HISTORY AT A GLANCE

To commemorate the first anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Shelton Active Club conducted its second citywide scrap metal drive Sunday, Dec. 6. City residents were asked to have their scrap out by 10 a.m. to be picked by Activans driving donated trucks. Stockpiles were established at 7th and Franklin downtown and at the air raid tower on Hillcrest. The first scrap drive, a few weeks earlier, had collected over 30 tons of valuable scrap metal.

Also on Dec. 6, a twin engine P-38 Army interceptor plane flying over Mason County caught fire and plunged 8,000 feet to earth near Cranberry Creek Road. The pilot, First Lt. Leonard Conkle, managed to bail out and parachute to safety. Pilot Conkle landed close to the shore of Cranberry Lake, near four hunters from Shelton who helped him out of the woods and into town. The plane crashed into a heavy thicket and exploded, showering fragments over an area of several hundred yards. Dozens of small fires were started, but died out quickly due to previous heavy rains having saturated the area. Searchers were directed to the site by the hundreds of machine gun bullets that kept exploding for several hours after the crash. This accident occurred a short distance from the spot where another Army plane had crashed two years earlier, killing two pilots.

The state Office of Price Administration, the Office of Defense Transportation and the War Production Board jointly announced that there would be no restrictions in 1942 on the production, distribution and sale of Christmas trees. The agencies did request that trees shipped by rail be in box cars rather than flat cars, and that tree growers should avoid unnecessary use of rubber and gasoline for truck transportation. Washington, particularly Mason County, was one of the country's chief suppliers of Christmas trees.

On Dec. 11, Roy McConkey opened the Gift Annex at McConkey's Pharmacy. The annex, an annual feature at the pharmacy, was devoted exclusively to Christmas gifts, "allowing the shopper to mull over his gift problems without distractions." Gift items available included an "Old South Romance Box, filled with devices to further modern romance – large decanter jug of cologne, sugar-shaker talc, sachet, guest soap" for $2; an Eversharp pen and pencil gift set, "guaranteed forever," for $8.75; electric kitchen clock for $3.75; and electric corn popper for $1.39.

The following announcement was included on the front page of the Dec. 18 Journal: Santa Claus has just sent a message to the Journal direct from the North Pole saying that he will be in Shelton this Saturday afternoon from 1 to 5 p.m.

Old St. Nick is so busy taking care of all the soldiers and sailors and Marines that he didn't think he would have time to stop in Shelton. He thought the children could probably see him when they went to the big city. But when Santa heard about gas rationing, he decided to work Shelton into his plans. By cutting here and squeezing there and making his reindeer run a little faster, Santa managed to fit in one afternoon with his little friends in Shelton. We don't know just where Mr. Claus will be yet, but we're sure you'll find him, probably with a crowd of other small children around him. Don't let that scare you, 'cause he's got time for every small tot who wants to talk to him.

The "first Shelton boat casualty of the war" happened late on the evening of Dec. 20, when Roy Kimbel's power cruiser Gypsy struck a reef between Hunter's Point and Squaxin Island and sank in 8 feet of water. "The accident occurred about 11:30 at night when the pilot of the boat got slightly off course and ran the vessel onto a rock reef that was nearly exposed by the extremely low tide prevailing at the time. Members of the crew [Roy Kinbel and three friends] were marooned on the sunken ship until their signals brought help from Carlyon Beach." Kimbel then called for tugs from Shelton and Olympia and the Gypsy was towed ashore and beached. A later examination of the boat revealed considerable damage, including a bent propeller shaft and propeller and badly damaged bottom planking.

■ Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."