Readers share their favorite memories of BI Review

—Sharon Soames has been an avid reader of the Bainbridge Island Review since settling into an 1870s mill home on Blakely Harbor in 1972. She said its focus on community and Kitsap County keeps us connected. As change happens, the paper is a source for historical records and a great resource for holding on to the facts of Bainbridge’s past.

“I have searched archival copies of Review newspapers while researching the history of the Port Blakely Mill and its former Seaborn Road residents such as Jack Seaborn…Some of my favorite snippets of historic information came from the now obsolete “Then & Here” columns. I loved the “Scene and Heard” photos of locals doing fun things, the garden and humor columns, and all the spicey letters to the editor. I was featured once in the “Artist Profile” presenting the operations of my home-based floral design studio, Rose of Sharon’s.

“In the 1980s, articles covered the controversies of the protracted effort of the Port Blakely Mill Co. to develop an extensive PUD, that would have changed the character of Blakely Harbor, and how the island coalesced in stopping it. Coverage included the fundraiser I helped organize and host, the “Blakely Harbor Festival.

“In the 1990s onward, the Review covered the BAHC garden tour. My garden was included in 1990. In 1993, I created and directed Christmas in the Country. The Review did feature stories and ran my ads until 2010 when I retired.”

—Cheryl Raber Bartholomew sent in a clipping that is almost 70 years old, from Nov. 18, 1954. It is an article about her parents business, Raber’s Cabinet Shop. “My parents, Doug and Bernetta Raber, saved the clipping. My parents have passed so the article is a nice memory.”

—Kathleen Thorne writes: In 2004, Island Theatre developed and produced Dear Editor: A Playreading of Letters to The Bainbridge Review as part of the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council’s 2004 Humanities Inquiry, “Breaking News: The State of the Today’s Information Media.”

It was a dramatic reading of letters to the Bainbridge Review (and its predecessors) from 1877 to about 2001 to illustrate the role of a local paper in community life. Included were letters that reflected important issues or events on Bainbridge; offer a Bainbridge perspective on events elsewhere in the world; were written by a well-known local figure; portray a typical Bainbridge-style debate, or just make you think “Only on Bainbridge!”

The topics that prompted such letters ranged from whether Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II should be allowed to return to their homes on Bainbridge to the more mundane, such as Winslow leash laws, rowdy high-schoolers, and the installation of the High School Road/Madison Avenue roundabout.

Also, her son, John, was featured in a Review ad about newspaper delivery.

—Mary and Frank Stowell write that: “We have only lived in our house for 41 of its 141 years. We have the front page of the Review from Nov. 10, 1965, showing the house being brought up Bucklin Hill Road. It was originally a Port Blakely millhouse, and resided for a while at Pleasant Beach before settling here on Blakely Avenue.”

—Lara Lent sent in a clipping from a book she found of Tom Selleck coming to Bainbridge Island. She said it was the talk of the town for a while.

—Ken DeWitt writes that one of the most significant events in the island’s history began in 1985 when the State Department of Natural Resources declared its three parcels of forestland on BI surplus and announced its intention to sell or trade them. That began a six-year-long effort, inspired by then Park District director Chuck Field, to find a way to purchase the 280 acres and add them to our park system.

Through the efforts of many volunteers, including Connie Waddington, Dave and Annie Berfield, Bob Haslanger, John Hough, Tom Schworer, Rebecca Wells, Mike Ryherd, George Stege, Sharyl Heller, Bill Barrow, myself, and others, a campaign was started to raise voter awareness and eventually pass a $5 million bond issue to purchase 240 of the 280 acres. The other 40 acres, adjacent to the Meadowmeer development was purchased by and is still owned by the School District. The bond issue passed with an over 80% yes vote, the largest positive vote for any bond in island history.

The purchase of what became known as the Grand Forest gave a jump start to the fledgling BI Land Trust and set the course for the development and growth of the Park District into the agency that serves islanders today. Several years ago, local filmmaker, Cameron Snow filmed a documentary about how the Grand Forest came to be. It was truly a community effort.

—Jim Taylor sent in two photos. One is his oldest granddaughter, Jen Chapman, graduating from Bainbridge High School in 2004. It shows readers save newspaper memories in various forms, putting it in a graduation frame, not just cutting it out and putting it on the fridge.

The other photo is one Taylor took himself, of a peregrine falcon, that ran in the paper. The paper sometimes runs photos submitted by readers not only to connect with them in a personal way, but also to show their good works of things happening in the community as the paper can’t be everywhere.

—Jon Quitslund writes “I have memories of The Review from some of the years when Walt and Milly Woodward were in charge. My clearest memories are from the middle of the 1950s up to graduation from high school in 1957, and I was at home in the summers until 1961. In those post-war years, the island’s population and local culture changed a lot, and the Review was in some ways a change agent. It was also a source of stability and coherence at a time when regional forces were apt to be at odds with the island’s best interests.

“I don’t remember exactly when it was that a plan was advanced to replace the ferry service between Winslow and Seattle with a bridge across the Sound. I believe that scheme developed some traction in Olympia as well as in Seattle. Walt Woodward led the opposition to that auto-centric plan, both in public meetings and in the newspaper.

“My wife and I spent most of our summers on the island while our two boys were growing up, beginning in 1970 and extending through the 1980s, so I read the Review haphazardly through those years, and again in retirement, beginning in 2000.”

—Sam Sharar writes: “I have piles of Review clippings, most now yellowed and crumbling. As a parent, of course, what I loved most were the articles celebrating my children and their friends. Rudy Sharar went to the Little League World Series in 2001, to the state 3A basketball championship in 2007, and walked on to the University of Washington men’s basketball team as a practice player in 2010.”

“Review reporter Jim Thomsen traveled with the team to Williamsport, PA for the World Series. He lived with all of us, ate with us, was a constant companion to the players and coaches, and became part of our “family.” Jim was an outstanding friend and reporter — and a great memory of how the Review and community supported the team.”

In 2015 Rebecca Sharar became the Canadian cheese rolling champion at Whistler, BC. “And, not knowing it would be their last one, the Review helped me celebrate my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary in 2013.

My dad (Bob Oliver) moved away after graduating from BHS in 1942 but returned 62 years later—so his life came full circle. The Review has always informed and celebrated our community—and community is the reason we moved here 27 years ago.”

—Richard Wilson writes: “For many years, the oral history of the fellowship that has become Cedars recalled that the local newspaper inadvertently used “Unitarians” in the headline above an article announcing possible formation of a Unity group, and that disappointed Unitarians responded by forming a group of their own.

The story is true. The names of those Unitarians are then found as signatures on bylaws for a new Bainbridge Unitarian Fellowship. Those bylaws, dated June 9, 1959, also included a succinct statement of purpose for the new organization: “To study and practice the principles of liberal Unitarianism and to conduct a church school.”

—Amba Gale writes: “The date was June 2020, several months into COVID. We were in lockdown. I had just completed publishing my book, Crossing Thresholds, Island Reflections. While it was being sold in Eagle Harbor Books, as well as other places, we could not hold a live launch. Instead, I held a virtual launch in July.

“It was exciting to be interviewed by Luciano Marano as he prepared to write this article for The Review on behalf of the birth of my book, and announcement of the launch. And, it was thrilling to see my own photo, the story about the book, and news about the upcoming launch in print, knowing my Bainbridge Island neighbors and friends would see it. Thank you, Bainbridge Island Review!

I had saved two other Reviews over the years, but couldn’t find them. One was the announcement of the opening of the Exclusion Memorial, and the photographer happened to be there when I was visiting and talking to Vern Nakata, who, I think, was a docent, and that photo appeared on the front page of the paper. Another was when our daughter was accepted into Idyllwild Aerts Academy and, also, when she graduated.”

—Christine Noble sent in a photo of her daughter, Michelle, at age 11 dressed up as Miss Piggy for the BI 4th of July parade. It was printed in the paper July 7, 1982. Kermit the Frog is neighbor Elizabeth Johns.

—Connie Waddington brought in a big file of stories the Bainbridge Island Review ran on the effort in 1991 to save a Department of Natural Resources forest off Mandus Olson Road. A $5 million bond was passed to purchase and preserve the forest through the BI park district.

—A number of articles on the effort to save Gazzam Lake were also dropped off at the Review office.

—Dwight Shappell emailed that he has saved copies of the paper since 1987’s Open House at Town and Country Nursery. He also saved papers over numerous years regarding Holiday Village and Bloedel Reserve.