ENCORE Wednesday, December 19, 2018
What’s Inside.... Meet the Clauses: Jim & Marti LeMaster show true Christmas spirit through volunteering — C2 Everybody’s Store closing as Jeff and Amy Margolis retire — C4 3,450 Hours: Larry Martin wraps up 18 years as a STARS volunteer — C8
A supplement of the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record
A Guide to a
Fulfilling Senior Life
in Whatcom County
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
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Standing in for the Clauses
Even without their full costumes, and especially being near a chimney, Marti and Jim LeMaster look like they might play the Santa and Mrs. Claus roles just fine. (Brent Lindquist/Lynden Tribune)
Jim and Marti LeMaster have played Santa and Mrs. Claus all over Whatcom and beyond By Brent Lindquist brent@lyndentribune.com
FERNDALE — Jim and Marti LeMaster don’t decorate much for Christmas, but their holiday cheer shows in another very visible way: standing in for Santa and Mrs. Claus. The LeMasters, both 76, often don their
red suits, sewn by Marti herself, and appear at events throughout Whatcom County and beyond. Just last week, they played the roles at the Oxford Carnation Building in Ferndale, and they stood in as the Clauses at the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce’s holiday tree lighting in Centennial Riverwalk Park. The American Legion hosted them recently, as did Everson Market. They got started as Santa and Mrs. Claus on a whim about 17 years ago. “I had an old Santa Claus costume,” Jim said. “I put it on and had fun doing it, so my wife made me a brand-new one. Then I went public.”
They went public via the Ferndale Walgreen’s. The store manager offered him the chance to be Santa Claus, and that grew into a seven-store arrangement. Jim and Marti would continue to play the Clauses at seven regional Walgreen’s locations, a gig that ended about four years ago when Walgreens stopped hosting Santa Claus during the holidays. “We wanted to slow down anyway,” Jim said. Marti still makes all of Jim’s Santa suits out of mink and velvet. “She makes my costumes,” Jim said. “She’s with me almost all the time.” Jim originally hails from Ferndale,
while Marti is from Vancouver, Washington. Jim spent time working as a clerk for the Greyhound Bus Company, as well as working for Port Vancouver Plywood and Bemis Co. He retired at age 55, and this is his 21st year of retirement. “I never worked harder in my life than being retired,” he said. The LeMasters live on a small farm, where they raise some animals as well as Christmas trees. He also volunteers with the Ferndale Food Bank and serves as its board president. In fact, the LeMasters donate all of the money they make playing the Continued on next page
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
There’s no end to the joy a Santa appearance can bring to both young and not-so-young. (Brent Lindquist/Lynden Tribune)
Clauses to the Ferndale Food Bank. “When we started doing the Santa thing, everybody wanted to pay us, so we just told them, make the check out to the Ferndale Food Bank,” Jim said. Jim is also involved with Trinity Biker Church, and Marti makes and repairs rosaries through Ferndale’s St. Joseph Catholic Church. Jim said life has slowed down for him recently, as a knee injury he suffered in a motorcycle accident limited his access to his beloved garden. However, his work as Santa Claus continues. He is treated like an elder by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and will visit the tribal center in La Conner on Christmas Eve. For Jim and Marti, the reactions of kids and adults alike are the best part. “It’s the little kids,” Jim said. “Seeing the looks on their faces when they see Santa the first time.” Jim said they also love to meet with older people, and that a similar joy can often be found in nursing homes. “If we go into a memory care unit, an Alzheimer’s unit, people who don’t know their own children, they always know Santa,” Jim said. “In nursing homes, we see people in there who are forgotten. They don’t get visitors. That means a lot to somebody who is in a position that they can’t get out of.”
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
Van Zandt’s Everybody’s Store closing at end of year Jeff and Amy Margolis may be retiring, but they intend to stay put ‘just living’ where they set down in 1970 By Elisa Claassen for the Lynden Tribune
Amy and Jeff Margolis were hosting their 46th annual Cheese Fest at Everybody’s Store in November 2016. (Photo
NOTE: Everybody’s Store is now liquidating its assets. Items not sold in the next week most likely will be auctioned off after the New Year. VAN ZANDT — Signs on the door announce the news. Everybody’s Store, the heart of the unincorporated Van Zandt community on Highway 9, is closing at the end of the year. Groceries and gifts are discounted. Long-time proprietors Jeff and Amy Margolis will retire. The store, lacking a buyer or renter, will end its run that started in 1970. “It’s too much work,” Jeff said. Good-bye to gigantic deli sandwiches made to order and sold by the pound from the extensive meat and cheese selections. Good-bye also to big pickles from the jar, finding unusual “exotic” goodies and gifts, and having a memorable discussion — with other generations of the family in tow — with Jeff behind the counter. The proprietor will acknowledge that his views of many years ago, sustained by being against the Vietnam War and for the civil rights movement, had left him a “personal non grata,” with few employment options. So he ended up working outside of academia and outside of New York. See Everybody's on C6
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
Everybody's: A life in the West Coast brings opportunity Continued from C4
He left behind his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, choosing in the process to forego the dissertation for a Ph.D. in his political science sociology field — and make an elaborate artistic chess set instead. Jeff Margolis, wife Amy, their oldest daughter Elea and two dogs came to the West Coast in a breaking-down “covered wagon” that was a former milk truck, Jeff notes. It chose to die north of Tillamook, Oregon. Fifty dollars bought an old Studebaker that broke a rod three days later. The goal was to return to Bellingham, where he had been months before, while visiting college campuses looking for employment. He had attended a conference at Western, and found the area beautiful. A childhood friend from Brooklyn, writing for a well-known Berkeley newspaper, happened to be here as well, and a few other things seemed serendipitous. Unfortunately, he took the friend up on a trip to
the San Juan Islands and thereby missed his meeting with the Western Washington University political science department about a job. A portion at the rear of Everybody’s Store served as the family’s housing until their home was built behind in 1995. It now contains the cluttered office of Jeff within earshot of business and eyeshot of the Haagen Daz ice cream cooler. Store cat Cassidy wanders in. Amy calls requesting lettuce and other items from the store for their dinner before yet another community meeting. Margolis, a born storyteller, speaks of ideologies and desires for building community, over the business operations of the mom-and-pop market operating between Bellingham and Mount Baker in a curve of rural Highway 9 adjacent to the railroad tracks and the North Fork of the Nooksack River. What does one do when his master’s thesis is “Concepts and Critics of Theories
of Mass Society”? Margolis said unequivocally, “the forecast was for suicide” at the time. Mass society, it seemed and seems, is all about moving away from the individual. Being a self-proclaimed hippie, he wanted to retain individualism and develop a sense of place. In the meantime, the wandering family claimed as their theme song one by the band Blood, Sweat and Tears: “House in the Country.” They were frankly “broke,” he said, sleeping at Larrabee State Park and needing to find a place to live and to work — and so he drove into the country by aiming north along Chuckanut Drive, turning down Old Fairhaven Parkway, accessing Interstate 5 north, getting off at Sunset Drive, which was fully wooded at the time prior to the building of the K-Mart and Sunset Square businesses. Almost by intuition, he claims, he continued along the Mt. Baker Highway and eventually Highway 9, singing old ‘40s
Hoot Gibson cowboy songs and stopping at the small mom-and-pop stores along the way and eventually to the precursor of Everybody’s Store to ask if they knew of any homes available. Rome Grocery staff said no. Although his first impression was that “there’s nothing” going over the bridge of the Nooksack River, he saw two stores (at the time down from five or six during the peak days of the earlier South Fork Valley). The older widowed woman in one of the Van Zandt small stores said her business was available — and it had housing attached. She “looked like she needed a hug.” Vera Bonner, a member of the Christiansen family, also had scant resources for sale at this point in the store, but both Jeff and Amy had retail sales and operations in their family backgrounds as well as his shifts at the corner drug store and a jewelry store before and after high school classes.
BECAUSE NEEDS LIKE FOOD AND SHELTER HAVE NO AGE LIMITS. GIVE. ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER. UnitedWayWhatcom.org
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
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A refreshing swim for Jeff Margolis and the family dog in the Nooksack River South Fork behind the store was part of the ambience recorded in a Seattle Times feature story in 2003. (Photo credit/Seattle Times)
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C7 Plus, he could see Mount Baker and the Twin Sisters, and was mesmerized. Jeff stops mid-tale as his employee in the store calls. He puts on his hat of Notary Public and deals with the immediate need of a customer with a handful of legal documents. Employees are now in the store instead of family. And his girls? “Both are geniuses,” he said firmly. Daughter Elea, then 6, is now 55, has two adult children of her own and performs and teaches music. Her sister Beth, 47, born in Bellingham, has been one of Haggen’s longest serving employees as a courtesy clerk. Her Down Syndrome may offer some challenges, but she has made and sold her art for many years, written a book, “Uplifted Down Syndrome,” and lives on her own in Bellingham. The Seattle Times, in covering the Commerce Corridor, stumbled upon Everybody’s and decided to write a ninepage in-depth story of the store and its owners in the Sunday Pacific NW magazine section in 2003. They spent several days, took hundreds of photos, and made out the store to be a destination place. Margolis’ website has maintained See Everybody's on C10
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
Larry Martin retires after 18 years as a STARS volunteer He has given at least 3,450 hours of service to the city of Lynden By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com
Larry Martin has his STARS handbook as a memento of what he did. (Calvin Bratt/
LYNDEN — It’s a job that can be satisfying for a retiree, and the STARS team also helps out an understaffed Lynden Police Department. Larry Martin recently wrapped up nearly 18 years on the Senior Traffic And Residential Security (STARS) force. He was one of the original seven members for the City of Lynden in 2001. The most important role is to be “another set of eyes around the neighborhoods” of Lynden, said Martin, chatting on his involvement at his Benson Road home.
“I enjoyed it. You get to meet a lot of new people in the town, and they really appreciated us,” he said. “You get to see what the town’s doing.” The STARS volunteers ride around Lynden in a vehicle marked for them — currently a Jeep-like one with an amber light on top — monitoring traffic flow and also checking in on homes whose owners are away, that all doors and windows are secure and the property seems okay. They also will look for violations of city parking rules, such as wrong-way, too close to a fire hydrant, in handicapped parking without a permit, or a vehicle exceeding 21 feet in angled parking spaces. “We couldn’t write tickets. We needed to contact a regular officer,” Martin said of spotting potential violators. They can give warning notices, however. Continued on next page
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
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They also set up the mobile “Your speed is ...” trailer that advises motorists of compliance with a speed limit. Working in pairs on four-hour shifts, STARS volunteers put in about 15-16 hours per month, he said. It’s all for free to their community. He and his buddies didn’t really face any hostile situations. Martin says they got most resistance from “college kids home for the summer who want to park wherever they want.” For Martin, his 18 years totals up to about 3,450 hours given generously to the city — “an incredible statistic,” said Police Chief John Billester. The department presented a plaque of appreciation to Martin a few weeks ago. Martin was among the seven men to come on board at the beginning of STARS with Jack Foster as police chief and Daryl Brennick as mayor in 2001. The others were John Van Vliet, Len Van Ry, Albert Van Dalfsen, Bill Laird, Dale King and Wayne Hagen. Only Hagen is still serving. Officer Mel Blankers was the first coordinator. There are five STARS volunteers currently, with a potential for four more to join very soon. Chief Billester and coordinating po-
lice officer Nathan Dunn would like to continue to build up the roster. “We are always looking for volunteers and if there are still some people that are interested, or are just now hearing about our volunteer opportunities, they can call and speak with officer Dunn or myself,” the chief said. The police station number is 360-354-2828. Larry had his own career as a mechanic primarily with John Deere tractors and equipment, first with the Lynden company known as North Washington Implement Co., which became over time a part of today’s Washington Tractor firm. He was only “semi-retired” from that line of work, and seasonally helped local berry growers, when he began with STARS. Larry and Mary Jo Martin go south to warmer weather each winter, and he was able to make that still work out with STARS as well. The couple had a son, Russ, join the Lynden Police Department as a regular officer after Larry had started with STARS, and they back the effort to bolster the force up to a 16th and even 17th officer. Officer overtime is high when staffing is short. “Those guys have to have a life of their own,” Mary Jo Martin said. “Their family suffers for it,” Larry said.
Larry Martin was thanked for his 18 years of service by Police Chief John Billester a few weeks ago. (Courtesy photo)
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
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Everybody's: Success found in store memories, family
Left: Amy Margolis weighs out a purchase of carrots for a customer in the featuring of Everybody’s Store done by the Seattle Times in 2003. Right: Everybody’s Store has sought to have a credible supply of foods including fresh produce for South Fork Valley neighbors. (Photo credit/Seattle Times) Continued from C7
winter hours of 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. every day, offering organically grown produce, medicinal herbs, wines, locally smoked salmon, indigenous crafts, and maps upon request to the Van Zandt Coal Mine. In season, they have sold inner tubes for cooling off in the Nooksack. The highly sought sandwiches are made from about six dozen types of cheese and the “petite” size is far from petite. Jeff said the difference from other sandwiches is simple: condiments are put on both sides of the bread and essential contains a “luncheon salad” of material. While plenty of skiers, hikers and inner tubers have made their way past, this section of Highway 9 has never become a well-traveled corridor for truckers. With the closure of the larger Dodson’s Market at Nugent’s Corner, this east Whatcom area has also basically become a food desert. Thousands of residents have very little choice for purchasing food outside of Bell-
ingham and Lynden. With opportunity to buy groceries at great prices in Bellingham and new ways to buy alcohol direct from the manufacturer, the profit margin for any retailer has slid down. “You buy high and sell low,” he said, and sighed. Asked if he pictured years ago that they would still be here, he says, “We knew we would be here for the long haul from the beginning.” Although Everybody’s Store hasn’t been a “financial success,” he has been delighted by families bringing back their children and grandchildren year after year. He recites what matters to him: Community, Music and Service. Each has come to them in strong and rich measure. Memories are vast. They include the locals’ quite negative initial reaction to the new “hippies” in the village, but the Margolises gained acceptance in time, fed their children homegrown vegetables from their garden (“instead of fast food”) and got a foothold into the foothills by creating two radio stations (KMRE in Bellingham
and KAVZ in the county). They had a hand in starting a volunteer fire department and administering a community hall and the Josh Vander Yacht Park. For 43 years Jeff has been in the Whatcom Chorale as well as an active member of the local Democratic Party. Likewise, Amy has been a violinist with the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra. Controversies have also been part and parcel of the course, as Margolis brought in a range of far-reaching ideologies in his magazine selections in the name of free speech. Not everyone took kindly to seeing Soldier of Fortune sitting next to Playboy on his shelves. He opposed any Skagit nuclear plant and any train hauling coal. He was concerned about vast growth in nearby Kendall, with the county planning department approving more subdivisions than in Lynden. “They created a city.” Asked whether another owner or tenant might want to continue or expand the deli or eatery function of the store, Margolis said this would be difficult since the cost of required fees and permits has gone up
exponentially. One example is a monthly water test required by the county Health Department. It used to be $18 a month. Now the cost is closer to $220. He adds the store would need to update its septic system and add restroom facilities in addition to other updates. Those in the community have said the Margolises’ asking price, which was not given, is high with all those needs in mind. After 48 years in Van Zandt and with maybe three days off in all that time from the store, Jeff, now 76, and Amy, 77, have no big plans. There are meetings to attend. Other parts of the country might be warmer, more affordable and attractive to the retirement set, but daughter Beth is nearby and still relies on them some. “No ventures. Just living.” Time will tell what will become of their soon-to-be former business. They will continue making their home in Van Zandt and their musical selections will still play at 10 a.m. weekdays on KAVZ 102.3.
Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | Ferndale Record
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