Join people of goodwill from all races tomorrow evening, Sunday, at 5:30 in George Washington Park for a community peace rally in support of law enforcement.
The Rev. Alan Woods, whose story appeared in this column last week, has confirmed the date and time for a community peace rally he is organizing in support of law enforcement.
Woods, an African-American man who lives in Centralia and works at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, is also pastor of Trinity Christian Fellowship (near Claquato). He is organizing the rally as a way of showing solidarity with police and sheriff’s deputies. He also wants to help build a sense of community to begin healing the anger and alienation that has led to shootings and conflicts across the country.
Law enforcement officers and other clergy will speak at the rally.
Thank you, Rev. Woods, for organizing this rally. This is an important moment to come together as a community. I, and many others, look forward to joining you.
An Eggy Anniversary
There can’t be many people who still remember the day 85 years ago when the Chehalis cooked what was billed as the world’s largest omelet in the biggest frying pan the world had ever seen.
On July 24, 1931, Gov. Roland Hartley joined about 10,000 people at Alexander Park in Chehalis to cook a 7,200-egg omelet on a brand new, specially manufactured frying pan.
The spectacle was a follow-up to a day three years earlier when Chehalis had attracted national attention for baking what it called the world’s largest strawberry shortcake — a 16-foot-tall, 20-foot-long shortcake it sliced into 4,000 pieces.
For the 1931 Lewis County Farmers and Merchants Picnic, they wanted another crack at that kind of publicity, hoping the stunt would draw attention to the area’s bountiful egg production as the global Great Depression deepened.
City boosters hired a Seattle company to manufacture an 8-foot-wide frying pan that weighed nearly half a ton. Seattle women were photographed tangoing in the skillet before it was shipped down to Chehalis.
Eighty-five years ago tomorrow, a record crowd of 10,000 people showed up for the picnic and a chance to playfully make history.
The festivities began with an egg-cracking contest. Mrs. Al Blair won by cracking a caseload of 30 dozen eggs in just 12 minutes without leaving a single shell in the yolk.
The highlight of the preparations was the greasing of the skillet. Thora Yeager, a young woman in her 20s with a flair for the theatrical, strapped a giant slab of bacon to each foot and skated around the pan. She used a long wooden spatula to keep her balance.
The newspaper photographers loved it. Universal Studios and Fox Movietone News filmed it for newsreels.
After she stepped out, they began heating the pan on a new 3,000-brick, open-air stove.
A “Queen of Egg Land” was crowned by Gov. Hartley, with other young women attending her and representing “Climate,” “People — Patriotic, Intelligent and Loyal,” “Co-Operation” and “Fertile Soil.”
Three chefs from the Northern Railroad did the actual cooking of the omelet, using giant salt and pepper shakers to add flavor. Gov. Hartley also put on a chef’s hat and helped stir.
A loudspeaker had been installed to tell the crowd when the dish was done. Everyone in attendance ate their fill.
“A good time was had by all,” reports HistoryLink.org in a comprehensive story from which I pulled the details for this column. “The giant omelet was a huge success.”
The Chehalis Chamber of Commerce claimed the event earned $15,000 worth of free publicity and 75,000 column-inches of newspaper coverage that showcased Western Washington’s egg and poultry prowess.
The pan was put on display at the Puyallup Fair that year. Eventually it was loaned out to Long Beach for its first annual Razor Clam Festival in 1940, where they fried up a 200-pound clam fritter.
Long Beach eventually commissioned its own, even bigger frying pan.
I haven’t been able to track down whatever happened to the Big Pan of Chehalis.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of the skillet that made Chehalis famous, please let me know. A tasty story that big deserves to be celebrated on its 85th birthday.
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Brian Mittge and his family live near Chehalis, where they enjoy the occasion large (but not that large) omelet. Drop him a line at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
