The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1948-07-01
AS Tc,,1plls Fugits !.
BY HAL CLARK

CLARK
we came into heck of a wind
and we knew winds when we
felt them.
= 4
We found that there were three
cities located close together; Pasco
on the north bank of the Column
bia, Kennewick just across the
river, and Richland up the river
a few miles. We felt the wind
that blew that day and saw the
dust that it stirred up, but there
was another kind of storm in
progress which we did not feel
until we settled down and started
trying to find a place to live.
= .
We found ten new people here
for every old timer. People went
into business wherever they could
find an opening-in shacks, cab
ms, in hastily constructed build
ings. These people demanded inn
provements before the settl d
population realized what was hap
pening. It was a boom in all its
fury.
Land was worth several hundred
dollars an acre here in the irri-
gated country, then $500 an acre,
then $3.50, then $1,000. I talked
with the owner of a cherry or
chard yesterday. He said his
cherry orchard was worth $500
or $4,000 an acre. The cherry
season is in full swing, and the
man with two and a half acres
will get ten tons. The strawberry
season is just closing. Tons and
tons of these also are produced.
But the real berries out here are
the wages and salaries paid by
the federal government and the
General Electric company at Rich
land and in the Hanford atomic
area to its thousands af employees
who are here to develop atomic
energy for commercial uses aYfo
who hope earnestly that what
they produce may never again
be necessary for destructive pur-
poses.
go
Now, Ed, don't get the idea that
money grows on trees out here.
This is not a playground Palm
Beach or Miami, by any means.
It is place where people work
hard. Everybody works. You sell
dom ever see an idle person.
When beople back there ask about
this area, tell them if we need
them very badly, they'll be sent
for.
. .
Meanwhile. there are m any
things to do before living will be
right and in line with progressive
American communities. We need
more school buildings and many
more classrooms for children all
the way from the first to the
18th grade: This community of
about 10000 has high school
auditorium that will seat a cor
porals guard in comparison to
cities of 5000 which have audi
forums seating up to 2,000.r If
you want a seat at game, you've
got to line up as soon as school
is out.
-
We were short of homes but
we're catching up. To get a date
with dentist, it is necessary to
apply several months ahead. II
you want date with what used
to be the fair sex, you can get it
on a minutes notice.
. .
Not long after arriving here, ]
was told that this area was a
republican stronghold" I looked
up the records and found that
FDR carried the county in 1914,
that Washington has a democratic
governor, and that its senior Unit
ed States senator also is a demo-
crat. -
. -
The flood, about which you no
doubt haye read, has done its
worst and things along the flood
ed riverfront area are returning
to normal. A few days after the
water started subsiding l found
people looking upon their mud
laden shacks with a longing IN
their eyes. They couldn't wait
much longer to get back. It might
have been cheaper and much better
to move on to another cabin IN
another area, but that isn't the
way with human beings. Out mere
they're the same as there. They
start rebuilding after every dls-
aster. That's civilization for you'
isn't it Ed?
. .
A woman who has lived afons
the river for many, many years
is having steel stakes driven INTO
her lawn to mark the heigth OF the
flood on certain days. In q lew
days, those stakes will be all tnat
will be left of the flood.