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