Remember When

70 YEARS AGO • DECEMBER 3, 1947

NEW STORE OPENS

Friday of this week Brock’s Fountain and Variety Store will open for business.

Mr. and Mrs. D.J. Brockway and daughter Jo have been in our community but a short time, but in that time they have won the friendship and good wishes of everyone, Mrs. Brockway and Mrs. Lee Breiner of Lee’s Cash Store are sisters. The Breiners and Brockways recently purchased the George Fox building block and so their financial investment in this community is considerable. They feel highly optimistic as to the future prosperity of this community.

The new establishment is really fixed up nice with complete facilities for their type of business, fixtures, booths and fountain. They will make their own ice cream.

Brock’s Soda Fountain & Variety was a popular teen hangout. It was in the building that now houses Minnie’s Montana Café. Lee’s Cash Store was right next door and now houses D and D Liquor and Linda’s Gifts.

TOWN MAKES MUCH PROGRESS

Excerpt from Looking Back, Reflections of Orin P. Kendall

Thirty-nine years ago we moved to Thompson Falls and according to my memory it was the day after Christmas 1942. We purchased our home, which was built in 1913 and was referred to by the Sanders County Independent Ledger as being a beautiful home on Capitol Hill. Despite its age it was in excellent condition. I have heard it referred to as Capitol Hill, but in the winter times when it is covered with snow and ice I have heard it called many things that don’t look too nice in print.

There was no scarcity of houses in Thompson Falls in 1942. Many of them were for sale or rent as the owners were either in the service, building ships, airplanes or were engaged in some other war connected industry.

There have been a lot of changes in Thompson Falls in the past 39 years. It is possible that the population did not exceed 600 people. Despite the small population the town had made considerable progress.

Just prior to the war, the town had taken over an antiquated water system and constructed a new one with WPA labor and some help from the federal government. It had a fire hall and a fire truck, which had been built with volunteer labor and much volunteer material.

The small town library was located in the IOOF Hall, which was also the meeting place of the town council. The city boasted one dump truck and a light road grader. There was no attempt to plow snow because there was no snow plowing equipment. But, in those days people could still walk. Some grocery stores made home deliveries, which were greatly appreciated when the snow was deep and the weather cold.

In the 12 or more years that I served as mayor or councilman it seemed that it would be sure to snow either on a weekend or holiday rather than during the week. If there was a big function planned at school Friday or Saturday evening, it would be sure to begin. We could not afford overtime pay but tried to make it up by giving time off to compensate for the overtime. This seemed like a fair deal as there were many days in the winter when there was very little else that could be done.

For many years dust was a serious problem in the summer time as there was no paving and very little gravel. The first oiling of the streets was financed by voluntary contributions. Records will show that many of the contributions promised are way pass due.

Eventually legislation was passed whereby financial help could be obtained from the state to help with the oiling costs. However, there really never has been ample funds available to grade, oil and maintain the streets so before giving the mayor and the councilman a bad time please remember that we really are getting about what we are paying for.

The library board and the firemen were barely on speaking terms since the library had been moved into the fire hall. It was decided to try to build a city hall and a combination library.