Return of the past: Looking Back comes back

Lou Marzeles
News Editor

     They’re like verbal snapshots, articulated imagery, time capsules in writing. The articles that ran in The Sentinel in years past are vivid reminders of a living history, and that history comes alive again this week as we bring back Looking Back (print edition).
     Back in 1935, for example—75 years ago—W. E. Sletton made his way here from Toppenish to find a nice place to live. He had to; he was becoming the new manager of the Goldendale J. C. Penney store. In 1935, John Wayne starred in Westward Ho, and nobody cared; he wouldn’t become a major star for another four years. The 39 Steps, however, was a major box office success that year for Alfred Hitchcock, and now we come full circle in our little journey into the interconnectedness of time: that same film, as our columnist Diana Notestine mentions this week, is going to be seen by 35 Goldendale High School students in an upcoming cultural arts field trip.
     The J. C. Penney store in Goldendale was a very big deal back in 1935, in a country still in the grip of the Depression. There are many living here today who grew up under its shadow in one way or another.
     Fifty years ago, a Centerville family was proud that their son, Lt. John Miller, set an Army bowling record while stationed in Germany. It was 1960, and The Beatles were still learning how to string their guitars.
     Looking Back is going to pull out verbal snapshots (and, when we can find them, some actual pictures) from 25, 50, and 75 years ago in Goldendale’s rich and storied history. Contemplate, too, if you will, how fortunate we are to have a newspaper that can offer such a resource: in The Sentinel office are copies of the paper dating to 1918, that only a portion of its press history of uninterrupted publication every week since 1879.