If you don’t make it to the San Juan Community Theatre Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights at 7:30, or Sunday at 2, you will miss a meaningful experience that no islander should miss. It’s not just the fact that it’s one of the crowning events of the Friday Harbor Centennial Celebration, nor that a cast of 24 of our talented friends and neighbors have put in long hard hours of rehearsal these recent months to bring it off.
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Tom Holmes of Friday Harbor died Friday in Islands Convalescent Center. The former college and pro football lineman succumbed after a two-year struggle against Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His age could not be immediately confirmed. He was 35 when he was the subject of a front page story in the Sept. 12, 2007 Journal.
Today, Feb. 25— Community Box Lunch Drive, noon to 12:30 p.m., Friday Harbor High School Dining Hall. Support the Experience…
In celebration of Friday Harbor’s centennial, Thornton Wilder’s classic play “Our Town” will be performed on San Juan Community Theatre’s Whittier stage Thursday to March 13. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. A total of 10 performances will be shown during the run. Tickets and times can be found at sjctheatre.org, or call the box office at 378-3211.
At its peak, J. Wayne Pullman’s Publishing Corporation of America, Inc. had 66 employees and published business, industrial and manufacturers directories in California. He founded the company at age 27 and guided it through the economic ups and downs of the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and ’00s. For seven years, he produced the San Juan County Fair Premium Book. But Pullman said his company — which paid salaries with advertising revenue generated from the directories it produced — couldn’t survive the economic downturn of this decade. In 2006, he and his wife, Ann, lost their Four Seasons Farm to foreclosure. Today, Pullman is looking for work (378-3714).
What will NOT be found under the 1894 King Farmhouse? Fill in the blank and if you have the winning answer, you will win a year’s membership in the San Juan Historical Society and a brand new set of historic postcards published in time for Friday Harbor’s centennial by Arcadia Publishing Co.
For Margaret and Alex McRea, true love is measured by memories over a span of time. Love for a spouse is something to be treasured and valued on a daily basis, they said. For more than five decades, they have shared their lives — something to admire in an age where many marriages dissolve during difficult times.
Undoubtedly, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of today’s Friday Harbor residents will talk about this day in 2109. Ferry whistles blasted. Sirens sounded. A cannon was fired. And the town partied like it was 1909 again.
Mayor David Jones joined residents and staff at Islands Convalescent Center Feb. 6 to celebrate the Town of Friday Harbor’s 100th Birthday by cutting the town’s first birthday cake and reading the Town of Friday Harbor’s Proclamation. Two of the eldest residents at ICC, sisters Mickey Cahail, 99, and May Boyce, 102, were visited by Jones in their room which they share, and received cake, ice cream and a greeting.
Students at local public and private schools were invited by The Journal to write about their hometown, in commemoration of Friday Harbor’s centennial. We received a lot of great entries. A panel of judges picked these as the top entries.
Expect an evening of cheers, laughter, smiles and tears at the 16th annual Playwrights Festival Friday through Sunday and Feb. 12-15 at the San Juan Community Theatre. A variety of cast members, directors and playwrights will again produce a colorful mix of comedy and drama by local playwrights.
Friday Harbor is pulling out all the stops for its 100th birthday Feb. 9. The town’s centennial will be celebrated at three venues that day, with free exhibits, a time capsule, birthday cakes, daylong refreshments, live music and dancing, a speech by Mayor David Jones, and the judging of the beard-growing contest, capped by a community dinner at the San Juan Island Yacht Club.
The production of five wonderful examples of Ernest Pugh’s playwright talents at the San Juan Community Theatre was a well-deserved tribute, Jan. 16-17. It takes a keen eye and sharp ear to have such talent. And, of course, an equally talented cast and crew to bring the playwright’s drama to powerful life.