Flashback: Redmond talent event looms big in 1949; Terrebonne kids roll their way to fitness in 1999

Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 9, 2024

100 Years Ago

May 15, 1924 — Preparing for exercises

Thursday, May 22 32 young men and women will receive diplomas which represent the completion of four years of high school work in the Redmond Union High School. The public is invited to attend the services which will be held in the gymnasium.

This graduating class is composed of 20 boys and 12 girls. The remarkable thing is the preponderance of boys. Seldom do high schools graduate in the class so many more boys than girls.

Redmond should feel proud because the proportion of boys to girls retained in the high schools is one of the most important factors used by the Russell-Sage Foundation in determining the competitiveness of high school system. The school that holds its boys through to the completion of the four-year course is considered a most effective one.

75 Years Ago

May 12, 1949 — Redmond talent event looms big

Girls to compete under strict rules

The real thing in a talent show to pick a Miss Redmond is being organized now for the evening of June 11 by a chamber of commerce committee headed by Lester Houk.

All of the conditions of the contest are to be made as nearly as possible like those at Seaside and Atlantic City, where the Miss Oregon and finally Miss America are selected.

Because the Redmond show is to be a spectacle in its own right, the committee expects a large attendance at the high school gymnasium, where it is to be held. It feels all the more assured of a crowd because Miss Joyce Davis, the Redmond girl who won the Miss Oregon title last year and placed sixth in the national contest, has promised to be on hand to sing-and to appear in the marvelous evening gown in which she won such acclaim last summer.

The winner of the Redmond show will go on to compete under the sponsorship of the Central Oregon chamber of commerce, for the title of Miss Central Oregon, and he honor of representing the area in the state finals at Seaside in July.

According to the rules outlined by the committee, any unmarried girl who lives within the boundaries of Redmond union high school district, and is between the ages of 18 and 22, will be eligible to compete for the title of Miss Redmond. Application blanks are available at the chamber of commerce office, and one of the requirements for entering is that the girls hold an interview with a show committee.

50 Years Ago

May 15, 1974 — PUC will demand better United Telephone service

Petitions signed by 1,000

The Oregon Public Utilities Commission will act in behalf of complaining Central Oregonians to ensure that United Telephone Co. of the Northwest upgrades its service to the approximately 5,000 customers in the Redmond, Culver and Sisters areas.

A five-member Central Oregon delegation Monday carried petitions to the PUC office in Salem bearing approximately 1,000 signatures testifying to difficulties in dialing long distance numbers, billing problems and getting operators to answer promptly.

Four PUC representatives, including deputy commissioner Thomas Higashi and assistant commissioner W.A. Paul, accepted the petitions and discussed the problems with the complainants for about an hour.

Paul said his office recognized that they had a valid complaint, and that a schedule would be worked out with the phone company for correcting the deficiencies. The company’s progress in meeting the schedule will be of five minutes per call and averaging reported to the public, Paul said. 50 outgoing calls daily would lose a total of 250 minutes per day. At an average wage of $6 per hour, the firm would be losing $25 per day.

The assistant commissioner cautioned that all of the problems couldn’t be solved immediately, particularly where installation of lines and equipment are involved. He did say, however, that personnel problems should be resolved right away.

PUC representatives have already been in contact with the phone company. Ray Thrower, utility engineer for the PUC who was in Redmond a couple weeks ago for a preliminary investigation, will return to Redmond next week.

Presenting the petitions in Salem were Bob Riemenschneider, Willard Cyrus, Arland Keeton and Jim and Sandy Adkins.

25 Years Ago

May 12, 1999 — Terrebonne kids roll their way to fitness

Beau Kelley’s physical education students begin class by donning helmets and pads.

The Terrebonne Elementary youngsters aren’t suiting up for football; they’re preparing for inline skating.

This is the second year Kelley’s had his elementary schoolers on wheels. Last year everyone learned the basics. This year they’re learning more advanced moves.

All students in grades 1 through 5 spend four to five weeks learning to skate. The first week is devoted to safety and learning about the equipment, Kelley said.

The remaining three to four weeks are spent skating, mostly indoors. During the last week the class moves outside so kids can try skating on pavement and practice avoiding hazards, he said.

Kelley, who is in his third year at Terrebonne, brought inline skating to the school after seeing it in a program in Montana. He thinks it is the only P.E. skating program in Central Oregon.

“I’ve always skated,” Kelly said, “and I know it’s great exercise.” It’s also a lifelong skill that builds self-confidence, he said, Kelley and his students worked for two years to earn money to buy the skates and safety equipment. Rollerblade’s “Skating in the Schools” program offers packages that include skates and safety equipment at a discount, but it still took about $4,500 to equip the school.

Numbered drawstring bags of knee pads, wrist guards and elbow pads hang on the gym’s folded bleachers. At the center of the gym, a rolling wooden cabinet holds 45 sets of line skates in sizes 1 through 12 (a special order for a big-footed fifth grader). The children wear bicycle helmets.

When Kelley’s fourth and fifth graders pile into the gym these days, their first item of business is to meet the “five-minute goal” of having their skates and safety equipment on and be up and skating.

During one class last week students reviewed the swivel (toes in, toes out, useful for avoiding potholes), slaloming (feet together, back and forth motion) and different kinds of stops.

Interspersed with the reviews were new activities. An obstacle provided opportunity for practicing the one-leg glide along a bench, bending under the limbo bar, ducking under flexible hoops, slaloming around pylons and swiveling over flat hoops.

“Trains” of three, then five students, then the whole class, aimed for cooperation and control.

For many of his students, P.E. class is their first time on skates, Kelley said.

“There’s not a lot of pavement in places in Terrebonne.”