Ken Aitken recalls the early days of Sisters

Ken Aitken claims to be "the oldest person to be born in Sisters and still be alive." He is 90, born on December 19, 1917, a little over a month after the end of World War I.

Aitken, who now lives in Bakersfield, California, was in Sisters last week and discussed his early days in Sisters with family and friends at a function at the new Three Creeks Brewing Company.

His parents, George and Grace, were both people with many talents who had a major role in Sisters society during the early decades of the 20th Century.

George Aitken operated a general store for many years, published the Sisters Herald for two years, sold insurance, was a notary public and served as a pharmacist. Training for all of these roles was largely self-taught.

For example, there was only one doctor in town, and he was retired. Aitken said there were only about 100 people here then and only one part-time doctor was all that was needed.

If someone needed medicine, the doctor would send them and a prescription to the store, called Aitken's Drug Store. His father had six or seven bottles labeled by number. The prescription would identify which bottle to take pills from and the order would be filled.

Quite a contrast to the hundreds of alternatives available today. The store's name was eventually shortened to just Aitken's.

Aitken's mother was no slouch. She was postmaster for 27 years and worked at the store, since that was where the post office was located. She also started the first library, beginning with a few books on one shelf.

The big 1923 fire in Sisters destroyed the store along with several others. The next year the other side of the street burned, Aitken recalls.

He said his mother saved all the mail and store inventory by issuing wicker baskets to "volunteers" and instructing them to scoop everything in the baskets and deposit them on a lawn across the street.

The morning after the fire the only thing left of the store was a large safe, still very hot, Aitken said. His father rounded up some more volunteers, issued them buckets and went to the town water ditch (no water system in operation yet) and had them cool down the safe so it could be opened.

There was some money in the safe, but the major concern was all the property transaction records. All were saved.

Aitken said his father used to claim the store had the best ice cream in Oregon.

"No one disputed it," he chuckled.

He helped make the ice cream by hand, with fresh cream, whole milk, sugar, eggs and an ice cream powder. There was a hand crank that once started couldn't be stopped or the ice cream would be ruined.

Aitken helped gather ice at a local pond during the winter. The pond was about three feet deep and the ice six inches thick. The first cut would be done with an axe and then a saw to extract blocks of ice.

The store had an ice house. They would stack the ice inside and pack snow around the blocks. The ice would last all summer, he said.

During one July 4 weekend, over $400 worth of five- and 10-cent ice cream cones were sold at the store, Aitken said.

Water finally came to Sisters in the 1920s. His father, with some other prominent citizens, put up the money for the system. It was a wooden pipe to save money. Small boards were used and held together in a circle by metal bands. The outside was covered with a creosote preservative.

Aitken said enrollment in the seventh and eighth grades totaled 13 students. His teacher would take them to Bend for an "educational" movie and then test them afterwards. They also went on trips to study the woods. Appropriate, since most jobs in those days were in local mills or falling trees.

A teacher entered him in a county-wide speech contest. He didn't win, but did well, giving him some self-confidence and forecasting his future career in radio.

The high school had about 25 students in four grades. Aitken said they played ball in the school yard, went to dances in Terrebonne, or at a local Grange Hall.

Five of them, including Principal Lloyd Baker, formed a band and played at various places, including Bend. Aitken played the saxophone, while the principal strummed the banjo.

One Halloween prank he remembers was some boys taking a wagon apart and putting it back together on top of a local Shell service station.

Aitken said it was possible to get a private line telephone, but it was expensive. He said the store had a hand crank phone. Party lines would have multiple people on the same line. "Ten people would pick up to see what was going on," he said.

Aitken attended Sisters High School for three years, but went to Portland his senior year to study electronics. He graduated in 1937 and began a life-long career in radio.

He was a radio engineer and announcer for the Mutual Broadcasting System at various locations in Southern California before settling in Bakersfield.

His first job paid $110 a month.

Aitken was married to Millie from 1950 until her death in 2005. She helped him rear two daughters, Darlene, 69 and Karen, 66.

They have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Aitken credits his long life to watching his weight and to Millie being a Registered Nurse. He drinks in moderation and quit smoking 25 or 30 years ago.