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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2022)
In Other Words March 17 2022 13 The Good Ol ’ Days By Tobie Finzel Sam’s Food Store Randy Holce recently brought us a copy of his Uncle Buck’s – Sam T. Hearing, Jr.’s – memoir of Sam’s Food Store established by Sam Hearing, Sr. In our column of Feb- ruary 2019, we covered many of the grocery stores that thrived during Vernonia’s mill days and beyond. From the 1920s through the 1960s, neighborhood markets were scat- tered throughout the town. Not everyone had a car nor a home freezer, so shopping often in a convenient location – especially at stores with meat departments and freezer lockers that could be rented – was the norm. The building that eventually housed Sam’s Food Store still stands at the corner of Bridge and Madison and is currently home to The Rusty Nail antique store and Shawn Gibson’s realty office. Built in 1924, the corner housed a succession of bakeries and later a cafe. The center of that same build- ing west of the bakery corner was vacant for some years before becoming Fairway Foods. Sam Hearing, Sr., came to Vernonia in 1935 and worked at Safeway. In 1938 he and Robert Tipton purchased Fairway. His son, Sam “Buck” Hearing, Jr., also worked for Safeway at other locations but came to work for his father in the new enterprise. Buck’s 1998 memoir details his father’s and his history with the store: “In 1937 my Dad was working for Safe- way Stores in Vernonia (note: currently Blue House Café). The store across the street was called Fairway Foods. In the fall of 1937 the proprietor of Fairway Foods decided that the city of Vernonia was not a very good place to operate a grocery store and moved his business to Stevenson, Washington. The store was vacant for the rest of the year. In the fall of 1938, my Dad and Robert Tipton decided to start a grocery store in the vacant building. Dad and I and Bob with three of his brothers went to Portland and purchased a vacant store building and moved the con- tents to Vernonia. The heavy meat cases and refrigerator cases were no problem for Bob and his husky brothers. We had a big celebration for our grand opening, and Sam and Bob’s Store was a going concern. My mother and Dad and I were kept busy and my sisters Evelyn and Virginia pitched in to help.” “After a few years of very successful business, Bob decided he needed to go to a larger store. He sold his interest to my Dad and started a store in Hillsboro. My Dad hired Al Herra and his wife Clara to run the meat market. My Dad named the store Sam’s Food Store. In 1945 my Dad sold the store to Lou Girod and his brother. Since they had no idea how to run a store, I was hired to help them. The store was known as Girod’s Food Store. Lou’s brother decided he didn’t care for the grocery business, so he sold his interest to Lou. In 1947, Lou decided he needed a larger store, so he sold it to me and started a store in Tigard. It was now called Sam’s Food Store again.” “I hired Orville (Sleepy) McKinster (note: Sleepy Lane in Pittsburg is named af- ter him) to run the meat market and Calvin Sasse to help with the groceries. When my two boys first learned to walk, I made them special grocery aprons and they started to learn the grocery business. I think the expe- rience they had in the store was a great part of their education.” “In 1938 the corner part of the build- ing was occupied by the Vernonia Bakery, run by George Shaber. He was an excellent baker, and his specialty was his twin loaves of bread. They were two one-pound loaves stuck together and sold for fifteen cents or two for twenty-five cents. In about 1940, George sold his bakery to Jake Boss who with the help of his niece, Stella Kriara, ran the bakery until they sold it to Everett Peter- son. Everett and his son Jim ran the bakery until they closed it, and I rented it to Cathe- rine (Kate) Coates. Kate ran the restaurant for several years and when she retired, Dan and several of his friends took out the large ovens behind the restaurant. Since the ov- ens weighed several tons, we recruited sev- eral helpers and eventually cleaned up the mess. I sold the bricks to the Natal Shingle Mill to make a place to burn its scraps.” Buck operated Sam’s for 42 more years until he retired and closed the store in 1989. His memoir lists many of the employees who worked there over the years most of whom are familiar to long-time Vernonians. Space in this column doesn’t permit listing them here, but Buck’s full memoir is available on request from the Vernonia Pioneer Museum thanks to Randy Holce, son of Buck’s sister, the late Evelyn Hearing Holce. From Virgil Powell’s Diary Virgil Powell (1887-1963) was a long- time resident whose family 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 activi- ties. Virgil’s courtship of his future wife, Inez Smith, continued to bloom. Several of his entries refer to her as “the kid” and once more he made some comments that pique the curiosity. Friday, Mar. 1, 1912. Was fool- ing around the biggest part of the day. Awful cold all day and snowed a little in the afternoon. Roy Smith came in from Clats- kanie. Expect to take in the big doings at Natal Grange Hall to- morrow night. Saturday, March 2. Was get- ting ready for the doings in the morning. Took the heavy team and started up to Smiths at 11.15. Got up there about 2. Inez and I got down here at 5.10 P.M. Gladys and Roy also stopped for supper. We all left about 6.30. Got down to Natal about 8. Big crowd there and had a good time. Danced after the entertainment till about 3 A.M. Bright and fine all day but froze terrible hard during the night. Monday, March 11. Butchered 3 hogs in the forenoon and finished at 12.15. Frozen quite hard in the morning but bright and dandy all day. Went over to the Elliott place for a little while in the afternoon. Sunday, March 17. Got up to Smiths about 2 P.M. Inez went down to Nickersons in the buggy in the morning after Gladys S. and got back about 3.30. Was pretty stormy and rained pretty hard all day and night. Cer- tainly had a good time all eve- ning. Found out something I have been wanting to know for a long, long time and certainly makes me feel pretty good. Left up there at 12.10 and got home at 3.30 A.M. Sunday, March 3. The doings was over at Natal at 3 A.M. and Inez and I got up here at 5 A.M. Sat up and had a dandy time till 6.40 then went to bed and got up 8.30. We started up to Smiths with the driving team at 11.40 and got up there at 3 P.M. Got back home 5.35. Bright and fine most of the day but pretty cold towards evening. Frozen pretty hard in the morning. Sunday, March 24. Left here about 12 and got up to Smiths at 2 P.M. Very good all day. We just fooled around all day. This is sure a day to be remembered all my life. Left up there at 1.45 and got home 4.20 A.M. Tuesday, March 5. Left at 4.50 A.M. for Clatskanie and got out there 8.20. Went out horseback on Pet. Left Clatskanie about 12.45 and got home about 5.15. Will Pringle also went out. Very good all day. 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. There is no charge for ad- mission but donations are always welcome. Become a member of the museum for an an- nual $5 fee to receive the periodic newslet- ter. We now have a page on the Vernonia Hands on Art website, www.vernoniahand- sonart.org If you are a Facebook user, check out the Vernonia Pioneer Museum page. 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. Thursday, March 7. Went up to Pittsburg and plowed all day. Almost finished below the bridge. Could not do very much because the team were so soft. Cloudy all day and sprinkled a little all day. Sunday, March 10. Left about 11.30 A.M. for Smiths on Pet. Got up there 2 P.M. The kid had been sick the last part of week and was not feeling anything extra today. Just fooled around all afternoon. Frozen pretty hard in the morning but bright and NOTICE OF BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING - Presentation of Budget Document - Discussion of the Budget Document - Public Testimony - Scheduling of possible future meetings A public meeting of the 2022-2023 Mist-Birkenfeld RFPD Budget Committee will be held Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at 7:00 PM at the Mist-Birkenfeld Main Station located at 12525 Highway 202. This is a meeting where deliberation of the Budget Committee will take place. Any person may attend this meeting and discuss the proposed programs with the Budget Committee. BUSINESS TO BE CONDUCTED AT THIS MEETING WILL BE: - Election of Officers - Presentation of Budget Message Form OR-LB-NBC Need more room? fine all day. Left up there at 11.45 and got home 2 A.M. B The proposed budget document will be available for inspection beginning March 21, 2022 at the Mist-Birkenfeld Main Station at 12525 Hwy 202, Mist, Oregon, during the hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. 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