News
Gig Harbor Now and Then | Dial M for muddled
Great news!
Behind the scenes, our previous Gig Harbor Now and Then column was a watershed moment. While I was not informed directly, it was brought to my attention that due to my story on the Lawrence family of Purdy, I’m about to get a raise! For those who didn’t see it, the news appeared on the Gig Harbor Now Facebook page, and looked like this (with a couple comments added by me):
Going from chicken feed to chickens is quite a leap.
As wonderful as that is, and as appreciative as I am for it, the overwhelming generosity doesn’t come free of complications. It took halfway to forever to get my bank to accept direct deposit of chicken feed. I’m not sure their system can even handle drumsticks and feathers.
Whistle-stop reader board
Continuing the theme of our previous column, signs with a back story, here’s one that’s down right spooky.
Sometimes random old photos in junk stores can be major surprises. But in such cases, are they really random? Or is there some sort of pre-determined destiny at play?
Imagine my surprise when I found this photo at the Pacific Antiques Mall in Parkland earlier this year:
Apparently, Gertie Jackson in Texas knew I’d be seeing a picture of her whistle-stop reader board someday, and sent me a message through the photo.
I thought I made up the column name Gig Harbor Now and Then two years ago, yet the handwritten date on the margin of that picture is 1947 (which I cropped out). And it’s not even local. Judging from the other photos it was mixed in with at the antique store, it appears to be from Texas. Plus, the photography studio that printed it, The Fox Co., was in San Antonio, and the date of printing was July 1947.
That’s Gertie Jackson standing on the stairs. How in the world did she know I’d be finding the picture 78 years later?
Who is Gertie Jackson, anyway?
And what else does she know?
There’s something fishy going on here.
It would be really interesting — maybe even frightening — to find out what.
New business
As it sometimes happens (and it’s pretty cool when it does), I got the idea for today’s local history topic by reading something contemporary. I had just begun reading Tonya Strickland’s comprehensive Gig Harbor-area Community Resource Guide when it happened. She started off by explaining how a text can be sent to 911 if you are hard of hearing, or when you are in a situation where a voice call could put you in further danger. For example, during a home invasion.
Right there, only three paragraphs into the guide, I recalled how difficult it was to contact emergency services not too many semi-centuries ago. (Only one, actually.)
I immediately veered off into exploring the idea of writing about it, and didn’t get back to Tonya’s guide for a good couple of hours. Never having called emergency services 50 years ago, it turned out to be even more complicated than I thought. It all depended on where you lived on the Peninsula. And the procedure often changed.
A case for standardization
The first 911 system for emergency telephone calls became operational in the U.S. in 1968. But not in Washington. In that year the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department emergency number was Zenith 8826.
There was no such thing as one-number calling for emergency services in Pierce County in 1968. This clip from the April 11, 1968, Peninsula Gateway was found at the Harbor History Museum.
It wasn’t until Oct. 1, 1985, that all of Pierce County adopted the 911 emergency services telephone number. Before then, calling police, the fire department, or an ambulance involved a variety of numbers. Each service had a different one, and sometimes, two.
As if remembering a random, multi-digit number during an emergency wasn’t daunting enough, the number used for calling the Pierce County Sheriff in 1968 was not the same one used in 1979. By that year, it had changed to Zenith 4911. The non-emergency number was Zenith 4721.
Emergency phone numbers through the years
Sifting through a few random telephone directories at the Harbor History Museum shows that local emergency numbers changed several times from 1951 until the adoption of the 911 system in 1985.
In 1951, you had to call the operator on the Gig Harbor Peninsula, no matter what the nature of the emergency was (at that time the Key Peninsula had its own telephone system).
For the Gig Harbor Peninsula, there were different numbers to call in 1954, depending on the type of emergency. For the fire department, Gig Harbor and Purdy dialed 44-3011. For Olalla, the number was 66-2400, likely connecting to Port Orchard.
For a police emergency, to reach Gig Harbor’s town marshal, Gig Harbor and Purdy dialed 44-3041, while Olalla’s number was 6-5111, which probably connected to Port Orchard or the Kitsap County Sheriff. The Piece County Sheriff could be reached at 44-5581.
In 1958, all the telephone numbers were different from the ones in 1954. For fire calls, Fox Island called WY 6-2345; Gig Harbor and Purdy, UL 8-3111; Burley, UL 7-2525; and Olalla, LY 6-2400.
The 1958 emergency police numbers were kind of all over the place. To reach Gig Harbor’s town marshal, you dialed UL 8-2116, but that didn’t always work. That year’s telephone directory advised that “If No Answer Call UL 8-2023.”
The Pierce County Sheriff’s office had a similar setup. Dial UL 8-2196, but “If No Answer Call Tacoma MA 7-7131,” which was a toll call. Fox Island’s only option was the toll call.
Olalla had a somewhat different arrangement from Gig Harbor in 1958 for emergency police assistance. People there had to make a toll call to Port Orchard at TR 6-5111 during regular business hours, Monday through Saturday. But that number was not answered after quitting time. After 4:30 P.M., Monday through Saturday, and all day on Sunday and holidays, the emergency number was TR 6-5151.
For all Gig Harbor Peninsula locations, the telephone directory informed its users that they always had the option to “DIAL “0” AND TELL OPERATOR (“I want to report a fire”) (“I want the police”)”.
By 1966, Gig Harbor’s alternate number for police emergencies changed, as did Olalla’s primary number. But at least Olalla no longer had to call a different number after 4:30 every afternoon.
Progress at last – but not on the Peninsula
In 1974, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office and the Tacoma Police (and later the Tacoma Fire Department) combined their call centers into one, but only for local callers (it was still a long-distance call from the Peninsula at that time). The last three digits of the new number were 911, chosen in anticipation of an eventual switch to those three digits alone.
It was thought that the adoption of 911 could happen as soon as the following year, but it actually took until 1985 to go countywide. By that time the Pierce County cities of Puyallup, Milton and Fife had already been using a limited 911 system for a couple of years.
The News Tribune, August 16, 1974.
Behind the times
Progress was being made in other parts of Pierce County. Yet on the Peninsula in the 1970s, the operator-assisted Zenith number was still the only way to hail a sheriff’s deputy.
For a fire emergency on the Peninsula, the calls were all local numbers, but they were different for different neighborhoods. In 1979, the emergency fire numbers were 858-3111 for Arletta, Fox Island, Gig Harbor, and Purdy; 857-4462 for Burley and Olalla; 884-2161 for Herron Island, Home, Key Center, Lakebay, Longbranch, and Vaughn; and 857-2311 for Wauna and Minter.
If you wanted to make a non-emergency call to the various fire departments on the Peninsula, you had to dial a different non-emergency number for each.
By 1979, only the Key Peninsula south of Minter could call the same number for an ambulance as for the fire department. Everybody else had to consult the yellow pages.
All the confusion ended when the 911 system was finally adopted county-wide in 1985.
What’s a Zenith number?
A Zenith number was an early version of a toll-free long-distance call. It was not direct-dial, however. You had to first call the operator and ask to be connected to a specific Zenith number. If you did not know the number, the operator would look it up for you.
Old business
Vince Dice’s recent story on bus service between the Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor describes not only a current problem, but a perpetual one. These clips from the Peninsula Gateway, the short one from June 15, 1951, and the longer one from Feb. 22, 1952, are typical examples of the never-ending struggle:
These newspaper articles were found at the Harbor History Museum.
Before buses, adequate ferry service was the ongoing transportation problem for the Key Peninsula.
Next time
The subject of the Dec. 15 Gig Harbor Now and Then column will be The Little House in the Hayfield. It will also feature an ongoing Christmas miracle in Gig Harbor.
This weathered, charming, enduring, old farmhouse on Pt. Fosdick Drive will have its early history told in this column on Dec. 15. Photo by Greg Spadoni.
Gig Harbor Now and Then Editorial Opinion: Give it time
Much like the improvements in contacting emergency services, personal communication has also become very quick and easy compared to 50 years ago. Because of that, it’s becoming more and more common for people to expect responses to emails, texts or even voicemail almost immediately. That doesn’t take into consideration the possibility of the recipient being too busy to drop everything just to respond to you.
Unless it’s an emergency, when you message somebody, you’ve got to give it some time. Results don’t always come promptly. A text or email response might not show up the same day. It might show up tomorrow … unless you’re reading it tomorrow, in which case it would be today. But if it IS now tomorrow, meaning you’re now reading it today, the response might also be from today, except, of course, if you’re reading it the day after tomorrow, which would make tomorrow’s reading yesterday.
But if you’re reading it yesterday, today would then be tomorrow.
In any case, by this time tomorrow, today will be yesterday, tomorrow will be today, and a promptly returned message will have been from the day after the day before yesterday.
And even if it wasn’t, two days after the day before yesterday still might not be enough time for a response to show up, so it’s unrealistic to expect one today.
Boiled down to a single statement, when you send an email, text, or leave a voicemail, be a little more patient.
Reliably timely
No matter how long or short it takes to get an email or text reply, you know you can always read this Gig Harbor Now and Then Editorial Opinion today.
Unless you’re reading it tomorrow, in which case it would now be today. But if it IS now tomorrow, meaning you’re reading it today … well, we’ve already been through all that; no point in repeating it.
— Greg Spadoni, December 1, 2025
Greg Spadoni of Olalla has had more access to local history than most life-long residents. During 25 years in road construction working for the Spadoni Brothers, his first cousins, twice removed, he traveled to every corner of the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas, taking note of many abandoned buildings, overgrown farms, and roads that no longer had a destination. Through his current association with the Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor as the unofficial Chief (and only) Assistant to Linda McCowen, the Museum’s primary photo archive volunteer, he regularly studies the area’s largest collection of visual history. Combined with the print history available at the museum and online, he has uncovered countless stories of long-forgotten local people and events.
