HUCKLEBERRIES: Roaming the road

A king once visited Coeur d’Alene — a benevolent one who told stories for free beer.

On Nov. 25, 1980, Richard Wilson, 72, the “Hobo King,” arrived in a boxcar, wearing a tattered Boy Scout shirt, overalls and a strange crown, sporting peacock feathers.

After trudging through the snow along Northwest Boulevard, he spotted a cozy bar. Perhaps it was the old Gibbs Tavern, known for its cold beer. Once inside, he climbed onto a stool near the front door and held court.

“I’ve been on the road for 53 years,” he began, “and I wouldn’t take a million dollars for the things I’ve learned. Why I keep traveling — I actually don’t know, to tell you the truth.”

Then, a customer recognized him as the “Hobo King” from TV’s “Real People.” At that proclamation, two free beers appeared in front of the stranger. And the beer kept coming.

The Hobo King said he began wandering after his family broke up in 1927.

“I just wanted to go to both oceans,” he said. “So, I took a chance.”

The old man had visited Coeur d’Alene before.

“There used to be a bunch of us that jungled down by the lake,” he said. “We used to fix up some Mulligan stew and go down to the lake after dark to clean up.”

A sign about a mile north of the mouth of the Spokane River today identifies a “hobo jungle” site where men like the Hobo King once camped. It defines three types of transients from the Hobo King’s glory days: hobo (a traveler who looked for work), bum (someone who roamed but didn’t work), and tramps (those who didn’t travel or work).

 After several beers, the Hobo King asked for a cup of coffee and prepared to leave.

Ere he left, he said, “Yep. I’m the last hobo. … But pretty soon, I’ll have to quit the road. I’m too old. There ain’t no use in being on the road after you’re 60.”

Then, he was off to Portland, Ore., to inspect other regions of his vast kingdom.

Park goes dark

Undervalued as a tourist attraction, the Greyhound Park in Post Falls attracted a full clubhouse on its final weekend of live racing Dec. 16-17, 1995.

Some 800 fans bet on the last 112 racers and said goodbye to the 8-year-old racetrack.

Gamblers filled all 528 seats in the clubhouse. Busy waiters brought orders to customers who kept one eye on the track and the other on simulcast races on their table TVs.

“I wish the crowds would have been here through the years,” former employee Jack Christiansen told The Press. “It’s a real shame.”

Poor attendance and a plunging annual handle were blamed for the track’s demise. But claims of animal abuse also dogged the business.

Amy Kleiner, spokeswoman for Idaho Gov. Phil Batt, told The Spokesman-Review: “The track’s never been a favorite of his. The only thing he regrets (is) the job losses.”

More than 200 workers — 105 full-time — lost their jobs when the track closed. But few accepted the park’s offer of work at greyhound tracks elsewhere in the country.

It’s hard to find another place like our Shangri-La.

Train heist

Mike Robb of the Iron Horse Bar & Grill doesn’t know if his late father, Tom, solved the Great Train Heist of 1995.

The robbery – actually, it was a series of thefts – was reported in The Press on Dec. 16, 1995. The larceny targeted Tom’s model train display that decorated the Iron Horse.

It charmed youngsters and oldsters. And Tom prized it.

A double-decker bus had disappeared with five engines and railroad cars, one by one, beginning in November 1995. Also, a toy building and decorative pieces were vandalized.

All this, despite a sign that asked patrons not to touch things.

“It just made me sick to tell you the truth,” Tom said.

It was the only damage to the train set in its first five years at the downtown restaurant.

Tom valued the pieces at $200.

Tom believed the culprit was a late-night bar patron who exited through the closed dining area. He wanted to know whodunnit. But the case remains a mystery.

Hanging 10

Booze and bull riding — even the mechanical version — don’t mix.

The key to bull riding is balance, according to Jeff Wieck, and too much alcohol throws off equilibrium. Wieck? In December 1980, he regulated the spinning motion on the mechanical bull at the old Cotton Club in Hayden.

“Urban Cowboy,” starring John Travolta, made the device popular that year. In a famous bar scene from the movie, Travolta and a girlfriend challenge each other to ride a fake bull.

Cowboys and cowgirls across the Rathdrum Prairie lined up to mount the machine. Before they tried the 10-second ride, however, they had to sign an insurance waiver.

On Dec. 9, 1980, Larry Sibon, 19, of Spokane, won a mechanical bull-riding contest. But he injured his tailbone. He declared that mechanical bulls were harder to ride than real ones.

“It’s a machine,” he said. “It doesn’t give.”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Hark the herald angels sing,/”Buy some more of everything!/Cash or check or COD,/Christmas lifts the GDP”/Harried, all ye shoppers rise,/charge your bank cards to the skies,/with economists proclaim:/”Spending is the Yuletide aim!” — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Hark the Herald Angels Sing”).

• Humble Beginning: Christmas for All began in 1979 because Larry and Mae Hanley of Coeur d’Alene wanted to help a poor neighbor’s kids. So, they collected $150 in donations, chipped in a few bucks themselves, and blessed that family and others. And their legacy lives on. It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

• Unknown Hero: You may know that a $1 million fire destroyed a strip mall at Fourth and Best on Dec. 17, 2005. But did you know that a 7-11 store worker, known only as Robert, saved the day? Before exiting his shop in frigid weather, he turned off the two pumps that’d been filled with gas two days before. Without Robert’s action, a firefighter said later, “People would have lost their homes and loved ones.”

• Smooth Move: On Dec. 14, 1985, it was all-hands-on-deck when the Coeur d’Alene Library moved from Seventh and Lakeside to the Louisiana Pacific building, 201 Harrison Ave. Fifty-five volunteers moved 45,000 volumes to the new site, which was dedicated Jan. 2, 1986. In one of his final acts as mayor, Jim Fromm checked out the first book at the new library: Garrison Keillor’s “Lake Wobegon Days.”

Parting shot

Yes, Virginia, it is difficult to celebrate a Christmas birthday.

The Press confirmed that truism when it interviewed “Christmas Twins” Kathy Cook and Kay Van Cleave for their 60th birthday Dec. 25, 2010.

The twins were the 10th and 11th children born to Ruth and John Cook of Coeur d’Alene. Kay arrived eight minutes before her sister at Lake City General Hospital (now the site of a parking lot behind the Iron Horse).

They were a month late. Mama Ruth was so big by then that firefighters were called to move her to the hospital. Seemingly, everyone in town knew that Ruth Cook was in labor.

“It really was a huge event,” Kathy told The Press. “It was like having the first baby of the new year, because it was such a unique event.”

But there was a downside to being a “Christmas Twin.” The girls’ birthdays were lost in Christmas pageantry. They didn’t receive extra gifts. And they were 10 years old before they finally celebrated their joint birthday with a party.

“Fruitcake was a birthday cake,” said Kay.

But they had one thing that many other children didn’t — their mother’s love.

Said Kathy: “We were her pride and joy.”

• • •

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

    Employees usher dogs to the starting gate on the final night of live racing at the Greyhound Park in 1995.
  

    Assistant manager Tori Shelton of the Iron Horse stands by the remaining cars of a decorative train set in 1995.
  

    Larry Sibon of Spokane wins a mechanical bull-riding competition at the Cotton Club in 1980.
  

    Larry Hanley, who co-founded Christmas for All, holds a photo of his late wife, Mae, in 2004.
  

    Firefighters watch in freezing temperatures as a ladder truck sprays water on a mall fire at Fourth and Best in 2005.
  

    A book brigade, headed by Bill DeVries, foreground, moves Coeur d’Alene Press archives from the old library at Seventh and Lakeside in 1985.
  

    Jon Hippler of First Federal Savings gives Librarian Julie Meyer a $5,000 check for bookshelves at the new library on Harrison Avenue in 1985.
  

    Twins Kathy Cook and Kay Van Cleave share their 60th birthday on Christmas Day 2010.