Herald editor, President Kennedy talk over luncheon

Over the next few weeks this column will highlight the contact Columbia Basin Herald Editor Ned Thomas had with the White House and President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s. Here's the report from Thomas' own account.

Lunch at the White House, Oct. 23, 1961:

"Seventeen newspapermen from Washington State spent two hours Friday with President John F. Kennedy in the White House. They ate a fine lunch with him in the State Dining Room, smoked his cigars and drank his wine.

"They found him a gracious host, affable, willing to talk about anything he knew, a good listener when it came to local problems new to him.

"For practically all of them it was their first opportunity to lunch with the President of the United States in the White House and to talk with him informally. For a number of them, it was their first look at the national capital.

"Their invitations were for luncheon at 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight time or 9 a.m. our time. (Dennis note: Perhaps daylight savings time in one part of the nation and not another, but usually when it is 9 a.m. in Washington State, it is noon in Washington D.C.)

"Practically all of us showed up at the northwest gate to the White House at 12:45. The guards at the gate had the list of invitees and asked each of us to show some kind of identification. I fished out a business card and that was enough. We weren't frisked for weapons.

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 Thelma Billngsley Nicks:

During the World War I my father owned five acres in the Rhieman Tracks in Quincy. He felt he could not pay the taxes on it, so he gave it to the Red Cross thinking they could sell it. But they let it go for taxes.

Dad also invented a new type of car headlight dimmer, but after having it checked at the U.S. patent office he found that there had been one made and patented almost like it.

He tried many things to make a go of. He got the Overland car dealership in 1920. That same year he planned a cooperation to build a large garage and machine shop. Also a gas station along a 30 by 50 foot building for a post office. All that was built was the service station. Ed Wilson was the first to run this service station, then Elmer Lair and his son, Woodrow, and then Herb Jenkins took it over. It stood where Baker's jewelry and Jer Dons is now.

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 CBH on Thursday, July 16, 1953:

4-H officers to train Friday

Officers of 4-H clubs in the Moses Lake area will have a training meeting Friday afternoon in the grange hall with Mrs. Mary McKenzie of the extension staff in charge of local arrangements. The session will be from 1:30 to 3 o'clock.

Wilson Creek area history

The Rev. David H. Crawford compiled and published a history of families in and surrounding Wilson Creek titled, "Family Memories of Wilson Creek Area." The book was printed in 1978, which was the 75th anniversary of the town. David's son, John Crawford, has given permission for those memories to be a part of this column.

Today we backtrack a bit and then continue the R.H. Lee, C.W. Davis and George Lee history by Macil Lee:

Then in 1957, we really had a bad flood. Everyone had to move out of their homes to the Presbyterian Church, School House and to the homes of friends who lived on higher ground.

George and I lived with the Schroeders during that time. We were not able to get to the post office for a number of days. Finally Audrey and I put on hip boots and walked down the middle of the highway with George.

He got several men and they went to the depot and carried the first class mail pouches to the post office and we put the mail out. I have no idea why, no one could get there to get their mail anyway. There was six inches of water in the building and when the water went down, there was six inches of silt left. It was a real mess to clean up.

There were lots of changes being made in the post office. They took the mail off of the trains and started using trucks to transport the mail, which in my opinion was a big mistake.

In 1963, my sister Audrey passed away after a short illness.

Life had to go on. Mary Christ Colouzis started working in the post office again. Each holiday of the year, I decorated the windows at the post office for the occasion, all the kids as well as the grownups enjoyed them and so did I. One year we made a house out of cube sugar, it was darling and when Christmas was over, we gave the sugar house to Mrs. Nagel, the primary teacher, and she used it at school until it fell apart.

George was still working for the town and in July of 1971 he passed away after a short illness. Dana, Audrey and Ray's son had retired after 20 years in the Navy and he and his family were on their way home when George passed away. They flew home for the funeral, and then they had to go back to West Virginia to get their car. They decided to live in Wilson Creek.