December 23, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 9A
Seaside arts organizations score at culture awards
Grants recognize history,
heritage, culture
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Seaside’s library direc-
tor Esther Moberg received
$2,000 on behalf of a summer
reading program for children
in communities underserved
by public libraries.
Tita Montero accepted
$1,500 on behalf of the Sea-
side Museum and Historical
Society for updating the Clat-
sop Nehalem Peoples social
studies curriculum, in use
for 390 students in 15 fourth-
grade classes throughout the
county.
Katherine Lacaze accept-
ed a grant of $1,055 on be-
half of the Sunset Park and
Recreation District for the
Children’s Theater Summer
Workshop presentation of
“Alice in Wonderland.”
These organizations and
others were honored Tuesday,
Dec. 6, at Clatsop Communi-
ty College’s South Campus
Clatsop County Cultural Co-
alition grant awards.
Edward James left Astoria
“a zillion years ago” to pur-
sue his theatrical passion in
New York, the Midwest and
eventually Portland.
“I came here about 10
years ago to retire, and I dis-
covered something signifi-
cantly different than when
I left,” James said. “There
were few artistic galleries in
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Nettie Lee-Calog, Tita Montero, Daniel Keesler, Carol Lambert, Edward James, Jennifer Crockett, Andrew Tonry, Katherine
Lacaze, Esther Moberg and Jane Brumfield, recipients of Clatsop County Cultural Coalition grants.
the ’70s. When I came back,
‘Cabaret’ was on the front
page, there was music in ev-
ery bar, there were communi-
ty music organizations devel-
oping. It was vastly different.
The cultural coalition can
take a little credit for that.”
James, a director, was in
attendance to accept $1,235
for “All in the Timing,” a live
production at the Performing
Arts Center. The play will be
staged in January and features
a cast of North Coast actors.
“It’s smart theater,” James
said. “PAC is providing us a
place to do that.”
The arts center was among
10 local organizations to ben-
efit from $11,240 in Clatsop
County Cultural Coalition
grants funded by the Oregon
Cultural Trust and from a
small arts and culture grant
from the Oregon Commu-
nity Foundation.
James, like other award
recipients, shared not only the
passion for their own organi-
zations, but passion for the
arts in the community.
“Our grants are awarded
to project that support, main-
tain, preserve and protect cul-
tural projects in the arts, heri-
Author shares a love of community
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Gloria Stiger Linkey was raised in
Seaside and remembers its glory days
growing up.
Before Dec. 7, 1941 — Pearl Harbor
Day — the small town was “innocent.”
“Nobody locked their doors, we
played on the beach all day during the
summer, there were no televisions, no
cellphones, no computers,” she said.
“Just the radio and those wonderful ra-
dio shows we used to listen to.”
Linkey’s new book, “A Place Called
Seaside,” traces the city where she was
raised, left and later returned to.
Her family moved to Seaside in
1937, when Linkey was 7.
In the summer, Linkey recalled, she
would watching people strolling the
Prom and down Broadway. “You’d stop
and watch the people swim,” she said.
“You’d go on down watch them bowl,
you’d go to the roller-skating rink and
watch them skate. That was our enter-
tainment.”
The closing of the natatorium — the
public swimming pool near the Prom —
and closing of clubs and entertainment
centers contributed to a downtown de-
cline. In 1962, at a time when rebellion
among the nation’s youth was just un-
derway, Seaside made national head-
lines.
According to Linkey, who has been
researching her book for three years,
the riots started Saturday of Labor
Day weekend, and went for about sev-
en hours on Broadway, with the police
fighting crowds of unruly youths. “As
I understand it, the youngsters wanted
a rock-and-roll band to appear on the
beach.”
When the band was canceled, crowds
erupted. “They took the lifeguard tow-
‘To me, the Labor Day
riot of 1962 had the most
devastating effect on
the town, because the
families just took off.
They didn’t feel safe.’
Gloria Stiger Linkey
er down and rolled it down Broadway,”
Linkey said. “They looted, vandalized
and of course our police department —
as efficient as they are — were no match
for them because it was so small, so help
from neighboring cities was called in.”
The unease continued through the
weekend as more riots followed Sunday
night.
“To me, the Labor Day riot of 1962
had the most devastating effect on the
town, because the families just took
off,” Linkey said. “They didn’t feel
safe.”
A downtown revival followed, she
said, with the participation of the City
Council, Chamber of Commerce and
other civic entities. In the 1980s, Qua-
tat Park was established, the Prom was
fixed up and Downing Street became a
pedestrian walkway, she said. The con-
struction of the Civic and Convention
Center and the founding of the Sunset
Empire Park and Recreation District
played a part in the city’s revival.
The park and rec district was found-
ed, she added, because without a natato-
rium along Broadway, residents sought
a place to swim other than motels or pri-
vate pools.
Linkey raised
her family in
South
Laguna
Beach, Califor-
nia. After the
death of her
husband,
she
returned to Sea-
side, where she
Gloria Stiger
has lived since,
Linkey
working in the
insurance business, and for a short pe-
riod, with the Seaside Signal as an ac-
countant. Her daughter Victoria lives in
Mesa, Arizona, and Darci lives in Dia-
mond Bar, California. Linkey’s sister,
Patricia, is also a Seaside High School
grad and lives in California.
Linkey was 83 when she began her
career as a published author, publish-
ing “Native American Women: Three
Who Changed History.” The book tells
the tales of Sacagawea, Warkuese and
Marie Dorion and their role in the ex-
ploration and settlement of the Pacific
Northwest.
To conduct research for her Seaside
chronicle, Linkey relied on her own
memory and newspaper archives.
Looking to the future, Linkey said
Seaside’s tsunami threat is not a ques-
tion of if, but when. Although from her
home east of the highway, she antici-
pates “I would probably only get my
toes wet,” she keeps a go-bag ready.
Her new book is “a labor of love,”
she said. She plans signings and sales
at Beach Books and the Seaside Public
Library.
“When I graduated from high school
I had one year of college at Oregon State
University, I had one thought: get out
of Seaside. There was nothing here for
young people. It’s amazing that we’ve
all got out — and we’ve all come back.”
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tage and humanity in Clatsop
County,” Charlene Larsen,
the co-chairwoman of the co-
alition, said.
Liberty Theater Executive
Director Jennifer Crockett
accepted a grant for $1,000
to fund a workshop and per-
formance for kids, “Rhythm
Takes Three.”
Nettie-Lee Calog, site
manager of the Warrenton
Community Library, accept-
ed $600 for the library’s “Li-
bros” program for Hispanic
readers.
Program coordinator Dan-
iel Keesler accepted $2,000
on behalf of the Lower Co-
lumbia Hispanic Council for
the Teatro Milagro bilingual
arts residency.
Carol Lambert of the Clat-
sop County Historical Soci-
ety spoke about John Andrew
Buchanan, founder of the
Clatsop County Chapter of
the Daughters of the Amer-
ican Revolution in 1920 and
the Clatsop County Historical
Society in 1921. Lambert’s
maternal grandfather, Bu-
chanan is best remembered as
the lyricist for the state song,
“Oregon, My Oregon,” cho-
sen among 200 entries. The
historical society’s grant of
$750 will provide a monu-
ment for Buchanan at Ocean
View Cemetery.
Jane Brumfield received
$600 for Cannon Beach Arts
Association “Artists Talk.”
Andrew Tonry accepted $500
on behalf of the Tolovana
Arts Colony’s upcoming Can-
non Beach Comedy Festival.
“Art saves lives,” KMUN
host Carol Newman said in
opening remarks. “Culture,
libraries, music, history,
eduction, the things you are
all facilitating or offering.
Thank you so much for mak-
ing this community so rich. It
feeds everything: our river,
our land, our earth and our
people.”
Annual tea held at the
Butterfield Cottage
Tea from Page 1A
could purchase tickets at any
of the teas, and the drawing
was held Dec. 17.
As with many of the activ-
ities and events hosted by the
museum, volunteers – includ-
ing the board members that
donate their time to serve the
organization – help sustain the
Gingerbread Tea from year to
year, Reef said. They assist
with baking, decorating and
serving. In return, Reef said,
the organization’s hope is
people “who find this an im-
portant tradition” will donate
or volunteer for the museum.
Reef, who has a love for
history, got involved after
moving to the area from Bos-
ton. She soon discovered that
“Seaside has its own fascinat-
ing history,” especially as the
first notable resort town on
the coast. The museum, which
seeks to preserve and show-
case that history, is “a hidden
gem,” she said, adding she
encourages others “who have
a love of history and a love
of Seaside” to support and be
a part of the organization, as
well.
Providence Hospital offers
community resource desk
Providence Seaside Hos-
pital and Clatsop Community
Action, in a community part-
nership, have opened a com-
munity resource desk at the
main entrance to the hospital
in Seaside.
The services offered in-
clude signing up for food
stamp benefits, assistance
with finding food pantries,
locating housing resources,
utility and heating assistance,
transportation options as well
other needed services.
This resource is open to
all residents and visitors of
Clatsop County and provides
a convenient location for all
who live in, or are visiting
South Clatsop County. This
service is also available in
downtown Astoria at the Clat-
sop Community Action office
located at 364 Ninth St.
The Seaside location is
staffed by Marcelo Hernan-
dez, a bilingual referral coor-
dinator employed by Clatsop
Community Action and fund-
ed by Providence Community
Health Division. The desk is
open Monday through Friday,
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is
located in the main lobby of
Providence Seaside Hospital,
725 Wahanna Road; 503-717-
7176.