Letter from the 2016-17 president

October 2016

Dear ’23 Club Members,

I am both thankful and excited to be your 2017 president. Thinking ahead
to the program for next October, I’ve decided to go with the theme Growing Up in the 50’s Longview. I promise not to serve you a 50’s style TV dinner, but I do need your help!

I’m certain everyone “of a certain age” has some fond memories of the 50’s in Longview. Next year we will put together a paperback book published and for sale at the dinner meeting. I hope to include many of your photos and written submissions. Please limit all submissions to the decade of the 50’s. Be advised that sending in a submission is the same as granting permission for it to be both edited and published in print or on our website/facebook. Deadline: July 1, 2017

Here’s what we’re looking for:

Photos which include classic 50’s outfits, activities, and places in town. Please identify people in the photo (or group name), place, and date. All photos will be published in black and white.


Brief accounts (no more than 200 words) of personal memories which may or may not be associated with a photo submission.

Also, since it will be a 50’s theme, be on the lookout for items you may wish to display for other members to enjoy. And do think about coming dressed in 50’s attire. There are rumors (to be confirmed at a later date) there may be prizes for the “Best 50’s Outfits.”

Can you tell I’m excited? Here’s hoping you will help make next year’s dinner meeting one to be remembered.

Thank you,

Carolyn Caines

email submissions:  cmcaines@comcast.net
snail mail: 108 Villa Road, Kelso, WA 98626

Corrected Letter to the Editor (May, 12, 2017)

Letter to the Editor

My grandparents, Thomas and Reeta (Wayrynen) Juntunen settled on Columbia Heights in 1906, before Longview was a city. They came to America along with other families from Puolanka, a village in Finland, to make a new life for themselves and their children. They valued family, faith, and education. My mother and her brothers learned to speak English in a little one-room school on Columbia Heights, and mother, Selma Juntunen, went on to be the valedictorian for R.A. Long High School in 1938.

In her graduation speech she said, “Although the situations which confront us today (1938) are radically different from those which our forefathers had to deal with…(they) recognized the importance of education to a democratic government. They had faith in the common man and believed that through education, universal education, a government like ours would be successful.”

I am proud of my heritage and having grown up in the Longview/Kelso area. This year I am president of the Longview ’23 Club, a social organization formed to honor the memory of those who planned and built the city of Longview. Originally the ’23 Club consisted only of families who were here when the city was founded, however, now anyone interested in the history of the city is welcome to join.

Please take a look at our website (longview23club.org) and consider joining us for our annual dinner on October 2nd of this year.

Longview ’23 Club President,
Carolyn Caines