Our Lummi Island Community

Tome 1975/06

LUMMI ISLAND COMMUNITY CLUB

N E W S L E T T E R

J U N E 1 9 7 5

Most of the activity of the Community Club recently has been devoted to the planning and preparation of the gourmet’s delight commonly known as the Pancake Feed the 6th of July. Claire Peterson is the maitre d’ and will demonstrate her expertise handling people ‑ and cooks. A few of the more charming islanders who devoted their time and effort in the past similar functions swashing around in dish water would like to give some of the other worthy volunteers a chance to enhance their lives again by taking over this thrilling cooperative venture. It’s a beautiful opportunity to remove the grime and crust from your little pinkies, too. The Island Blue Grass Band will entertain between bites. Don’t rightly know how they came by that name, but we have always used the term in conjunction with other grass seeds and clover. There are many kinds of blue grass too and even some hybridized. Guess that sort of fits, though, as it really is a talented group of young people sowing the seeds of harmony upon any receptive audience, hoping that the crop produced will be a pleasant memory for all. We all appreciate their willingness and want to thank them for offering.

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REMEMBER THE FLEA MARKET, CRAFT SHOW and MERCHANDISE MART come JULY 5th at THE ISLANDER.

Enter the fun and your collectibles you might even sell the stuff you bought at the last one!

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The Ladies Auxiliary of the Fire Department will host their ANNUAL WINE TASTING PARTY at the Scenic Estates clubhouse on SATURDAY, JULY 12th starting at 8:00 p.m. Proceeds, as usual, will benefit this department. Let’s hope that the weatherman cooperates as well, as he has for the past couple of years and favors us with another warm evening. Tickets are limited, so get yours early from any of the Auxiliary members.

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Sixth Annual LUAU at the Scenic Estates clubhouse will be on SATURDAY, AUGUST 2nd, with dinner served from 6 to 8 pm. Tickets are $4.00 for adults and $2.50 for children under 12 and can be bought from Peggy Aiston (758‑2578), Toni Loetterle (758‑2594) or any other Project Group member. With plans still a ‘boiling, door prizes, a let’s all sing session, music and dancing are already lined up for the evening.

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SALMON BARBECUE details later. A joint fund raising project of Community Club and Grange.

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Every Sunday

CHURCH SERVICES 10:30 AM ….…SUNDAY SCHOOL 10:15 AM……… Carl Calhoun, Minister

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The last Community Club meeting of the season was very well attended and the many assorted delectable culinary creations were something to behold. In this respect it was the best ever.

Once again we are forced to bring up the issue of dogs ‑ the freely roaming kind. Seems these critters are the chief cause of neighborhood friction in most every community, and the island is no exception. Why so many dogs are left to wander as they please has been a social question for a long time. I have a pet personal theory that it is an unconscious attempt by many persons to live out their own frustrations against authority and restrictions or regulations through the assumed freedom of their pets (this sage observation is given to you at no extra charge). However, to get back to the nasty island incidents that happened recently with dogs ‑seems a week ago a dog attacked a young lady bicyclist on Legoe Bay Rd. and caused serious injury to one‑of her legs. Also this last week a large German shepherd attacked a lady walking on one of the roads of Scenic Estates and tore her face badly. In the former instance one of the relatives or friends of the injured girl felt compelled to retaliate by breaking the first floor windows of the home of the dog’s owner. Guess he was a mite irritated. Hardly a week goes by but that someone does not complain about some dogs ruining their garden, killing their sheep, chasing a deer or making a general nuisance of themselves barking all night or day. Most amazing is the fact that most of these owners of these animals are beautiful people themselves. We wonder, is it again going to be necessary to try and legislate a moral responsibility?

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A member of an old pioneer island family has suggested by way of a letter to the Community Club that it’s about time that the name of the island be changed. Most people lie believes still think that Lummi Island is part of the Indian reservation, and he feels we should be recognized as a separate entity. Apparently there are quite a few others who feel that way too, and it was suggested that possibly a request for suggestions could be instigated and perhaps a suitable name would be uncovered that would be acceptable to the residents. The legal ramifications would have to be considered also. It is an interesting thought and no doubt will be pursued further. Apparently this island has had several names in the past, according to the recorded history of the area. In the matter of property sales on the island it seems that the local Bellingham people are finally discovering Lummi Island. We note that quite a few parcels have been recently sold to people from in and round Bellingham, and judging from the number of people contacting us a lot of other locals are looking for property here, and not necessarily acreage either.

We are happy to learn that the Pabors have had a settlement with the company that owned the barge which wrecked their marina and are now waiting for the pile driver to get started repairing it. Guess this contractor is expected momentarily ‑ every day.

Mr. and Mrs. Leo House (she’s Maurine Melcher’s sister Dorothy) are visiting on the island this week while Mrs. House recuperates from a broken foot.

We understand that a couple of more publicized VIPs are presumably temporarily residing on the island. One a Nobel peace prize winning authoress by the name of Annie Dillard, and a TV personality (a day time drama actress) Beverly Pemberton and her daughter. The former is an acquaintance of the George Gerholds and the latter of the Bill Gregorys. Their respective talents are most noteworthy and national acclaim has been only part of their reward. Hmmm this should be an ideal place to recharge their batteries and gather fuel for another go around ‑ trouble is, though, Lummi Island looks too much like paradise to a lot of these gifted people and their talents sort of take a back seat once they get here.

Speaking of VIPs, we also got us a couple of newsworthy people living on the island that the Bellingham Herald featured in extensive writeups recently ‑ with pictures yet. Judy Bush, a local lady type attorney was one of those featured. She has been teaching a popular class on women and the law, trying to acquaint them with legal problems that they might and probably would encounter in their day to day living. Jim Miller’s publicity featured his star gazing avocation. Jim has been expecting outer space creatures daily ‑ for years. He refuses to be deterred from his belief that the earthlings are being had by their astro beings. ‑ So I been telling you we have some interesting people on this island.

In the event any of you commuter and transient types are curious about what gives with the piles of bark spread along the sides of the 1-5 freeway, let me enlighten you (again no charge): It is a new landscaping technique whereby the existing ground cover of grass and weeds is killed off by a chemical weed killer, usually amino triasole, about a year beforehand. Bark is then spread several inches deep over the areas to be planted with shrubs and trees by a high pressure blower mounted on a truck. When the chemical loses its effectiveness in 7 or 8 months or so, holes are dug and the plants are planted without having to till up the whole area. Apparently this works as well as complete prior cultivation and also reduces erosion and future weeds.

Last month’s W H 0 A M I? ‑ RAY SCHULLER

F.I.R.E. D.E.P.A.R.T.M.E.N.T. F.L.I.C.K.E.R.I.N.G.S. Your volunteer firemen have had no ambulance or fire calls during the past two months, which is “just the way we like it” to quote Chief Tuttle. Weekly fire meetings continue every Thursday nite, with advanced first aid training occupying most of the recent meetings.

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YOUNG, HARD WORKING LADY LOOKING FOR ANY TYPE OF WORK ANYWHERE. CONTACT BUFF LAPOF, P.O. BOX 6, LUMMI ISLAND.

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For years, islanders have said SOMEONE should write a history of Lummi Island while our early timers are still around to share their memories. Well, Beth Hudson and Peggy Aiston have committed themselves to the project and have already devoted many hours to reading-type research (for dates, facts and figures) before starting the personal interviews. They thought Newsletter readers might enjoy the following one hundred year old news story:

From the BELLINGHAM BAY MAIL, Whatcom, Washington Territory, Saturday, July 17, 1875.

This week we visited with Mr. Sutcliffe Baxter his sheep ranch on Lummi Island. It was a rather calm sultry day on the water but the well‑robed canoe and umbrellas brought into requisition made the trip an exceedingly pleasant one. The buildings of the ranch are located on his pre emption claim, on which is a beautiful and well sheltered little cove or harbor, opposite the Portage and Pt. Francis, where a small steamer or craft may land right on the gravelly beach. The range for the common sheep, of which there are about 700, extend from here to the southern point of the island, a strip of mountainous land three by five or six miles in extent, so much so that the shepherd finds great difficulty corralling the sheep for shearing, and often miss many of them. At the landing referred to we found a flock of 25 Cotswolds under fence, some of which are pure thoroughbred stock imported directly from England. Mr. Baxter pointed out one large fellow that cost him $250. in London.

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BEACH SCHOOL NEWS

Well, it seems that people think things slow down the last few weeks of school. Not so on Lummi Island. Some things doing at that busy place were Susie Tyler bringing wheat berries and a hand grinder and each child in school taking a turn at grinding the flour which they later made into delicious pancakes and ate. Ardith Baumgart and Joanne Poole were there the last week to supervise the homemade ice cream cranking and of course they brought cake and cookies to go with! While the kids were eating (got to keep their interest up the last week … right?)..‑..other folks were working at things like the Anderson’s whole family of Jerry, Maria, Mike, and Peter picking up the bottles at Scenic Estates and recycling them. for craft money for the school …. and the parent help on inventory this year was wonderful … Charlotte Nesbit, Jeanne Finney, and Shirley Shanahan did the whole library, and Judy Eldred, Susie Tyler, Jeanne Finney, and Sally Hudson spent many a long hot, dirty, sweaty hours up in the attic wrestling around books, supplies, craft materials, etc. to get things organized and counted. It sure made things so much easier on those last two days when the rest of us … with Ada Knowles and Archie McMillan pitching in extra help and carrying and cleaning tried to get it wrapped up. And would you believe, Ron Spillman was still in the basement to the bitter end finishing up a tool cabinet for storage! Meanwhile …. on the lovely outside of our building Si Eldred was busy hauling and dumping gravel and drain pipe and on June 8 (yep, we do work on weekends even!) Angus McLane, Terry Moore, Lynn Dunlap, Rich Sandeen, Mary and Jake Granger, and Gary Gaines worked and hauled and spread that gravel into the drainage ditch up of tile tennis courts and then laid the drain pipe and spread more gravel. Thank Earl Granger every time you see him this summer for again donating the use of his backhoe (and teaching lots of people how to use it). I guess there is still more gravel needed to finish filling up the ditch and then there’ll have to be a rock raking party again so we can plant it and then done! ?? …..In the meantime, do be careful not to fall

in the ditch …. and on these hot summer days when you are there playing, please leave your bottles of liquid refreshment in your car or at home since it is school property and that just “isn’t done”! Another person we’d like to thank for lots of consistent helpful work with some of our children every morning is Colleen . It got so all the children wanted to get to work with her! That’s a good … in fact, great volunteer! So that you won’t think the kids were just letting everyone else work …. they were in there pitching too. They all wrote nominating letters for Mr. Lloyd Davis for the Senior Citizen of Whatcom County Award. They were beautiful letters! Each of you would have felt joy and pride to read them for they were truly from each child’s heart. They were talked about at the ceremony in Bellingham and they gave them all to Mr. Davis. It was a wonderful ceremony and Mr. Davis was very pleased that the children would completely surprise him because no one let the secret out for a whole two weeks. And then, Suzanne Westphal again this year wanted to show the children that she knows how very hard they keep trying and so she made her specially conceived award “THE MICHELLE’S I TRIED MY HARDEST AWARD”…which is a prize given to a child in each grade who consistently tried their best and hardest all year long. This year the winners were Kindergarten Brad Drafs; First Grade‑Kim Hudson; Second‑Wesley Eldred; Third‑Tonya Kirby, Fourth‑Rebecca Nesbit; Fifth‑Janine Poole. Speaking of gifts … they do keep coming in and we owe thanks this month to Jerry Anderson for the fine sorter he gave the school which can be used in a million ways … and will be! Not only do we thank him for it …. but thanks doubly to him and the guys he got to help him move it in … it weighs a ton! Also to Jeff Feeley for the punching bag he gave us to put in the basement so kids can let off steam … (how about teachers?) …. and Mr. Davis … those four fine tennis racquets and all those balls have really had the workout every single day! I guess last of all we’ll thank Joanne Poole, chairperson, and each and every kid, Mom and Dad and Friend of Beach School … who helped again to make our annual Field Day a wonderful funny successful day. Again the Richardsons, Bill and Faye, provided us with one of the loveliest spots on earth to congregate … it was sunny and warm … the food was the best ever … and every child won a ribbon in one event or another. Lots of good pictures were taken … and I hope someone got some of all those men wrestling around so much the kids couldn’t find enough room to race. Everyone came who could make it, young and young in spirit alike, and not a tear or frown was seen all day long. . What better way to end a fine school year?

D 0 N ‘T F 0 R G E T T H E S E D A T E S

SATURDAY, JULY 5th SWAP MEET AT THE ISLANDER

SUNDAY, JULY 6th PANCAKE BREAKFAST AT THE GRANGE HALL

SATURDAY, JULY 12th WINE TASTING PARTY AT SCENIC ESTATES CLUBHOUSE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2nd L U A U AT SCENIC ESTATES CLUBHOUSE

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