Thirty six years

have come and gone since I tended bar at the Edgewater in Sandpoint. Kee-rist! Where did the years go? Truthfully, most of it was spent in pokerland but that aside, I have a lot of memories of this town and the people I knew when I lived here. At one point I worked for the Sears Catalogue Store as a service clerk. Sears didn’t want to pay anyone benefits so I was hired for five days a week at six hours a day. Several things happened while I worked at Sears that were quite memorable.

We had a sales clerk that worked on commission and every morning, just before the store opened, he grabbed the thermos and headed down the street to the Pastime Restaurant for coffee for the store employees. His name was Robert. Robert always brought back a bag of creamers, sugars, and plastic spoons with the coffee. Once the coffee was being served to all of us as we raced around to make sure everything was done before the first customer graced our doors, Robert also rolled out red carpets on the sidewalk. Our door was inset from the front of the store and he put out two carpets everyday (and brought them in at night when we locked the doors). One particular morning, the front of the store was still dark, around 8ish a.m., Robert was standing at the front counter, having his coffee, and exclaimed, “I can’t believe it!”

There were four of us women in the store that raced up front and asked, “What?”

There was a car parked right in front of the store and a woman was just opening the passenger’s door and scooping up her lapsized dog, sliding into the front seat. The car was new and her appearance and clothing was one of money and education.

Robert continued, “She walked the dog down the street and back up and then let it shit right on our red carpet!”

Rude! There were a million places she could have taken her dog for a walk and his morning poo. Since someone was going to have to clean the carpet, and the whole idea tightened my jaws, I grabbed the creamer/sugar bag, dumped the contents on the counter, grabbed one of the plastic spoons, and headed out the door. I scooped the crap into the bag with the spoon, dropped the spoon into the bag, waltzed over and knocked on her window, and when she rolled it down, I handed her the bag with, “Your dog left this on our carpet!”

She mumbled, “Thank you,” and rolled her window back up. And whomever was driving hit the gas pedal. I went back into the storeto findgales of laughter rolling from my fellow employees. They couldn’t believe I did it. I couldn’t believe she took it!

Another time we had a power tool sale and were open until 9 p.m. while the salewas going on. Our store manager picked up some really crappy pieces of scrap wood for us to demo the different saws and drills with that were set up as part of the promo. A couple came in and wanted to see how the radial arm saw worked. Hell yes I knew how to use one. We had one at home. I fired that baby up, went through the explanation of the different cuts available, and slapped a piece of wood into the blade to show the couple just how great it worked. The wood was so small and short (and I was too dumb to think it out), the blade caught the wood and shot it out the other side, blowing out the glass door as shot right through it and out into the street. Believe me,I knowI got lucky not to have someone on the sidewalk or coming into the store when that happened.

The jewelry store across the street thought we were being robbed and someone shot the front door out, glass blew out about 10 feet into the street. I don’t think the couple bought the saw. And I had to stay until midnight that night to wait for the glass company to come and replace the door. But all of this happened the second time I came to Sandpoint to live. I eventually left the Sears job to work for an attorney and spent four years as a legeal secretary before I left town the last time.

The bartending job? There are a few memorable experiences there too. They will come later. I went to the Edgewater to meet the two ex sister-in-laws. I hit the City Beach early because I wanted to take a few pictures. To reach the beach on Pend O’Reille Lake, one must cross Sand Creek. Sand Creek runs right behind the small city and empties into Pend O’Reille.The first time I lived in Sandpoint, there were two bridges that crossed Sand Creek and one could do a loop drive to go to the City Beach and return to the city by using both bridges. As time passed and one of them was in serious need of repair, it became an arts and crafts building with foot traffic only.

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While I was snapping pictures, I found a man and his son and daughter, swinging out over the creek on a rope, and dropping off into the water. I asked if they lived there. Nope! We struck up a conversation and I took a picture of each of them as they swung out and did the water dive thing. I promised them I’d send the pictures if they sent me an email when they got home. I believe the little girl was about nine or so, and she didn’t want to try it until I started taking pictures. She started at a lower level on the shoreline than the guys did. I liked her picture the best of all…free falling…

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The two ex’s stood me up. I called Shirley, a friend that I worked in the law office with (we’ve stayed in touch), and she came to meet me. It turned out great. Shirley’s husband, daughter, and this cutie pie met me for a few hours of sharing food and our lives.

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It was time to fly. More family coming in from Moses Lake WA. There was poker to play, more food to cook, and plenty of wine on my menu. Thirty six years has been a drop in the bucket, a moment, yet a lifetime of events. The memories have been on a continual rush this trip, something I’ve not experienced on previous trips here; interesting and nice.