Kennewick native aims to bring joy with ‘Vintage Tri-Cities’ social media posts

Donald Sorenson was born in the Tri-Cities.

He went to school in the Tri-Cities.

He’s lived his whole life in the Tri-Cities — mostly in Kennewick.

As a teen, he couldn’t wait to leave. “I wanted nothing more than to get out of this boring town,” he recalled.

But Sorenson, now 39, ended up sticking around. And he’s glad he did.

The married father of four has grown to love the area, and he started Facebook and Instagram accounts to celebrate its rich history.

They’re under the name Vintage Tri-Cities, and they’re filled with photos of days past.

They’re popular. The Instagram account, under @vintage_tricities, has more than 1,400 followers. The Facebook page, under @VintageTriCities, has more than 11,500 followers.

In this divisive time, when people spew vitriol and attack each online over political differences, Sorenson wants Vintage Tri-Cities to be a refuge.

“The beauty of (the project) is, it doesn’t matter what your political leanings are, you can enjoy it,” he said. “I want this to be a (friendly) environment where people can share their memories.”

Sorenson, who works as a chemical technologist at Hanford and has four daughters with his wife, Lisa, started the Instagram page first, in mid-summer 2016.

The account’s inaugural photo was of seventh- and eighth-grade students at White Bluffs School in the early 1930s.

Sorenson started the Facebook page not long after, at the urging of his uncle. Its first photo was of a General Electric public works picnic in Howard Amon Park in 1950.

Many of Vintage Tri-Cities’ photos are of Richland and Hanford, part of a trove of pictures made public by the Department of Energy several years ago.

Sorenson also taps into other collections and scours the Internet for historic images.

The first photo that really took off for him was of Richland’s beloved Spudnut Shop. It’s a shot from 1950, when you could buy a spudnut a la mode for 15 cents.

“Within a week (of posting), 17,000 or 18,000 people had viewed that photo,” Sorenson said.

A little while later, he posted a photo of Sharon Tate when she was elected Miss Richland in 1959.

Tate was 16 at the time. She’d go on to become a model and actress, and — sadly — a target of the murderous Manson family cult.

Nearly 100,000 people have viewed that photo, Sorenson said.

It was around that time that Vintage Tri-Cities’ popularity began to soar. “It started getting bigger and bigger,” Sorenson said, with the likes, shares and follows rolling in.

Sorenson tries to post at least a couple of times a day. He shares photos on his lunch break, even on vacation.

It doesn’t take him long, and viewers — Vintage Tri-Cities attracts people young and old — seem to love perusing and commenting on the photos, he said.

Sorenson’s father, also named Donald, is a longtime Hanford worker and historian. A love of history passed along from father to son.

He wants the Vintage Tri-Cities accounts to bring people joy, he said. To illuminate, to bring back memories.

“I want to provide something that people can look at on a daily basis and (have) a moment of reflection,” Sorenson said. “I think it’s nice to know about the history of where you live. I think it’s a good idea that, whenever you’re at, you have an idea of what came before.”

Sorenson has a sizable photo collection, but he’s looking to broaden it and hopes community members will send in photos of vintage Tri-City sites to share on the page.

To submit a photo, email vintagetricities@gmail.com. Submitters are credited.

This story was originally published May 21, 2017 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Kennewick native aims to bring joy with ‘Vintage Tri-Cities’ social media posts."