HUCKLEBERRIES: Nightmare at sea

A funny thing happened to Marine Lance Cpl. Zachary Mayo aboard the USS America.

Around midnight Nov. 24, 1995, a strong wind and a jolt from a door knocked the Wallace High graduate off the aircraft carrier into the Arabian Sea.

Adrift, the 20-year-old bobbed, floated and slept in the shark-infested water for 36 hours until the crew of a Pakistani fishing boat rescued him.

A week later, he was given a hero’s welcome home at the Spokane International Airport.

“I prayed to the good Lord and never lost faith,” Mayo told the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Mayo credited his military training and “God watching over me” for his survival.

After falling overboard about 30 feet into the sea, Mayo treaded water for 10 minutes before inflating his coveralls to use as a flotation device. He was asleep when spotted by the fishermen. They took him to a remote village near the Iranian border.

The worst part of his “nightmare at sea,” Mayo told The Press, was watching his ship pull away. “That’s when I knew I would either have to save myself or I was gone.”

The aviation maintenance crewman wasn’t missed on his ship until the following morning. After a lengthy search, the Navy gave him up as lost.

U.S. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho helped expedite Mayo’s return to North Idaho for a 30-day leave. In Washington, D.C., before heading home, Mayo met with Kempthorne and Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth.

“I’ve been telling everyone in Congress that we raise them tough in Idaho,” Chenoweth told Mayo. “But it wasn’t until I heard about what you had done that I realized how tough.”

A Christmas star

It’s not often that Santa gets upstaged — with those twinkling eyes, merry dimples, bag full of toys and all.

But the Jolly Old Elf played second fiddle to his missus for years after The Coeur d’Alene Resort opened in the mid-1980s.

You knew Dee Dee Koep as Mrs. Claus. But musician/promoter Michael Koep knew her as “Mom.” In “Gigmentia,” a memoir about his life as a North Idaho drummer, Michael provides a snapshot of one of his mother’s favorite roles.

She was The Resort concierge with the 10,000-watt smile when Duane Hagadone brought Christmas to downtown Coeur d’Alene. Duane added a lighting ceremony and a five-star fireworks display to the annual Black Friday parade.

“For 10 years, my mom was at the center of those holiday seasons,” Michael writes.

As Mrs. Claus, Dee Dee rode a bell-jingling sleigh in the parades, ran an old-world caroling group, and appeared at local schools and retirement homes. Children lined up by the thousands to whisper wishes into her ear.

“Sure, Santa was there, too,” Michael said. But it was evident that Mrs. Claus was the brightest star.”

Early bird

Six decades ago, residents who wanted low numbers for their car license plates stood in line at the courthouse — sometimes all night.

That was the case for Harold Hooper of 102 Haycraft Ave., who brought two blankets and sheltered in his car on the cold morning of Dec. 1, 1965. The valiant effort earned him first dibs on the 1966 license plate K1.

According to The Press, license plate No. 2 went to a resident who’d moved his family earlier in 1965 from “Disneyland, Calif.,” To 817 Sherman Ave.: Ron Rankin. The California transplant had waited since 10 o’clock the previous night.

Rankin, who later became a property tax activist and Kootenai County commissioner, was third in line 60 years ago. But Bob Neider, who was second, opted for plate No. K3, the one he usually asked for.

Two long lines had formed at the courthouse by the time the license department opened. Within the first half hour, Philip C. Ott had obtained license No. 120 — the same plate he had had continuously since 1933.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: As shoppers grapple hand to hand/in stores and malls across the land,/all the economists agree/virgin births are good for GDP — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Black Friday”).

• Two Cheers: A Christmas Cheer Committee existed here before November 2000, when Jim Carrey’s “Grinch” introduced a Holiday Cheermeister. In 1970, the Hydromaniacs civic group gave out 150 Christmas dinners for the Cheer Committee — to ensure that “all children of needy families had a real Christmas dinner.”

• Top Gun: Yes, Virginia, North Idaho College once offered a P.E. credit course on trap and skeet shooting — taught by the late Dick Raymond. And in 1975 Pat Akers captured the High Gun Trophy. Until then, hubby Gale’s trophies dominated the family mantle. But Pat found a good spot for her “little, tiny trophy” and bragged about it, too.

• State of the Art: At its grand opening on Dec. 3, 1960, the old $400,000 Cove Bowl on East Sherman Avenue was dubbed “North Idaho’s most modern bowling house.” Mayor P.A. Christianson gave a speech. Duane Hagadone emceed the opening program. And owners Brad and Pat Gray, formerly of Los Angeles, told The Press that they were drawn to Coeur d’Alene by the quality of the town and its people.

• You Might Be — a Coeur d’Alene native if you’ve ever slid down the hill at Ninth Street and Hastings Avenue on a sled or your belly — and not been run over by cars in the cross streets. Fifty years ago, Charley Palmer and brothers Edward and Doug Loudenback (see photo) showed Coeur d’Alene Press subscribers how it was done.

Parting shot

The unveiling of the artist Terry Lee's Sigvard the Viking bronze at a Coeur d’Alene High private reception Tuesday thrilled Anne Lunceford Capellen.

She bleeds Viking Blue.

She graduated from CHS in 1972. She taught there. And in the 1990s, she handled publicity for the bond election that paid to split her school when it got too big.

Three years ago, Anne and Rebecca Priano floated the idea — that became Lee’s 6-foot-5 statue — at an all-class reunion that included the 50th reunion for the Class of 1972.

“We wanted to give something lasting,” Anne told Huckleberries.

Fifty-five years ago, as a high school junior, Anne was among the 850 students who attended the opening of the new Coeur d’Alene High on Sept. 1, 1970.

Ten days before, a Coeur d’Alene Press photo showed Anne, school books in hand, talking to classmate Sally Lanham (now of Liberty Lake) in an outdoor hallway.

Today, Anne remains true to her school, proving the adage: “Once a Viking! Always a Viking!

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at [email protected].

    Mrs. Claus (Dee Dee Koep) and Santa greet some of the 700 kids who attended a Teddy Bear Tea at The Coeur d’Alene Resort in 1990.
  

    In this undated photo, Mrs. Claus (Dee Dee Koep) listens to a child’s whispered Christmas wish.
  

    Harold Hooper, of Coeur d’Alene, holds his new vehicle license plate after waiting all night at the courthouse in 1965.
  

    Members of the Christmas Cheer Committee organize the annual food basket campaign in 1970. They are, from left, Tracy Peterson, Ron McDonald, Paul Stackhouse and Bud Emmett.
  

    Pat Akers enrolls in a trap and skeet shooting class offered by North Idaho College in 1975.
  

    California transplants Brad and Pat Gray open the $400,000 Cove Bowl in 1960.
  

    Children slide down Ninth Street at Hastings Avenue in 1975, including, front to back, Charley Palmer and brothers Edward and Doug Loudenback.
  

    Anne Lunceford Capellen, right, and classmate Sally Lanham talk in the outside hallway at the new Coeur d’Alene High in 1970.
  

    Alumni from the Classes of 1967 and 1972 unveil Sigvard the Viking at Coeur d’Alene High last week, including, from left, Rebecca Priano, Anne Lunceford Capellen, artist Terry Lee, Norm Loftin, Tom Iverson, Kent Larsen, Mike Earin, Tim Adams and Rick Currie.