100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 11, 1925

Rural School Badly Shot Up

When Charles M. Miller, teacher in the Richardson school district, just east of Bend, visited the school house this morning, he found that the place had been visited by vandals, who shattered a small desk bell, windows, a wall clock and hanging lights with bullets from a rifle or pistol.

Since the school has not been in use since a few days before Christmas, the vandalism occurred at some time during the Christmas recess. The shooting up of the school house has been reported to Deschutes county officials and an investigation is being made. In recent months, much wood has been stolen from this school.

Many Clothes Lines Raided By Thieves

Bend women who do their own laundry are utilizing indoor drying space today, and will probably continue to do so for many weeks, following systematic raids conducted on clothes lines, especially on the west side of the city. Thieves made a clean sweep at a dozen homes. It wasn’t that they were after any particular kind of clothing or linen- they just took everything and in so doing removed the reserve supply of many families.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 11, 1950

George P. Putnam Former Publisher, Dies

George Palmer Putnam, 63, retired publisher and author, former mayor of Bend and owner of The Bend Bulletin in early days, died today at the Trona, Calif., hospital. Hospital attaches said death came at 6:05 a.m., the United Press reported. Putnam had been under treatment for internal hemorrhages and uremic poisoning.

Putnam was the former husband of Aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who disappeared on a flight across the Pacific ocean in the summer of 1937. Miss Earhart was Putnam’s second wife. He married Dorothy Binney in 1911, when he was a resident of Bend. Their oldest son, David Binney Putnam was born here in May 1913. A second son, George Palmer Jr., was born after the family left Bend. It was after leaving this city that Putnam was divorced from his first wife.

Two years after Miss Earhart was lost in the Pacific, he married Mrs. Jean-Marie Cosigny James, Beverly Hills socialite. They were divorced in 1944. In 1945, Putnam married Miss Margaret I. De Haviland, 36. He was then 56. She was at his bedside when he died.

It was in 1910 that Putnam came to Bend from New York where he had been engaged in newspaper and publicity work. Putnam found plenty of copy in the Hill and Harriman epochal struggle for rights of way in the rugged Deschutes gorge, in their $25,000,000 race to Bend, and wrote special articles for the Oregonian.

Shortly after joining the staff of The Bulletin, he purchased interest in the newspaper. It was while Putnam was publisher that The Bulletin, established as a weekly paper in 1903, became a daily paper on Dec. 6, 1916.

The publisher, author, explorer served as mayor of Bend for two terms, in 1912 and 1913.

While a resident of Bend, Putnam constructed several buildings including his home at 606 Congress. One building was on Franklin, now occupied by the Consumer Gas. This was one of The Bulletin’s early-day homes. He also erected a building on the site of the present Hunnel Motors, on Bond street. With associates, he purchased from A.M. Drake, the Pinelyn park section of Bend, which was platted. It is also recalled that Bend’s sewer system serving the business district was constructed while Putnam was mayor.

Lava Bear ‘Dope’ Book Compiled

A new booklet titled, “Lava Bears Dope Sheet” and containing information for press and radio about the Bruin hoop squad, today was released by Bend high school officials. Editors of the publication, which was compiled under the direction of Coach Roger Wiley and Dean W. Tate, school journalism instructor, are students Larry Pritchett and Larry Carroll.

The publication, the first of its type to be released from the school, gives biographical sketches on Wiley, Cub coach John Jacobs, and the lava Bear varsity players. Also contained in the booklet is a brief history on the Bend high school gymnasium. Wiley said today that he hopes the journalism classes at the school will make an annual project of compiling press and radio dope books on all athletic activities of the institution.

Central Oregon Hit by Gale, Heavy Storm

Driven by a wind that reached a velocity of 72 miles an hour at the Redmond airport, snow whitened much of central Oregon early today, after blocking the South Santiam highway to traffic and trapping a bus holding seven passengers. In Bend, the fall of wet snow this morning was measured at three inches. Snow removal equipment was called into action.

The bus stranded in the western Cascades by the night storm was a Pacific Trailways carrier, en route from Eugene to Bend. The bus was stalled by deep snow near Tombstone prairie, at midnight. The bus motor was kept running, to provide heat for the passengers and early this morning the passengers were take to the state highway department division headquarters, at the Santiam junction, and were reported none the worse for their night’s experience.

Highway maintenance men reported a fall of 36 inches of snow in the Santiam pass country last night. It was the heaviest fall of snow reported in one night in the history of the modern highway over the Santiam summit.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 11, 1975

Ernestine doesn’t serve as saint of male operator

Comedienne Lily Tomlin’s character Ernestine may be the patron saint of most telephone operators, but Jim Harris is not a true believer.

Harris is a male telephone operator.

“I’m glad that not all the other operators look like her, though,” said Harris, 26, one of three male phone operators (out of a total of 52) in Bend.

Harris, who was raised in Grants Pass, came to visit his parents in Bend last year when he was released from the U.S. Navy. As a reactor operator who controlled the nuclear reactor on a Navy submarine, he wanted to work for a nuclear power company.

But, Harris said, “I kind of liked it here. I couldn’t thing of any better place to work than for the phone company, since there weren’t any nuclear power companies.” Harris began working for Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Co. in March. Though he enjoys being an operator, he would like to transfer into electronics or become a repairman or splicer.

“Since I was a veteran, I was given several choices,” he said. “The best way to get on (as a repairman) in this location was to become an operator.”

Being a male in what was, until recently, an all-female field, has its drawbacks. Harris worked New Year’s Eve, and dealt with an inebriated customer who wanted to call New York. Before the call was completed, the customer tossed some obscenities into the conversation. “He wouldn’t have said it if it had been a female operator,” Harris said.

Callers sometimes are surprised to find they’re dealing with a male operator. Harris said it’s easy for an operator to hear conversations even though the caller may have covered has receiver with his hand.

“I usually kid them about it,” he says, when the jokes are made at his expense. “Lots of people accidentally say ‘ma’am’,” he said. “Usually they’ll change. If they don’t I don’t correct them.”

Still, harris enjoys his work.

“It’s interesting calling around — like Diamond Lake or something. You ask them how much snow there is, or something like that. I try to get back to the personal relationships. Everything’s getting away from it,” he said.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 11, 2000

Bend Water Pageant to be revived

Ethel Stratton is seeking help in her effort to revive a piece of old-fashioned community spirit.

Stratton is organizing a come-back of the Bend Water Pageant, a summertime celebration that Bend residents enjoyed from 1933 to 1965. The pageant, planned for mid August, will be a weeklong fund-raiser for the Deschutes County Victims; Assistance program. And all the events will be family-oriented, including an ice cream social, fashion show and concert of historical music. Events will be held downtown, in the Old Mill District and in Drake Park.

Stratton has been working on the project for two months. She came up with the idea after trying to think of a way to generate funds for the Victims Assistance Foundation, a group that raises money for the Victims’ Assistance Program.

The victims program helps crime victims understand the court system and assists with other needs. Stratton hopes to raise $50,000.

But she also hopes that reestablishing the festival will help bring some old-fashioned community feeling back to Bend.

“We want to take that spirit and educate people on why Bend is the most livable place in the world,” Stratton said.

Back in the 1930s, the festival included floats and Water Pageant princesses and drew up to 20,000 people to Bend.

The revived festival is scheduled to run from August 14 to 20. The Youth Council of Central Oregon has planned a concert featuring 100 years of music and an ice cream social for the first event.

The concert will include everything from barbershop quartets to jazz and more than 200 bands have said they want to participate, Stratton said.

The youth council will donate the proceeds from the concert to the Senior Citizen Building Fund for the planned senior center.

And on Aug. 18, a Junior-Senior Prom is scheduled. It’s not a typical prom. Young people will take senior citizens as their dates. The dance will be held in the Boys and Girls Club, site of the Old Bend High gym where high school dances were held in the 1920s and 30s. The festival will also include a big-band dance, with music from the 1930s.

Stratton has asked for $9,000 in start-up money fro the Deschutes County Commission to help pay for the festival. She also plans to ask the Bend City Council for money. And she’s hoping people in the community will volunteer to help with everything from serving on the festival’s board to driving senior citizens to events.

“We’re just looking for people who want to be involved,” Stratton said.