Grant County enjoyed fun on the ice in the 1940s

The Herald recorded fun on the ice of Moses Lake during the 1940s. We could be having the same type of fun, if only our winters were a bit colder. Not sure I want it to happen, but there was sure fun on the ice through the 1960s. Read on.

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins:

From the Columbia Basin Herald on Feb. 4, 1949:

Local riders win Wenatchee trials

Val Lusing and Jack Hardy of Moses Lake took first and second places in the time trials at last Sunday's motorcycle ice races at Wenatchee. Their wins were a repeat of the previous week's races here, when both men made the same positions at the Parker Horn races.

There were fire Wenatchee riders participating in the show, sponsored by the Wenatchee Motorcycle Club. The three-tenths of a mile ice track was laid out at Three Lakes, just outside Wenatchee. Lusing escaped injury when he overshot a turn and took a dive over the show bank wall in the track.

FFA Parent-Son Banquet attended by 100 persons

Thirty Future Farmers of America and their parents and guests enjoyed dinner Thursday night of last week by the FFA's Annual Parent-Son Banquet in the grade school cafeteria.

Guest speaker was Everett Webb, assistant supervisor of vocational agricultural education at Washington State College. He told some of the incidents of his 20 years' experience in FFA work. Evan Hall, agricultural agent for the Milwaukee Railroad, also spoke briefly.

Don Goodwin, president of the organization reminded the members that only two weeks remain in which to submit their applications for the degree of state star farmer. Goodwin himself is the first person to receive this degree for work done in the Moses Lake group.

400 enjoy skating party on Peninsula

Dennis note: A couple of weeks ago we told about a skating party on Moses Lake with a few families attending. Now we hear of a skating party attended by 400. Wow, must have been a fun time. Read on.

Nearly 400 persons took advantage of the weather Sunday to attend an afternoon and evening skating party on the south side of the Peninsula. Members of the Peninsula Improvement Club maintained fires and canteen on the lake shore, while others skated, skied and were towed behind trucks and jeeps.

C.A. Kelly with his jeep and tow sled provided free rides all over Pelican Horn, while Oscar Leaf provided a jeep to keep cars from getting stuck in the snow.

Another party is planned for this Sunday, to begin at 2 o'clock.

Scouts to sponsor junior ski tourney here on Saturday

Climaxing National Youth Activity Week in Moses Lake, the boy Scouts Troop 46 will sponsor a junior ski tournament on McDonald Hill Saturday afternoon. This tournament will be the first of its kind attempted in the Columbia Basin area according to Wallace Morris, who is in charge of arrangements. All boys and girls in surrounding communities are urged to take part in the event beginning at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Morris said.

The tournament includes three classes of jumpers and a boys' and girls' cross-country ski races. In addition to the jump and races, there will be sled races for boys and girls who have no skis. In the cross-country races the younger boys and girls will be given time handicaps.

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.

Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we continue the story of Ephrata, by Ed Harvill, recorded on Oct. 11, 1977:

Another time, this same old bull was being taken to the stockyards to load up, as he was giving too much trouble, and he got loose on the way down. He ended up in the cemetery and had tombstones laying all over the place. It was quite a chore to get them stood up again.

All during the time we lived here until 1936 we delivered milk and most of the time we made two deliveries a day, one in the morning and one at night. I see people here we delivered milk to and some of our first customers. At that time, my Dad sold the dairy to my wife's parents, L.A. Scheib, who lived at Soap Lake, and he took over from them.

But, as I mentioned before, all our farming was done with horses. Dad used to give the natives quite a show when he mowed hay down next to town. You people who remember Dad know that he had rather colorful language and particularly when he was driving a team.

Our last team that I remember, were two black mares named Pearl and Nell and you could hear him all over the south end of town when he was mowing. Some of the language wasn't really clean. But he was particular about that team of horses. He could do anything to that team, but let one of the boys hit one of them and we heard from him right away, because that was his team and he could do with it what he pleased.

Then we moved to the Pruit place, the house on a small hill just above the flat. Since the barn was in the flat and the milk house was down there, every morning and night and four or five times a day, you had to walk up this hill. My mother did quite a bit of the work around the milk house, so she told him that if she had to work in the milk house he was going to have to move that house down the hill, or put her bed down there so she wouldn't have to walk up and down. So the first thing he did was to move the house down in the flat. I believe its approximate location is 27 F Street SW. That is about where the old house sat.

As I say, my mother did most of the work around the milk house. We milked, my Dad, my brothers and I, plus a hired hand if we had one, then we'd take the milk and put it in the cooler in the morning, then eat breakfast. Next we would come back to the milk house and my mother would come over and we'd bottle it and get it ready to deliver. We'd deliver the milk and then in the sum?mer we'd have the ice delivery.

We had a couple of old Model T touring cars that were cut off with a box on behind. That's how we delivered the milk. Carl and I got pretty clever driving those ears. We could almost throw a bottle of milk out of a crate by turning a corner. Those of you who have driven a Model T know they are quite bad to jackknife when going around corners. We did our share of that.

The kids around the town were familiar with our milk route, so if we weren't there they could deliver the milk knowing the route almost as well as we did. Often times we would hurry up and deliver the milk if we had someplace to go and we'd bring the crates back up in the lane and set the crates under the mulberry tree, then take off and maybe go to Soap Lake or wherever, and pick up the crates and start out the next day.

Another thing I remember, the first gear shift car we had, no, it was the first town car we had. We had always had pickups, but he bought an old Whippet that had been used by the county. Mrs. Washington, Nat's mother, was at that time County Superintendent of Schools and had used this car. It was in about 1933 or 1934 that he bought this old secondhand Whippet. That was our town car and we had great times in that.

Also, seeing Mrs. Wilson over here, Norm Wilson and I started to Washington State College in the fall of 1932. It was either that time or one of the times when we went back, my Dad took us back. One of the trunks was in back. We went through Washtucna and went through a dust storm. When we got to Pullman we opened the trunk and the dust had just silted all the way through. The old cars weren't built that strong.

Now after he sold the dairy they continued living on the old place and the town began to grow a little bit. Since that field was adjacent to the town it was natural to subdivide it. So he had about five or six additions added to the town at different times. He started with a small one and some were quite large. The lots, he subdivided into lots, but didn't build houses on them, were just sold for building lots. They started selling in the first subdivision for about $200 a lot. The last ones sold for about $1,500 a lot. This work occupied most of Dad's time.

Another thing I should tell you is about the old barn on the place, it was built by L. Pruit, who we affectionately knew as "Old Man Pruit," but it is said of him that when the people built the barn they weren't to have a level or a square on the job that, "my eye is as good as any level or square there is." So consequently the barn was 120 feet long and 50 feet wide on one side and 55 feet wide on the other. But it served the purpose.

We used it for many, many years. After he sold the dairy he tore down the large barn and built a small one and there was a level and square used on that one. In later years, after he sold the dairy, you can't just stop keeping cows all at once, you have to sort of taper off, he still kept two or three cows and milked them for years and finally weaned himself completely.

That was about the time the war began to rumble and they had the Air Base here. So he set up a riding academy in this old barn and there were many horses there. He spent a lot of his time up there.

Of course, my mother, with the kids being gone, had more time to devote to her antiques. She was quite an avid collector of glass and set aside one room to display her glass in. During World War II he brought in some little cabins and set them in the area and rented them out to service people. Plus half of the house was rented out to people. Many lasting friendships were made from these contacts during the War.

Mother was intensely interested in glass and spent all her waking time, reading and studying and collecting glass. So after the War she wanted a place down town where she was right on the main drag. The house on B Street, known as the old Greenlee place, become for sale, so that was just what she wanted. They bought it and moved there.

Well, at that time, all the subdivisions had crowded in around the old place and people were clamoring to get that old, smelly barn out of there. Of course, Dad was a little bit stubborn, not too bad, but said, "That barn was there before your houses were. What are you worrying about?" But eventu?ally, he succumbed and the barn went, and it was all subdivided lots. The front bedroom of their house was an antique shop and she delighted in showing people around.

In the winter of 1958 Mother and Dad went to Arizona and spent the winter with her brother and sister, one of the few times that I know of, when she and Dad went together. She loved to travel and he loved to go to rodeos, but he didn't love to travel too much. Consequently they didn't run around too much to?gether. In that time, when my family was growing up, in the summer I'd come up to the house and my mother would tell me that she "had been studying and I know where I'd like to go and if you'll drive me I'll pay the gas bill," so away we'd go. We visited Yellowstone and Glacier and Waterston parks and over to the Coast. The only stipulation was that if there was an antique shop or sign I had to stop and I couldn't go very far by it. I had to stop.

After their trip to Arizona it was January. Their 50th Anniversary was in December of 1958, So we celebrated their anniversary in January, 1959. Shortly after that she was buried. My Dad continued to live in the house there on B Street until 1974 when he had an accident and broke his hip and never recovered. But they both lived full lives and I am sure a part of them continues to live in all of us.

My father's name was Ben Harvill. My mother's maiden name was Vesta Adams and of course, later Vesta Harvill.