Dixie Reid didn’t quit her day job during her 26 years on the Coeur d’Alene City Council.
With husband Tom, she owned the old Cove Bowl on East Sherman Avenue for 23 years and Gish’s Corner in Post Falls for eight years. She also operated a thriving interior decoration business.
So it wasn’t surprising 35 years ago (March 1989) when the hard-working councilwoman launched Shopping Services, a part-time business, after selling the bowling alley and Gish’s. For a percentage of the purchase price, Dixie shopped for clients who were unwilling or unable to stand in line at stores to purchase groceries, gifts, prescription drugs or clothing.
She was decades ahead of her time.
Dixie got the idea for the business from her own experience. After working 80 hours a week, she told the Coeur d’Alene Press, she dreaded standing in line to buy groceries.
“Time is so valuable,” Dixie said. “The last thing someone wants to do, after a 10-hour day, is to go to the store. Other people just don’t like to shop.”
Dixie learned after launching Shopping Services that the concept was catching on in urban areas.
“I thought there was a need, and it was a lot of fun,” she told Huckleberries.
At the time, Dixie was in her seventh year on the Coeur d’Alene City Council. In November 1975, she became the first woman to serve on the council after she emerged from a field of 17 to win a two-year term for a vacated seat. She lost a re-election bid in 1977. And then, encouraged by former Mayor Don Johnston, won a council spot in 1983 and served for the next 24 years.
“It was a gift that I was able to serve the people for all those years,” she said.
One of her first important projects as a councilwoman remains her favorite — spearheading the transformation of the old Playland Pier, west of Hagadone headquarters, into Independence Point.
During her public career, no one, with the exception of former Mayor Sandi Bloem, did more to ensure that the city’s infrastructure — streets, sewers, public transportation and urban renewal, among other things — met the needs of booming Coeur d’Alene.
In 2007, Dixie decided not to seek another term because she had lost her passion for the job: “If you don’t have the passion, you shouldn’t go through an election and commit to serving the people.”
But she hasn’t lost her passion for a life she continues to share with her husband of 62 years.
“I was never important,” she said. “The job was important.”
Young and brave
Wendy Carpenter, the retired Coeur d’Alene police chief (2003-07), proved herself from the start of her 30-year career with the CPD Blue.
In March 1979, as a 21-year-old dispatcher and reserve officer, Wendy chased an armed bad guy down an alley and into the woods behind Winton School.
She was on her way to work when she spotted a twentysomething pull a cap down over his eyes and enter Jiff-ee Mart on Lincoln Way. She then watched as the man emerged from the store with a paper bag and “something metal.” The robber had used a long-barrel pistol to rob the store of $100.
Wendy chased the thief in her car and then on foot. She didn’t catch him. Then, she helped patrol officers during a fruitless search for the outlaw and won their admiration. Two of them said her pursuit of an armed robber “took a lot of guts.”
Wendy would go on to become the department’s first female sergeant, lieutenant, captain and chief. When asked by a Press reporter what she would have done if she’d caught the armed man, she replied: “I don’t know.”
Roost rousted
The northwest corner of Ninth and Sherman is growing cookie-cutter condos and townhouses now. But 25 years ago, in an old Sambo’s restaurant building, it showcased a breakfast hot spot: Rustler’s Roost.
The Brothers McEvers — Woody and Daren — served sizable portions of eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, hash browns, biscuits and gravy at reasonable prices in a folksy atmosphere.
In 1999, however, the good times slowed. After 15 years downtown, the brothers faced a hard choice, prompted by a decline in revenue of 10% for two straight years and rising rent. They couldn’t afford the $500,000 to buy their aging building. So they consolidated their business into a second Rustler’s Roost that had opened in 1991 at U.S. 95 and Hayden Avenue.
“We were dying downtown,” Woody told Huckleberries. “And Hayden had room to grow.”
The Hayden Roost has prospered for 33 years and counting — or more than twice as long as the original downtown restaurant did. Still, Woody, a longtime Lake City councilman, works hard to keep it going. Said he: “I don’t have an airplane yet.”
Huckleberries
• Poet’s Corner: She often felt sorrow/that they were not fun days,/for one-seventh of life/is made up of Mondays” — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Blue Mondays”).
• Sold! Old City Hall, Fifth & Sherman, birthed Lake City’s library, fire station and North Idaho College. But on March 26, 1979, it became redundant when the new City Hall opened. So it was sold at auction for the highest of 17 bids — $212,000 — to Californian Mack Johnson, who promised to convert it into restaurants and shops. And that’s how it remains today.
• RINO Risch? U.S. Sen. Jim Risch wouldn’t say such a thing now — given today’s toxic politics. But, as Idaho Senate pro tempore 40 years ago, he told the Press: “There is nothing better than the two-party system. It is very bad for one party or the other to get weak — it’s bad for both parties, and it’s bad for the public in general.” Is there a second to that emotion?
• Ashes, Ashes: Belatedly, ash from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption fouled the works in the historic street clock in front of Clark’s Diamond Jewelers, 307 Sherman Ave. In fall 1983, store owner Dan Clark ordered the clock overhauled and sandblasted back to its original color: black. It reappeared the following March and remains a downtown treasure today.
• Did You Know — that “Amazing Grace,” the short-lived TV series featuring the late Patty Duke and filmed in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, was originally titled “Heart of the City?" Duke played a minister who was looking for a good place to live surrounded by good people. Sorta like she was in 1990 when she moved to the Coeur d’Alene area.
• Light Show: It wouldn’t happen today. But 65 years ago (March 1959), six local electrical contractors erected a 48-by-18-foot cross, illuminated at night by 180 bulbs, on the north slope of Tubbs Hill — for Easter. It was a different time. Perhaps a better one.
Parting shot
I searched for my roots for two weeks in Portugal and found: Great food and wine at cheap prices. An entire country built on hills with streets that incline or decline 10 to 15 degrees. A square and a gothic church in Guimaraes, the birthplace of the country, named Oliveira (Olive tree). A Medieval chapel made of the skulls and bones of 5,000 monks. Ornate churches, palaces and forts, some dating back 900 years or more. A gentle, welcoming people. Lush hills and busy rivers like the Tagus and Douro. And incredible history. Upon returning home, Mrs. O and I drove downtown and walked along Lake Coeur d’Alene’s shore. There’s amazing beauty here, too. It’s good to be back.
You can contact D.F. (Dave) Oliveria at dfo@cdapress.com.
Wendy Carpenter as a 21-year-old reserve officer and dispatcher.
Woody McEvers of Rustler’s Roost considers his options.
Proxy Howard Black, right, representing Mack Johnson of Petaluma, Calif., submits a high bid for Coeur d’Alene’s Old City Hall.
A work crew of, from left, Preston Rutherford, Bruce Dietrich and Dennis Baal reinstall the historic street clock in front of Clark’s Diamond Jewelers.
At a Spokane luncheon, Patty Duke promotes the pilot for her new TV series, “Amazing Grace.”
A large cross, illuminated by 180 bulbs, marked Easter 1959 on Tubbs Hill.
Dave and Brenda Oliveria stand in the National Palace at Sintra, Portugal, with a Moorish castle topping the mountain in the background.