100 years ago in Spokane: Youth return to hobby despite wartime ban still in place

Spokane youths had been happily resuming their radio hobbies for the first time in two years.

Amateur radio transmissions had been banned for the duration of the war, but both of the high schools in Spokane had recently announced plans to resume operating their radio transmitters.

There was only one problem: The wartime ban had never been rescinded, even though the war had been over since November.

Federal officials ruled that all amateur radio stations, large or small, were still prohibited. This meant the high school plans were “knocked into a cocked hat,” said The Spokesman-Review, unless specific permission was given by the Navy Department.

The ban would probably not be rescinded until a final peace treaty was signed.

From the society beat: Hannah Hinsdale, society columnist, reported wryly that the “tight skirt problem” had reached Spokane.

She said one “young matron” had just returned to Spokane with the latest in tight-skirt fashions. The woman got caught in the rain the other day and “nearly drowned before she reached shelter, all because of the tightness of her skirt line.”

“In desperation, she pulled up her petticoats and fairly dashed,” Hinsdale wrote.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1970: Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)