge. This Is It, heard whlserod over the cof fee cups at a recent meeting of our club. The Information was frag mentarv. and given reluctantly. Put together, It seems, that the management officials of an en terprise near here decided to get a mechanical man to do odd Jobs and the Janitor work. They wanted to avoid the usual "oof fee breaks." Having decided the matter, thev purchased a sec ond hand robot on the Install nient plan, put him on the pay roll as "Bot" and set htm to work. For a time everything was fine. Push a button here and "Bot" would get down on his knees and scrub the floors. Push another button there, and he would climb a ladder and wash the windows. He would dust the furniture without any prodding. Not being satisfied with that, they pushed old "Bot" too far and he began to rebel. What they had failed to do when they took him on was to give him an Intelligence test. What they didn't know was that their mechanical man had an elec tronic brain with an KJ equal to the best college athlete, and a temperament as unpredict able as a glamor girl. Perhaps he was tired of being pushed around, or began to feel the Inferiority of his position. Whatever It was. one morning when the head clerk pushed a button. "Old Bot'' didn't kneel, climb a ladder, nor use the duster. He went berserk threw everyone out of the building, broke up the furniture, ate the Honoring VERINA FRENCH MORROW HEPPNER TO THE EDITOR Another Charge Aug. W'7 Dear Wes: . We ivil.ilnlv onood your ch-irge to the Bunk American!. However, predating tills Imn .lv device, how about the Charge of (he Light Brigade. i:eivone In this wnall shop Is a fan of vour fine column and newspaper. What n aplcnd lil Job you folks are doing for Heppner. Kindest regards, Charlie Heard. Edltol Pilot ItiM-k New Likes Letters To the Editor: Enclosed please find rny check for another year for the paper. I have enjoyed the pa per very much, CNnftally the letters from Mr. Yeager ami Art Crawford. We are all old timers of Hepp ner. Thanks for an Interetlng pa per. Yours truly Mm. Frank Barclay ZHit) N. E. Union Ave. Portland 97213 firogrnm of work for the day, ncked the door and took for the hills. They sav the police won't look for him. Some think that "Bot" is hiding somewhere along the Road South. If he Is, beware llle'.H a smart eollivtion of , brains and bolls, and he' mad and mean, j That's the story. From Portland Including Flatt's Truck Service PHONE 989-8420 For Font and Dependable FREIGHT TRUCK SERVICE Daily 0mlght Service Saturday MOVINCT CALL OS GENE ORWICK MORROW COUNTY FAIR and RODEO SATURDAY AUGUST 12 9:30 p.m. to I a.m. MUSIC BY The Good Vibrations Of Portland COUNTY AVIL J Won a Miller 1 COMMUNITY U A BILLBOARD K Coming Events IIEPPNFK SWIMMING POOL Open Tuesday thru Fri day, 1 to 4 pm., mt 7 to I) p in. 0H-n Saturday and Sunday, 'i to 7 p.m. Cliweil Monday Adult Swimming I-mson lrt Tue Aug. 13, li:.'l() p.m. RODEO DANCE Honoring Queen Ver I n a French of Lena Conuminl tv Saturday. August 12, 9:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Heppner Fair Pavilion Music bv the Good Vibra tion of Portland Everyone Welcome! i It HORSE SHOW Sunday, August 1.1, 1:30 p.m. County Fairground Event include showman- ship, horsemanship and horse judging Fair Premium awarded QUEEN CORONATION Full evening of fun, Satur day, August 12, Itodvo Ground "Smoker" for all age. Tug of War, gamp, concv. slops, coronation rrrvmon te SiKinsored by Morrow County Jaycee GRANGE PICNIC Khea Creek Grange Families and Friend Sunday, August 1.1. Anson Wright Memorial Park Potluck dinner. 1:30 p.m. SPONSORED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE BY C. A. RUGGLES Insurance Agency Heppner P. O. Bo 247 PH. 678-9625 I ADMISSION i.5o :i
