Interview with Helen Lawrence

Helen said she was not sure how long she has lived in Bly, over 50 years.

She recalled when they first moved here there was a street dance in front of the Logger's Club; Nora Cavan was out dancing up a storm. Only 9 days different in Helens and Nora's age. Nora's hair was snow white. She used to visit with Nora in the afternoon. Bob and Bert McCullough were in the bar drinking beer, a well dressed woman came in with N.Y. license plate. Bert and Bob were talking about skinning cat. She asked did they kill them first. She didn't know that Cat Skinning was a logging term. The Logger's Club was pretty wild at night. Leda recalled that when Bea Miller was living in the house, next door to the bar, a Hispanic man ran through the house and died just outside from being stabbed while at the bar.

Pauline Morton ran the cafe in the Logger's Club and lived in the house next door where Bea Miller later lived. Helen remembered that Bob Winfield's wife ran the cafe next to Jack's Place. There was another cafe called Haven's Cafe. Kids hung out there.

There were several laundries in town. Mrs. Keffler had a laundry service; Pete Cole's wife had a laundry service, and used long building located on Main Street and Gerber corner. Another laundry was located up on the hill by where the grange hall was. (Corner of Gerber and Hwy 140 on the south side) Also Ma Keadle had a laundry service. Leda remembered helping her as a kid and some man (She entertained boyfriends) came and gave Leda a dollar. Ma Keadle took it and stuck it between her breasts and kept it. (Had huge Breasts) Elsie Morris did ironing for people. People from Weyerhaeuser camp would come in on the weekends. There were a row cabins where Helen's home is now. They had 5 apartments they rented and shared a common shower facility. The Ward family also had a string of cabins that they rented on Langell Street, property now owned by Newman's. The Cavan's had cabins behind the Logger's Club and Mary Gordon rented cabins to people. The jail was torn down. Sharon called that their guest house because they lived next to jail when they moved in from Ivory Pine. Helen first lived at the paradise Ranch.

Helen has four kids, lived on the corner of Main and Gerber. She and her husband, Bill, opened a 2nd hand store. Folks started calling her the Second Hand Lady. They later ran the Union 76 service station. She always picked up garbage around town even though she thought the kids were ashamed of her. Henry Napier once got a ticket for catching too many fish and was sentenced to do community service. He went by while Helen was picking up trash and ask how many hours she had to do. He said he wouldn't do it if he didn't get paid.

The night the hotel burned was a scary time; the sparks were a flying. They were living in the cabins at the time and husband Bill was bed fast. When the hotel burned we were sure every thing was going to burn. We took Bill to Leda's house down the street. The community took everything out of house and put it out in the street; nobody helped put it back. The insurance paper got hot is what folks think caused the fire. The Halfway House was a landmark. Annie and Pat Patzke ran the hotel for a while. They were good neighbors and friends. They would bring left over soup at night to Helen and Bill.

Owen and Virginia Watts had the Liquor Store (had rooms for rent attached) for a while and they were good neighbors also.

They found out there are a lot of people that are not honest by being in business.

The local bar changed owners several times; Leonardo's ran the Pastime for a few years. Steve would teach the kids to box out back. They installed a shower in the back of the bar and used a sheet to hide them. Helen's grandson, Scott, would watch and then say, "Keep your God up". Scott looked a lot like his father Dean. Scott had an imaginary friend when he was young that he called "Lefty."

They first rented the "Bill Hunt" building (back of Shell station) for their Second Hand store and then moved to the old Barbershop. (Right next door to the hotel) The barbershop chair was still there and the kids loved playing with it. They had moved stuff out before it burned.

Pauline Bell ran the Barbershop. Carol Keller had a beauty shop first in a small trailer on Hwy 140 and later in the corner of the old Dillavou Garage. Kelly Maddock worked there for a while.

Helen remembered when the garage burned that was ran by Greasy Oly. There were Indians that brought their car in to be worked on and they ran over a pan of oil and knocked it into a furnace. It didn't take long for the garage to burn to the ground. The concrete floor was cleaned up and the teenagers had dances there. They called it "Slab Dances."

In where Jess Brant lived one room had medicine to sell to people. A Doctor came once a month or so to replenish the supply. It was actually just a room in the house. Leda says that Jim DeCaire found a bottle at the old dump that had a label that read "The Bly Drug Store".

How many churches? The Assembly of God used to be the Methodist Church. The original Assembly of God church was on Hwy 140 and was torn down years ago. It was originally a skating rink.

The old roller skating rink and bowling alley was on the corner of Main Street and Langell Street. It was a large dome shaped roof. The roof eventually fell in. We got the roller skates out of the building, had to burn the leather off so they could be sold for scrap iron. One time Bill bought some junk in the building in the back of the post office. There were old slot machines that Leda tore apart to get the nickels out. The Post office used to be a gas station owned by Chitwoods. Helen thinks it was part of the livery stable, had a place for horses down behind.

The metal cover on the CMA church steeple wasn't popular because couldn't get television after that. Of course there was only black and white TV. Leda remembers there was a cover that was taped on colored blue green and pink. The blue, at the top, for the sky, pink in the middle and green for the bottom to represent grass.

The Catholic Church was built in the 50s. Prior to that they had services at the Melsness house and rotated services with the Methodist church.

Occasionally a traveling preacher that would come through and have revival services in tents.

The roads were bad when they lived at the Paradise Ranch. Billie and Linda stayed, in Bly, with the Henderson's to go to school and would take them home on the weekends.

There were several black families in Bly. Ernie Lee was a good friend. He told Helen he was a black Irish Man. Net Lee is a generous person. Ernie used to take Robbie Melsness to Lakeview with him. He once painted his garage door purple. The Moore family lived in the cabins here; Mac and Florine McClendon lived in an old service station along HWY 140. Leda could remember Helen cutting Mac's hair and he wouldn't let us kids or Mom step on the hair because he claimed it was bad luck to step on a black persons hair. Helen cut hair for several of the people around town. She used to cut Charlie Wrights hair.

Do you remember Bart Shelly? Bart used to be the town drunk.

The local law enforcement used to put drunks in the jail and their friends on the outside would pour liquor in through the bars to them. Leda remembered sitting outside and singing you're in the jailhouse now.

Walt and Joe Patterson lived in a sheepherder looking building that was directly behind Leonardo's Antique Shop. Leda can remember a gunnysack hanging on the building that they used to put their garbage in. It was an old brown tarpaper looking building.

Helen remembers a man that had cancer, ate his nose away, first name was Bert. There was another guy called Shorty that was one of Ma Keadle's friends but she couldn't remember last name.

Helen and Bill had a second hand store where Leonardo now has an apartment. At that time it was not connected to the front building. The store was in the front and an apartment was in the back. Helen and family lived in the apartment. They got to meet a lot of people; they would sell furniture to new people coming to town. They also loaned a lot of stuff to people.

How much did gas cost? When Helen first opened the station (Union 76) the gas was selling for $0.23 per gallon and then it went up to $0.35. Everyone thought the price hike was terrible. Helen quit the service station after Bill died. She went to Missouri, to visit her family, with daughter, Doris, in 1970 Datsun. It had a small tank and didn't know how far it could go. There was a gas war in Iowa and gas was $0.10 per gallon. Bill was determined the world was going to pot because of the prices going up so much.

Were there any dairy cows around? Gordon Hevern's son-in-laws had dairy cows on their ranch for a while; there is not good pasture around for them.

There were lots of kids that went to school here. When the old school at Camp 6 went up for bid, Helen bid $20.00 and got it. We ended up selling it to John Dillavou for $50.00 and sold the equipment in the second hand store. It was a three room building in good shape. It was just large enough for grade school kids but not large enough for high school.

Bill, Helen and their family moved to Paradise Ranch after Ben Adair and Harry Lanphere bought the ranch. They lived there on the shares and had their own machinery. We were living there when Dean was born in 1953.

Helen is 85 now. She says she can remember things from long ago better than current things. Have lots of grandkids and great grandkids. Mary Hague says she looks like "Helen Brown." Also looks like "Hell in Green".