Christmas Project volunteers Alicia Everitt and Jessica Ribkoff help fill toy bags this week at the Hood River County fairgrounds. This year, 483 families signed up to receive Christmas Project packages, which is slightly down from last year’s 540 total. Photo by Adam Lapierre.
Christmas Project volunteers Alicia Everitt and Jessica Ribkoff help fill toy bags this week at the Hood River County fairgrounds. This year, 483 families signed up to receive Christmas Project packages, which is slightly down from last year’s 540 total. Photo by Adam Lapierre.
1919 — 100 years ago Despite the inclement weather and dampness overhead and underfoot, the businessmen of Hood River determined that the spirit of Christmas should prevail and many of the stores presented a very Christmassy aspect during the past week. Many of the stores remained open after the usual hour and this was much appreciated by shoppers who had been able to get to town until the weather abated. It was also evident that a number of shoppers had taken the advice offered by businessmen and secured their Christmas gifts and supplies in the early part of the holiday season.
1929 — 90 years ago The five-foot Christmas tree in front of every business house in town, interior and exterior decorations, Hood River now reflects the spirit of Yuletide. Last Sunday, members of the 40 Homme et 8 Chevaux turned out in force and on trucks went back into the hills to secure the many Christmas trees which now boarder the sidewalks. They did not forget to bring in the big tree, which is to be placed at the intersection of Second and Oak streets. The community owes a vote of thanks to the ex-servicemen who have preformed this latest example of civil service.
1939 — 80 years ago Odell, this Yuletide, has its own outdoor Christmas tree, thanks to a group of its merchants and the Pacific Power and Light Company. The tree has been erected in a central position in the community and is liberally decorated with multicolored lamps. Electricity is furnished free by the power company. Plans call for a community Christmas tree each Yuletide in Odell.
1949 — 70 years ago Malcolm Kresse was elected president of Hood River’s volunteer fire department and Jim Meyer was elected chief of the department in an election of officers held by the firemen at their meeting last Friday in Hood River’s city hall. Meyer, a member of the department for a number of years, takes over a post held by John Volstorff, who has been chief of the local department for 27 years. Volstorff was voted an honorary lifetime chieftainship of the Hood River Fire Department at the meeting.
1959 — 60 years ago Hoping this town will find some job openings through construction starts in and near The Dalles, employment office manager Boyd Jackson issued in his monthly labor report this week. He said the two can now expect the normal season pattern of low employment to take effect, with few exceptions. Jackson sees the greatest hope for job seekers in the construction field. He notes that local residential construction is at a low point now, and thinks it will improve greatly within the next few months. He points to one of the major John Day dam contracts now let and reports that another plant in The Dalles is expected to expand “in the near future.”
1969 — 50 years ago Groundwork had started here this week for a new wood products mill scheduled to hire about 24 workers on two shifts when it goes into operation in mid-1970. A joint announcement from five parties cooperating in the project issued the story that Gary Hegewald of Stevenson will establish the Cascade Wood Components mill at a five-acre site east of Cascade Locks. The Port of Cascade Locks sold the site to Hegewald and issued an option on an additional four acres for possible future expansion.
1979 — 40 years ago There was cake and coffee at break time after the crew at Duckwall Pooley achieved a mark last week none other has ever done. Using equipment that is “on line” only for the second year, the crew turned out 6,151 packed boxes of apples in a seven and a half hour run. “Nobody has ever done over 6,000 on one of these lines,” said Fred Duckwall. “We know that … The crew had everything to do with it. They’re not just here to put in time, they care.”
1989 — 30 years ago Hood River County law enforcement agencies got an early Christmas present this week, and the givers hope it will be a year-round lump of coal for minors and adults who drink and drive. This week, Don Nunamaker Inc. Realtors gave the Hood River Police Department and the Hood River Sheriff’s Department a portable machine for measuring alcohol in the drinker’s breath. The two agencies will share the machine, which is small enough to fit in an officer’s pocket. The device and about 500 disposable mouthpieces cost the donor approximately $600.
1999 — 20 years ago What a difference a year makes! It was eight degrees above zero on a pre-Christmas Saturday a year ago when members of the Lions and Rotary clubs stood outside Safeway, Rosauers Walmart and the Hood River Liquor Store, ringing Christmas bells for the Salvation Army. Thanks to La Niña and the aimless vagaries of winter storms, the temperature last Saturday was in the 40s. It was a cakewalk.
2009 — 10 years ago The second storm of the fall hit the Hood River area Tuesday night with a six-inch dose of snow followed by a rainy melt off. Streets were mostly bare, or slushy, and while the going was cumbersome, there were few reported accidents other than some cars slipping off the roads. “It was a fairly heavy snow, with lots of packing, and the smaller plows on the one ton trucks weren’t able to cut it, so we needed the bigger trucks to clean the streets, and once done with the primaries, we’d have to go back and hit it again,” said City Public Works Director Dave Bick.
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