100 years ago — 1921

After the strenuous days of a busy holiday period, a tired bunch of saleswomen of the J. C. Penney Company forgot their fatigue Saturday night when Manager J. E. Akey presented seven of them with checks aggregating a little over five hundred dollars. Those who have been with the organization a year or more share in this new cooperative plan. An outstanding feature of the opportunities offered to the men associated with the J. C. Penney company is the chance to become partners in not only one store, but as many as they are able to develop. This bonus plan is a new departure in giving women employees a share in the earnings of the organization.

50 years ago — 1971

Arlin Phillips knows all about sinking feelings. Last week he was working with a Milton-Freewater city crew burning weeds at the bottom of what’s known as Milton hill, where Highway 11 enters the city from the south. Phillips stepped in a patch of mud that had washed into a ditch from fields to the south. His foot stuck. He freed it, but the other foot sank deeper. In moments he was chest deep in the mud. His fellow city employees looped a fire hose under his arms and tugged. But they couldn’t get him out. So the workers ran a backhoe up to the ditch — and scooped Phillips out of the mud with the machine’s shovel.

25 years ago — 1996

Earlier this month, the Yellowhawk Clinic lost the services of a natural resource known as Tessie Williams. Williams retired after 28 years as a community health representative. Those who know Williams were not surprised that this was not a somber occasion, but one which saw Williams and friends doing the Macarena and sharing lots of laughter. According to Williams, community health representatives were vital to bridging the gap between doctors and Indian people. “Many of the elders spoke Indian and there was a misunderstanding at that time between doctors and elders, so we became interpreters,” she said. Williams intends to participate in all her traditional functions including the annual Medicine Wheel.