Cumtux 2008 Vol 28 No 4 Fall

2008·5 MB·English

by  Clatsop County Historical Society

CLATSOP COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
JUMTUX
"PднрУTе ү UжUзT
eMDw—em—E e N
Vol. 28, No. 4 — Fall 2008
CРDACAнSCOIоLLTHYтLO SоER: CI TAINON
In This ие...
Among the thousands of photos in the collection at CCHS are many
of so year high school reunions from schools all over the county. It never
occurred to me that one day a photo of my 5o th year class reunion would Бе
among them. Ше day finally arrived in September, 2008, as the Astoria High
School class of 1958 met to celebrate the occasion. It was also an opportunity
to gather stories about the old days at AHS for an issue of Cumtux. Included
also are stories about some of our teachers whose careers spanned two and
three decades in the area.
While browsing through old newspapers one day, I ran across a story about
the Wong family's arrival in Astoria in 1949. The story mentioned Kenny Wong,
a fellow student in my AHS class of 1958. I e-mailed Kenny requesting more
information. He replied with the story that appears in this issue.
Contributions by Malcolm Van Meer and Robert Scott continue the school
theme.
— [he Editor
CLATSOP COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CLATSOP COUNTY
JUMTUX
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
714 Exchange St.
P.O. Box 88
Astoria, Oregon 97103-0088
[phone]
[email protected]
CLATSOP County HISTORICAL SOCIETY
www.cumtux.org
QUARTERLY
Heritage Museum Vol. 28, No. 4 — Fall 2008
16th and Exchange St., Astoria
Copyright © 2008 Clatsop County Historical Society
Flavel House Museum (ISSN 1083-9216)
8th and Duane St., Astoria
Uppertown Firefighters Museum
30th and Marine Drive, Astoria
Contents:
BOARD or DIRECTORS 2 Memories of Astoria High School
Kent Easom, Astoria
President By Liisa Mellin Penner
Vern Fowler, Gearhart
Vice-President 12 Some Long Time AHS Teachers
Patricia Roberts, Gearhart
Secretary
14 AHS Class of 1958 Memories
Kent Ivanoff, Astoria
Treasurer
Brett Estes, Astoria 29 A 1958 Classmate
Marsha Ettro, Svensen
Jean Harrison, Astoria By Ken Wong
Paul Mitchell, Warrenton
J. Todd Scott, Astoria/Seattle 20 My Story
Yvonne Starr-Comins, Astoria
Randy Stemper, Astoria By Robert H. Scott
38 High School Football Tradition
STAFF
McAndrew Burns Carries on a Century Later
Executive Director
By Malcolm Van Meer
Sam Rascoe
Director of Marketing 46 Oregon Teachers Remember
Liisa Penner by the Retired Oregon
Archivist &
Educators Association
CUMTUX Editor
Lynette Thiel-Smith
Curator
Martha Dahl
Business Manager Front Cover:
Future AHS scholars, ca. 1947a t 37th and Duane St.
Alma Jackson
Volunteer Membership Clerk Back row: unidentified, unidentified, Roger Venable.
Middle row: Mike Killion, Wayne Viukola, John Milde.
Carol Lambert
Carol Moore Front row: Ken Thompson
Marlene Taylor
Cumtux Support CCHS Рното: JOHN MILDE COLLECTION
CUMTUX: Chinook jargon:
“To know...to inform”
Class of 1958
MEMORIES OF ASTORIA HIGH
SCHOOL
By Liisa Mellin Penner
F THE THREE years that I walked while to play at home. The job was
() up the hill to the Astoria High tailor-made for my instincts to live as a
School on Jerome, I only remember hermit. Alone each morning, I listened
the days when rainwater poured from to the rousing song "Drink! Drink!
the sky and flowed down 16"? Street Drink!” from “The Student Prince”
like a river. Our clothes were drenched and the poetry of the “Rubaiyat of
by the time we made it to the door. Omar Khayyam’: “Wake! for the sun
This was from the fall of 1954 through who scattered into flight the stars be-
the spring of 1957, my freshman fore him from the field of night drives
through junior years. The next fall, night along with them from heavn,
we were the first senior class to attend and strikes the Sultan’s turret with a
the new high school on the south side shaft of light ... " Miss Halderman
of the hill, arriving there comfortably may have wondered about her wisdom
via the Astoria city bus. of leaving me in that room.
I was one of Miss Halderman's
volunteers in the school library on the CLASSES
hill, reading my assigned shelves of fic- As freshmen, we all took an ori-
tion books (from A to C) to make sure entation class designed to help us
they were in correct order by author. I understand our place in the world
think it was my sophomore year that and prepare us for our four years
I graduated to responsibility for the or so of English, P. E., health,
record library. This was in a room social studies, languages, math,
just south of the school library on the plus electives like bookkeeping,
main floor, a room I had all to myself. typing, shorthand, machine shop,
because no one seemed to know the choir, etc. The orientation class
place existed or wanted to check out proved harder than any of the rest.
а 78 ог 33 1/3 rpm record of classical Our class was blessed to have John
music, operettas or poetry. [ was the Nellor as a teacher. He made us
only customer, playing records while laugh! Orientation was fun! Or so
on duty or borrowing them for a short we thought. But too soon, we were
N CLATSOP COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
introduced to the "précis," a miser- also taught driving which was a stretch
able process of reading sentences because the school didn’t have a car to
far too difficult to understand practice in.
and turning them into everyday English had always been a chal-
language on paper. Helena Uunila, lenge, but under Miss Allen, in our
who lived in the west end of sophomore year, it all began to make
Astoria, invited me to work on sense. The girls seemed to have respect
our précis together at Judy Maki's for this fragile appearing, elegant
house above Columbia Street, up- woman, but with the boys, it was
hill from what was then Woody's different. The boys a decade or two
Drive-In, now Pig 'N Pancake. before us had learned to play tricks
Alternating snow and rain froze on on Miss Allen. Our class continued
the saturated ground. The result the tradition. It was uncomfortable
was a silver thaw. Walking up the to watch her pretend she didnt notice
hill to Judy's house in the dark was what they were doing. (During the
nearly impossible. We took one spelling test - must have been multiple
step up the hill and slid two back choice - some of the boys would go to
down. I finally made it by crawling the front of the room to look up the
part of the distance on my hands words in the dictionary.)
and knees. My mother insisted that I take a
One of my favorite classes was secretarial course so | could someday
Health, taught by Mrs. Esther Jensen, support myself. Miss Lamb was my
who also taught P. E. I was spell-bound teacher for shorthand and bookkeep-
by the things she told us. Many years ing and Mr. Laman for typing. Most of
later, I had the pleasure of getting us used the old-fashioned typewriters,
to know her after the death of her but some of the more adventurous
husband, Reuben Jensen (who also tried the new invention, the electric
taught at AHS), and her marriage typewriter, which when a key was hit
to Wally Palmberg. Mrs. Palmberg a fraction of a second too long, typed
had written the story of her life for out a stream ofl etters that could not be
Cumtux and given it to me to edit. taken back as we can with computers
A few months later, Wally Palmberg now. When I was sixteen, | caught
also contributed the story of his life. pneumonia and was hospitalized.
He told me the romantic story of how During recuperation, | spent much
he and Mrs. Jensen had met again and of my time catching up on shorthand
married.* These stories appear in the exercises until, at night when I went to
Fall 1996 and Summer 1997 issues of bed, all I could seen in my dreams was
Cumtux. Our third year, the girls had shorthand. The only use I made of it in
Miss Burrows as a Health teacher. She later life was to take notes in classes at
Cumtux — Vol. 28, №.4 — Fall 2008 3
ASTORIA Шен SCHOOL ON JEROME ST.
Тне TRACK HUNG OVER THE GYM, AND WAS OPEN IN THE MIDDLE (OPPOSITE PAGE).
SRLS} ROOM 20
R00M 27
ROOM 26 ROOM 25 ROOM 24 ROOM 22
DTACORHFOU EAUT RWHTIOENRSG Y
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LIBRARY — РИМ ROOM M.
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MAIN — FLOOR
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ROOM 4 | LUNCH ROOM
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BASE MENT
CLATSOP County HISTORICAL SOCIETY
STORAGE
GIRRLOSO ML OCKER COOKING ARACK
BOYS
LOCKER ROOM
MACHINE n
SHOP >
x 2/У
MAIN FLOOR
BASEMENT OAJANSNHOOSL HL. .ALLVIOW(V0.(0 T0
STAFF DIRECTORY
RATO LIND ea r OFFICE ие PRINCIPAL
EUGENE SORENSON .. 2 СУВВІСНЯ» ..DEAN or Bovs
MARGARET UPHAM.. ...DEAN's ROOM... ..DEAN OF GIRLS
FST IG BON ЫЕ С таг ные р .. SOPH. ENGLISH
АЛАСА BURRO SEIS ER Сума но E Р, Е. HEALTH
NEDRA CHRISTENSEN ......u.u. 7.. бобреа ры БРЕЕСН
DOUGLAS CARK RA Жа. блан GYM ES o А, Ass'T. COACH
IVAUDESROUTERS Жон e e A а U. S. History
PORN ОЛЕВУЛ ЛО ло лы Ее SENIOR ENGLISH
EV HEV САМ tar eee ea РА Атос JUNIOR ENGLISH
[ОНО НИЛА БЕК Gee ил те serene Нор SHOP
ANNA MARIE FRIEDRICH .................. traeee e teeS oc. EDUCATION
PARRY GROSS и aS oem. 29 е Втогосу
MARJORIE HALDERMAN.............. IO3BRARYA 2 22 RI S LIBRARIAN
JOHN HIEISTAND о сые НОР MACHINE SHOP
ESTHER JENSEN 22 2 2 15 с AO Эл MATHEMATICS
REOPEN |E NSEN Cors ее нее Месн. Draw, Авт
VESTA LAMB не, о ОХ BUSINESS
САША LAMEN L S teer УУ ы A COMMERCIAL
EUGENE LUKOSZÝ Ka a: о Soc. PROBLEMS
НМА ВА ВАР ЫЕ СИ? Inst. Music Sur.
NIDLIAMOMIBOTONGS eee e ТА ра НОУ Vocar Music
ELIZABETH N OPSON oaeen c su sn us нь Ев. ENGLISH
Mary NYLAND....
ROBERT Mossy..... 3 P. E. Солсн
JOHN ROBERTS ........... LANGUAGES
ROBERTO GOLD а аса. - Puysics & CHEM.
Кой НОМ 2 P. E. HEALTH
ROMA BROWNA а еу 31$ Номе Ec.
Lyte Mary WHEELER MATHEMATICS
THORA ORIRBECK Л анти Стів Р. E.
FROM тне 1957 FISHERMAN S Loc Book
Cumtux — Vol. 28, №.4 — Fall 2008
the University of Oregon. Shorthand It was a spring day one year when
was easy to write but not so easy to Saradell Stangland or Helena Uunila
transcribe so Í usually didnt bother. had the family car and they decided we
Typing was far more useful. would take a drive at lunch time out to
Miss Bergman, the first year, and Youngs River Falls. None of us realized
after she retired, Mr. Roberts, drilled how long it would take to drive the
us in Latin “amo, amas, amat, ama- loop out there and back, and we were
mus, amatus, amant ... " orsomething late! I felt sheepish and a little defiant
similar. This class was the key to as I crept into Mr. Frank Robert's
understanding the English, German Spanish class. That 15 the only time І
and other languages and making can remember being late to class.
sense of unfamiliar words. Гуе always By the 1950s, most of the women
been thankful we had the opportu- teachers at AHS had taught there for
nity to study Latin. (More than fifty two or three decades. These were: Miss
years after Miss Bergman retired, the Allen, Miss Bergman, Miss Crouter,
Columbia River Maritime Museum Miss Friedrich, Miss Halderman, Miss
had an exhibit of her boat-builder Lamb, Mrs. Nyland, Mrs. Jensen, Mrs
fathers hand-carved duck decoys, now Nopson. The last three also taught
worth a fortune.) there before they were married, as Miss
Nuttle, Miss Girod and Miss Ogden.
Mrs. Esther Jensen Palmberg, her
husband Reuben Jensen, Miss Upham
(AHS counselor), and others were
active in the Angora Club, whose
members joined in hiking expeditions
all over the county and beyond. The
club’s records and photographs and the
CР98нC.оH3тS0о. я1 0.3836 Reuben Jensen Collection of photo-
graphs are at the Heritage Museum.
Miss Crouter was a very social be-
ing based on the photos in which she
appears at the Heritage Museum. She
had memberships in many organiza-
tions and worked with Girl Scouts.
Mrs. Lyle Mary Wheeler was a
different sort of teacher than we'd
had before. Her room at AHS on the
ESTHER JENSEN PALMBERG AT LEFT ON hill was papered in cartoons cut out
HIKE WITH THE ANGORA CLUB. of magazines (something forbidden in
6
CLATSOP COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1#o1ЯН1FМ.1r0ОS !1aоо 05Н.0 о Э')Я0нТ 0а1 О07)
1958 ASTORIA REGATTA PRINCESSES AND ESCORTS: LEFT TO RIGHT, JULIE JOHNSON,
Dave URELL, Рат NAGLE (в. HIGH SCHOOL), UNIDENTIFIED, JEANETTE WATTS
(WARRENTON Нісн 5сноог), BILL WapswoRTH, GAYLE Ross, BRIAN JOHNSON,
Тору SrAcEv (КМАРРА Ніс̧н SCHOOL), UNIDENTIFIED, DAROLYN Lawson (SEASIDE),
UNIDENTIFIED, ELLEN Morris (STAR OF THE SEA SCHOOL), UNIDENTIFIED
the new school). She was a tall, lanky into Bill carrying my granddaughter
woman with a commanding presence, Becky. Bob told him “Now I know
yet smiled a lot. She presided over a I have to retire!” In the 1980s and
math club known as the “Torture Hole 1990s, Bob volunteered at the Heritage
Gang." I was a senior at the new high Museum as a docent. He wrote stories
school before I took a class from her about his WWII years that have not
(geometry). Mrs. Wheeler did a study been printed in Cumtux until now. See
of AHS students about 1951 for a thesis the stories in this issue.
she wrote for Oregon State University. When Mr. Albert Andersen, the
Her complete thesis is on the internet Civics teacher, left suddenly in our
at http://hdl.handle.net/1957/8788. senior year, Bob's wife, Dorothy, took
Robert Scott taught math and over the class, giving me one of the few
chemistry. He was my teacher for both “Аз” I got in high school.
and was one of my favorite teachers.
While we waited for the stragglers to ASSEMBLIES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
make it to the classroom, Mr. Scott The whole school gathered in the
told us stories of his experiences in gym for pep assemblies and other
Africa during WWII and he teased entertainments. One memory is
some of the students, particularly Tom of our two tall basketball stars,
Lindstrom and me. In the 1970s, he Richard Safley and Charles Mathre
taught my son, Bill. One day, Bob ran (or was it Arnold Curtis?), enthusiasti-
Cumtux — Vol. 28, №.4 — Fall 2008
HSZA1PG9CSEI.5THPG18OOHH7 ROY ILRA U S
ABOVE: AFTER DAILY CLASSES, THE SCIENCE AND MATH TEACHERS LISTEN TO MR.
ScOTT's MOST RECENT JOKE. SHOWN HERE ARE Mrs. ALICE JANE PETERSON, MATH;
MR. WILLIAM REUTER, MATH; Mr. ROBERT SCOTT, CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS;
MR. DOUGLAS CLARK, SENIOR REVIEW; Mrs. LYLE MARY WHEELER, HIGHER MATH; AND
Mr. Harry GROSS, BIOLOGY.
BELOW: BUSINESS AND VOCATIONAL TEACHERS WATCHING A DEMONSTRATION IN TYPING
ARE Mr. CHARLES LAMAN, TYPING; Mr. JOHN ELIASSEN, WOODSHOP; Miss VEsTA LAMB,
TYPING AND BOOK-KEEPING; MR. JOHN HIESTAND, MACHINE SHOP; Miss RoMA Brown,
HOME ECONOMICS; AND Mr. EUGENE LUKOSZYK, MECHANICAL DRAWING.
SZH1РAС9CESI.5HTPG18OOHH8 ROY ILRA U S
CLATSOP County HISTORICAL SOCIETY