Grant County Journal
Life is a puzzle
May 23, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
When things are meant to be, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. At least that has been my experience looking back on my life. Of course, some of the puzzles of our lives, we’d just as soon keep in the box. Jerry Vanden Bos began working in his father’s jewelry store in Port Orchard when he was ten years old. He was brought up to take over the business and when the reins fell to him he was able to grow his father’s modest business into a million-dollar-a-year thriving jewelry business. One morning, he turned to his wife, Paula, and said, “I’m tired of retail. I want to become a crop duster.” Paula, after taking a few deep breaths, told him she had never worked a job she didn’t love, and if he didn’t love retail she would support him in his dream. The puzzle began to fall into place. They sold the jewelry business and Jerry went to Oklahoma to learn to be a crop duster. He has been flying since he was 15, and it had become a passion for him, so the crop dusting was an extension of that. They moved from their home in Port Orchard to Wenatchee where Paula continued to work as a mortgage banker while Jerry flew his airplane and dusted crops. Funny how a line in a movie can change your life. It was “City Slickers” for Paula. Billy Crystal plays Mitch Robins who is more or less happy with life, but his wife tells him that he has “lost his smile.” She sends him on a cowboy adventure to try and find it. This line struck Paula to her soul and she realized mortgage banking wasn’t making her smile anymore. She put in her notice and went to beauty school and worked as a hairstylist until Jerry got a job for the world’s largest Christmas tree farmer and they moved to Oregon. Paula worked at Safeway in Oregon and when Jerry got a job in Ephrata in 1998, Paula was able to transfer to Ephrata’s Safeway. Life moved along; the puzzle pieces fit. Then a mannequin with a broken arm wearing a wedding dress covered with vintage pins in a shop called “Little Treasures” caught Paula’s eye. The cigar-smoking, biker-woman owner of the store, Linda LaPlant, who was as different in personality to Paula as you can get, got under Paula’s skin and they became friends. One day Paula noticed a Business Closing sign in Little Treasures and she went in to talk to Linda and find out what was going on. As Paula was leaving, Linda held up the keys to her store and asked, “Do you want to buy my store?” Paula was taken by surprise, but the thought of owning a gift store began to nudge her creative urge. She went home and asked Jerry about it. “Absolutely not! I am not getting into retail again!,” newly-retired Jerry barked. So, Paula dutifully returned to Little Treasures to tell Linda she would not be buying her store. Linda and the retail gods had other plans, however, and before Paula returned home that day she had not only agreed to purchase Linda’s store, but she had given Linda her car as part of the deal. Now to tell Jerry. Paula said, “The look on Jerry’s face—I thought he was going to kill me!” Paula marched right up to him and shaking her finger to emphasize each syllable said, “I have followed you for 20 years crop dusting, it’s my turn.” To his credit, Jerry said, “You’re right, let’s do it.” Paula and Jerry worked to clean up the space vacated by Little Treasures and on November 4, 2003, Vanden Bos Gifts and Fine Jewelry was opened. Six months later in a huge surprise to the community, Ephrata Drug closed their doors after 28 years. Vanden Bos moved into their vacated space on April 1, 2004. As Paula’s line of Vera Bradley purses and accessories grew, she needed more space and so she rented the historic bank building next door. It was a little awkward because they were not able to punch a hole through to make the two spaces into one since the bank building was deemed an historic site, so it was essentially two different stores but it worked for a number of years. Paula had customers come from all over Eastern Washington because she carried the largest selection of Vera Bradley. A couple of things happened in the last year to change plans. First, on May 10, 2010, their healthy 40-year-old daughter Kristen VanAmen had an aortic dissection. If you remember actor John Ritter and how he suddenly died, that was from an aortic dissection. By all accounts Kristin should not have survived it, but miraculously she did. Stents in her heart helped for awhile, but they eventually failed. Her health has been on a downward spiral and on May 18th, her 41st birthday, Kristen re-entered the hospital too weak for open heart surgery and leaving doctors in a quandary of what to do for her. Jerry and Paula also had their rent raised in the main store space, so they decided to consolidate their store into the smaller bank space. It was actually a blessing since the headache of running both stores was gone so she and Jerry could concentrate more on how to help their daughter. Paula’s sister, Gema Powers, who lived in Tacoma, retired and moved over to Ephrata in February to help with the store in order to free Paula and Jerry up so they could travel to the Westside to help their daughter. As their lease renewal came up, however, emotionally they were too worn down to continue. “One of the things about living in this small town is that many of our customers have been praying for our daughter. Ephrata has a very spiritual heart,” Paula said. They need to concentrate on family right now. They do plan on keeping their home in Ephrata. “I’m too young to retire,” said Paula. “Give me a year and I’ll do something else after we figure out what’s going on with Kristin.” And you can bet it will be something that makes her smile. When the new puzzle gets taken off the shelf, the pieces will fall into place, because that is how life has been for Paula and Jerry.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Lights! Camera! Action!
Grant County Journal
Lights! Camera! Action!
May 16, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
Let me take you back to the days when movies were new. You have to be in a certain age group to remember those days, and even I don’t belong to that group. So I called Mary Lee. Actually, I called her son Jack who gave me her number. Jack said Mary usually doesn’t do interviews and that I would have to use my journalistic skills to pull one out of her. I called her and told her I wanted to ask her a few questions about the early days of movies in Ephrata. That is the extent of my journalistic skills but, luckily for me, it was enough. I never would have believed Mary Lee is 97 years old by talking with her on the telephone.
Mary and John Lee moved to Ephrata around 1939. John was an entrepreneur who always wanted to be in the movie business. He started out with a traveling movie circuit. He bought the very best projection equipment for the time and travelled to the smaller towns like Moses Lake (yes, Moses Lake used to be smaller than Ephrata) and Othello. Around 1940 he bought the Marjo Theater. Mary helped out in the ticket booth in those days, but as her family grew she mainly did the office work for her husband’s ventures. Mary remembers when they bought a new contraption called a popcorn machine and that was the only concession they sold. Those were the days of ushers showing you to your seat. The Nifty Costume Company delivered nice uniforms weekly for the ushers to wear.
Mary describes John as a “very friendly fellow” and he made connections wherever he went. He bought and ran the Sunset Theater in Soap Lake for a number of years, and also bought the Kam Theater (which is now a parking lot behind the Methodist church). Mary explained that the “theater business was very competitive and you had to watch your backside very carefully to make sure someone didn’t take your territory away from you.”
In 1950, the Lees built the Lee Theater in Ephrata. John ran it for a number of years and then eventually it was managed by Sun Basin out of Wenatchee where Jeff Fairchild worked. They ran the theater until one day in the 1980’s the oil in the tank ran out and they couldn’t heat it anymore. It stayed empty, except for some companies renting out the lobby for various businesses for over ten years. In 1990, Fairchild branched out and convinced John Lee into letting him open it back up, and he eventually purchased the theater from Lee. This is when the theater was renovated and two more screens were added. About five years ago, Fairchild sold it to a group of investors which included Lanith Merchant Whetstone. Lanith was a silent partner and didn’t have anything to do with the day-to-day operations. As you can imagine with its history, the Lee Theater fell into disrepair. Lanith mentioned a couple of negative reviews she read on the internet which talked about how dirty the theater was and how things were broken. “As hard as those reviews were to read,” said Lanith, “I knew they were true.” In February of this year, Lanith decided to come out of the shadows as a silent partner and take over management of the Lee Theater. She had a ready-made workforce with her family of 13 children. Lanith’s husband, Steve Whetstone, is a handyman who was willing to help her. The four older girls, Cassidi, Mandolin, Brindy, and Bailey took over The Reel and revamped the pizza. They now make their pizza dough by hand and carefully craft their pizzas. Mandolin, who is also my hairdresser as none of them have quit their day jobs, told me the girls have discussions of whether the pizza needs one or two more pepperonis to make it perfect. She does the same thing with my hair…”hmm, I think I’ll put one more highlight right here…” Mandolin’s husband, Matt, and Cassidi’s husband, Ryan, also help out at the theater. Other family members you might run into are: Geoff, 19; Zach 16; and Mikenzie, 14. When Brad, 21, gets home from his mission in Tennessee, he’ll have a summer job waiting for him. Eli, 11; Sarah, 9; and Jaxon, 5, are waiting in the wings.
You might have 12-year-old Sadie selling you your ticket. Lanith said she used to stand in the booth with Sadie to make it look official, but stopped doing it when she realized Sadie was better at it than she was. Thirteen-year-old Tucker sold me a soda once and was very professional. There was a learning curve, however. Fifteen-year-old Bailey tells the story of a customer asking for large sodas of four different flavors. She misunderstood and started putting all four sodas in one large cup. The customer laughed and said he didn’t think he would be drinking that soda. She was trying hard to give the customer what he wanted, and I think that was pretty creative.
Mandolin has some fun memories about the Lee Theater. When she was in high school she worked there and that is where she met Matt Hope and they became good friends. Mandolin left Ephrata for Alaska for a time and when she returned she realized she and Matt were more than just friends. Matt put on the reader board outside the theater: “Mandolin, Will You Marry Me?” and dropped to one knee in front of the theater with cars honking as they drove by. They are expecting their second child in August. When her mother told her she wanted to take over the Lee Theater, Mandolin and Matt had no misgivings. They work their day jobs and then are at the theater at night.
Mike and I went to see a movie Saturday night. The 9:30 showing, no less. I know, Ephrata is bringing out our wild sides. Sadie sold us our tickets, Cassidi talked to us until the first showing let out. Tucker went in and cleaned the theater between showings. It was clean. The floor wasn’t sticky, and the projector didn’t break. Lanith said they have now fixed all the broken things and scraped years and years of dirt layers off the floor. They replaced the reel-to-reel projectors. She knows eventually they will have to go to digital projectors, but they are taking one improvement at a time. She has a lot of ideas, including nine weeks of free movies this summer. Be sure to go by and sign up for their email list. There is a drawing weekly and some other specials you don’t want to miss!
Lights! Camera! Action!
May 16, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
Let me take you back to the days when movies were new. You have to be in a certain age group to remember those days, and even I don’t belong to that group. So I called Mary Lee. Actually, I called her son Jack who gave me her number. Jack said Mary usually doesn’t do interviews and that I would have to use my journalistic skills to pull one out of her. I called her and told her I wanted to ask her a few questions about the early days of movies in Ephrata. That is the extent of my journalistic skills but, luckily for me, it was enough. I never would have believed Mary Lee is 97 years old by talking with her on the telephone.
Mary and John Lee moved to Ephrata around 1939. John was an entrepreneur who always wanted to be in the movie business. He started out with a traveling movie circuit. He bought the very best projection equipment for the time and travelled to the smaller towns like Moses Lake (yes, Moses Lake used to be smaller than Ephrata) and Othello. Around 1940 he bought the Marjo Theater. Mary helped out in the ticket booth in those days, but as her family grew she mainly did the office work for her husband’s ventures. Mary remembers when they bought a new contraption called a popcorn machine and that was the only concession they sold. Those were the days of ushers showing you to your seat. The Nifty Costume Company delivered nice uniforms weekly for the ushers to wear.
Mary describes John as a “very friendly fellow” and he made connections wherever he went. He bought and ran the Sunset Theater in Soap Lake for a number of years, and also bought the Kam Theater (which is now a parking lot behind the Methodist church). Mary explained that the “theater business was very competitive and you had to watch your backside very carefully to make sure someone didn’t take your territory away from you.”
In 1950, the Lees built the Lee Theater in Ephrata. John ran it for a number of years and then eventually it was managed by Sun Basin out of Wenatchee where Jeff Fairchild worked. They ran the theater until one day in the 1980’s the oil in the tank ran out and they couldn’t heat it anymore. It stayed empty, except for some companies renting out the lobby for various businesses for over ten years. In 1990, Fairchild branched out and convinced John Lee into letting him open it back up, and he eventually purchased the theater from Lee. This is when the theater was renovated and two more screens were added. About five years ago, Fairchild sold it to a group of investors which included Lanith Merchant Whetstone. Lanith was a silent partner and didn’t have anything to do with the day-to-day operations. As you can imagine with its history, the Lee Theater fell into disrepair. Lanith mentioned a couple of negative reviews she read on the internet which talked about how dirty the theater was and how things were broken. “As hard as those reviews were to read,” said Lanith, “I knew they were true.” In February of this year, Lanith decided to come out of the shadows as a silent partner and take over management of the Lee Theater. She had a ready-made workforce with her family of 13 children. Lanith’s husband, Steve Whetstone, is a handyman who was willing to help her. The four older girls, Cassidi, Mandolin, Brindy, and Bailey took over The Reel and revamped the pizza. They now make their pizza dough by hand and carefully craft their pizzas. Mandolin, who is also my hairdresser as none of them have quit their day jobs, told me the girls have discussions of whether the pizza needs one or two more pepperonis to make it perfect. She does the same thing with my hair…”hmm, I think I’ll put one more highlight right here…” Mandolin’s husband, Matt, and Cassidi’s husband, Ryan, also help out at the theater. Other family members you might run into are: Geoff, 19; Zach 16; and Mikenzie, 14. When Brad, 21, gets home from his mission in Tennessee, he’ll have a summer job waiting for him. Eli, 11; Sarah, 9; and Jaxon, 5, are waiting in the wings.
You might have 12-year-old Sadie selling you your ticket. Lanith said she used to stand in the booth with Sadie to make it look official, but stopped doing it when she realized Sadie was better at it than she was. Thirteen-year-old Tucker sold me a soda once and was very professional. There was a learning curve, however. Fifteen-year-old Bailey tells the story of a customer asking for large sodas of four different flavors. She misunderstood and started putting all four sodas in one large cup. The customer laughed and said he didn’t think he would be drinking that soda. She was trying hard to give the customer what he wanted, and I think that was pretty creative.
Mandolin has some fun memories about the Lee Theater. When she was in high school she worked there and that is where she met Matt Hope and they became good friends. Mandolin left Ephrata for Alaska for a time and when she returned she realized she and Matt were more than just friends. Matt put on the reader board outside the theater: “Mandolin, Will You Marry Me?” and dropped to one knee in front of the theater with cars honking as they drove by. They are expecting their second child in August. When her mother told her she wanted to take over the Lee Theater, Mandolin and Matt had no misgivings. They work their day jobs and then are at the theater at night.
Mike and I went to see a movie Saturday night. The 9:30 showing, no less. I know, Ephrata is bringing out our wild sides. Sadie sold us our tickets, Cassidi talked to us until the first showing let out. Tucker went in and cleaned the theater between showings. It was clean. The floor wasn’t sticky, and the projector didn’t break. Lanith said they have now fixed all the broken things and scraped years and years of dirt layers off the floor. They replaced the reel-to-reel projectors. She knows eventually they will have to go to digital projectors, but they are taking one improvement at a time. She has a lot of ideas, including nine weeks of free movies this summer. Be sure to go by and sign up for their email list. There is a drawing weekly and some other specials you don’t want to miss!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
We're Not in AZ anymore, Toto!
Grant County Journal
We’re Not in AZ Anymore, Toto
May 9, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
I am back after five weeks and four days of living out of a suitcase. I am tired and a little cranky. I’m upset at myself because I forgot to send in our grandson’s picture with last week’s column. To try to rectify that mistake and because I had so many requests for it, here is a picture of Ethan Michael Warren, born April 21. I was busy helping my daughter with her twins and new baby, and I lost track of a lot of things. When you’re away from home it is easy to get out of your routine. I hardly even watched the news or read a newspaper. In fact, I think the first time we turned on the news was when someone called to tell us bin Laden had been killed. Imagine my surprise a day or two later when I saw Ephrata Middle School teacher, Gary Weddle, on national news. Someone needs to teach Bill O’Reilly how to pronounce Ephrata. I substitute at the middle school sometimes, and since I’ve only lived in Ephrata less than two years, I didn’t know the story behind the beard. I didn’t think Amish people taught in public schools, but I put it in the back of my mind to research the subject. I’m glad that was cleared up. I was diligent in paying all the bills before I left, but a new set of them came. You can’t put a stop to those things. I was also gone long enough to forget my passwords in order to pay them online. I kept telling Mike to just put them in a pile and I’d take care of it when I got home, but I did miss one due date. It makes me so mad to have to pay a late fee. I’m also mad that gas got up to $4.00 a gallon while I wasn’t paying attention. No wonder I’m cranky. My vow to exercise and keep on my diet went out the window after the first week. My prescriptions ran out, and my roots grew out. Five weeks and four days is a long time to be away from home. However, I got to hold my granddaughter when she was hours old, and I got to know my twin grandsons better. Seth even began to warm up to me by the time I left Arizona for Reno after four weeks and six days. The next five days I spent in Reno where my sister Diane from New Jersey and her son Jeff (age 40) and grandson Dutch (age 4) from Denver converged to spend some time with my parents. Jeff’s back went out and he ended up in the emergency room and then bed for most of those five days. I counseled him that it’s all downhill after 40, because I felt he should know. That’s the kind of aunt I am. Those four weeks and six days spent with my grandchildren in Arizona got me through those very depressing five days of seeing life slip away from my father. I think the next time I see him will be at his funeral. I was beginning to feel like Dorothy. Although I will miss those munchkins, Seth, Noah and Ivy in the land of AZ, I clicked my heels three times as I boarded Southwest Airlines in Reno, bound for Spokane. “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” We’re going home, Toto, back to my normal life. Next week my columns will get back to normal too. I tell you, it’s difficult to write columns out of a suitcase.
We’re Not in AZ Anymore, Toto
May 9, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
April Showers Bring Grandbabies!
Grant County Journal
May 1, 2011
April Showers bring Grandbabies!
Written by Janet Warren
Drum roll please. Last week I told you I had an announcement, and I will hurry and tell you the exciting news now so there will be no more wild imaginings of what it might be. (I received a postcard from a reader wondering if I am pregnant…I think Loretta would have to scrape Mike off the floor if that was the announcement). Of course, now anything I announce will be anticlimactic.
The exciting news is that we have another grandson! Ethan Michael Warren was born to Jeff and Abby Warren on April 21 weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long. Mike took off for Portland on the 22nd to officially welcome Ethan into the family. Abby did a great job, and last I heard Jeff was singing praises to the person who discovered that white noise quiets a crying baby.
There’s a little more to the story that I will fill you in on. When you ask Mike how many children he has, he will tell you seven with no additional explanation. When he married me, my children became his children. I, on the other hand, always feel the need to explain things, and I’ll tell you why. If you lined our children up in order, it would be like this: Jenni 32, Jodie 30, Mindi 28, Jonathan 28, Jeffrey 25, James 24, and Jeffrey 14. Who would name two of their children Jeffrey? You see what I mean…some explanation is required. Plus, when I say Jeff had a baby, I need you to know it is Mike’s Jeff, because my Jeff is only 14! Such is the blended family. And while we are on the subject, how am I supposed to explain Jodie’s stepchildren? I treat them like my grandchildren, but Meranda is 18 and Robert is 17 and I’m a little too vain to let you think I am old enough to have biological grandchildren that age. It was enough of a shock when I became a grandma at 41 with the birth of Tony, now age 12. I was thinking I might not get any more grandchildren, but after a 9-year wait, we have four more—Twins Seth and Noah, who turned 3 on April 30; Ivy, born April 5; and Ethan born April 21.
So after that big explanation, welcome to Ethan Michael! But there is more…as Paul Harvey would say, here’s the rest of the story.
For a long time now, April 21 has been a sad day in the Warren family. Mike’s brother, Chuck, took his own life on April 21, 1994. Five years, ago, on April 21, Mike’s first wife, Penni (Jeff’s mother) died unexpectedly at age 48 from a fatal reaction to a medication. Personally, I think Ethan being born on April 21 is perfect. No longer will April 21 be a day of sadness, thinking about people gone too soon. Penni loved babies. She would have been so excited about her first grandchild. In fact, I like to think of Penni as Ethan’s guardian angel. Surely she spent time with him before he was born. Perhaps she gave him some advice. I’ll bet she told him all about his daddy--that he loves the outdoors and he is such a hard worker. I imagine she told him about his mommy and how much care she took to bring a healthy baby into the world and how she thinks of Ethan as the greatest gift she has ever had. And I am very sure Penni told Ethan that he was going down to the Warrens, a family who takes care of each other, who loyally stands by each other, and that he would learn to love family the way they do. But most of all, I think Grandma Penni told Ethan to give his grandpa a big hug for her, and that he was going to be so lucky to have a grandpa who would always think he hung the moon.
By the time you read this column, I will have boarded a plane and flown from Phoenix to Reno to visit my parents, and then I’ll be back in Ephrata before my next column is due. I’ve missed y’all. Oh wait a second…I was in Arizona, not Texas. See you soon.
May 1, 2011
April Showers bring Grandbabies!
Written by Janet Warren
Drum roll please. Last week I told you I had an announcement, and I will hurry and tell you the exciting news now so there will be no more wild imaginings of what it might be. (I received a postcard from a reader wondering if I am pregnant…I think Loretta would have to scrape Mike off the floor if that was the announcement). Of course, now anything I announce will be anticlimactic.
The exciting news is that we have another grandson! Ethan Michael Warren was born to Jeff and Abby Warren on April 21 weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long. Mike took off for Portland on the 22nd to officially welcome Ethan into the family. Abby did a great job, and last I heard Jeff was singing praises to the person who discovered that white noise quiets a crying baby.
There’s a little more to the story that I will fill you in on. When you ask Mike how many children he has, he will tell you seven with no additional explanation. When he married me, my children became his children. I, on the other hand, always feel the need to explain things, and I’ll tell you why. If you lined our children up in order, it would be like this: Jenni 32, Jodie 30, Mindi 28, Jonathan 28, Jeffrey 25, James 24, and Jeffrey 14. Who would name two of their children Jeffrey? You see what I mean…some explanation is required. Plus, when I say Jeff had a baby, I need you to know it is Mike’s Jeff, because my Jeff is only 14! Such is the blended family. And while we are on the subject, how am I supposed to explain Jodie’s stepchildren? I treat them like my grandchildren, but Meranda is 18 and Robert is 17 and I’m a little too vain to let you think I am old enough to have biological grandchildren that age. It was enough of a shock when I became a grandma at 41 with the birth of Tony, now age 12. I was thinking I might not get any more grandchildren, but after a 9-year wait, we have four more—Twins Seth and Noah, who turned 3 on April 30; Ivy, born April 5; and Ethan born April 21.
So after that big explanation, welcome to Ethan Michael! But there is more…as Paul Harvey would say, here’s the rest of the story.
For a long time now, April 21 has been a sad day in the Warren family. Mike’s brother, Chuck, took his own life on April 21, 1994. Five years, ago, on April 21, Mike’s first wife, Penni (Jeff’s mother) died unexpectedly at age 48 from a fatal reaction to a medication. Personally, I think Ethan being born on April 21 is perfect. No longer will April 21 be a day of sadness, thinking about people gone too soon. Penni loved babies. She would have been so excited about her first grandchild. In fact, I like to think of Penni as Ethan’s guardian angel. Surely she spent time with him before he was born. Perhaps she gave him some advice. I’ll bet she told him all about his daddy--that he loves the outdoors and he is such a hard worker. I imagine she told him about his mommy and how much care she took to bring a healthy baby into the world and how she thinks of Ethan as the greatest gift she has ever had. And I am very sure Penni told Ethan that he was going down to the Warrens, a family who takes care of each other, who loyally stands by each other, and that he would learn to love family the way they do. But most of all, I think Grandma Penni told Ethan to give his grandpa a big hug for her, and that he was going to be so lucky to have a grandpa who would always think he hung the moon.
By the time you read this column, I will have boarded a plane and flown from Phoenix to Reno to visit my parents, and then I’ll be back in Ephrata before my next column is due. I’ve missed y’all. Oh wait a second…I was in Arizona, not Texas. See you soon.
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