TIMES-NEWS
THE BIG STORY
SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2017 |
SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2017
| magicvalley.com
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DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Much of the handiwork in DelRoy Mitton’s workshop has a decidedly humorous bent. Mitton, photographed Feb. 22, lives, works and plays tricks on his visitors in a remodeled hotel on Oakley’s Main Street.
Faces
OF
G
MAIN STREET
et out and meet people, we told reporter Heather Kennison. People who live and work along Main Street in some of south-central Idaho’s small cities. Tell us about their habits, their histories and their hopes. Show us a window into their lives. It’s an enviable assignment for any storyteller.
The five towns Richfield
26 93 84
Paul
Hazelton 84
Kimberly
Sawtooth National Forest
Oakley
maps4news.com/©HERE, Lee Enterprises graphic
The jolly prankster of Oakley HEATHER KENNISON
hkennison@magicvalley.com
OAKLEY — Idaho 27 crosses Main Street in Oakley, a remote town of 777 with a beautiful mountain backdrop. Follow West Main Street and you’ll come to stone yards, a city park, government offices and the high school. East Main leads to a bar, a grocery store, a library and — across a narrow canal bridge — a fire station.
The prankster
In the dimly lit workshop at the back of a remodeled hotel, DelRoy Mitton pointed to a small wooden box on a shelf. “I make music boxes,” the artist said Feb. 14, encouraging me to give that one a try by inserting a quarter through the slot on top. “Can you get the quarter back?” I asked. Mitton, wearing blue overalls over a flannel shirt, answered with a reassuring yes, so I followed his instructions. Snap! My hand whipped automatically to my side as I yelled in surprise. Behind me, Mitton and his wife, Sidnee, laughed. Re-examining the small box — now lying in pieces — I discovered the source of the noise: a hidden mousetrap. I’d just been fooled by the Oakley grandfather’s famous music box trick. Fortunately, I didn’t have long to be embarrassed, as DelRoy, 81, continued to show me the wonders of his shop. Knickknacks and jewelry were on display above a rack of canes. Sidnee held up a necklace from which dangled peculiar charms: buttons inside gears. “When things are going rough,” DelRoy said, “you just gotta get
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DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
DelRoy Mitton holds up a necklace and earrings he made in his Oakley workshop. your button gear.” The pun might have made some people groan, but a wordsmith like me couldn’t help laughing. DelRoy, a 50-year Oakley resident, worked for Idaho Power inside the very building he now lives in, originally the Worthington Hotel. “That’s where my desk used to be,” he said, gesturing toward a floral sofa.
On a warm day, DelRoy might be outside, carving one of the canes he’s known for in Oakley. And he gives them away to anyone who needs one — whether a Cub Scout or an elderly woman. As with all of his workmanship, DelRoy taught himself how to carve shapes and designs into the branches of quaking aspen. “If you want to carve a horse, you just cut everything that don’t
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Rattlesnake skin wraps one of DelRoy Mitton’s handmade canes. look like a horse,” he said. “It’s simple.” Some of his canes are more unusual, equipped with a deer foot, antler or slingshot as a handle — or even featuring a flashlight or compass on top. One of his prized pieces: a rattlesnake skin over a
corkscrew willow branch. He never sells any of it, DelRoy explained, because he doesn’t want to have to make it. About to leave, I stood outside chatting with Sidnee while she Please see OAKLEY, Page E4
MORE INSIDE: The cheerful butcher of Richfield, E2 | Kimberly’s ukulele lady and the rhinestone bartender, E3 | What 3 Paul residents’ jobs say about them, E3
BIG STORY
E2 | Sunday, March 5, 2017
Times-News
The cheerful butcher of Richfield HEATHER KENNISON
hkennison@magicvalley.com
RICHFIELD — The Glanbia Foods cheese factory just outside town is most impressive, certainly. But Richfield’s Main Street is where life happens for this town of 494. Turn north from U.S. 26 and you’ll spot a small post office, a grocery store and homes. Go south: a public library, a senior center and an automotive shop.
The grocer who does it all
Six late-season elk carcasses hung ready for cutting in the backroom refrigerator of Piper Shopping Center, but Mike Piper had other things to do. A shipment of meats, cheeses and other staples had just come in to the Main Street business the morning of Jan. 31. Between assisting customers, stocking shelves and answering the phone, Piper and his mother, Betty, had their work set out for them. Piper, 55 — both grocer and butcher — figured he’d be ready to tackle the big game the next day. “For two to three months there it’s a pretty good sprint,” he said, recalling the busiest part of the hunting season, when a lot more than a half-dozen elk await butchering. The Piper family has owned the Richfield business since 1939, now employing nine people. But it was Piper himself, stocking the deli aisle, who greeted me when I came in. When a customer called to ask that her check not be cashed just yet, it was Piper who picked up the phone. Piper, a cheerful guy with a horseshoe mustache, guessed that most of his business competition is in Twin Falls. A truck comes twice weekly to keep the shelves here — the only grocery store within 16 miles — stocked with essentials such as milk, bread and eggs. Picking up water softener salt for a school that day, Richfield School District maintenance worker Arnold “Arn” Ross said he tries to buy supplies locally as much as he can. Just down the street, another of Piper’s business ventures sits vacant: Richfield’s last gas station, which closed four or five ago. “I was bound and determined
HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS
Richfield resident Rebecca Wood owns this North Main Street house that’s HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS more than 100 years old, she says. Wood likes to ride her horses through town when the weather is nice. Library director Clay Ritter, right, helps Tasha Newey and her children order a book at Richfield District Library on Jan. 31. I was going to put gas in it sometime,” Piper said. But he ran out of time — and money — to put in gas tanks. He’s asking $150,000 for the lot and building, which has space inside for a restaurant. A lack of gas and other services, Piper said, makes Richfield isolated. “It don’t bother us so much, ‘cause we’re used to it.”
Horsewoman and commissioner On any given day, Rebecca Wood might step outside her house on North Main and find horses, cattle or even sheep walking down the road. “You never know what you might see here,” she said. “Even though I’m on Main Street in Richfield, it’s still very rural. It’s not like you’re really in town.” She recalled, laughing, how she once saw three steers running down the road, followed (coincidentally) by the butcher. People on horseback or herding cattle are both common sights, as well as snowmobiles and vehicles stopped in the middle of the road while neighbors chat. And there’s a community spirit Wood has enjoyed since arriving in 2000 and bringing up six children. “It’s something special when the whole town knows your kid’s name,” said Wood, 52, who was
doing paperwork in her sweatpants when a phone call from Piper sent her looking for me at the town library. When she isn’t on duty at her part-time Piper Shopping Center job, Wood might be riding her horses or caring for her quarter horse broodmares, which a friend boards just outside town. She offered me a ride to see the mares and their foals, describing railroad history and pointing out grain silos and a church-turnedhome on the way. Wood is in her third year as Richfield’s Lincoln County commissioner. The commission meets three Mondays a month in Shoshone, and Wood commutes to Twin Falls for meetings of other boards. Glanbia and Richfield School District are the town’s top employers, but Wood wants U.S. 26 drivers to have more reasons to stop in Richfield. “What I’d like to do for Richfield,” she said, “is try to get some more business down here.”
The techie in the stacks
To the casual traveler, Richfield might appear stuck in time — but that isn’t the case at the Richfield District Library on South Main. Library Director Clay Ritter manages a lot with a $400 program budget. He teaches children about circuitry, robotics or 3-D printer designing, using a grant-
HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS
Mike Piper grinds beef at Piper Shopping Center in Richfield on Jan. 31. funded printer. “We show them the basics of 3-D design,” he said. “The access to technology is a big thing. It’s about giving the kids Ritter an opportunity they might otherwise not have unless they went somewhere else.” The children design and print their own cellphone cases, keychains and guitar picks. “I want them to design it themselves to learn how the process works,” said Ritter, 32. Ritter and one other employee staff the library, which over the past couple of years doubled its weekly hours from 12 to 24. When
I popped in, the other employee was finishing a storytime where children drew octopuses, and Ritter was manning the front desk. When Ritter isn’t in Richfield, he’s directing a Shoshone library. The 3-D printer isn’t the only draw for children at Richfield District Library — 19,000 books, nine computers and free wireless Internet also make it a popular after-school hangout. “After school most days, we’re completely full of kids,” Ritter said. The decent Internet connection, a challenge in Richfield, has led some children to camp outside with tents or sleeping bags, even in the rain — but not when snowbanks stand 4 feet above Main Street.
Hazelton’s coffee crowd Explore an online interactive HEATHER KENNISON
hkennison@magicvalley.com
Today on Magicvalley. com, a new interactive by Digital Editor Matthew Gooch gives you a tour of a six smalltown Main Streets — the five towns featured in these stories, plus a bonus town just for digital viewGooch ers. In this interactive tour, find out what draws people downtown and see what it’s like to stand on Main Street. Explore 360-degree photos and listen to locals talk about why they came to town. Find it at Magicvalley.com.
MATTHEW GOOCH, TIMES-NEWS
Reporter Heather Kennison loved watching Idaho’s changing landscape while driving to these rural towns. The drive to Oakley, she said, was torture because she kept seeing photo opportunities but wasn’t able to stop.
“We’ve become very attached with a lot of our customers.”
HAZELTON — In Hazelton, an agriculture-based town of 747, The hardware man Idaho 25 becomes Main Street, At The Farm Store, Steve where plastic-covered storeLakey examined fronts and windows might give a cardboard box of hardware while an the impression of a ghost town. But some of Hazelton’s core busiold black Labranesses — a Chevron gas station, dor lay quietly on a bed against one a pizza restaurant, an electrical contractor’s shop, a farm equipwall. The store ment dealer — were doing busimanager was takness as usual Feb. 8. ing inventory in Lakey hopes of getting The coffee crowd a bank loan. “We’re trying to buy this,” said There’s only one rule if you want to join the Pizza Cache’s Lakey, 62, wearing a matching afternoon coffee crowd: You green cap and vest. “They gotta have to tell one true story every know what I’m buying.” 30 minutes. The Farm Store isn’t a fullThat’s what Hazelton resident blown hardware store, he exDon Morrill told me as I took a plained: “It’s just like it says, it’s seat at the table a farm hardware store.” in the center of That could change. If Lakey the room. The is successful in purchasing the 75-year-old re- business, he’d like to sell fishing tiree was joined and hunting licenses and ammuby friends trick- nition. ling in the afterOnce farms start preparation noon of Feb. 8. for the crop season, Lakey would As they do six have little downtime. But for Morill days a week. about three months in the winter, “I’ve been a rancher most of business is slow. So he’d spent the my life,” Morrill said, wearing two past two weeks counting thouplaid shirts and holding a coffee sands of items — the screws, the cup. gloves, the bags of dog food, none Although the group didn’t of it electronically inventoried — have a designated leader, Morrill and expected it would take him seemed the most eager to tell me another two weeks. Lakey is experienced in running some of his stories — like how his grandfather helped build Milner hardware stores, having owned or Dam, or how a Volkswagen hit a operated similar businesses in Jeguardrail driving on black ice one rome, Twin Falls and Rupert. night while Morrill plowed snow At the Hazelton store, farmers near St. Maries. come in for common repair items Many in the lively bunch were like bolts, nuts and plumbing fixold school friends. Doug Kroll, a tures. That afternoon, one cusretired railroad worker, casually tomer walked out with a 5-gallon teased the restaurateur’s daugh- bucket of hydraulic oil for a tractor. ter as she mopped the floor and “Everyone walks in here with served coffee. Smiling, she took problems,” Lakey said, “and you it in stride. are like the problem solver.” Most of these regulars also meet up earlier for coffee at the The market owner senior center in Eden. The sun had shone in late morn“It gives us something to do,” ing, but by early afternoon clouds Morrill said. spilled a lazy drizzle of rain. The The 3 p.m. coffee time at Pizza colorful sign outside Mi Ranchito Cache is a standing invitation; welcomed visitors along Main there’s no formal arrangement, Street to Hazelton’s newest marhe explained. ket. “It’s almost like a big family,” Several residents had told me Pizza Cache owner Liz Rovig said. about the store, but I had to wait a
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
John Meyer shares a laugh with friends Feb. 21 at the Pizza Cache in Hazelton, where a regular coffee crowd gathers six afternoons a week.
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Pizza Cache in Hazelton serves up homemade cheesecake to its afternoon coffee regulars Feb. 21. while before it opened. “When it’s nice, we open at 10,” owner Lupe Tapia said. “When it’s ugly, we open at 1 or 2.” Shelving units in the dimly lit space displayed pantry items like Coca-Cola, breakfast syrup and hot sauce interspersed with Mexican imports Tapia — like a carton of green-bottled Jarritos sodas. Against the back wall, clear packages of teas and herbs, with bilingual labels, hung above bags of rice and beans. The store was also well stocked with corn husks, tortillas and corn flour. Tapia, a 42-year-old Latina woman from California, opened the Mexican market after three years in Hazelton, just two months before my Feb. 8 visit.
“When we moved here, we used to struggle all the time,” she said, explaining that she had to go out of town to buy tortillas and common ingredients used in Mexican cooking. Mexican markets were common in her California hometown, Tapia said, and Eden’s Hispanic population frequents the store to make traditional dishes. Business has been better than Tapia expected — much of it from ladies in town who can’t drive or don’t want to go to Burley or Twin Falls. Mi Ranchito carries Mexican drinks and snacks, as well as dry goods and freshly made pastries brought daily from Rupert. But it also had some items I didn’t expect to see, like a small selection of comforters, clothing and religious candles. “It’s been working pretty good,” M 1 Tapia said.
BIG STORY
Times-News
Sunday, March 5, 2017 | E3
Kimberly’s ukulele lady and the rhinestone bartender HEATHER KENNISON
hkennison@magicvalley.com
KIMBERLY — Kimberly is a draw for new residents largely because of its education system and proximity to Twin Falls. But take a stroll down Main Street and you’ll see some of the town’s character. You might grab a bite at Fiesta Ole or Maxie’s Pizza. Pop into a salon, and a bubbly stylist will tell you about the town and some of its 3,432 residents. Or visit the senior center, where lunchtime is accompanied by old-time music, prayer and conversation.
The entertainer
The recognizable tune of “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny” greeted me as I stepped into the Ageless Senior Center on North Main. The singer, Shirley Carter, strummed her ukulele as Laurie Lottridge accompanied her on percussion. Honeybee patches and stickers adorned Carter’s shirt collar, music stand and ukulele. “I just play to be with everybody and have a good time,” said Carter, 81. “It keeps you feeling better.” Shirley and The Honeybees Band provides monthly entertainment at the senior center. Carter lives in Hansen but is a regular at the KimHEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS berly center’s lunchtimes, which Shirley Carter, left, sings and plays ukulele while Laurie Lottridge blows bubbles from a wand Feb. 8 at the Ageless Senior Center in Kimberly. include the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer and an update on activities. Her enthusiastic performance Feb. 8 garnered applause. Carter has produced a CD, which she eagerly offered for me to try. Her favorite music to sing, she said, is country. I listened to her rendition of “Tiny Bubbles,” which she performed with a lively twang as Lottridge blew bubbles from a wand. The last few lines of the stanza made me smile: “Tiny bubbles. You know they’re in the wine. And they make you feel happy. They make you feel so fine. Those tiny bubbles makes you warm all over. “And I’ve got a funny feeling,” she concluded, looking dramatPAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS ically toward my phone camera, PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS Mill worker Joe Speckert measures the kitchen cabinet panel he made to Joe Speckert glues a kitchen cabinet panel Feb. 14 in Kimberly. “I’ll love you till the day I die.” ensure it is completely even Feb. 14 at Speckert’s Custom Woodworking and Door Co. in Kimberly. The busy woodworker product post- that he couldn’t watch that news Hickory is a dense wood, so it ers and mounted source anymore. The retired KimSeeing they still had lots to do, I took Joe Speckert longer than usual 26. “Rustic has a lot of knots and horns. A pool table berly fire chief drinks two beers a took my leave. to cut and shape panels for raised- natural stuff in it.” toward the back day at Anita’s. panel cabinet doors Feb. 8. But an was ready for a That can be a problem for a Butler expected she would get more customers that afternoon, out-of-town contractor needed woodworker, he explained, as low- The bartender new game. the hickory kitchen furnishing by er-quality wood may split if put It was technically five minutes “This bar is when she might need to cook up next week, so it was all work and no under too much stress. before opening, but Anita’s Buck N more like a family some food. “We’re open seven day a week,” play until the job was done. “You gotta get what the customer Bar already had its first customer. Butler bar,” said Butler, 51, after I asked the smiling bartender said. “SomeThe large front windows of wants,” he said. “If they want rustic, The next would arrive in another Speckert’s Custom Woodwork- that’s what you gotta go for.” 10 to 15 minutes, bartender Kelly what was on television. times, you never know. Winters are The Speckert family had started Butler told me. Exactly 15 minutes Instead of 24-7 sports, she said, always better because farmers aring and Door Co., on North Main, displayed sun-bleached furniture. the project about a week and a half later, the door opened and a man customers have their particular en’t as busy.” I half expected to find a showroom earlier. Lori Speckert, noting an strode in, taking a seat at the bar shows and channels to watch toinside; instead, I found a brightly lit upcoming project for Sun Valley next to Burl Duncan. gether. When the bar opened at workroom. Trying not to breathe in condominiums, rushed to one side Butler, wearing a black cap 11:30 a.m., Fox News was on. More online: On Magicvalley. with rhinestones, the sawdust, I talked loudly to the of the shop to finish gluing pieces adorned “We got tired of CNN during the com, watch Heather Kennison’s brought the newcomer a beer elections,” Butler said. “Isn’t that video of Shirley Carter singing Speckert family over the high- together. “Tiny Bubbles” and playing pitched grinding of machinery. “We’re going to be very busy in and talked casually to the men in right, Burl?” “This particular customer the next couple of months,” she the dimly lit bar. The wood-panDuncan — a 77-year-old in a ukulele while Laurie Lottridge wanted rustic hickory,” said Joe, said. eled walls featured beer and meat plaid, wool-lined jacket — agreed blows bubbles.
What 3 Paul residents’ jobs say about them HEATHER KENNISON
hkennison@magicvalley.com
As she cut London broil that morning, Hall dropped lesser-quality chunks into a bucket. Those, she said, would become stew meat — fetching a higher price than hamburger. “There’s pretty much no waste,” she said.
PAUL — Idaho 27 becomes Main Street in Paul, but Idaho 25 — Ellis Street — is what most residents consider the main drag in this town of 1,191. Go east on Ellis and you’ll find gas stations, stores and a poultry hatchery. To the west: a tire center, a Mexican The founder-janitor restaurant and a well-kept park, The sun shone on East Ellis as complete with splash pad. a man swept up dust in front of a bench by the Haun’s Hardware The animal lover entrance. Moments later, he disAs her hands deftly sliced appeared inside. “I’m just a janitor,” said Ruben London broil, roasts and stew meat Feb. 21, Debbie Hall said she Haun, 92. “I still like to work.” doesn’t like to dwell on where it But computers aren’t for him. comes from. He’ll stick with a pen or pencil. “I try not to As he performs humble tasks think of it as being like fixing shovel handles, Haun a cow,” she said. takes a backseat now in the busiHall, 60, has ness he gave everything to get goworked 29 years at ing in 1979. His son, Robert, now Swensen’s Magic owns the hardware store, doing Market in Paul, everything his father can’t. “We started with nothing,” the largely in the meat department. But elder Haun said. “There have been Hall she’s an animal 38 years of expansion. … I get the lover — even took up grooming credit for having the lack of brains dogs at Country Groomer in her and the guts to start it.” spare time. The World War II veteran reShe learned the skill three years called Haun’s Hardware’s first ago, hoping the dogs would give couple of months in business, her a backup career in case the selling mostly lumber and other meat became too heavy for her. building supplies. Living in Paul “I found it wasn’t easier at for the second time in his life, all,” Hall said. “They’re not only Haun wasn’t sure at first why he’d heavier than meat, they’re wig- come back. gly.” “We actually slept on the Still, she said, “most dogs are shelves because we had sold our wonderful.” Hall owns two; one home,” he said. But it was the people who drew is a mixed breed she adopted after somebody abandoned it at the him. “I love people,” he said, adding Paul store. With both jobs, Hall started out with a laugh: “I don’t know if they knowing nothing. love me or not.” “I started working here as somebody who did price changes The loyal friend and stuff,” Hall said. “Then I was The first person Michael a meat wrapper and decided I Landrum met in Paul was John M 1 wanted to learn to cut meat.” Kloepfer.
Landrum was 15 when his family moved to Paul from Happy Camp, Calif. Kloepfer was his age and attended the same church. Landrum The two became fast friends, shared many hobbies and worked for the Kloepfer family business, Kloepfer Ready Mix Concrete & Asphalt Paving Co. “I used to vacuum this office when we were teenagers,” said Landrum, now 52 and working for his childhood friend as the ready mix manager. Sporting a red vest, hat and a 5 o’clock shadow, Landrum talked animatedly Feb. 21 about the family who started the business he’s come to love: How patriarch Fred Kloepfer branched out from his Logan, Utah, roots to start his own endeavor in a one-room shed and metal workshop. How, with much community support, the business grew. And how, today, it celebrates a robust economy and collaborates with its competitors. One of Landrum’s fondest memories of his youth was when he and John Kloepfer were 18 and won the gold medal for canoeing doubles at the National Explorer Olympics. They made it to nationals only because their Scout troop triumphed in basketball. Landrum and Kloepfer had never competed in canoeing before. “We were gonna capsize the canoe halfway and get wet, but we didn’t because we were winning,” he said, blue eyes lighting up with laughter. After high school, Landrum had to leave Paul to find a job. He took his carpentry skills to Utah, building custom homes. Nine years later, his friend offered him a job
HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS
Ruben Haun, left, said son Robert Haun expanded Haun’s Hardware to more of a farm and home hardware store in Paul.
HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS
Michael Landrum and John Kloepfer won this gold medal in canoeing doubles when they were teenagers at the National Explorer Olympics. at Kloepfer Ready Mix. “I was gonna say no,” Landrum recalled. He feared it would ruin their friendship. But his wife changed his mind. “I overcame the concern imme-
diately because I realized as long as I do my job, there wouldn’t be a concern,” he said. If anything, he said, it seems to have strengthened their friendship.
E4 | Sunday, March 5, 2017
Times-News
HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS
Searle’s Gas, Grub and Goodies serves Oakley residents as a gas station, diner, convenience store, party supply/gift store and ATM.
Oakley From E1
squashed a couple of box elder bugs. Her husband handed her an orange pill bottle. “Give her this,” he said. “Tell her she can have it as a keepsake.” Curious, I read the bottle’s label: “Stool Sample.” Remembering the “music box” and a horsepie sculpture of former President Obama, I wasn’t sure whether to expect something to jump out, or worse. Open it, the husband and wife urged. Gingerly, I slipped open the cap and dumped the contents into my hand: a tiny, three-legged wooden stool, painted red and brown. I laughed with relief.
The burger man
Ask anyone in Oakley where you can get a bite to eat, and they’ll point you to Searle’s Gas Grub and Goodies on Idaho 27 near Main Street. Around lunchtime on weekdays, the place is packed with teens and smells heavily of french fries and hamburgers. “Almost every day it’s Searle’s for lunch,” said Bridger Cranney, 18, as he waited for his chicken nuggets and fries. “We kinda go through different phases — don’t want to get used to anything.” The menu at Searle’s contains the usual hamburgers and cheeseburgers but also has a Mexi burger ( c h e e s e b u rg e r with jalapenos and salsa) and a BBQ Hawaiian burger (with ham and grilled pineapple). “I raise my own Searle beef, so I know what (the cattle) eat,” said owner and operator Brent Searle, 61. Every year, Searle has six or seven of his Holsteins butchered and made almost entirely into hamburger. On a busy day, he can go through as much as 14 pounds of hamburger, making 6-ounce burgers for the town’s residents until closing time at 8 p.m. I watched as Searle, wearing a blue apron, rang up a customer’s items at the cash register before filling multicolored balloons for a birthday party. Later that afternoon, he was back at the grill, serving grilled ham and cheese to a waiting customer. Most Oakley adults, he told me, know to avoid the noon rush and come in later. Both crowds completely filled the half-dozen red booths inside the convenience store Feb. 14. “It really has been very consistent for the last several years,” Searle said. “I really can’t complain.”
The online retailer
A strong smell of leather was the first thing that hit me as I entered 120 on Main. The explanation: a display of cowboy hats against the left wall. “Can I help you?” a small voice asked over the country western music on the sound system. I looked around to find the source, a young woman behind a desk at the back of the store. The space was packed wall-to-wall
HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS
Brent Searle’s cheeseburgers are made of ground beef from Holsteins he raises and has processed at a commercial facility.
HEATHER KENNISON, TIMES-NEWS
On Oakley’s Main Street, you’ll find a grocery store, post office and museum at the intersection with Center Avenue. with racks of Western clothing, gear and jewelry — items I imagined would be popular among Oakley’s ranching families. The newer building had one of the more attractive Main Street storefronts, with old-fashioned lettering on its sign and a wooden porch where a bench was painted with “Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?” But Boyles not many customers come in, Bailey Boyles, 21, told me. She’d seen only one a week since she started working there in January. Most of the business, Boyles explained, happens online at standupranchers.com. The 120 on Main storefront exists mostly because
many vendors require one. A shortage of foot traffic, however, doesn’t mean employees twiddle their thumbs. That morning, she’d received a shipment of products and was processing returns for online customers. “Doing inventory on the store is ongoing,” she said. “… If somebody orders something online and we have it in the store, we’ll ship it.” Boyles also needed to get an online auction started for outdated merchandise, but she wasn’t sure how to do it. She hoped a co-worker on the afternoon shift would help. “Once you get here and start working,” Boyles said, “you stay busy pretty much all day.”
not alone. But while the lyrics and the tune are largely forgotten, the legend behind the song is not. Raida Black, the composer, was a well-known piano player in Oakley in the mid-1900s, said Oakley Pioneer Museum president Aleta Stringham. “She’d come the beginning of each school year and play the piano and teach the children this song,” Stringham said. The lyrics weren’t recorded for posterity but soon will be. Raida’s niece, Kathy Lee — formerly Kathy McKimmon — returned to Oakley last summer for Pioneer Days. While in town, Lee spent several hours in the museum on Main Street. She later gave the museum the lyrics to her mother’s The history collector song. If you’ve never heard the song “I just gave the words to one “I Am an Oakley Man, Sir,” you’re of the board members today,”
Stringham said Feb. 14. The board plans to display the lyrics at Oakley High School along with other school memorabilia. Stringham, 79, has lived in Oakley 53 years and gathers the town’s history for people to enjoy. Many of the records are organized by family name for the sake of genealogy research. Stringham “Most people who come here,” she said, “come here because their ancestors were here.” During my visit to the museum, she talked excitedly as she moved about the rooms, showing me an old printing press from The Oakley Herald and a local salon’s machine for giving ladies permanent waves. “We try to preserve items that are not used anymore but are curiosity,” she said. A back wall of one stone-tiled room displayed newspapers, sports uniforms and other school memorabilia. There, too, Stringham wants to post Black’s lyrics: I am an Oakley man, sir I live across the green Our crowd is the jolliest That ever you have seen We will celebrate our victory Without a single scar And everywhere you’ll hear the cry Of Oakley near and far Who am I sir? An Oakley man am I! An Oakley man, sir, I will until I die We’re rough and tough! We never bluff! We’re game for any fuss! No other gang of high school boys Can beat us in the muss So we’ll raise our voice and shout it out And shout it to the sky We’ll fight for dear old red and white For an Oakley man am I!
M 1