Washington Voices

The original owner of the brass bracelet Jenifer Priest purchased nearly 20 years ago has been identified. After the story ran in The Spokesman-Review on Aug. 22, Priest heard from Liberty Lake resident Ray Geraghty, who said the bracelet was made by his mother, Helen Geraghty, for his grandmother Ethel Thornhill.

Stormy is available for adoption from the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service. Shelter workers say she’s a sweet, friendly girl with an independent spirit who loves to go for walks If you are interested in this dog or any animal at SCRAPS, call (509) 477-2532 or come by the shelter 6815 E. Trent Ave., Spokane Valley.

The spicy pepperoni beef sticks were gone. So were the Corn Nuts. We pondered the teriyaki beef jerky beneath the sickly flicker of the florescent lights at the Break Time in Houston. I paused to make an entry in my journal/reporter’s notebook.

This week’s column is a collection of observations and random trivia collected from my circle of gardening buddies. • Are your pumpkins turning orange already? You aren’t alone. Our record-breaking warm summer has pumpkins turning orange a good month to six weeks early.

Of the 25 cats loaded into the van Sue Anderson drove last week to Seattle, there was one she wanted to make sure rode shotgun. A very pregnant white mother lent her intermittent meow to a chorus that rose from the garage of the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service early Thursday morning, and Anderson wanted eyes on her the whole four-hour trip.

Spokane Valley lost two big supporters in August, when businesswoman and community leader Norma M. Ventris, 93, died on Aug. 1 and construction company owner Joseph Paul Bascetta Jr., 94, died on Aug. 26. Ventris worked for the West Valley School District, but is also fondly remembered as the owner of Ventris Candy and Caramel Corn shop in the now demolished U-City Mall.

As the wildfires bore down on her hometown of Omak last week, Spokane Valley resident JoAnn Brown was getting more and more upset. Her son, Richard Brown, 14, was following the news with her and decided there had to be something he could do.

The gravestone at Greenwood Memorial Terrace with the fading lettering – “J.W. Proctor, U.S Soldier” – gives no hint about the interesting life of the 6-foot-6-inch, 190-pound gentle giant who lies beneath, a true character who inhabited Spokane in the late 1800s, striding about in his buckskin clothing, broad-brimmed white hat and general frontier attire. Nor does it indicate that John W. Proctor was known far and wide as Death-on-the-Trail or Death-on-Trail. That fierce-sounding name belied who Proctor was, a man who was described as generous to a fault and helpful to all. According to written accounts, he embraced the word “death” in its slang meaning as being proficient in one’s expertise, as in a dedicated physician who might be considered death on tuberculosis, for example.