The original 'who's your farmer?'

 This collection of vignettes is a chapter from my childhood memoir that spans the period from 1950 to 1964 when my parents, Bill and Anne Haug, owned a bar on Bigfork’s Electric Avenue. 

The Mize’s Farm

Mr. and Mrs. Mize (Herman and Mabel) were an older couple of German heritage. 

They had several adult children who moved away and had children of their own. That is except for one son, Clarence (everyone called him Mouse), who was a drifter and lived with them during the summer.

Theirs was a large property between Huston’s and the Lake Café. There was a large garden and several out buildings, including a chicken coop, barn and a shack for the hired hand, Harry Ardner.

Mrs. Mize was crippled with arthritis and rarely left her overstuffed chair in the dining room. She was very sweet and loved having the kids in town visit her. We combed her thin, straight white hair, parting it down the middle, and pinned curls in place with bobby pins while she read stories to us.

Mr. Mize kept the house and did the chores, which included sharpening the knives on an old pedal-powered sharpening wheel, feeding the chickens and keeping the garden. We got some of our fresh vegetables from him.

Once when I walked into their back yard, there was a chicken without a head running around. “Mr. Mize, is that chicken gonna die?” I asked, scared.

“Yep, she’s going to be stewed for our dinner.”

“But, why is she still alive?”

“Oh, she’s no longer alive; its just her legs haven’t given up yet.”

“Oh,” I said, not really understanding. But soon its body collapsed and he went to work plucking the feathers.

The Lake Cafe

Al and Elsie Matthews, my godparents, ran the town’s largest café, which was next door to our bar. Al and my Dad had been partners in the bar, but after about a year, Al bought the cafe and Dad bought out his share in the bar. 

They lived in a small house on the other side of our bar until after Al completed the remodeling of the cafe, which included an apartment upstairs.

They had originally lived in Des Moines, Iowa. (I knew where that was because it was near Ames, Iowa, where my Aunt Ida - Mom’s sister - lived). Mom said Al and Elsie ran a house of ill repute there.

“What’s that, Mom?” I asked when I saw the look of mock-scorn on her face.

“A place men went to meet women.”

“Oh,” I said, knowing there was more to it than that, but that she didn’t want to tell me.

The cafe served breakfast, lunch and dinner, and also had a soda fountain that was popular in the afternoon with the high-school kids. I liked to go there for a root beer float and to watch the girls flirt with the boys.

Elsie baked cookies, cinnamon rolls and pies; Al made the menu each week and kept track of the money. They had various cooks over the years, but my favorite was Bunny Hullett; she made the best carrot cookies and caramel rolls. In the summer, they hired local girls as well as college girls from Missoula to be the waitresses; if their parents didn’t live in the Bigfork area, the girls stayed in one of the upstairs rooms.

We sometimes had dinner there, especially if Mom and Dad had been drinking after Jens came for his shift at the bar. I loved the deep fried prawns or chicken fried steak. Dad usually had steak and potatoes, and Mom had prawns with me, or an egg salad sandwich.

To be continued.