HUCKLEBERRIES: True to his word

I kept my newspaper job in Coeur d’Alene for four decades because Jim Fromm was an honest man.

I might not be writing this now, if the former mayor (1982-86) had changed his mind Oct. 15, 1985.

The fate of unlimited hydroplane racing on Lake Coeur d’Alene was settled that night.

Residents packed the City Council chambers to hear a compelling, one-hour plea from advocate Duane Hagadone and passionate arguments, pro and con, from audience members.

The facts presented by businessman Hagadone and other hydroplane fans were these:

• The Unlimited Racing Commission wanted to schedule a race in Coeur d’Alene on Aug. 10, 1986. But the community had to agree to the plan ASAP.

• Coeur d’Alene wouldn’t get a better chance to host the event for the foreseeable future.

• A 1986 race was dead if the council sought an advisory vote three weeks later on the November ballot.

Public comment ran for hours before council members took turns explaining their pending votes. Meanwhile, my 10:15 p.m. deadline for The Spokesman-Review approached.

After three or four lengthy comments from council members, it was clear that they would split 3-3 along traditional lines on the matter of a public vote: In favor — Steve McCrea, Jim Michaud and Bob Brown, opposed — Ron Edinger, Dixie Reid and Bob Macdonald.

And then Mayor Fromm called a recess.

In the hotly contested local newspaper environment of the mid-1980s, it was crucial to report important news first. And the Coeur d’Alene Press had the advantage of a later deadline that night.

Desperate, I approached Mayor Fromm in his office during the break.

I described my predicament and asked if he would tell me how he planned to vote.

A straight shooter, Fromm said he favored an advisory vote.

“Any chance you’ll change your mind?” I asked.

He responded: “No.”

I rushed back to my TRS-80 portable computer, hammered out a new lead for my story, and filed it on time to The Spokesman-Review news desk. The story appeared the following morning under the bold-faced, Page 1 headline: “Hydroplane issue to be on Nov. 5 ballot.”

Then, I waited, nervously, for the final council members to quit talking and Fromm to speak. When he did, 25 minutes after the SR deadline, he was true to his word. And cast a tiebreaker in favor of a public advisory vote.

On the following morning, the racing association carried out its threat to withdraw the invitation. And Coeur d’Alene lost its chance for another Diamond Cup race for 28 years. In November, the town soundly rejected hydroplane racing at the ballot box — and Fromm’s re-election bid.

Meanwhile, I kept my job. And fondly remember forthright Jim Fromm, who died June 26 at age 78.

Purple gold

We’ve established before, in Huckleberries, that Donna Messenger is a good person.

The student-athletes she coached in track & field and cross country at the local high schools adored her. And fans and fellow competitors through the decades have admired her spunk as she competed in long-distance races — and still does into her 80s.

But those facts alone are not what makes her a wonderful person. Unlike many others, Donna reveals her favorite huckleberry spots.

“When they’re good, they’re everywhere,” Donna told the Coeur d’Alene Press on July 3, 1993.

The story mentioned others who picked and told, including Orv and Dorothy Egeland and the late Corissa Yasen, a former Coeur d’Alene-turned-Purdue track superstar.

Donna revealed she never had “secret patches.” She started seasons on Fernan saddle the week after July 4 and worked her way up the mountain. Later in the season, she moved on to Hope and the Priest Lake area.

Donna distinguished herself by sharing huckleberry info. When asked about a favorite spot, most old-timers, like the late Bob Eachon of Coeur d'Alene, usually smile devilishly and say: “It’s up No Tellum Creek.”

Old Glory

Coeur d’Alene has a shirt-tail tie to “Old Glory,” the 34-star banner that young William Driver flew over his ship and later hid in a quilt from Confederates during the Civil War.

Ben Shepard, then 91, lived here when he told the family story for this paper’s Fourth of July 1989 edition.

Seems Driver was his great-great-grandfather. And a group of women gifted him, as a 21-year-old captain, an American flag to fly above his vessel. Driver dubbed the flag, “Old Glory.” And he brought the pennant with him when he later settled in Nashville, Tenn. With fanfare, the former sea captain took the flag out of hiding when Union troops returned to Nashville.

The story was picked up by newspapers of the day, and its nickname, “Old Glory,” spread throughout the nation.

In 1922, Driver’s daughter donated the flag to the Smithsonian Institution, where it was still hanging when Ben Shepard told his tale.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: If you're on the roads/and you're tooling about/please use extra care/cause the tourists are out — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“That Season Again”).

• Miss Cd'A No. 1: Although it’s passe, queens in bathing suits were part of local celebrations in the 1950s and 1960s. And the first Miss Coeur d’Alene was no exception. Marilyn Stewart, 18, reigned over the 1954 Fourth of July festivities in a “semi-military outfit,” featuring a one-piece, white bathing suit, trimmed in blue, a “smart jacket,” and a detachable pleated skirt of “street length.”

• Did You Know — That the ACLU sued Coeur d’Alene on behalf of the Aryan Nations on July 6, 1999? The city had allowed the neo-Nazis to march in town on the following Saturday but not on Sherman Avenue. The city OK'd a parade for the racists only along Ramsey Road by the city dump. Symbolism intended. Holding its nose, the ACLU argued that the secondary route violated the Aryans’ free speech rights. A federal judge agreed. And Butler and his minions marched downtown on July 10.

• Factoid: Drs. Don and Jane Gumprecht, grand marshals for the 2004 Fourth of July Parade, collectively delivered more than 4,000 babies during their 40 years of practice here.

• On This Day (in 1984), Kootenai Memorial Hospital staffers were moving into their three-story, baby-blue addition along Lincoln Way. Some called it: “Big Blue.” Others: “Giant Blue Whale.” The extra 164,000 square feet cost $21 million (equivalent to almost $57 million today, according to local historian Stephen Shepperd).

Parting shot

In the “Not in My Back Yard” Department, opposition to the North Idaho Centennial Trail surfaced in summer 1989 after Coeur d’Alene’s General Services Committee chose a preferred route — along the Spokane River. And the Post Falls council designated a path through the Pinevilla subdivision, along Ponderosa School. Those actions galvanized Pinevilla residents who feared thieving bicyclists from Spokane would case their homes and steal TVs. Foes easily gathered 300 signatures against the proposed route. And the paranoia spread to an industrial area along Seltice Way that now houses Riverstone. Also, a Post Falls highway commissioner promised a court fight to block the trail. Today, of course, the scenic path is celebrated far and wide, an amenity to householders, and more evidence that great things rarely happen in the Coeur d’Alene area without myopic, diehard opposition.

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo.northidaho@gmail.com.

    Jim Fromm displays items he took with him on a 1984 trip to the old Soviet Union.
  

    Corissa Yasen, a former high school and college track superstar, picks huckleberries.
  

    Ben Shepard was proud of “Old Glory” and his ancestors.
  

    Marilyn Stewart, the first Miss Coeur d’Alene, reigned over the 1954 Fourth of July celebration in a specially designed outfit.
  

    Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler, right, and security guard Michael Teague announced plans to march in downtown Coeur d’Alene in 1999.
  

    Doctors Don and Jane Gumprecht were grand marshals of the 2004 Fourth of July Parade.
  

    Technologist Terri Porcarelli monitored a patient with new echocardiology equipment after moving into the expanded Kootenai Memorial Hospital.
  

    Jon Mueller pointed out proposed route of the North Idaho Centennial Trail.