100 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Jan. 12, 1921

A cleaner Pendleton is being sought by the street committee of the city council. Manuel Friedly, chairman, has started to obtain the cooperation of the citizens, the street department and the police, to bring about cleaner and healthier conditions, especially along Main street. Educating the public and the merchants to use the numerous galvanized iron rubbish containers along the streets is one of the first steps to be taken. Paper boxes, cigarette containers and other material which is carelessly thrown to the street by pedestrians and by some store keepers should go into the containers, Mr. Friedly declares. The city ordinances cover that request, he says, and the police will be asked to enforce the ordinances. “We cannot keep Main street clean with the flusher alone,” Mr. Friedly says. “We must have cooperation from the public.”

50 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Jan. 12, 1971

Loren “Red” Caldwell, 54, Hermiston, is a laborer who has run the gauntlet from the days of beef and brawn on the end of a 10-pound sledge to the current era of high-powered automated machinery. When he left high school in Umatilla to support himself as a gandy dancer on the railroad at 38 cents an hour (with 90 cents deducted daily for room and board), Red had what was considered a good job in those depression days. Caldwell commented that he and others on his crew drove spikes on 400 railroad ties a day. “You had to be swinging that sledge all the time because there were plenty of men waiting for your job,” he said. By today’s standards his starting salary was meager. Red has had many better days. He recalls in the 1965 flood as a heavy equipment foreman in the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton, he grossed $1,100 in five days. Today’s laborer hiring out of the Pendleton office of Local 682 earns $5.15 an hour plus the fringe benefits paid by the employee like health and welfare. Caldwell likes his union, and he can see that eventually he may retire with a liveable income.

25 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Jan. 12, 1996

Two and a half minutes into the game, it happened. A drive down the court with just one thing on her mind, her shoes stop just behind the 3-point line. The ball left her hands in a high arc over the court, spun toward the basket and dropped through, touching nothing but net. And just like that, Mac-Hi forward Nicole Christian scored the 1,000th point of her varsity career. Christain said she didn’t realize how close she was until she read in the paper in the preseason that she had 965 points. Saturday she went into the game against Ontario with 997 points, ready for that one shot that would put her over the top. “It came a lot sooner than I thought it would. … Coach (Lori) Webb wanted me to break it at home, and it happened,” she said. Of getting exactly 1,000 points on the 3-point shot, she said, “That put an exclamation point on it.”