HUCKLEBERRIES: Dinner, diplomacy and decisions

Bill Webster has come home again twice — the first time in 1965 to help his father, Bill Sr., manage the iconic Brunswick Café.

As a teen, Bill Jr., now 84, served at his father’s restaurant on Sherman Avenue, known for good food at affordable prices and a motif that featured two wooden Indians, a 25-foot totem pole and a Wild West fort façade.

“You couldn’t get away with that now,” Bill told Huckleberries last week.

The Brunswick was one of three side-by-side businesses purchased by Tom Robb, Phil Graue and Barbara Renner in 1972 to form the Iron Horse Restaurant. The partners needed the Brunswick liquor license to thrive.

Bill Jr. bussed tables at the Brunswick from age 14 through North Idaho Junior College, where he met his future wife, Barbara. Then, he earned a restaurant management degree from Washington State and accepted a job in a Chicago eatery.

In spring 1965, he was an assistant manager at a diner in South Bend, Ind., with two young children, when his father asked for help. Tired of Midwest tornadoes and homesick, the younger Websters promptly gave two weeks of notice and packed.

In a Coeur d’Alene Press article June 3, 1965, Bill Sr. reintroduced his son to Coeur d’Alene as his “Head Mo-chinist.” The older Webster defined his favorite term as the chief of the kitchen, overseer of the food, preparer of menus and chief cashier.

Bill Jr. resolved to work as hard as his flamboyant father at the full-service restaurant with 100 seats that opened at 6 a.m. and didn’t close until 1 or 2 the next morning. The bars shut at 1. So, the Brunswick was packed by 1:30, serving Bill Sr.’s signature Cheese Soup and sandwiches like the Big Chief, the Haystack and the Awful Awful Burger.

“He never left (the restaurant),” said Bill Jr. “I was there all the time, too.”

The Brunswick Cafe doubled as an office for the elder Webster, who served in the Idaho Legislature, off and on, from 1957 through 1970, when Gov. Cecil Andrus asked him to head the state liquor dispensary.

Idaho political leaders regularly stopped by the Brunswick.

Later, Bill Jr. left when his father declined to sell him half of the business.

Young Bill worked for the Boy Scouts, sold real estate in Spokane and spent 27 years with the Washington Department of Transportation, retiring as an appraiser at age 70 ½ in 2011. Then, the Websters decided to return to Coeur d’Alene.

And the Brunswick Cafe? The Iron Horse now uses that space for banquets and live music.

Up a creek

Patrons told owner Charles Brown Miller of the Charlie Brown tavern in 1965 that he would make a fine governor.

So, he said: Why not? And he began raising money. 

As a promotional gambit, he planned a rubber raft trip from the upper Coeur d’Alene River to the Spokane River, 100 miles or so. And he sold 440 raffle tickets at 50 cents apiece to support his quixotic campaign.

Ticket holders were asked to guess how long it would take for Miller and two North Idaho Junior College students — Jim Johnson and Russell Brown — to travel to Coeur d’Alene on May 30-31. The answer was 34 hours and 15 minutes. However, after expenses, Miller raised only $33.50.

Miller planned to campaign against Idaho’s new 3% sales tax. And to change his name to “Charlie Brown” Miller.

“The guys are already calling me ‘governor,’” Miller told The Press.

“Governor Charlie Brown” has a nice ring to it. But the future “Charlie Brown” proved to be more show than action.

Pennies saved

The humble penny is on Death Row now, after President Trump decreed it expendable this year. But 25 years ago, Lakes Middle School restored the penny to respectability for a season – and raised more than $22,648 for cancer research.

On June 9, 2000, school officials reported that the middle school’s “A Penny a Day Can Keep Cancer Away” drive had raised more than 2 million pennies, or twice the original goal.

Dave Eubanks, the Spanish teacher who led the campaign, hoped the idea would catch on nationwide and raise a billion pennies yearly. He enthused: “The penny drive can work just like the March of Dimes stopped polio.”

In an almost cashless society today, coin drives of pennies — or dimes, for that matter — are passé. But that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to help others.

Huckleberries

• The victory was won/with nary a battle;/in eighteen more months/this will look like Seattle — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Development Uber Alles”).

• Not Forgotten: It’s apparent that Michael Koep of Koep Concerts has filled the big shoes left by the late Chris Guggemos, founder of the area’s free summer concerts. If anything, Michael is building on that legacy. But locals should stop as summer approaches to remember Chris and the sweet sounds he brought us for 30 years.

• Did You Know ... Black Rock developer Marshall Chesrown once proposed to construct a $40 million, 22-story, mixed-use building at Riverstone? On June 4, 2005, the Coeur d’Alene Press published the story. Chesrown said the 251-foot structure could open in as little as 18 months. Then, he ran into money trouble.

• Sports Trivia: And the answer is: Josh Phelps. The question? Who was the first North Idaho high school graduate to play Major League Baseball? Phelps, from Lakeland High, joined Toronto on June 7, 2000. During eight MLB seasons, the catcher-first baseman hit 64 homers (a record for a player born in Alaska), knocked in 244 runs and batted .273.

• Burger Queen: In late May 1990, North Idaho grand dame Louise Shadduck was asked by a friend if she planned to drink champagne after publishing her first of four Idaho histories: “Andy Little: Idaho Sheep King.” The Coeur d’Alene native replied: “I’d rather go to Hudson’s and have a hamburger.”

Parting shot

In June 2005, the brothers Meyer of Rathdrum — Wayne, Walt and Wally — wrestled with a decision: Go on farming Kentucky bluegrass on their entire 2,250 acres or sell 500 acres for at least $10 million.

They loved farming, but they were tired of the bitter public reaction to the fall field burning that was needed to shock the grass seed. They feared that the days of grass farming on the Rathdrum Prairie were numbered and that a sale of their farm would prompt other farmers to sell, too.

The land in question bordered Lancaster and Huetter roads.

“If we do this, it will become a domino effect,” predicted Wayne, a former legislator.

His prophecy has come true. Today, subdivisions hopscotch the shrinking prairie. As the song says: “You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone. Pave paradise and put up” — a subdivision.

• • • 

You can contact D.F. (Dave) Oliveria at dfo@cdapress.com.

    An undated photo shows the Brunswick Café exterior.
  

    In mid-June 1965, owner Bill Webster Sr., far right, and Bill Jr., far left, dressed up with the Brunswick Café staff for Coeur d’Alene’s annual Forest Festival celebration.
  

    Owner Charles Brown Miller of the Charlie Brown tavern, 705 River Ave., counted campaign donations after a raft trip in 1965.
  

    From left, Lakes Middle School eight graders Ashlee Ketron, Aimee Ricciardi and Jenny Edington display their Penny Drive T-shirts in 2000.
  

    The late Chris Guggemos launched the area’s free summer concerts in 1992.
  

    In 2005, Marshall Chesrown announced plans for a 22-story building at Riverstone.
  

    Josh Phelps was the first North Idaho high school grad to play Major League Baseball in 2000.
  

    Louise Shadduck celebrated with a Hudson’s hamburger after publishing her first Idaho history book in 1990.
  

    Wayne Meyer planted Kentucky blue-grass seed while mulling a developer’s offer to buy 500 acres of the family farm in 2005.