HUCKLEBERRIES

The national media came looking for “a little town held hostage by Nazis” in fall 1986 after white supremacists bombed Coeur d’Alene.

And found Hudson’s Hamburgers, too.

One journalist, Steve Marantz of the Boston Globe, heeded the advice of Realtor Marshall Mend and others. If you want to know the real Coeur d’Alene, they said, “check out the folks eating at Hudson’s.”

Afterward, the reporter used Hudson’s as the “news peg,” according to then Press editor Clyde Bentley, to write “a massive, glowing story on Coeur d’Alene that mentioned the Aryans only in passing.”

The article ran on the front of the Sunday Boston Globe travel section, illustrated “lavishly” with scenes of the lake, and continued over several pages inside.

Six months later, Bentley theorized in a column titled, “Cd’A’s ambassador on a bun is making friends for the city.” The editor felt the bombings of Father Bill Wassmuth’s house (Sept. 15) and three downtown Coeur d’Alene buildings (Sept. 29) had pushed Hudson’s onto the national stage.

The Boston Globe story was picked up by many of the nation’s largest newspapers, including Boston, Houston, Kansas City, Anchorage, Ogden, Portland, and Santa Fe. It began:

“The soul of this red-cheeked town on a lake is a lunch counter. Hudson’s has a narrow Sherman Avenue storefront, about 19 stools, and the usual slice of pie on aluminum shelves. It also has the best hamburger in town, and quite possibly in Kootenai County, northern Idaho, the Pacific Northwest, and the U.S. of A.”

Hudson’s had raised the standards of burgers in Coeur d’Alene sky high, the Globe reporter said, adding: “If you live in Moscow where they have the Bolshoi, you appreciate ballet. But I am sure that if you live in Coeur d’Alene, you appreciate hamburgers.”

Travelers, holding clippings of the Boston Globe story, found their way to Hudson’s. Roger received cards and letters from former Coeur d’Alene residents who saw the story in hometown papers. He was embarrassed by the hoopla. But he was happy for the good publicity for his beloved town.

Such was Roger’s modesty that editor Bentley had to harass him into posing for a picture for his column. Roger even pleaded with Bentley “to forget the whole story.”

It’s hard to say 3 ½ decades later what effect the radicals’ bombs had on expanding Hudson’s brand. But it’s safe to say that the iconic burger place on Sherman remains a source of goodwill for the Lake City.

Prayer answered

Ann Lunceford Capellen was just out of Coeur d’Alene High when Air Force Capt. Fred McMurray of Coeur d’Alene went missing in North Vietnam Sept. 12, 1972. She prayed for Fred and wore a POW bracelet in his honor. “I wore it 24 hours a day for the longest time,” Ann told Huckleberries. “I didn’t take it off for showers. I just wanted him to return safely home.” Coeur d’Alene was “Mayberry back then,” Ann said. “If you were from Coeur d’Alene, you were family.” Ann didn’t give the bracelet up even after Fred returned home in April 1973 to a motorcade from the Spokane airport, to cheering crowds, and to a parade in his honor. “I couldn’t do it,” she said. Last week, Ann had no trouble finding the bracelet in her jewelry box. She’s never met Fred, who returned home for good in 2005 after a career in the Air Force and 17 years as a Northwest Airlines pilot. But they plan to speak soon.

It didn’t get away

Did You Know – that a U.S. president once dined on a world-record rainbow trout caught on Lake Pend Oreille? On May 1, 1947, C.C. Shepherd of Opportunity, Wash., fought for 45 minutes to land a 36-pound rainbow, measuring 37 inches. He was one of 1,000 fishermen in 500 boats on the North Idaho lake to greet the opening of Kamloops season. Shepherd paused for photos with the Big One That Didn’t Get Away and then handed it over to the Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce. The chamber had arranged for the “mighty trout” to be air expressed to the White House to serve Harry Truman. Meanwhile, news of Shepherd’s record fanned the fishing fever on Lake Pend Oreille. According to a Coeur d’Alene Press article, fishermen confidently concluded: “There are still bigger ones in the lake.”

Huckleberries

·Poet’s Corner: Of all sweet smells/that May renews/my favorite is/the barbecue’s – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Fragrance of Spring”).

·Bumpersnicker (with a caricature of Princess Leia holding a blaster on a black Chevy SUV at the Union Gospel Mission store): “Well behaved women rarely defeat empires.”)

·Many words describe Steve Anthony, a former rec director for Coeur d’Alene and a former Post Falls councilman: Leader. Upbeat. Civil War buff. Sports fanatic. And, ah, fast. You may not know it now that Steve is approaching 70, but he was the state champ in the 100-yard dash and runner-up in the 220 during his senior year in 1970.

·According to the reader-board at his office in Hayden, Joel Pearl has been “Voted No. 1 Realtor in the World.” The vote by a committee of one, headed by someone named “Mom,” was unanimous. And Mom can expect a big bouquet today for her support.

·In case you’ve wondered, newspaper owner Duane Hagadone got unanimous council approval to build a corporate HQ on the lakeshore, west of Templin’s Resort Hotel, 50 years ago May 2. There were protests. But community support was solid. Mayor John McHugh received 175 letters in favor of the proposal and only four against.

Parting Shot

Retiree Nancy Brockus of Hayden has long wondered for whom she baked that wedding cake in 1985 – the one with penguins on top. Nancy, a former employee at the Hospital Formerly Known as Kootenai Medical Center, once baked tiered wedding cakes on the side for church friends, co-workers, and family. She forgot the name of the former hospital staffer who ordered the cake but not the penguins. The mystery was solved last week when a woman recognized Nancy at a health clinic. She had ordered the cake. But it had pandas on top not penguins. Alas, the woman’s marriage didn’t have a Happily Ever After ending. But she feels blessed to have her two children and a grandchild. It saddens Nancy that several marriages involving her cakes “didn’t take.” P’haps couples should order wedding cakes with penguins, after all. Penguins mate for life.

D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.