Mystery photos revealed

The Badlands Bat was the Moses Lake Army Air Base newspaper. the date of Friday, Nov. 5, 1943 indicates this was a wartime edition. There were a couple of comics, but no ads. I understand ads were not allowed in this military newspaper at the time of publication. Read more of this newspaper in the upcoming CBH picture book and in this column. Copy of the Badlands Bat courtesy of the Schiffner military Museum.

| August 9, 2014 6:00 AM

From Dave and Jennifer Campbell on Aug. 2: "Hey Dennis, Very simple actually. Someone left one of those sandwich boards lying flat on the grass for a couple of days."Great guess, Jennifer and Dave. Thanks for responding. It is the perfect pattern of a sandwich board, as you indicated. It is actually the liner for the back of my Dodge Ram. The legs looking as if they are the bottom of the sandwich board are the front and back of the liner, with the center portion, the cutout portion, being the area where the wheel wells are located. What's more, the liner is thick and black.The liner was pulled out in order to clean it before a trip to Oregon. Once it was scrubbed clean, it was placed in the shade of my neighbor's tree, which put it on the property line of my place and Bill McKinney's place.Bill called 15 minutes later. "Are you trying to kill our grass intentionally?" he asked. I was out the door in a flash. The liner was so hot I could hardly touch it.The damaged grass was watered immediately and has received an ample dose of water each day since. Bill bought a bag of lawn patch and placed it at the corner of his house, so it is visible every time I walk out my front door. He offered it to me, but I'm stubborn enough to think the damaged area can be saved. Bill laughs at me, but I'm sticking to my guns on this one. I'll let you know.