The Good Ol ’ Days
By Tobie Finzel
Pauline Dial King 1919 – 2014
Vernonia lost another of its
honored citizens last month with the
passing of Pauline Dial King. Pauline
and her daughter, Christine King
Redmond, were active volunteers at
Vernonia Pioneer Museum until Pauline
moved to her daughter Marilyn’s home
in Florence following the 2007 flood.
The museum held a special place in
her heart; her family has established a
Pauline King Memorial Fund to which
contributions may be made in her honor.
In 2005, we interviewed Pauline as part
of the museum’s oral history project.
The following is an excerpt from that
interview.
Pauline was born in Renton,
Washington, and lived her first years
in Cut Bank, Montana, on the family
homestead and then a wheat ranch
in Oregon. When she was three, her
father got word of the big mill being
built in Vernonia, so the family came by
sternwheeler to Rainier and from there
to Vernonia in 1922. When her parents
divorced, Pauline returned to Cut Bank
with her mother until March of her
junior year in high school when they
came back to Vernonia. She graduated
from VHS in 1936.
Pauline’s mother opened a
restaurant, the Squeeze Inn, located
where part of the Cedar Side Inn is
today. A barber shop occupied the rest
of the future Cedar Side bar area. There
were just nine stools in the Squeeze
Inn; a sign in the restaurant read “We
can serve 1000 a day, 9 at a time.”
The Inn was open nearly 24 hours per
day most days during the late 1930s to
accommodate the loggers and mill shift
workers. Pauline worked long hours
along with her mother. The Squeeze Inn
was famous for its chili, turkey dinners
and a big $1.95 ham and egg breakfast.
Business was brisk throughout the day
with the mill and all the logging camps
active. The railroad and logging crews
came in early to pick up lunches that
were made up in the wee hours of the
morning.
Pauline’s mother had a dog
named Whizzer who sat outside the
Squeeze Inn while her mother was
working. Loggers would buy him ice
cream cones and put them in a nearby,
dog-height, flag stand; he even got
Christmas cards from the logging
camps. Whizzer was resourceful when it
came to garnering treats; he went door to
door in the neighborhood and “knocked”
on the doors with his hind leg until the
homeowner rewarded him with a tidbit.
Pauline married Earl King,
another VHS graduate, in 1941. Earl’s
family owned King’s Grocery, now
vacant but still standing on the east end
of the green bridge. There were many
full-service grocery stores throughout
Vernonia in those days. King’s customers
primarily lived on OA Hill and in
Riverside. Pauline worked in the family
store six days per week, from 8 am to 8
pm on Saturdays and 8 – 6 on weekdays.
The store carried fresh meat, produce,
other groceries, and some toiletries.
Camp McGregor residents called in their
orders; the groceries would then be sent
by train to the camp. Pauline worked at
the store until her first child, Christine,
was born in 1947.
In the early 1940s, Pauline and
Earl bought a duplex and converted it
to a single family home. Located right
across from Washington Grade School,
it now stands on a high foundation above
flood level. Back then, between that
house and the bottom of OA Hill stood
Reeher’s grocery store, the Midway
Apartments (a one-level complex), the
two-story Olive Apartments, and Stubbs
New Deal Garage, a Shell gas station.
The first theater Pauline attended
was the Majestic. It had an organ, and
local people performed skits between
featured films. The first matinee she
saw was “The Volga Boatmen.” The
Joy Theater was built in 1926 after the
Majestic burned down. Another theater,
the Rose, was located next to a restaurant
on Adams where Shay Park sits today.
When “Ring of Fire” was being filmed
in Vernonia in the late 1950s, the
Women’s Fellowship of the Christian
Church cooked for approximately
eighty people – actors and the rest of
the film crew. The women volunteered
to do this to raise money to finish the
basement underneath the church. A
former restaurant in the building that
now houses the Laundromat held the
stoves they used for all the cooking.
Meals often featured turkey or ham
and were served family-style when the
crew was in town. Pauline and another
woman prepared sack lunches when the
crew was going to be on location. They
also made up continental breakfasts for
the mornings.
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in other words
february20
2014
Pauline was active in a number
of other organizations throughout her
seventy-plus years in Vernonia. During
World War II, she was a member of a
ladies’ poker club. She received her fifty-
year pin from the local P.E.O. chapter in
2008 and served as its President eight
times between 1963 and 1995. She was
a lovely woman who will be missed by
all who knew her. She lent the museum
pictures for use in its Images of America:
Vernonia book. See pages 76 through
79 for pictures of the Squeeze Inn and
King’s.
From Virgil Powell’s Diary
Virgil Powell was a long-time
resident who had a farm in the Upper
Nehalem Valley between Natal and
Pittsburg. Each year from 1906 until
1955, he kept a regular diary of his
activities. Although Virgil was long
gone by the time of the February 1996
flood caused by heavy snow followed by
heavy rains, the winter of 1916 was also
a cold, wet one. Last month we included
some of his January 1916 entries and
now continue into February.
Tuesday, February 1, 1916: Went
up to Detrick place and fed the
cattle first thing in morning.
Rained quite hard all day so was
around the house pretty much all
day. Snow melting pretty fast.
Wednesday, February 2:
Went
out hunting N.W. of here 1/2 mile
and killed 2. Started out 9 and
returned 11:30 A.M. Rained and
snowed pretty hard all day and
was certainly good and wet.
7
Friday, February 4:
Worked
around the house all day. Salted
down a lot of meat. Vic and some
others went hunting. Pretty cold
all day and still about 18 inches
of snow. Ben came down late in
evening. Burt boys here for dinner.
Saturday, February 5: Left 10
A.M. in the sled for Smiths and
got up there 1 P.M. Snowed quite
a bit during the day and lots
during the night. Elmer came down
on a sled and got some hay. Old
barn up at Detrick place fell down
because of heavy snow on.
Sunday, February 6: Inez and
I left Smiths 9:45 A.M. and got
home 1:30 P.M. Rained some during
the day but pretty fair day. About
15 inches of snow on.
The Vernonia Pioneer Museum is located
at 511 E. Bridge Street and is open from
1 to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays
(excluding holidays) all year. From June
through mid-September, the museum
is also open on Fridays from 1 – 4 pm.
There is no charge for admission but
donations are always welcome. Become
a member of the museum for an annual
$5 fee to receive the periodic newsletter,
and if you are a Facebook user, check
out the new Vernonia Pioneer Museum
page created by Bill Langmaid. The
museum volunteers are always pleased
to enlist additional volunteers to help
hold the museum open and assist in
other ways. Please stop by and let one
of the volunteers know of your interest in
helping out.
2/22 TBA
2/28 & 3/1 Ray Tarantino
3/6 Dinner Show with Nikki Hill
3/7 Elbo G String Band
3/8 & 3/9 Moody Little Sister
3/14 Wil Kinky
3/15 Scott Pemberton Trio
3/16 Crosby Tyler
3/28 Blue Skies for Black Hearts
3/29 RootJack
4/5 Britnee Kellogg
4/6 Britnee Kellogg Unplugged
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