100 years ago — 1921

A new system enabling the public to watch bread making from the mixing of the dough to the finished loaf will be demonstrated to Pendleton people when the Bake-Rite Sanitary Bakery opens business Tuesday morning in the new Koch building on Main street. Mr. Karl Swanson has installed several Bake-Rite plants in the Northwest and only recently finished one at Bend, Oregon. The oven will have a capacity of 120 loaves every 40 minutes, and hot bread will be available every hour. Being glass enclosed, the machinery can be watched in mixing, weighing, cutting and baking. Gas will be used for fuel and later electricity will be installed for this purpose. The bakery is the first business to move into the new building.

50 years ago — 1971

For some of the increasing numbers of veterans entering the labor market, it’s proving to be a discouraging road toward a steady job and paycheck sufficient to support themselves and their families. It can be especially tough for young men who went into the service from high school and have no previous civilian job experience. Ed Pellessier, fire chief at Umatilla Army Depot, himself a veteran of World War II and the father of a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, has found a way to make room for at least a few of those ex-servicemen. He has had some vacant firemen positions in his department reengineered to training slots, and this fall three Vietnam veterans have been hired to fill those jobs. In addition to required on-the-job training, the men have agreed as a condition of employment to enroll in college-level studies equivalent to 45 credit hours to be completed within two years. Both the hiring and the agreement were effected under the Veterans Readjustment Appointments program.

25 years ago — 1996

In the not-so-distant future, students from throughout Umatilla and Morrow counties will likely help their teachers troubleshoot computer problems. Video conferencing may also be in place, allowing one teacher to reach out to a multitude of classrooms for instruction. Both goals were developed by Michael Lasher, the Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District’s new information technology director. Last week, Lasher spearheaded a hook-up of the tiny Ukiah School District to the Internet, an on-line existence he likened to an educational democracy. “You are at no disadvantage in being in Ukiah than if you lived in New York City,” he explained. For Lasher, computers are tools that help students and teachers open educational opportunities. They are not, he said, ends in themselves. “It’s not how computers work at a component level but how to use information effectively and how to make computers useful to ordinary people,” Lasher said.