Louis Gordon Moore

Louis Gordon Moore was born on May 9, 1934, in Aberdeen, Washington, and passed away on June 18, 2015, in Tacoma General Hospital. He was raised in Aloha, Washington, and graduated from Moclips High School in 1952. For many years, he resided in Montesano and was the owner of L. G. Moore Shake & Shingle Co. For the last several years, he resided in Olympia and Centralia. He was the father of three children (Tamara Kiviaho, Lisa Cole, and Michael Moore), the grandfather of five grandchildren (Talia Scott, Mark Kiviaho, Shay Kiviaho, Robin Cole, and Kelsey Cole), and the great grandfather of two great grandsons (Hayden Scott and Taylor Snyder). He was the brother of Ruth Gangwish of Puyallup. About 1934, Gordons parents, Louis and Pearl Moore, together with their two children, Ruth and Gordon, moved from Hoquiam to House No. 20 in Aloha. Louis had been hired by Wilford Dole to grade Western Red Cedar beveled siding in the Aloha Lumber Company planing mill. Growing up in Aloha was a unique and unforgettable experience. When Gordon was very young, he built logging roads for his trucks among the roots of the evergreen trees. In the spring and summer, he and all the kids (no age discrimination) played workup baseball, draw-the-frying pan hide-and-go-seek, and kick-the-can on the wide boardwalk between the two rows of company garages that formed the perimeter of the boardwalk. Gordon and the other neighborhood boys spent many hours carving out cowboy trails and building forts in the brush between the log pond and the company houses. Year-around, they shot baskets through the hoop that was mounted on a company garage. But when the mill whistle blew at 12:00 noon and at 5:00 p.m., he was expected to be home for mealtime. Beginning when Gordon was in the fourth grade, one of his parents took him to private trumpet lessons every Saturday with Mrs. King in Aberdeen. He continued to take weekly trumpet lessons through high school. He played a trumpet solo in his high school graduation ceremonies. He was always an early riser, and sometimes he would let the entire neighborhood know that it was time to get up when he played Reveille on the front porch of the Moores home. Gordon loved the hymns of the church. He sat on the piano bench alongside his mother, Pearl, and they played duets from the hymnals. She taught him how to transpose the printed music of the hymns to the trumpet. The millpond at Aloha was always off limits to anyone except the men who worked on the pond. One summer day, Gordon and his older friend, Lester Morris, were playing on the log boom walkways in the secluded area of the upper millpond. Gordon became trapped in the water under a log and couldnt free himself. Somehow, Lester pulled Gordon out of the pond and saved his life. Gordons mother did not hear about the near drowning until later that evening when Gordon inquired of his mother, Will a person die if that person has swallowed too much water? He was still afraid that he still might die that night. Then he told his mother what had happened earlier in the day, and she learned the reason for his having come home and changed his wet clothes in the middle of the day. During World War II, Gordons mother and father had special friends, Ernie and Florence Maisch. They had a son, Wes, who was just a little younger than Gordon. It was with high anticipation that Gordon and Wes both looked forward to the Maischs occasional visit to Aloha. Wes eventually lived with Louis and Pearl Moore for two years and completed high school at Moclips. Many years passed, and Wes inherited property at Allyn, but he lived in Mississippi. Gordon considered it a privilege to be able to take care of Wes and Ellas property at Allyn for many years during their absence from November to May. Wes preceded Gordon in death, and Gordon gladly continued to oversee Ellas property at Allyn during her absence. One summer day, Gordon and his best friend, Robert Swanson, were given the chore of chopping down blackberry vines from around the WPA outhouse at the Swanson's. Robert was whacking the vines in the back of the outhouse, and Gordon was whacking the vines in the front of the outhouse. They were using garden spades to accomplish their tasks. When Robert was done, he converted his spade into a javelin, pointed the spade end into the air, and launched it over the outhouse. (What else would one do with a spade?) The metal blade hit directly on the bone under Gordons eye, and laid the flesh on his cheek wide open. Swansons neighbor, Birdie, escorted Gordon from the accident site to his mothers front door with the blood streaming down his face. His mother thought that he had lost his eye. She quickly got in the car and drove him to the doctor at Pacific Beach so the wound could be stitched. Gordon carried a scar under his eye for the remainder of his life, and what could have been the reason for loss of friendship became a lifelong bond between Robert and Gordon. When Gordon was sixteen, he began to work weekends and nights in the fire room at Aloha Lumber. The mill was not in full operation during those hours, and one of his hourly duties was to carry the insurance time clock to the keyed stations, which were located in the sawmill, the planer mill, the shingle mill, the dry kilns, and the lumber sorting yards, checking for fire and other unusual activity. Sometimes, the boardwalks and stored lumber made creaking noises that would spook the employee, so there was always the temptation to skip one of the monitoring stations. Gordon and other young men got their start carrying the clock. Gordon always wanted to work in the woods. In the summer after he turned sixteen, he was determined that Blondie Logan would hire him as a choker setter for Aloha Lumber Company. He started wearing shoes and clothing to look like a logger, but his parents knew that state law prohibited minors from working in the woods. After many days, his parents were able to persuade him to put aside his dreams of becoming a logger until he was older. Following high school graduation, Gordon attended Washington State College. Because of the war in Korea, young men were being encouraged to enlist in the military, and so he enlisted in the United States Army. He departed for basic training from the Northern Pacific Railway Station in Tacoma. He was thrilled when he was selected to become part of the U. S. Army Drum and Bugle Corps. After basic training, he served the remainder of his military obligation in Germany and at Fort Lewis. When he returned to Aloha, his dream of working in the woods was finally realized when he was hired to run lines for Dick Sterling, the timber cruiser for Aloha Lumber Corporation. With Gordons marriage to Leona Jackson in 1957, he gained three stepchildren (Cleve, Janet, and Robert). They lived at Black Creek for a few months, and then they purchased a farm at Satsop. It was there that Gordon built his first shake mill. A few years later, he built another shake mill at a site near downtown Montesano. From there, he shipped shakes, hip and ridge units, and shims by rail and truck to the Midwest and California. While living at Montesano, Gordons friends from the Wynoochee Valley showed him how to make sauerkraut, and they provided the cabbage. That was the beginning of his love of canning sauerkraut, salsa, salmon, tuna fish, razor clams, tomatoes, pickled beets, dill pickles, fruit, and jam. He was generous with his canned goods, and he often shared his canned food with his sister, Ruth. On June 11, the day that he was airlifted to Tacoma General Hospital, he was at Taholah visiting with Inky and Lois Charley, and had purchased some Blueback salmon to can. When the demand for shakes dropped, Gordon decided it was time to leave the shake business. He found a new career, and it was not working with cedar. It was driving a contract mail truck for Richard Livingood. The early routes included every post office in the North Beach and sometimes the post offices in Aberdeen and Hoquiam. For several years, he drove the route from Tumwater to Centralia, Chehalis, and Galvin. He was still driving that route until six weeks before his death. When Gordon was born, his mother said that he would be called by his middle name, Gordon, so that is what his family called him. When Gordon was an adult, he asked his friends to call him Louie. And later in life, he told his friends that his name was Louis. We are confident that his Heavenly Father recognized all of his names. (Written by Gordons sister, Ruth Gangwish)