Bigfork native recalls growing up downtown

The July 16 issue of the Bigfork Eagle featured a “Looking Back” photo of my Mom, Anne Haug, sitting on a stump in front of the Koffee Kup cafe, a dilapidated building in Bigfork.

I’d like to draw your attention to three things in that photo. I believe the photo was taken in October or November 1947 based on the bit of snow on the ground, the wool shirt and headscarf she is wearing, and the youthfulness of her face. My Mom was 29 at the time.

The building in the photo is still there, on downtown Bigfork’s Electric Avenue, but it has been remodeled over the years. Do you know which building it is? I’ll give you a hint: The top of the roof peak is still visible if you stand across the street from the building.

While today we might not think it unusual that Mom is wearing trousers, but in 1947, this was unheard of for a woman, especially in Bigfork. In fact, those are men’s trousers because no one in the valley sold trousers for women. Mom was well ahead of her time, a liberated woman.

Mom and Dad met in Scobey, Montana. They were married in Kalispell in September 1946 and moved to Bigfork where they bought the old bank building that housed the liquor store (now Showthyme restaurant). In 1947 they turned over the running of the liquor store to a young Sam Stephens, who had just moved to town and wanted a place to do jewelry and watch repair.

At that time they bought a partnership with Al Mathews in Al’s Bar (named for Al Meisner, the previous owner). Within a few years they bought out Al (who wanted to run the Lake Cafe next door to the bar, to the south), and my parents continued to run the bar until 1964.

When the photo was taken, there were three cafes in Bigfork, all in the same block: The Lake Cafe, Toysen’s Cafe and the Koffee Kup. The Koffee Kup was owned by Doc and Bonnie Baines, who lived in the small apartment you see in the photo; the cafe was just out of the photo on the left (you can just barely see the stove vent in the roof). It was a long narrow space with knotty pine walls, a long lunch counter and two small booths for the soda fountain in the back. They served breakfast, lunch, and early dinner during the week. On weekends they closed after lunch, then opened around midnight for the after-bar crowd, when Bonnie served her famous fried chicken.

Since those early days, the cafe building has been remodeled at least twice. The first remodel tore down the dilapidated fence and porch, then extended the building out to the sidewalk, creating a new roofline that blocked out all but the very top of the roof peak in the photo. Have you figured out which building this is yet?

Mom had a great old Kodak camera, and she loved to take photos around Bigfork — or have friends take photos of her, including the one featured in the Bigfork Eagle. I have many of her old photos in my collection, which will be in the Eagle in the future.

Catherine Haug