50 years ago in Expo history: Crises groups respond to lost children and bad drug trips

A group of young people called the Youth Help Association was serving as a de facto “crisis crew” at Expo ’74.

The group responded primarily to two completely different kinds of crises: lost children and bad drug trips.

When parents reported that a child had wandered off, a two-person crew immediately went into action and roamed the site, looking for a lost-looking child among the 30,000 or so people on the site.

They claimed they had a 60% success rate in finding people who were lost.

“Believe it or not, adults are the hardest to find,” said the group’s coordinator. “Kids look lost, but adults who are lost may slip into a pavilion and look like they are enjoying the fair.”

Who reports a lost adult? “The spouse.”

When someone was having a bad drug trip, “we go over and rap to them,” the coordinator said.

“We don’t get pushy … no sweat … no hassle,” he said. “In some cases we stay with them until they stabilize.”

From 100 years ago: Two men were fined by a Colville justice of the peace for “failing to fight forest fires when ordered to do so by the fire warden.”

Another was fined for starting a fire and allowing it to spread to adjacent land. A fourth was fined for starting a fire without a written permit.

A recent spate of wildfires had caused considerable damage in the region but recent rains dampened them.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1829: William Austin Burt patents America’s first “typographer” that would later be called the typewriter.