PUBLISHER

(Editor's Note: This week Jerry explores the Dust Bowl, model living and soaring prices at the pump.)

Meet Eugene Tabaka

Born a farm boy in North Dakota 81 years ago, Eugene Tabaka grew up helping his dad bust 360 acres of buffalo grass sod to raise corn, wheat, flax and potatoes until prairie wind turned the state into a dust bowl. As early as age 5, Tabaka loved to ride between his dad's knees on a huge John Deere tractor.

It was a hard life living where the winter months were often 30 below. Tabaka's family survived the bitter cold by burning coal, which was plentiful and just a few inches below the sod. The coal could be dug up by a special plow pulled by the tractor.

When the sod disappeared and the Midwest became the Dust Bowl, Tabaka's family, like thousands of others, came west to start a new life. Leaving his family behind for a year, Tabaka's dad rode the boxcars to Eugene. Ore., where a friend with five acres of timber hired him to fell the trees on the property and buck it up for firewood for 25 cents a cord. Working alone he cleared the whole five acres.

Although Eugene Tabaka was only 5 when he and his Mom got to Oregon, he had to help his dad on one end of a misery whip, which is an eight-foot crosscut saw with handles on each end. It is aptly named. I asked if kids teased him about his last name. He said he was known as Cut Plug (a famous brand of chewing tobacco) throughout his school days.

Joining the Navy in 1943 at age 16 Tabaka never got to Japan or Europe but served the war years as a motor machinist mate in the engine room aboard a seagoing tug based in Pearl Harbor in the service of our warships.

How did Tabaka wind up building 192 model battleships, submarines, tanks, bombers and fighter planes of all nations plus collecting scores of hats, caps, banners and mementos of Navy memorabilia? He is not quite sure, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Oh, yes, Tabaka also made a living working at Boeing Plant 2 in South Park and at Ford Motors in the parts facility on Fourth Avenue South where Costco now stands.

Tabaka loves the Northwest for many reasons, mostly the temperate weather and the once great flyfishing he enjoyed in rivers like the Cedar and the Skykomish.

He and his wife also raised three kids. Their daughter, Katherine, works for the Highline School District and his sons live in Portland and Detroit.

Tabaka married Ruth in 1949 after the big war when she was just 17 years old. The two of them operated a cocker spaniel kennel out of their home, where they have lived for 30 years, near Burien's Fred Meyer store.

I was impressed with Tabaka's model building skill. He started when he was 8 with a rubber band driven balsa wood warplane that he nurtured for two years until he decided to fly it out of his upstairs window. It flew 50 feet and crashed, which is when he switched to plastic.

What does he plan to do with his amazing tribute to a ton of glue and a ton of tenacity?

Tabaka said he knew a local guy named Dick Dahlgard who is connected with the Highline Historical Society. He thought maybe the society would love to have it.

Meet Barb Maritbold

This Highline resident was filling up the 100-gallon tank on the 36-foot family Gulfstream motor home, a feat that would cost a staggering $400 if the tank had been empty. Maritbold had only reached 13 gallons and a price of $52 when I took this picture so she was still smiling.