Nisqually Valley News
September 31st, 1940
School opens for the new year next Monday morning at 8:45. The school buses will run the same routes and schedules as at the close of school last spring. Students do not ned [need] to bring lunches for the first day. The second day of school, Tuesday, will be a full day of school with all classes meeting for the full hour.
Teachers new to this school system this year will be:
Mildred Dornberger, primary; Jeanne Zeimantz, high school English and Phys. Ed.; Henry Van Woudenberg, Agriculture and farm shop.
Della Margan [Morgan], nurse.
Vocational agricultural and farm shop will be taught in the Yelm school this year. Forge work, electric welding and many other forms of machine shop will be taught. Six hundred dollars worth of new machinery has been ordered and will sonn [soon] be installed. At present the brick work for the forge is being installed. All boys interested may enroll for this work.
Many books have been repaired and new books have been added to the school library this summer.
The music [music] department will have a flying start as the bands and orchestras have met for practice during the summer.
The gym floor has agin [again] been repaired and glistens with a new coat of varnish.
All roofs were refinished at the shool [school] this summer. More than 50 barrels of roof coating was used.
Football suits have been issued. The first league game will be held here against Kapowsin in about two weeks.
A new range has been installed in the Home Economics department.
Starting in Sptember [September], school Board meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month instead of the second Friday. This change was deemed advisable so as to avaoid [avoid] conflicts which were much more numerous Friday evenings.
In the last decades there has been quite a nhange [change] in our publin [public] sshool [school] systems. That hhange must have been days do not beaa for the better bruse youngsters these days do not rebel or objedt strensonsly to the idea of going to sshool. [That change must have been for the better because youngsters these days do not rebel or object strenuously to the idea of going to school.] This is dde [due], no dollbt [doubt], to the fact that education has been made more interesting and intriguing than under the old system of purely “book larnin’.” Extra-hurricular [extra-curricular] activities- music, dramatics, athletics and a touch of the romance of journalism [journalism]- have added spice and adventure to the otherwise boresome every-day classroom grind. Students like to go to school because the school offers them opportunities to express their personalities.
Aand [and] after all that is the true value of education. Even though a boy or girl have report cards filled with A’s upon his or her graduation, unless their personality is developed, unless they have been trained to make use of their talents, unless they have the ability to “sell” themselves to the public, there are few worth-while opportunities open to them. Every successful man or woman in any line or endeavor is essentially a salesman and before thay [they] can sell their services or talents, they must first sell confidence in themselves.
The days of the bashful and backward students have passed. Now boys and girls are taught to meet people and to feel “at home” in public. And that is education in its true form.
LIMA BEANS ARE HARVESTED
The Nisqually Valley News
September 19th, 1940
First Year Crops Indicate A New Money Crop For This District is Started
This week saw the first of Yelm’s new crop, lima beans, harvested and threshed. The beans are turning out fairly good for a first year crop. The yields have been from 500 pounds to a ton to the acre. The culture and fertilization of the beans is entirely new to the district and another year the farmers will know better how to care for them.
The ordinary growing season for the limas, judged by other localities, was about 120 days, but in this vicinity, from the time they were lanted [planted] until the harvest started was just 104 days. The water and climate here are apparently adapted to growing this bean.
The smallness of the crop is no indication of anything as the first year the Blue Lake (pole beans) were planted here the crop was so small that many of the farmers did not expect to grow them the next year. But this year the Blue Lakes harvested as much as seven tons to the acre.
The price for the lima beans is $80 per ton. However there is no picking charge and the beans are threshed here by the R.D. Bodle Company, buyers of the product and the green vines make fine cow feed.
The handling of the beans is an interesting process. The beans are threshed green here, and there must be no more than 10 percent whites, or ripe beans. They are then iced and shipped to the freezer in Seattle, where they are done up in cellophane packages and frozen. They are shipped to Eastern markets where stores with special equipment sell them.
This particular branch of agriculture may develop into something that will be of great benefit to this community.
A.J. Justman is the agent for R.D. Bodle, and Lawrence Darts is in charge of the thresher.
Irrigation Flume Washed Out No More Water This Year
The Nisqually Valley News
September 19th, 1940
About fifty feet of the Yel [Yelm] mirrigation [irrigation] District flume washed out this week, and there will be no more water in the flumes this ear [year]. The wash-out was apparently caused by beavers getting ready for the winter.
Lackamas People Invited to Hear Debate on 139
The Nisqually Valley News
September 31st, 1940
The debate held at the Yelm High School last Friday evening on Initiative 139, will be followed by another on at Lackamas School next Saturday evening, November 2nd. E. K. Fristoe will speak in favor of the measure and Oliver F. Hartline will take the opposition side. This debate was arranged by the people of Lakamas. The time for the start of the debate will be 8 o’clock, Saturday evening, November 2nd.