This month's Lunch with the Troops event has all of the elements to produce a best-of-the-year luncheon. While each of the monthly gatherings has been special simply because a bunch of us civilian folk has been able to visit with and buy an airman a lunch, this month is extra special.

Fairchild Air Force Base Commander and also the 92nd Air Refueling Wing Commander, Col. Paul Guemmer, is planning to attend the event next Tuesday, July 19 from noon to 1 p.m.

Col. Guemmer has taken notice of the lunches and has been wanting to be present, but his military duties have taken priority in the past. This month he has set the luncheon to a higher priority.

A few weeks ago I nominated Ted Nugent to become a fellow Fairchild AFB CommStar. This program is designed to foster mutual understanding between military leaders and civilian leaders of communities where Fairchild personnel are stationed.

The objective is to allow military and civilian leaders to get together on a formal and informal basis to exchange ideas and share common interests that enhance the relationship between Fairchild AFB and the public.

Ted has been supportive of the Fairchild troops temporary stationed in Moses Lake by either calling during the Lunch with the Troops event or sending a message to be read during the event.

An induction ceremony is part of a person's entry into the CommStar Program. Since Ted isn't able to attend in person, he is expected to call during the luncheon and the ceremony will take place during the call.

The luncheon will take place at the Porterhouse Steakhouse in Moses Lake from noon to 1 p.m.

As in the past lunches, we are offering one Buck Knife and one Wenger, Genuine Swiss Army Knife, in a raffle to benefit Operation Warm Heart, a fund operated by unit First Sergeants to assist airmen in need.

In July, Mike O'Halloran and his wife, Becky, will be sponsoring the Buck Knife in their names and the American Legion Post 209. Also in July, Eric Van Woert will sponsor the Swiss Army Knife in the name of the Olde World Trading Company.

Randy Graham of RSC Equipment Rental said the business wants to sponsor one, maybe more knifes. This leaves six or seven more knives needing sponsors. Contact me for details.

Becky Hill, Manager of the Moses Lake American Legion Post 209, conducts the raffle, so we are in compliance with Washington State laws and regulations. Raffle tickets will be sold during the luncheon with the knives as a prize. The drawing will take place at the end of the event.

Come join the fun and bring a friend or two. You will find the visit with the troops invigorating and heartwarming. Plus you will be able to meet the Commander of Fairchild AFB and listen to Ted Nugent become inducted into the CommStar Program.

I should provide a bit of a disclaimer at this point: If there is a national emergency or other military demands on Col. Guemmer, he might miss the time with us. Also if an unexpected scheduling conflict happens with Ted, he might not be able to call during our meeting. I've got my fingers crossed and am thinking everything will happen as planned.

People wanting to attend the June 21 luncheon are asked to call me at: Home: 762-5158 or Cell: 750-0541. Or the Porterhouse Steakhouse at: 766-0308. We won't turn anyone away, but we need to have an approximate head count.

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.

Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we backtrack and continue the story of Coulee City, by Alfred Twining recorded July 30, 1975:

Then I'd better tell you a story about Soap Lake. Wen dell Pate and his dad brought a bunch of sheep in about 1881 or 1882 from Oregon and they developed a disease.

They were losing their wool, and that was one of the main profits to the sheep man; so they got to Soap Lake. He told me when he came to Soap Lake there was no lake there, just a spring, and they tasted the water and knew it was mineral water, so they built some vats and chutes and heated the water and put the sheep through and eventually got rid of the scab.

Wendell told me that. He went to school here when I first started to school, but he was probably 20 to 21 years old when I was about 6, so he was about 15 years older than I was.

He had a mouth harp and used to play it at noon out on the porch. That was the first music I ever heard and I thought that was pretty good.

He had a brother, Mike and another brother, Minor. Minor settled up in the Okanogan Valley someplace between Brewster and Omak or Winthrop. I went past his place way back in the 20s. Someone said that was Minor's place. Frank Pate, the younger brother used to pal around with me quite a bit, because we were the same age. Annie Pate, the daughter, I don't know what became of her. They lived here in town for a number of years while the kids went to school.

In the early days 1891 or 1892 or 1893 Harry Hutton had sold his confectionery business and started a saloon, and it seems they had a poker game there every night. An old Chinaman had come to town and built himself a laundry back of Hutton's saloon, so when he had his day's work done, I guess, he'd go to the saloon and sit down and watch the poker game, until 1 or 2 in the morning. So one night, Tom Parry told me this himself, a bunch of the boys got together and went back to the Chinaman's house, and he had a coal oil lamp. They poured the coal oil out of it and filled it up with water. When the Chinaman came in he couldn't light his lamp.

Then they put a tick tack or something on the window to make a lot of noise and scared the Chinaman. He grabbed a six shooter and ran out and shot four or five times up in the air.

After that they ran and sent the Marshal in, I think Jim Hansen was the Marshall, to arrest the Chinaman.

And he said, "Did you kill Hutton?"

"No, no Hutton my friend," said the chinaman.

"Well, Hutton is dead," they said. "We'll show you."

They had Hutton stretched out on some sawhorses and some boards in the saloon with ketchup and flour and stuff all over his face to make him look like a corpse and scared hell out of the Chinaman. So they took him down and put him in jail and scared him some more. After while they came down and turned him out and told him what the joke was.