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Gig Harbor Now and Then | The local history of telephones, cars and telephones in cars

Posted on February 10th, 2025 By: Greg Spadoni

The four local history questions from our last column had to do with telephones. The first one was prefaced by noting that the Gig Harbor Peninsula’s first operational telephone system began service in September, 1907.

When was telephone service between Gig Harbor and Tacoma first established?

Answer: September 1907.

The first telephone line between Gig Harbor and Tacoma went online in September, 1907. This clip is from the Tacoma Daily Ledger.

Two underwater cables were laid at the bottom of the Narrows between Gig Harbor and Point Defiance in late June and early July 1907, before any wires were strung overland. When telephone service first began in Gig Harbor in September, a connection to Tacoma was a part of it.

The first telephone cable between Gig Harbor and Tacoma was laid on the bottom of The Narrows in the summer of 1907. This clip is from the Tacoma Daily Ledger.

The underwater cables to Tacoma were replaced several times in the following 40 years. Mentions of the replacement cables being installed have been mistaken by more than one chronicler of Gig Harbor history as being the first. The first two cables, however, were installed in 1907, laid by the tug Bear, towing a cable scow, with the work being finished on July 2, 1907.

In a tie-in to today’s new subject, we also asked:

What was the telephone number for Gig Harbor’s first automobile dealership?

Answer: 1.

Somebody had to have it.

What was the telephone number for Gig Harbor’s second automobile dealership?

Answer: 10.

Our fourth, and last, question of local telephone history concerned mobile phones.

In what year did Gig Harbor’s telephone company announce that car phones would soon be available to any Gig Harbor-Key Peninsula customer?

Answer: 1964.

Mobile phones for the Gig Harbor-Key Peninsula were first announced in 1964. This advertisement in the April 30, 1964, issue of the Peninsula Gateway was found at the Harbor History Museum.

Car phones didn’t really seem to be a status symbol back then because so few people had them. They did appear to have a certain measure of status by the 1980s, when fake mobile phone antennas started showing up on a variety of cars, mostly junkers, just for laughs. And that was about when the first cell phones were arriving, so the joke didn’t last long.

New business

The telephone-related questions and answers concerning the local automobile dealers are the lead-ins to this week’s subject.

It’s now been a few years since Gig Harbor had a place to buy a brand-new car. The last two were Ford and Chevrolet dealerships, both where Olympic Towne Center is today, anchored by the Gig Harbor Fred Meyer store.

In the 20th century, over a period of less than 50 years, Gig Harbor had quite a variety of automobile dealers that sold new cars. Makes included Ford, Overland, Dodge, Buick, Chevrolet, Star, Durant, Oakland, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Plymouth, Kaiser-Fraser, GMC trucks, Standard trucks, and possibly others we haven’t yet discovered.

As an introduction to Gig Harbor’s first automobile dealership (that we were able to find, anyway), in our previous column we asked what its telephone number was. We disclosed today that it was 1. Today’s question — a four-fer — is a natural follow up:

What was the name of Gig Harbor’s first automobile dealership, where was it located, what year did it start, and what make of car did it sell?

Being first at something is often overrated, so let’s add this question, another four-fer:

What was the name of Gig Harbor’s second automobile dealership, where was it located, what year did it start, and what make of car did it sell?

These are all very difficult questions, so here are a few clues that while factual, won’t help a bit, except for one:

The first and second automobile dealerships in Gig Harbor started operating in the same year.

The two were only a stone’s throw apart (for a baseball player, anyway).

They were both in the heart of one of Gig Harbor’s two business districts.

One had a waterfront location.

One used a long-established building while the other built a brand new one.

With several name changes, one lasted over 60 years.

The other lasted a bit over 70 days.

Item of Mystery

The current clue to the identity of the Gig Harbor Now and Then Item of Mystery is: You have to be licensed to use these.

Editorial opinion

Today’s Gig Harbor Now and Then editorial opinion is not in reaction to any current world news or situation. Rather, it’s a subject that pops up from time to time, and it’s always good to be prepared, so any time is a good time to present this one.

How to properly insult the French

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have a true need to insult the French. It’s as inevitable as death and taxes, though we don’t include insulting the French with that popular old saying because we dare not give them the satisfaction!

All too often (more often than not, actually) the potential insulter is inexperienced at such ill behavior and does a poor job of it. (Ill behavior, by the way, is an inherent strength of the French, giving them the upper hand from the get-go.) The typical knee-jerk reaction to the overbearing nature of a Frenchman’s mouth on the loose is to point out that it was the Good Ole USA that saved France in World War Two, and without us, the French would be speaking German today. That implies they should be a culture of forever grateful yes-men towards Americans. That’s fine if your point of reference is the past two or three generations, but from the standpoint of the entire history of the U.S., the fact is that it was the French who saved the upstart rebellious colonists from the British Army during the American Revolution. Without the French, we’d all be speaking English today!

Anyway, the war argument doesn’t work. A true Frenchman won’t fall for it. Besides, the French paid us back for World War Two by using surplus American military equipment to start the Vietnam War, then pulling out before it was finished … uhh, just like we did, so I guess we’re even on that score.

OK, so enough examples of what doesn’t work. Here’s what does work. Keep in mind that an effective insult is one that’s true. To mock with exaggeration and falseness is to provoke a counter-insult, which is not an effective means of ending boorish behavior. To insult with an arguable statement is, at best, to invite that argument, and at worst, to initiate it (see the “we saved your asses during the war” example in the second paragraph).

What does work is to speak an undeniable truth. A truth so obvious and powerfully cutting that the French are left either speechless or incoherent (as if anyone listens to them anyway), stewing in their own lack of relevance to the rest of the world today. Here’s how: Merely point out to them that the three great cuisines of the world are no longer Chinese, Italian and French, but Chinese, Italian and Mexican.

Yes, that’s right. It’s a fact. Look around your own city. How many Chinese restaurants are there? Tons. Italian restaurants? Plenty. Mexican restaurants? Many. French restaurants? Unless you live in a major city, none.

Sure, we always have French fries with our hamburgers, and no cheap hot dog is complete without French’s mustard, but they are merely accessory roles in traditionally American fare.

And if you really want to rub it in, point out that the very word cuisine is French!

Insult the French today. If they don’t deserve it yet, they will soon. It’s their nature.

Next time

In the next Gig Harbor Now and Then column, on Feb. 24, we’ll have the answers to today’s double four-fer questions, including a series of newspaper advertisements from the two automobile dealerships.

It looks like there won’t be any new questions next time, due to a column that’s longer than normal. While it might not be apparent, one of the primary goals of Gig Harbor Now and Then is to keep boredom to a minimum. But don’t try to tell that to those who nodded off a page and a half ago.

— Greg Spadoni, Feb. 10, 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.