Gleanings From
In Christian Fellowship
By Shirley Lindahl
Edited by Jerry Rutherford
Sell-Out Crowd for Dinner
Business and pleasure were combined for the July board meeting which was held in the home of Harry French with Rosa French and her daughter Olivia French Davis as hostesses. Over 40 attended the joint meeting of the church and Sunday school boards. The church budget was so meager in 1934 that only $340 was listed as expenses for the minister. The balance on hand was $1.10.
A bright spot in the "gloomy" times was the second annual native states dinner put on by the women of the church in 1935. Olivia Davis was top ticket seller with 40 to her credit. Records indicated that 250 attended the event. This was a community-wide function with a dinner costing 50 cents each and an opportunity to meet people from your home state. A popular song (that had many different verses) was '"What did Ida-hoe boys, what did Ida-hoe?" Answer: "She hoed her Mary-land boys, she hoed her Mary-land." That evening Illinois and Minnesota tied for the most from their respective home states. Several foreign countries were also represented with John Nelson (Enid Johnston's father) signing in for Sweden, Dr. E. C. McKibben, Sr. was born in China and Ernest Fortescue, Sr. from Ceylon. The guest book for this 1935 dinner showed that 35 diners had been born in Washington State.
This popular community dinner continued to be held thru the '30's. At some of the events guests dressed in costumes from their regions. The Washington State table was decorated with small evergreen trees which were decked out with aluminum tax tokens (Yes, we used to pay taxes with tokens!!). Laura Miller who was from Kentucky won first prize for her Kentucky Derby cake surrounded by a miniature racetrack.
In October of this year Reverend Newberry fell in the bathroom at his home and broke his leg. He did not resume preaching until the last Sunday of January, 1936. Among the members that year was a retired minister, Reverend C. M. Clark. He often helped with prayer and at meetings in the absence of the pastor and served as a deacon for several years.
Construction of the new Central School (now the location of Kirkland City Hall) had left mud and gravel on 5th Avenue (which the church faced at this time) and there were no sidewalks. Through the efforts of Dave Burr a cement sidewalk was completed that Fall in front of the church. He was very active in getting things done around the church and in the town. He and his wife, Gladys, had a home on Waverly Way.
The church building continued to deteriorate with the steeple, chimney, and heating facilities all in need of repair. The aging Methodist building had been abandoned for use by the Sunday School. As an experiment the Daily Vacation Bible School was held at Rose Hill Presbyterian Church.
During 1935 the church basement was rented for $5.00 per month to two depression-born activist organizations. The Townsend Club, advocating an old age pension plan and the Technocrats, who wanted to control industrial growth to prevent further unemployment. Both had a sizable membership in the Kirkland area.
A newspaper of 1935 revealed a new baseball diamond and grandstand was being constructed for the Kirkland town team. (Yes, Kirkland has been a baseball town for a long time.) Another store stated that Juanita Golf Course had been improved with the #5 tee anchored out in the lake. This location is now the site of the very popular Juanita Bay Park which was allowed to revert to its natural wetlands.
Church member, Ollis Patty was re-elected city treasurer for the 29th time. Kirkland became designated as a third class town. For $495 you could purchase a Ford V-8 with "full floating spring base." The local banks were paying 2 1/2% interest on savings accounts. The Gateway Theater (which was located in downtown Kirkland) was showing Claudette Colbert in "The Gilded Lily."
Other news of the time included the fact that the ferry "Lincoln" had just undergone its annual overhaul. The church choir sang the "Holy City" on Good Friday evening. At Kirkland Junior High the boys trio sang "I've Got No Use for the Women" accompanied by Enid Nelson (Johnston). Rinso and Lux soap samples were distributed in the area by a truck crew from Lever Brothers. Pay-n-Takit Store announced its new name: "Safeway Stores."
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