Happy Easter to one and all

WILD START--The last week in March is beginning pretty wild with wind, rain, thunder, lightning and power outages. Does this mean April will come in like a lamb? Sure hope so! From the sounds of it, we're going to have a pretty wet week, so keep your eyes on the creeks and dikes and report any flooding to the Sheriff's Office immediately. I didn't hear any flood warnings yet but that can always change, so it's best to be on our toes!

As today is April Fools Day, I hope you aren't getting fooled too much, but if you were the victim of a really great April Fools joke or prank, I'd love to hear about it!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays between April 1-7 are Linda McClain, Mike Carroll, Vaal Gribskov, Dana McClain, Kylie Moore, Patti Phillips, Marissa Longtain, Matt Wright, Charlie Buennagel, Janet Bryan, Karl Johnson, Whitley Wirkkala, Judy Wilde, Debbie Cutbirth, Michaela Phillips is five this week, Karen Bell, Mikayla Bell and my Aunt Marian Vik is having a special birthday party on Friday. Happy Birthday everybody!

Happy Anniversary wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Mike Phelan, Mr. and Mrs. Don Wages and Mr. and Mrs. Terry Bonny.

EASTER EGG HUNT TIME--The Lions Club will be putting out hundreds of eggs in Vista Park and children will be hurrying and scurrying to pick them up. Of course, they will really be having their eyes open for those special prize eggs which will entitle them to some awesome Easter baskets! The fun all begins Saturday at 11 a.m. Make sure you aren't late, as these kids sweep the place clean in no time. The Easter Bunny is making his usual appearance, so come and join the fun and pray for sunshine!

SPECIAL CHURCH SERVICES--The Skamokawa United Methodist Church will have special services this week. Today is "Maundy Thursday Seder Meal," at 5 p.m. Tomorrow there will be a Good Friday service which will also be at 5 p.m. On Easter Sunday the annual Easter breakfast is at 9:30 a.m., and their Easter Sunday service at 10:45 a.m. They invite you to join them during this holiest of weeks. All other area churches are having special services as well. All churches will be taking part in an Easter Prayer Vigil which will last from tonight, at 7 p.m., until Sunday at 7 a.m.

HOSANNA MUSICALE--The first part of the special services at the Methodist Church was their annual Hosanna Musicale last Sunday, which has been held on Palm Sunday for over 25 years. Randi Curtis was in charge of getting folks together for this and in spite of her worry that she was not going to have enough performers, the program was a full one. I took part in this event for the first time and sang a couple of my Mom's favorite songs. All of you who enjoy singing or playing an instrument, are encouraged to notify the church and they'll be glad to put you on their call list. It's always great to have new talent and we have some wonderful performers in this, and surrounding areas. The piano players were fantastic; I had no idea there were so many who tickled the ivories so well! Little Rose Carosa was the youngest entertainer of the group and she is showing a lot of potential. I wish I had her fearless attitude about performing. Good job Rose! There were five Skamokawa Grangers who took part in this year's musicale and we hope to get even more to participate next year. This was a fund raiser for the St. James Family Center's pre-school scholarships. If you missed out on coming to the musicale and you still want to help out, give the Family Center a call 795-8612. Children are our future and providing care and educational opportunities for all children, is a goal we should all be trying to realize.

NEW EXHIBIT AT REDMEN HALL--"American FolkLife - A Commonwealth of Cultures" will soon be showing up at Redmen Hall. This Smithsonian Exhibit was shown here some 20 years ago, but it's being updated and changed a bit for this exhibit. You will see many photos of our local area and heritage and I'm sure it will be quite a great display of past and present country living. For more information and exact dates, call the hall at 795-3007.

FIRE SAFETY MEETING--The Skamokawa Fire Dept. will be at the Skamokawa Grange Hall on April 12 at 7 p.m., for a public meeting regarding fire safety. This will be in place of our usual meeting. We would like everyone in our area to attend this important public service program, to learn what is really necessary to keep one's home ready in case of fire. We urge you to hear what the fire department has to say.

DOING FINE NOW--I heard from former resident and Eagle reporter, Sunny Manary, and she is doing just fine now after being sick for a bit. She said she was tickled to see her get well wishes in my column. She survived the recent storm up that way just fine, although it kept her hubby busy at the hatchery with alarms going off numerous times. At any rate, it's good to hear that all is well with Sunny and that once again, she is her usual sunny self!

BIG SALE--It's time to clean out those closets and garages and take those good, usable items to the Wahkiakum fairgrounds for their huge 4-H and Fairgrounds sale/fund raiser on April 10 and 11. Remember, nice items that you would want to buy yourself. Call the fairgrounds at 795-3480 if you've got something to donate or 795-3278 and they'll make arrangements for your donations.

COMING UP: MOVIE TIME--Did you mark April 17, 7 p.m., on your calendar yet? Now's the time to do that, as the kids have chosen the movie, King Corn to watch along with their new short films they made. This is a free event, co-sponsored by the Skamokawa Grange and the Wahkiakum WSU Extension office.

MAKE ONCE, ENTER TWICE--If you're one of those crafty people now would be the time to enter them into the grange contests that are coming up in May; they will be judged on May 8 at the Skamokawa Grange Hall. When that contest is over, you will get your items back and be able to enter them in our county fair in August. Two contests for the work of one!

RODS AND REELS--On the first weekend after Memorial Day, the Rods and Reels Car Show and Sturgeon Derby is held at the Skamokawa Grange Hall/Park area adjacent to it and the Wahkiakum Fairgrounds. This year the event will be held June 5 and already the car entries are coming in. Lee Tischer is our contact person up this way and along with Dennis Reid, they are working real hard on the car show part of things. You can call Lee at 360-430-4377 or email him at tisch@centurytel.net or call Dennis at 360-795-3589. If you'd like an entry form, you can give one of the guys a shout but if you have a computer, the form and info are available at the Wahkiakum Chamber website: http://www.wahkiakumchamber.com. This is a terrific fund raising event in which proceeds go for scholarships for Naselle and Wahkiakum High School students. Admission for spectators is free, so come on down and see the awesome cars and some really big sturgeon!

BIG REUNION--Susan McClain Kuhn has put together a growing list of Wahkiakum High School Almuni and this will make it easier for groups to find their classmates and put together reunions. A 70's reunion is being planned for July 24 at the Skamokawa Grange Hall. The Mule Train All School/Decade Alumni Reunion group has been formed and if you're on Facebook, go to "groups" and find that one and click on it to join. Soon there will be a very handy list of alumni available for those in charge of putting these class reunions together. Susan's hope is to have an "all school" reunion one day. This is a great resource that she is compiling so we thank her for doing this.

HAPPY EASTER--I want to wish all of you a wonderful Easter holiday and while it looks like it will be a little soggy on Sunday, there may be a break on Saturday morning so we hope those egg hunts aren't too wet. Bring rain jackets and boots just in case. Enjoy!

OUT OF THE PAST--Back in 1945, the week began clear and cold and beautiful. However, towards the end of the week, it got very stormy and by April 5, Camp was closed due to the amount of snow in the woods, which certainly didn't make the loggers happy. By April 7, it was snowing in Cathlamet. It was a great week for smelt fishermen; 3,000 boxes of the silvery things were caught by Woodland on April 4. The show "Atlantic City" was playing in town, but Grandma Everest didn't think it was so good and neither did Marcella Tover who went with her. Earlier that week, Carol Pedersen, Enis Danielsen and Geraldine Althauser and children all surprised Marian Healy at her home and helped her celebrate her 27th birthday on April 2. Ken McNally stopped by the Cathlamet Main Street telephone office to visit the Everests and said that his brother Bob was also in the service and was even taller than him!

In 1960, the week began wet and cold and miserable but then it was totally beautiful and nice the rest of the week. The Junior/Senior Ball and Banquet was held on April 1 that year and David Pedersen and Nancy Moores sang and everyone said they did a wonderful duet. David's date for the evening was his Aunt Ruby (Page) Everest's neice, Kathy Kaulk. Florence and John West came in for a visit and said that Jim was not too well. John sold his Puget Island home to Eugene and Louise Arness and he took theirs. A trip to Longview via the bus that stopped daily in front of the Hotel Cathlamet was taken that week by the Everests and Grandma was pleased to have gotten a couple new dresses, a slip and new walking hat. While they were there, they saw Geraldine Althauser and Charleen Adams, and a few other people they knew; they had a nice day but were tired when they returned home. It was time for meetings at the Grange and Pocahontas that week. Lots of good food and lots of people there, especially with the Great Pocahontas gracing their meeting that week. The family was out to Marian (Everest) Healy's that week to help her celebrate her 42nd birthday.

All this according to the diaries of Grandma Elsie Everest.