remember

Gatoring at Priest Lake

I remember the first time I saw the gator at the lake was in the summer of ’65 or ‘66. In those days, they held teen dances at Kaniksu Resort in the boat storage barn above the marina. I was in high school then and a friend of mine and I used to go to all the Spokane area dances – the Clothes Closet Capers, the high school sock hops, and the dances at Sunset West and the Armory. Anybody remember seeing Paul Revere and the Raiders at The Armory for 50 cents.

We probably saw the gator at one of those dances, except the high school sock hops where it wouldn’t have been allowed. It was common knowledge then that the gator was an old fifties dance from the blues juke joints but it had taken some time to arrive in Spokane. At the time, this friend of mine and I were big fans of James Brown, The Temptations, and The Four Tops and we fancied ours elves great dancers. We learned the James Brown Shuffle, the splits, and spin moves but neither of us had had the nerve to gator…or so I thought. So one summer night after our freshman or sophomore year in high school we were at Kaniksu and the band played some hot song. I turned around to find a girl to dance with and when I turned back around (with no dance partner), my pal was doing the James Brown Shuffle, drops into the splits, and starts gatoring.

A  few other guys gatored that night and after that it happened at every dance. Johnny Be Good wasn’t the designated gator song then. It was any song that had the right tempo. One night some old guy (probably 25 or 30) came up the stairs smoking a cigar. The guy started gatoring and I can still see that guy doing it with the cigar hanging out of his mouth. I remember thinking, “Okay, this is getting kind of creepy,” because the dance was a “dirty” dance then – sexier than it is now, and I was thinking the guy was too old to be doing the gator in front of a bunch of teenagers.

Before Kaniksu, there used to be teen dances at the old  Nordman school and someone may have gatored at one of those dances, but as far as I’m concerned the gator started at Priest Lake that night when my pal started it out with the James Brown Shuffle. His name is Tom Cochran and he is now a respected lawyer in Spokane.

Jim Luby
Posted in 2009

I remember summer weekends at Linger Longer, and delivering beer with my Dad to Ward and Millie Adams. It was my introduction to the moo-moo. Dad was always trying to get Ward to come up with the cash for a bad check he had written for some beer. By the way I still have a bad check from the early 60's that Ward never could take car of. Bless his heart.
We thought Priest Lake was paradise as kids, and we still do!

Bill Jones
Posted May 6, 2009

I can't remember when there was not an east shore road

"I remember when at Priest Lake ..... " we use to Trick or Treat at Millie’s and Millie and Ward Adams would give us kids our choice of Butterfinger, Payday, or Baby Ruth in a full size candy bar. My costume was a pillow case with eye holes cut in, covering my whole body and I was a ghost.

I can't remember when there was not an east shore road!

Craig
Posted in 2008

Kaniksu dances

I remember when at Priest Lake the best dances ever were in the soon to be gone Kaniksu boat storage & for an extra treat we would find a “date” to take and watch the beers at the dump by Grandview. Mom knew the sound of the old boat motor as it came up the lake around midnight or so, just as many wonderful stars then as there are now…

Don
Posted in 2009

“Oohhs” and “ahhs”

I remember at Priest Lake when in the first summer of fulfillment of my childhood dream to own a cabin on the lake, my brothers and I brought up all our kids and an assortment of their friends for a week at the lake. In the evening at the last night of our stay, enjoying a quiet moment on the dock, my eldest brother looked to the north horizon and said “Is that what I think it is?” Yes, the northern lights, something we both knew about but had never seen. We yelled up to the cabin to all to come down to see. Arrayed on the dock then were three adults and nine teens, city kids all, half of which had never heard of the aurora borealis. White and green curtains danced across the entire northern skies as I explained the phenomenon to them. “Oohhs” and “ahhs” all. A perfect end to a perfect week. Lifetime memories made. I was ten and at the lake again.

- Byron Buck
Posted in 2009

Our answer is.. memories

I remember when at Priest Lake, my family had a cabin on Cape Horn Rd. Early in the morning all you could hear was the sound of logging trucks heading down East side road. You could limit out on silvers by 9AM for a fresh breakfast, I learned to swim, drive a boat, fish, pick huckleberries, and chase the chipmunks! The stress of the day was the water pump losing pressure, and the bears in the garbage! Great childhood memories from the 60's and 70's!! Not much has changed here at Priest Lake. The water is still clear, the berries are still tasty, bears are still getting into garbage cans. The sound of children learning to swim, fish and drive a boat can be heard , you just have to slow down and listen! Great friends, and people are here. Most have never left, aka the smart one's! If anyone asks " So why did you buy the Leonard Paul Store" Our answer is "memories" Because I remember when at Priest Lake....

Pat Akins
Posted in 2009

Walker memories

I remember when at Priest Lake swimming in the lake in June made you an honorary member of the Polar Bear club! My sister, the Brown's, and I would jump off the dock and climb out for as many times as long as we could stand it. The parents would ask, "Aren't you cold?" Our reply, with shivering bodies and blue lips, would always be, "No! Th th th the w w w water is w w w w warm!"

I will always remember one summer evening when I was 10. I was practicing my casting off the end of the dock, just to see how far I could cast. After about twenty minutes I got a bite on my line. In the past I would cast my line for hours and never catch anything. I just enjoyed chucking the lure. As I reeled in the line I was suprised by the fight I had on my hands. It definetly wasn't a weed!

As the fish got closer I could see that it was a healthy rainbow trout! I love to eat trout, but I also have a hard time killing something so beautiful and this was a beautiful fish! I watched the fish swim at the edge of the dock for a while I made the decision to pull the hook out an let this beautiful creature go.

As I started to remove the hook from the tired trouts mouth my sister ran to the edge of the bank, saw the fish, and ran down to the beach yelling at the top of her lungs, "Andy caught a fish, Andy caught a fish!" The crowd of onlookers swelled and I knew that the fish would not be set free that day, but would become a meal. With mixed emotions I cleaned the fish and my mother cooked it. It was a lovely meal. This is one of those weird memories that sticks in the back of your throat, not sure if it was a success or a failure... It sure would be nice to catch a rainbow trout of the end of the dock again, and set it free this time.

Andy Walker
Posted in 2009

Ghostbuster costumes

I remember when at Priest Lake…our operating of our Ghostbuster costumes on Halloween caused Herb to have to close and we all went to Hill’s. Our leaf blowers knocked all of the dust off the logs to the point that no one could see across the bar!

Jeff
Posted in 2009

Many, many summers ago

Many summers ago there was a group of kids that were frequent visitors to The Outlet Resort, back in the day that Flo and Dick Barnes were the owners. Our group consisted of families that would travel from Spokane, Calgary, Alberta, Portland, Oregon, and Lind, Washington to spend if not all of their summer at Priest Lake, Idaho, but a good portion of it.

During the summers that we ended up having more rain than sunshine we were never at loss for things to do at the lake. What we normally did was head down to the Outlet Resort Store where there was this old pin ball machine to the left of the front door. A group of two or more of us kids would gather around the pin ball machine, watching whoever was playing try to score 27,000 points in order to win another game in which you would hear a loud click as the number would turn over. If I'm not mistaken there was a point and time that whoever could beat the given score, they would receive a soda pop. Some mastered this game, adding games into the double digits, having to leave them until the next morning or for somebody else the following day. All for one quarter.

On rainy days we would also hang out in the back section of the restaurant listening to the juke box that played Dolly Pardon's, 'Sleeping Single in a Double Bed' amongst other songs. When we got kicked out of the restaurant (because we weren't buying anything~just occupying space) we would head over to somebody's trailer to play some card games. I do recall all of us hanging out on the fronch porch of the Outlet Store often times, talking and just hanging out.

When we were bored we sometimes did things that kids shouldn't, but couldn't resist stirring up a bit of trouble at times. Nothing bad mind you. I do remember that we had smoke bombs because it was near The 4th of July and a few of us were up to no good and put a smoke bomb in the pay telephone coin return on the front of the Outlet Store porch. We also threw a few smoke bombs into the store when it was pretty busy. Of course we all ran like heck and could hear Flo yelling out the front door; "I know who you kids are and I know each and every one of your parents!" I'm quite certain she did.

After all there weren't more than twenty or so of us between all of seven families. At one point and time Dick put in a few arcade games, along with a pool table, and a foosball table in the big aluminum boat shed that heads towards the Outlet Campgrounds. We could play in there until he either locked it up, or until the sun went down and there was no other light to illuminate the large storage unit. Sometimes, some of us would climb up into the boats in the storage unit that were stored up at the very top of the racks. That reminds me of one of the most important things we all did up at the lake during our summer evenings! We did roast our fair share of marshmallows for s'mores, building the biggest bon fires we could possibly make! All of us kids would just sit around the fire until our parents would call for us to come in. That was fun and all, but I have to say that we had the most fun between playing 'kick the can' and 'tower tag'. I'm pretty sure you all know what 'kick the can is', but I am pretty sure that there are those of you that don't know what tower tag is.

A bunch of us had built a tree fort, that had three different levels out towards Lakeshore Road, almost where Berdadish Rd. is at. We had to wait until it was dark before we could play Tower Tag. There were two people that would stand up in the fort with flashlights while everybody else would run out and hide behind the trees or in the shrubs. The objective was to tag the tower/fort without having the flashlight shined on you. Boy, I remember being so scared that a bear or a skunk was going to meet up with me while I was hiding. Sometimes I would get caught on purpose just so I could be safe up in the tower with the flashlight.

Most of our summer days were spent laying out on the docks, working on our tans, slathering on baby oil, so that when we started back to school in the Fall we would be as dark as we could possibly get. There's no mistaking that when you laid out on the dock, that was fair game for a dock fight. There were plenty of those! There were two kinds of docks at the Outlet...the slippery docks and the sliver dock. The sliver dock was one that you didn't want to get caught on during a dock fight because you either gave in and got thrown in the water or you would get drug across the dock and get slivers on your backside.

Back then we all didn't have boats so the poor boat owners that had kids that wanted to waterski would become victim to all of us and would end up pulling kids waterskiing for a few hours at least. After a long day of soaking up the sun, waterskiing, having clay fights (there was green clay out in the water that we would cover ourselves with or throw at one another), swimming, and building things in the sand on the beach, we would head up to our trailers to get cleaned up and have dinner. After dinner we would all meet up again while walking around. I remember smelling the grease that was frying the chicken as I walked between Olive Barnes little home and the corner of the Outlet Store.

We would walk down to the docks, looking out over the calm, serene water, skipping rocks, or looking for arrowheads on the beach. I think I have about six arrowheads that I found between that beach and just at the mouth of the river. One of the dangers about walking on the docks, while fully clothed, is that you essentially risked the fact that you might get thrown in by the person walking next to you! And if it was your birthday up there...anticipate that you would be escorted down to the docks and thrown into the water for however many years old you were turning.

There used to be a time that we would grab the shampoo bottle and a bar of soap, walk down to the dock in our suit, jump into the water getting wet, then grab the shampoo to wash our hair, using the soap to lather up, then dive back into the water to rinse off. (I'm just guessing that this isn't something people do any longer?) Early mornings, before we would head down to the beach, we would go huckleberry picking in big groups. About two or three adults would volunteer to take us up to pick berries. We would bring our gallon cardboard milk cartons and fill them up with huckleberry's, to try to sell them to Hill's Resort for $10-$12.

At the end of the summer it was always a bitter sweet farewell. There were usually tears as we pulled away from the lake, heading towards Hwy 57...looking at the lake where the boat ramp is at The Outlet Resort until you can't see the water any longer. It's been quite some time since those days and I haven't been in touch with any of those kids from years ago, but always will remember them and the great times we had. This memory goes out to The Gavel's, The Rodgers, The Boganrief's, The Melvin's, The Walker's, The Johnson's, and The Bach's.

Gina
2009

Musings of an almost old-timer

I remember I was 6 when my Dad brought me to Priest Lake for the first time. His close friend, Al Vinther, introduced him to the beauty of our area we all know well. The year was 1951. A lot has happened in that time.

Growing up I skied the thoroughfare and Upper Priest (when it was legal) and had picnics at the open landfills late in the afternoon to watch the bears feed. I camped out for years on eight mile island with my friend Steve Beck– relative of the Vinther-Nelson clan.

When I was 16, I helped fight a horrific cabin fire in our bay. Although the cabin was flattened, the forest withstood the temptation to go up in flames. I also watched the Sundance mountain fire seemingly dance across the mountain tops night after night for most of one summer.

I remember helping Dad bring the dock he bought from the Diamond Match Company in Cavanaugh Bay decades ago to our cabin. It supported the cafeteria and is still going strong (with a little help from Mike Wagnor and friends).

As a kid, Outlet Resort was our favorite lunch place because of their milkshakes. And we could walk there. I have taken my own children there for those great milkshakes. It’s gone now.

Coolin was a destination when it was a thriving place of activity. The upgraded Leonard Paul store is the only good thing going for it now unless you consider our favorite Postmaster at the USPS. Yes, Leslie would tell you that is the right title. I can still the taste the breakfast on Sunday morning on the restaurant deck. My Dad kept his boat at Bishop’s Marina and what great boats they had there! We always marveled at the activity buzz on the weekends. No more. Kinda like New York with it slumlords.

The serenity of the lake is now sometimes replaced with the noise of go fast boats that think I actually want to hear their exhausts completely unmuffled as they see who can go from one end to the other the fastest.

I have flown in to both airstrips and only had a heart attack on one.

People much wiser than I had a vision in mind with the Priest Lake Golf Course. Great course changes and especially the new back nine. Who would have thought the over-sized mansions dotting the course would sell?

I remember Cavanaugh Bay in its heyday. Al Vinther and Dad launched their 30 ft. long open structure boat there. A 90 horse inboard engine with no transmission. Landing was an adventure. I also remember Cavanaugh when it was run down and up for sale. It’s nice to see it back to life. Sunday breakfast buffet is the best deal on the lake. It is not fancy, but the food is always high quality and doesn’t disappoint.

George_hill_fly_2The Hill family continues in the fine tradition that George and Lois started years ago making improvements while maintaining the ambience that Hills is known for. One of my kids is an executive chef and he has taught us plenty about the finer side of eating. Scott Hill has raised his own bar in the last few years and never disappoints as Executive Chef.

New docks, finally, at Elkins allows the boat going public to have a fine meal in their restaurant and not get their feet wet upon returning home. Thanks from all of us! Maybe next year we can get some of the potholes in the road filled?

Grandview. We go there for the view and ask for the fried trout. It’s not on the menu but they still have it. (Never figured that one out)

Millie’s is still kicking and better than ever. But I hated to see the $1 dollar taco night go by the wayside.

We have had the good fortune that allows us to be home at Priest Lake from May till October. And our children have all come to love the lake as well. We relish the fact that some change is always necessary, and Priest Lake is no exception.

Growth on the northeast side, a new marina / restaurant in Cavanaugh Bay at Blue Diamond, Chimney Rock café which surprises all with their good food, expansion of the hardware store that all of us rely on, a revitalized Korners, and the beat goes on.

And there are changes that some of us old-timers would like to see. A Marina at Coolin that would go from eye-sore to one that is a sight for sore eyes. (Perhaps a glimmer of hope in the making as new docks are currently going in.)

It would be nice to see a County that would care more about the roads they are responsible for. Take a ride down the West Lakeshore road from Hills towards the Outlet. You might want to borrow a truck or 4-wheel drive.

I am a nighttime boater, and as a licensed Captain, appreciate the safety and confidence afforded by the few navigational lights we have on the lake. Now if they all just worked…

Less milfoil and more lake trout!

Fifty six years. That’s how many years I have had the pleasure of experiencing what Priest Lake has to offer. I have seen long time lake friends come and go. They know that there are two heavens. My personal thanks to those who have helped create the lasting memories.

Doug Kuelpman
Posted in 2008