Clark County News

February 5, 1942

Wayne Brown drops 7,000 feet upside down in flat spin and barely misses crack-up

Local aviator now at Panama pulls out just in time to save plane

Wayne Brown has had a narrow escape from an inverted flat spin. He fell from 9,000 ft. to 2,000 flat; then got his plane into a normal spin; and finally pulled it out just before crashing. This local flyer, located now in Panama, had as narrow an escape as a pilot can have – and live to tell about it.

Wayne’s harrowing experience is related in a letter which has been received here by Herbert Brown, his father.

Wayne starts his story in easy, as so to save the shock to his father’s nerves. After telling about the receipt of cookies, and a radio which his tent mate has bought, he gently glided up to the spin thus –

“My plane has a new engine in it now. They put it in last night and are testing it this morning. I just about didn’t have any plane yesterday. I wouldn’t have needed one anyway, if I hadn’t been lucky.

“I was practicing combat and acrobatics, with my full load of ammunition and gas. I stalled out of a maneuver upside down and fell into an inverted flat spin. If I had known what it was right away, I would have bailed out, but I didn’t know what was happening. Instead of the nose going down as a normal spin, it kept swinging around and around on the horizon. I was upside down all the time, too. They are almost impossible to get out of. I fell from 9,000 feet to 2,000 feet flat until I got into a normal spin and pulled out. I came mighty close to the ground on the pull-out.

“My partner followed me down, telling me to bail out, but I waited too long and had to stick with it. I don’t know yet just how I got it out, but I fought with everything I knew all the way down.

“The ammunition was banging around and there was oil everywhere, all over the sides and belly of the ship and windshield, I even got quite a bit in the cockpit.

“You should have seen my crew chief’s face when I landed and taxied up to him.

“My partner was deathly white when I pulled up alongside him.

Letter to father tells what he thought as he made long plunge

“I guess he thought I was a goner. He said that it didn’t look like I had a chance to get it out of the spin. He lives with me here in the tent.”

“The strange thing about it was that I wasn’t scared a bit. I guess I was too busy. He bawls hell out of me for laughing about it.”

“When I saw how close I was to the ground, the only thought that I can remember was a lot of swearing about what a hell of a way to die in a war. I didn’t tell the Captain about it because he would probably give me the devil for being so clumsy.

“Have you much snow on the ground yet? I would like to see a little snow for a change. Not very long, but just for a little while.

“We have a road grader out here raising a lot of dust leveling out a softball field for us. We play volleyball and football and medicine ball after supper each evening when it cools off. That is most of the exercise that we get now. A lot of the men here have gone down with malaria from not sleeping under their mosquito nets and from not taking their quinine. Pilots don’t take quinine because it makes one dizzy, but all other men are supposed to take it.

“You should see the huge scorpions that we kill here in our tent. They are usually between four and six inches long. They are the very poisonous type, too. That’s why we have to pound and shake out our shoes every time we put them on.”

Wayne Brown (Press photo Feb. 5, 1942)

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Teachers to discuss schools and defense

The role of Clark County’s schools in the defense effort will be up for major consideration at a banquet meeting of teachers in Greenwood Monday night, February 9. The meeting has been called by County Sup. Louis E. Slock, who has spent considerable time studying defense work in schools in recent months. Among the topics listed for discussion are defense savings in the schools; defense gardens; testing grades 1, 3, 6 and 8; preschool children; Junior Red Cross War fund drive; and night school and summer school.

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Nurses register

All registered nurses in Clark County are requested to register promptly at the county nurse’s office in the court house. The request is made by Dr. A. L. Schemmer of Colby, chairman of the health and welfare committee of the Clark County Civilian Defense board. Nurses are asked to give the following information: maiden and married names, addresses, name of training school, and whether currently registered.

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January 31, 1952

Mail delivery hits snag, either late or not at all

Mail came to Neillsville, Granton and Chili last week as fitfully as a worried sleep.

On Wednesday, no mail arrived, apparently the after-effects of the Tuesday snowstorm. On Thursday the mail trail came in late, too late for the mail to be delivered on the city routes. However, the Wednesday mail, which had finally arrived, was delivered on Thursday. Thursday’s mail was delivered on Friday morning.

Friday there was again no mail. A train wreck near Ringle (Marathon County) left 11 freight cars strewn across the right-of-way, blocking the mail. Star Route service continued to come in, however. A special train was made up at Merrillan Friday night to bring the mail from the west. The mail from the east was delayed until Sunday by the railway accident.

As the schedule is set up on paper, the mail train comes from the east, through Wausau, arriving about midnight. This train brings the mail from the east and picks up west-bound mail. Then this train goes to Merrillan, where the westbound mail is transferred to the main line trains. This train then picks up the east bound mail, arriving back in Neillsville at 5 a.m. in time for the mail to be sorted and delivered that day. Until this winter, the service had proved dependable.

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Runaway truck causes $300 damage at garage

 Between $300 and $400 damage was done to the Svetlik Motor Company building last Friday afternoon when a runaway cattle truck smashed into the south corner of the building, smashing two windows, cracking a wall, and almost wrecking a corner post. No damage was done to the truck.

The truck, owned by C.A. Paulson & Son of Neillsville, and driven by Cliff Paulson, had been parked across the street from the garage and left in gear. It rolled backward across the street and slammed into the side of the building.

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February 3, 1972

Lions schedule achievement night dinner February 10

 Neillsville Lions Club members and their wives will gather Thursday, February 10, at Bali Hai Supper Club for a 7 p.m. Achievement Night dinner. Awards for the past year will be made. Several special guests are expected to be present for the occasion.

A check for $275 will be presented to the Lions Foundation Camp for the Blind located at Rosholt.

The donation constitutes one-half the proceeds of the Lions auction held last June.

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Victory Friday could assure Warriors of third or better

 A victory over Owen- Withee on the Neillsville floor Friday night would assure the Warriors a third-place finish in the eastern Cloverbelt, at a minimum, and would give them a shot at a three-way tie for the bunting.

That is the way things stack up as the eastern Cloverbelt pennant race moves into its final two weeks.

In the race right now, Colby remains a full game in front of Neillsville and Loyal, which are tied for second place. If the Warriors can get by Owen- Withee here Friday night, and Colby and Loyal do not stumble, the stage will be set for a fireworks-filled finale here the following Friday when Neillsville and Colby will meet.

On that game would hang Colby’s claim to a clear eastern title; a loss by Colby would throw it into a three-way tie. The latter would mean that Neillsville would play in the Cloverbelt conference playoffs as the first-place team, inasmuch as it finished lower in the standings last year than either Colby or Loyal.

The Warriors kept the hot pace last Friday night when they dunked Thorp’s Resurgent Cardinals 65-55, on the Cardinal home floor. In fact, Thorp held a single, one point lead, until the last minute and fifteen seconds, when a bunch of defensive miscues by Thorp, and some good sharpshooting from both the floor and the free throw line spurted the Warriors to a 10-point victory.

Bernie Jordahl and Phil Jenni were like the old scoring machine that they have been on occasion before. Jordahl finished with 24 and Jenni with 18–most of them in the closing minutes. Peter Paulson, who worked the boards well throughout, finished with 12.

Neillsville held a narrow 31-29 lead at the halftime; but once again suffered a third period relapse, scoring but 10. At that point Thorp had crawled to a five-point lead, 46-41. In the opening minutes of the fourth period, the Warriors caught up, and the lead see-sawed until the final spurt at 1:15.

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The new Miss Neillsville will be selected from among the 10 candidates gathered around Miss Lori Shaw (seated center), Miss Neillsville for 1971. She will be named during the Winter Carnival program Saturday night at the fairgrounds. Candidates are: (seated from left) Kathy Lulloff, Candace Sturtz, Miss Shaw, Mary King and Kay Mabie; and (standing) Cinthia Marg, Debbie Knoll, Lori Opelt, Charmaine Montgomery, Mary Schield and Annette Schraufnagel. (Press photo Feb. 3, 1972) 

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Two below zero seems better

 B-r-r-r! Cold weather again last week. Monday morning it was 20 above zero and in the daytime about 15 above zero. Tuesday morning it was 10 degrees below again and the high was two below zero. Thursday morning the temperature fell to 12 below and the high was zero. Friday morning the low was 16 below and the high was one above. Saturday the cold weather continued, 16 below and the high three above. Sunday it was 18 below with a high of four above; but on Monday morning the temperature was only two below and it seemed quite a bit better.

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(Advertisement in the Press Feb. 5, 1942, issue.)

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