Family Business Mystery Maybe Solved

A mystery that was launched in Annie Charnley Eveland's Etcetera column of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin seems to have been solved  A picture was recovered showing an unidentified man in front of the steel warehouse of B. Barer And Sons, our family business.
 In depth research seems to point to a George Gibbs, a Walla Wallan who lived to be 110 Gibbs was frequently featured in articles in the UB as Walla Walla's oldest citizen.  He died in 1972.  According to the article, Gibbs lived alone, cooked for himself and chopped wood all the way into his 110th year.  Perhaps, age is just a state of mind.

Walla Walla Paper Does Feature On Goldberg

The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin recently did a feature on TV writer-novelist Lee Goldberg.  Goldberg, a cousin of mine, has a new novel  called True Fiction.
 Lee's connection to Walla Walla is his mom, the late Jan Curran, my Uncle Dave's daughter, who graduated from Walla Walla High School in 1955.  UB writing Annie Charnley Eveland, who wrote the article on Goldberg, formed a long distance friendship with Curran, herself a newspaper feature writer. 

B. Barer And Sons In News In Walla Walla

It's been well over 17 years since the family business B. Barer And Sons was sold to Oxarc, one of it's suppliers. However the company has come up in an interesting "guess who" in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.  Annie Charnley Eveland, published a picture taken by the Rose Street Steel Warehouse above.  Readers have had fun guessing who the bearded man could be. 
My Uncle Arny (my dad's brother) guessed that it may have been Scotty Cook, who my dad wrote about in his blog years ago.   Eveland wrote a little about what she learned about Scotty and mentioned my dad and Uncle Arny in a recent edition of her feature column "Etcetera".

Old Walla Walla Radio Rememembered 19--KTEL Newsman Terry McConn

Terry McConn was the newsman, morning show personality when I was at KTEL.  At the time, it was exclusively Country music with news and sports. The station owner had grown old and for the most part, ran the station over the phone.  The motivation had to come from within. 
McConn was a hard worker.  He was amazingly focused and always delivered. 
I worked at KTEL twice and both times, McConn was there.  I remember his work on the story of  a local elderly woman's murder by a local teen.
It was a pleasure working with Terry. We were always on friendly terms. 
After working at KTEL, McConn would begin a 30 year career with the local Walla Walla paper, the UB.   After I moved to the Seattle area, I saw him on the news, being interview after he witnessed an execution at the State Penn.  It was at the local paper that Terry probably got the recognition he deserved. 
Terry was recently featured in an article by UB columnist Annie Charnley Eveland.  After 30 years on the city beat, he is retiring.  We wish him well!

Walla Walla Trivia Posts Mentioned In That Town's Paper

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin feature editor Annie Charnley Eveland has recently mentioned this blog in a couple of separate features. 
First was the Denney's Hi Spot commercial (above), one of my memories from childhood.  It was a local classic and had been hoping that someone had it on tape.  Enter Wa-Hi graduate Hank Unck, who worked at KTEL during the early 1970s and was able to e-mail it to me. 
The next was Eddie Feigner (pronounced Faynor).  Eddie was a legendary fast-pitch softball pitcher, who traveled the world with his 4 man team known as the King And His Court.  Eddie was inducted into the Washington State Sports Hall Of Fame, along with some other better known sports figures in a ceremony before a Mariners game that my wife and I attended earlier this month.

Blog Mentioned In Walla Walla Paper

I was surprised a few days ago to find that my post about the old South Eastern Washington TV show Uncle Jimmy's Clubhouse was picked up by the Annie Charnley Eveland's column in the  Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.  Sharing childhood memories, some like this one, long gone, and rekindling other's memories, is one of the fun things about writing the blog. I was able to get the information to write about the Clubhouse from the "My Town Walla Walla" page on facebook.
I barely recall having my name read from the birthday book when I was little.  I believe they butchered my last name.