Ious A Testament To Neighborly Ways
The annual Post Falls Historical Society Banquet was about everything that’s good about this community … the people. The gala event’s guest list included senior citizens who’ve lived here all their lives as well as people who’ve come later and stayed for the same reasons.
Where else can you have so many people in one room who’ve had roads named after them? Rodkey, Hardison, Hughes, Ivalee, Schneidmiller and Wilbur, to name a few. Where else could two homemade cakes donated by Mary Hughes and Gladys Schneidmiller fetch $357.50 for the society during an auction conducted by emcee Joe Doellefeld? His four ringmen were the Four H’s - Jim Hammond, Skip Hissong, Cliff Hayes and Dick Harris.
Wilbur Mead bought Mary Hughes’ carrot cake and then Gary Schneidmiller bought his mother’s three-layer German chocolate cake, made from a 59-year-old family recipe, and promptly presented it to Mary Hughes who was celebrating her 80th birthday the next day. The bidding got so fast and furious for Gladys’ chocolate cake that she agreed to bake a second one for Tom and Kathy Malzahn, the next highest bidders.
John Rodkey, a 1938 graduate of Post Falls High School, was the keynote speaker. One of his recollections is an amazing testament to the sense of community that’s prevailed here. When Evelyn Seyforth passed away several years ago, among her things was found a box of receipts and IOUs from her family’s Spokane Street business, Seyforth’s Grocery. The uncollected, forgiven debt totalled between $75,000 and $100,000. In today’s economy that would be about a quarter million dollars. John said that many merchants in that day carried families on account during the hard times. It was simply what neighbors did.
The Post Falls Historical Society will show a 30-minute slide presentation of the history of Post Falls schools Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. at the Post Falls Public Library. Perfect timing. We can revisit the past and then later this summer celebrate the new high school’s opening!
Speaking of local treasures, Alice Hardison has long been involved in local historic preservation, but these days has a new hobby - acting. She’s appearing in a television commercial for the new Guardian Angels home. She described her debut to me at the grocery store one evening. “I’m playing the Alzheimer’s patient.”
I’ve seen the commercial and I think the sharp-as-a-tack senior citizen is deserving of an Emmy.
Vending machines outside of convenience and grocery stores are nothing new. But I was certainly taken aback by one I spotted at the Shell Jiffy Stop on Spokane Street this week. It’s a beautiful, state-of-the-art machine with lifelike images of fish backlit on the front. That’s right, I said fish.
Upon closer inspection I discovered it was not a soda pop vending machine. It dispenses live, refrigerated night crawlers and maggots for the fishermen. Only $1.75 per dozen for deluxe night crawlers. I didn’t check out the prices for the maggots, though.
If you want to see lots of people you know, hop an early morning flight to Boise on a weekday. In addition to my Coeur d’Alene counterpart Jonathan Coe, I also saw Post Falls High School Principal John Billetz and NIC President Michael Burke. Post Falls City Administrator Jim Hammond was already in Boise taking part in Board of Education testimony on exiting standards.
Former Governor Phil Batt was seen at the capitol, and at the Business Day at the Legislature luncheon. A full house of the state’s citizen legislators and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne viewed a 20-minute video produced by various chambers of commerce around the state. Rapt attention was paid to the six minutes or so of the video dedicated to North Idaho image issue.
It was an excellent piece which asked the question, “Do you know Idaho?” Among local people answering the question, and quite well I might add, were Bob Potter of Jobs Plus, Capt. Ben Wolfinger of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department and former Post Falls Jr. Miss and current NIC student Jaime Johnson.
We were very well represented and kudos go to Sholeh Johnson of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber and Adelphia Communications for the professional production. Our legislators now know this part of Idaho a little better than they did before.