PIONEER PORTRAITS

Ten Years Ago July 11, 2002 The Waitsburg Block Watch Program will hold an orga- nizational watermelon feed on Sunday, July 14, in Preston Park. All interested persons are invited to attend to enjoy watermelon and help plan the citywide network to help curb criminal activity in Waitsburg. Block Watch participants can continue to conduct their lives in privacy. It simply requires that neighbors be familiar enough to know who belongs and who doesn't in a neighborhood. It also includes ancillary programs such as engraving one's property. Active Block Watch programs place signs at the entrances to the town proclaiming to criminals that people are watching and that property is engraved, making it more difficult to sell stolen items.

Twenty-Five Years Ago July 9, 1987 The Waitsburg Ambulance Board met Tuesday night to consider items of procedure that have been raised recently in regards to the local service. It was proposed that Waits- burg call for backup from ALS for any "trauma" situation, which covers many runs made by the local service. The tier response protocol was established by Dr. Brown, the Medical Program Director (MPD). Norm Fjosee, Regional EMS Coordinator from Kennewick, was present at the meeting. He said under the law, the MPD sets the protocol, mainly because the EMTs and Paramedics are operating under his license, and he has to maintain control. Fjosee said Waitsburg Ambulance has provided good service to the community.

Fifty years Ago July 13, 1962 The trail ride for the Waitsburg Community Riding Club last Sunday was quite successful. Adults participat- ing in the ride were Kermit Jones, Bernard Donnelly, Dick Harper, Mrs. Kenneth Smith, Mrs. Wayne Hinchliffe, Tom Hanson, Ralph Goe, Fred Zuger, Joe McCrown and Ells- worth Conover. The ride up Whiskey Creek ended at the Hinchliffe cabin with lunch serve to 53. The Walla Walla Grain Growers marked an historic first when it shipped out a barge load of grain form its elevators at Sheffler on the Snake River Saturday. It was the first wheat out of the elevator and the commercial barge ship- ment.

Seventy-Five Years Ago July 16, 1937 Miss Virginia Bloor and Miss Barbara Freeman of this city, Miss Winifred Wolfe of Huntsville and Miss Harriet Lathers of Prescott are delegates to the State Convention for Rainbow Girls in Bellingham this week. George McClure has one of the finest looking fields of barley we ever saw on his place on the Hogeye east of this city, and George has had some good barley before. It won't be ready to harvest for two weeks. The annual reunion of the Crawford-Dunlap family was held in Preston Park Sunday with 75 relatives together with a number of close friends spending the day together.

One Hundred Years Ago July 12, 1912 The old City Hotel building at the corner of Main and East Third Street is being torn down and the lumber sold. The threshing of fall-sown barley commenced Monday morning in this immediate vicinity and the first of next week, there will be a number of outfits in the fields. A "linen shower" was given in honor of Blanche Cham- berlain by the Tillicum Club of which she has been a mem- ber for a number of years. The party was given at the home of Miss Fanny Weller. The bride-to-be was the recipient of many articles of wearing apparel. Miss Chamberlain is to marry Supt. C.A. Sprague sometime in August.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago July 8, 1887 There is no occasion to send east or to Portland for crackers as long as the Walla Walla pioneer cracker factory turns out the best of all kinds that can be made or shipped into this valley. The taking of a school census unveils that there are 375 children in the district under 21 years of age-182 boys and 193 girls. The only accident in this city last Monday was the run- ning away of a team belonging to Mr. Lane. The team was left standing, it became frightened and ran up the Touchet about a quarter of a mile when they fell over an eight-foot perpendicular bank smashing up the buggy and its contents and drowning one horse. Hot. Hotter. Hottest. Most hottest. Mercury has been hobnobbing round in the neighborhood of 100 this week. Waitsburg has about the best band in the country. We have interviewed farmers from every direction this week as to the smut in the present crop about to be har- vested, and are much pleased to learn that there is almost no smut in the wheat this year.