May 22, 2009

Wasco holds Memorial Day extravaganza this weekend

By Judith Harmon
for The Chronicle


     Grand Marshals for the City of Wasco’s annual Memorial Day parade, which begins May 25 at 11 a.m., will be Arlyn and Sandra Van Gilder, owners and operators of the Wasco Variety & Video store.
     The store was purchased, according to Sandra, in February 1985.
“We’ll have to do something special, next year (2010), to celebrate,” she said, “since it will be our 25th year here.”
     Both Arlyn and Sandra are busier than most, because Arlyn currently works full-time at Columbia Aluminum in Goldendale, Wash., as a welder and shift mechanic, and also works “almost full-time” at the store, according to Sandra.
     Sandra works at the store and is going to school to become a registered nurse. She began taking prerequisite courses in 2003, at Columbia Gorge Community College, and is currently a licensed practical nurse. She has only two more exams to complete, plus the state board, in order to become a registered nurse.
     Neither is unfamiliar with hard work. In his younger days, Arlyn worked on his grandparents farm, just outside Wasco, and is the “fourth generation from his family” to have farmed in Sherman County.
     Arlyn and Sandra each served a four-year stint in the United States Marine Corp after high school. Arlyn was stationed at Camp Pendleton (San Diego, Calif.), working as a welder and mechanic, maintaining helicopters, during the 1960s.
     Although Sandra, who served a year in Okinawa, was later stationed at Camp Pendleton, too, she thought their years of service might not have overlapped. She worked in mechanized supply, explaining that each item had its own IBM card, and the supply orders were “critiqued,” or analyzed, for accuracy, before supplies were shipped out.
     The Van Gilders have been “long-time supporters” of many aspects of Wasco’s Memorial Day activities, according to Geneva Sutton, chairman of the Memorial Day committee. Besides calling and arranging for baked goods for the pie and pastry auction, (which helps provide funding needed for the annual event), the Van Gilders always make labels for each of the baked items, plus keep the goodies cool in refrigerators at the Variety, prior to set-up at the Wasco Depot. They also help the committee with many of the printing projects required each year for this event, as well as other activities throughout the year.