100 Years Ago

March 25, 1921

Frank Branch Riley, who has been able to break into very exclusive organizations in the East and tell millionaire bank presidents and habitual world travelers the story of Oregon and the northwest was the chief speaker at the Pendleton Commercial Association banquet. Mr. Riley spoke for an hour or longer and his listeners did a strange thing. They applauded vigorously for several minutes and gave him a “curtain call,” an honor never before accorded a speaker in this city during the last 16 years. In a straight from the shoulder talk on community cooperation Mr. Riley made it clear that to hold membership in the local commercial organization is not merely a duty but a privilege every clear thinking businessman, professional man and farmer will enjoy without much urging. The speaker extolled Secretary Claud Barr as a man who went to Astoria when the town was asleep and inside of four years had made it a community that is now knocking chips off both shoulders of Portland and getting away with it.

50 Years Ago

March 25, 1971

Several Mac Hi girls are sporting, or soon will be wearing, a simple bracelet with the name of a serviceman and a date inscribed on it. To the average onlooker it looks like a “going-steady” bracelet given them by a boyfriend. In fact, however, the name of the serviceman and the corresponding date refer to an individual who is either a prisoner of war in North Vietnam or missing in action. The date tells the wearer when the serviceman was last seen or heard from by the allies. The amulets are sold by a Los Angeles firm, Voices in Vital America, which is dedicated to determining the status of America’s POWs and its missing men in action. The girls pledge to VIVA they will not remove the bracelet until the Red Cross is allowed into Hanoi and can assure the prisoner’s family of his status and that he receives humane treatment.

25 Years Ago

March 25, 1996

Spring is almost a week old, but the temperature didn’t reflect that this morning. This morning’s low of 17 in downtown Pendleton was a record for the date. The previous low for March 25 was 19 in 1927. The normal Pendleton low for the date is 36. It was also a record-breaking morning at the Pendleton airport, where 19 degrees broke the previous record low of 22 in 1955. Other lows in Eastern Oregon included 13 in Bend and Redmond, 14 in Burns, and just 9 in Prineville. But that was downright toasty compared to this morning’s national low: minus 21 at Butte, Mont.