2023.10

Found in Collection

Notes from interviews conducted by Chris Yoder: *** Susan Capillo Text Susan Q Capillo Evanston, Ill Number one I want to say that I'm thrilled that you are doing this. It's been really sad looking at the barrel year after year getting worse and worse and worse and the garages encroaching on it and all swallowing it up and I was just wondering how long before it would either fall down or someone would just "accidently" knock it down so they could put another boat garage there. That said, I was going through my memory and I believe my parents (Woodrow "Woody" and Kathryne Wilson) bought it in late 1965 or early 1966. We definitely were running it the summer of 66. They had Jim Veling as a manager at the time, I worked there, I was 14. The house behind the barrel was rented by Bob and Sue Crowder, Bob's alias on radio was "Del Clark". My mother operated a little store in there called "The Small Shop". My mother stayed up there during the summer and ran the barrel and when I was young I helped her do it. I worked there in 1966, and then my mom ran it in 67, 68, 69, and 70, and 71 with my help occasionally (in between summer school and camp) and in 1972 I brought my best friend in High School up to Saugatuck, it was the year she graduated High School, and we waited for this. And we ran the barrel that summer, that was Ellen Sturm, and Ellen Sturm eventually married Joe Clark and became Ellen Clark and she became the Saugatuck city clerk for like 20 years. She liked Saugatuck so much, and the barrel so much, that she decided to stay up there. My parents, I think, owned the barrel to about (I'm not positive, but I think I remember) 75 or 76. I think they sold it in 77 to a young man whose last name was Enos, who had it for maybe 5 years, didn't do anything with it. He sold it to Richard Anderson who had a little trailer set up outside that you could buy hotdogs and lemonade there. When my parents last operated the barrel in 75 or 76, they knew that if they closed it down and nobody used the barrel for several years, the health department would not allow it to be reopened without major renovations. That's really what happened. I don't know if my parents ran it til they sold it and sold an actual running establishment to Enos, and he just didn't open it, or if they just stopped running it during the time they owned it. But we all were aware that it was so outdated inside the barrel that to serve food in there a major renovation would have to be done. So Richard Anderson, who was the next person to sell food on the property, just avoided it completely, serving food from the little trailer in front. That was OK with the health department. Jim Veling worked there, and there was an Ox-Bow student who worked there the summer of 66, but other than that to keep costs down, my parents really did it themselves. I don't know how much "stuff" we have from "the Barrel", we never called it "the root beer barrel", but I do have the old root beer mugs, quite a few of them, possibly menus, probably photos and slides, perhaps a home movie. I know I have the deed for the barrel. Somebody has the barrel which was using inside to dispense the root beer. Maybe you can put this out and find who has it. It was a real cool maybe 4 ft tall barrel which sat up on the counter. It was kind of like you'd get a draft of beer from. The tap went sideways, not forward. The root beer was specially made for us from a place in Holland, the hot dogs were made for us from a place in Holland and for the longest time, Douglas Super Value (Demonds, formerly Taft's) sold foot long hot dogs and foot long hot dog buns. Into the 80s they were selling foot long hot dogs at what is now Demonds, and they were the same foot long hotdogs we had, from the same source in Holland. I'm sure we were using the same sources the Gallases had been using. The Galleses, George and Joanne Gallas, were friends of my parents, in fact my Mom and Joanne Gallas were pretty close from way back before the barrel. Nicki, who is a little bit older than me, has known me my whole life. I'm sure that the Gallases worked out the sale with my parents and it passed from one friend to another friend. It was really Mom's baby, she loved the barrel. I'm pretty sure it sold in the late 70s. She struggled for a long time to get it running and keep it running, and I wasn't around then and I was in college and off doing my own thing. Finally she just gave up. Also the main demise of the barrel for us and everyone else was when the shortcut road went through from St. Peters. Nobody went down Center Street anymore. So the beach crowd would all cut through St. Peters parking lot going in and out of town. No one would go all the way down to Center Street, and I think it was there when the Gallases had it too. We were the last owners who actually "ran" the barrel, and after that, Richard Anderson, and I thought he still owned it. When I tell people that my parents used to own the Root Beer Barrel, they remember me. Susan Wilson Capillo, Jan 13, 2011 *** Melinda Tempe Milwaukee, WI 53225 I'm sure that my sister Bonnie mentioned that my father knew he was seriously ill and decided that he needed a way to help the family get along after he was gone. So that's how my parents ended up buying the root beer barrel. I worked there both as a car hop and inside drawing root beers, washing dishes, etc. but usually not making the hot dogs- that was someone "higher up", often my brother Michael. I remember it as a terrific place for me to work during the summer even though the wages were not that great, especially when working inside. The girls always wanted to be outside because they had a chance of getting good tips. The hours were flexible and the social aspect was terrific because we were on the main street to the Oval. Everything depended on the weather. If the weather was good, then the traffic to and from the Oval would be good, and then business would be good. It was kind of like being on the highway- you always knew who was going to the beach, when they went, and when they came home. That was kind of fun for a teenager. We had a good quality root beer. It had to be Mason's Root Beer. Inside we had a small barrel with a spigot on it, and that's where the Mason Root Beer syrup was mixed for the carbonation -- we had two big carbonation tanks-one in use & the other for replacement. Mason's was delicious; I think I've had it recently, so they must still be in business. (Note from Wikipedia: "Mason's Root Beer was first manufactured in 1947 by Mason & Mason, Inc. of Chicago, Illinois. During its early years, Mason's Root Beer and flavors line were widely distributed in the Midwest as well as some Southern states." It's not currently (2011) produced.) I don't recall where they shipped the syrup from. My mother was the boss and she had a lot of responsibility- ordering supplies, setting work schedules, keeping records, etc. I do remember we got the hot dogs from Herrud's. It was a meat packing business in Grand Rapids, which may have been taken over by Swift, possibly? The foot long hot dogs were always top quality- they had to be Herrud's. I think we must have employed quite a few local girls there. It seemed to be THE summer job. Also we served Barbeque sandwiches, and they came from Allegan-the Johnson Sandwich Co. They were very good, steamed in their own little oven, and you'd pop them in, 35 cents. 10 cents for the root beer which had to be in a frosted mug. I'm sure my sister told you about the two freezers. I got mug washing duty quite often, making sure they were clean and disinfected so we met the health department standards, and then they went in the freezers. Space was very tight inside; you couldn't have any more than three people or you'd be stumbling over each other. Usually there would be one person making the hot dogs & sandwiches (that was often my brother), then there was a cashier getting the order set up, often my mother or I. And then the third person would take in the dirty trays, do the washing and stack the mugs in the freezers and also draw the root beer for new orders. The root beer had to settle because of the foam in that particular root beer. So you'd draw the root beer and do something else and then go back and top it off a bit. Oh, yeah, I'm almost ready to go back to work- it sounds like fun again! The root beer floats were 20 cents I think, foot longs 35 cents, like the barbeque sandwiches. We did sell bags of potato chips. There was a salesman, and I believe his name was Pat Berensten (sp?) from South Haven who delivered supplies like coffee, napkins, paper to wrap the dogs, etc. I remember that my brother had to put some supports around those staves because with the humidity they were starting to warp. My mother sold the barrel to Mr. Race in about 1961 or 62, and, in fact, I managed for him. I was doing both inside and outside duty for a summer. I remember being in Germany, years and years ago, and I recall coming upon a barrel, very similar to this one, only a little smaller, but that was the first one that I had ever seen like our Barrel. It made quite an impact, and I suspect that this one is quite unique. *** Chuck Decker Text Charles (Chuck) Decker Grand Rapids, MI 49546 Daughter Emily Stoner My Dad Joe Decker built the root beer barrel. My Dad and a friend of his Harold Kelly, I think Kelly worked for him, they got this idea that they would make their fortunes selling foot log hot dogs and sacks of popcorn and root beer to people going out to Oval Beach. So they built the barrel, and they built that barrel over in Flint. As you probably well know it was built just like a barrel, it was all tongue and grooved and they made the staves and all that stuff. They actually did all the work on those staves themselves, got the wood, they turned it, made it to the shape to form the staves, tongue and grooved it, steamed it and did all that stuff. They assembled that thing in Flint, in our back yard. They erected that whole thing right in the back yard and then took it down, put it on a flat bed truck and had it transported over to Douglas. This was like in about 1952, when I was about 8 years old. My sister would have been 6. I think that is pretty close to about that time. They took it over there and erected it. Now the original barrel had a canvas roof on it which acted like a gigantic funnel so when it rained, the water came right down through the center of that barrel and exited somewhere outside or underneath it.. The first year they put it up, they would go over there on the weekends to run it. At that point in time my Dad was the Director of Purchasing for AC Spark Plug, which was part of General Motors. He and Harold Kelly would go over on weekends and that got to be pretty old very fast. So they hired a manager and that didn't work out because they weren't there. So then Harold Kelly and his wife Paula, they put her over there to run it. The second year they actually built a building there which was like a one room cottage, one big room and a bathroom, so she'd have a place to stay. It was back begin the barrel. As I recall, being a little kid, there wasn't much around there at that point in time. Way down the way, they had some storage barns for the boats. How my Dad got this idea was that my uncle Car Decker also built one of these. Actually he built two, down in Olney Illinois and the other in Robinson, Illinois about 15 miles away. Olney is about 100 miles south of Champaign, and probably about 15 miles from the border. So there ended up being three of those barrels that I know of. I know that my Dad and Harold Kelly ran the barrel for 3 or 4 years, probably closer to 3 before they realized that because of the distance, this was not a good idea. My uncle Carl ran his two for quite a few years. He had a restaurant business like an old fashion drive in with the counter and the stools and that kind of stuff, and on that property he built the barrel and did the same thing, he was selling foot long hot dogs and root beer, and the same way with the one over in Robinson. He ran the one in Olney and my aunt went over and ran the one in Robinson. The Douglas barrel did operate for a few more years after my Dad sold it. Somebody said that some bikers took it over, the bikers had it for a while. When we moved over here to the Grand Rapids area about 1990 we went over there and saw it and were out taking pictures. At that time, there was nothing there. The second time we went over, there was a guy that had it and he called it "The Rain Barrel" or "pickle barrel", I think "the Rain Barrel", set up as a little museum. We stopped in and introduced ourselves to the guy, told him my dad built it, and so forth. Then we were over a few years ago and it looked pretty dilapidated. Chuck Decker *** Nicki GallasText I am so excited that they are going to save the barrel. I am so happy. When the Center for the Arts was opening, Peggy Boyce suggested they use it for the box office and nobody would hear of it. That would have been really neat, but nobody was interested. They thought that was tacky. I think they had the dates wrong. I know that my parents had it into the 60s, like 64, 65, 66. The article in the Commercial Record had it that it was built in 1946. I think it was later than that. My parents had a golf driving range on the corner across from West Shore in that big field there, right next to where the barrel is. I can remember as a little tiny girl we watched the barrel be built from our driving range. They came and the put the bands around it and then they bent the wood over these bands and I can remember watching it be built, but it had to be after 1946, I don't think it was that early. My mother and I sat there and watched them and we were so amazed at the way they bent the wood, they had put like a frame and then they bent the wood up. And at that time it was varnished it wasn't painted like it is now. It looked like a real barrel. We always felt a special kinship for the barrel because we watched it be born. And my parents had it a couple years; I was trying to think… I know that in 65 they had it. The Commercial Record article said it was operated into the 50s, and I'm thinking it was into the mid to late 60s. I know after my parents Woody Wilson bought it. So they had it a few years after that. Their daughter Suzie Capillo has a cottage on Park street, she lives somewhere in Illinois. Her parents bought it after my parents had it. Before my parents the McVoys had it. I remember as a little child stopping for foot longs and it was the biggest treat. I don't know if my parents bought it from the McVoys. My parents didn't have it too many years; I think it was in 1965 that I was a car hop. Dick Snyder, a pharmacist at the drug store with Jim Christiansen, his foster daughter Margie Lenheer, she was also a car hop while I was there. Marcia Tucker, she lives on the lakeshore, she was like the manager, and I she worked there I think the entire time my parents had it. And I think that she got to be like an assistant manager. She was at the barrel a lot. She would know the dates that she worked there. One funny story…. my mother was 5 feet tall, and they used a freezer, kind of like a coffin, to put the mugs in, the root beer mugs so that they would be frosted. One night there was one mug left and my mother reached in to get the mug out and she fell in. She screamed and my father looked over to see her legs sticking out of the freezer and her head down in and she can't get out. So that was a funny story we always laughed about. I remember that before my parents owned it, stopping at the barrel was the biggest treat in the world as a child. Oh my goodness, to get a foot long was like the best thing and it was just such a tragedy when it closed. I see it sitting there ready to fall down and, oh my goodness, it just breaks my heart. In fact, I got from Kentucky, because we used to come from Kentucky to Saugatuck every summer, and I got a Christmas card from a girl who lived across the street from me. She said "What about the barrel, is it still there, I remember so much helping out there." They, I guess, came to visit us in Saugatuck, she was a few years younger than me and I guess she came and was a car hop too. She mentioned the barrel this year, out of the blue, so I know it's just beloved by everybody. Nicki Gallas, Jan 2011 *** Pamela Schweitzer I do not have a newspaper copy of my parents obituaries, but I do have their death certificates. My father, Ernest G. Race was born Aug. 2, 1928, and died on Aug. 21, 1982. My mother, Ruth H. Bredeweg (remarried) was born March 7, 1935 and died May 25, 2000. I will continue to search for pictures, and ask my Aunt Sharon. *** Sharon Plooster Holland, MI 49424 My Dad, Ernest Race, owned the Barrel when I was 5-6 years old. This would have been about 1961 and 1962. I was very young and don't know who owned it before or after he did. My Aunt , who lives in Holland, must have been about 15 or 16 at that time, and then that summer, 1962, she lived with us and worked at the barrel. Her name is Sharon Plooster, and she was both a car hop and worked in the kitchen. She remembers getting the frosted glasses out of the freezer for the root beer. I remember there was a miniature golf course right next door to us, when we lived there it wasn't open any more but it had a miniature lighthouse there that you could actually go inside. That lighthouse stood there for years and years. Then they started building up all the boat storage buildings. I used to play in the field behind there, there was nothing there when we lived there. It was a time in my life when I didn't have any cares in the world. I'd go into the kitchen and my mom and dad would lift me up on the freezer and hand me a frozen foot long hot dog and I'd munch along on that. And the smells, the business, things would go in phases when there would be a lot of cars there and then they'd all take off. They just go in waves you know. It was definitely a hot spot in the summer. My parents had tables set up outside too, with the umbrellas and the chairs around, out on the lawn too so people could sit outside of the car if they wanted to. I remember my mother planting flowers between the sidewalk and barrel, and they bloomed all summer. I also remember a string of clear lights draped from the barrel to a pole, separating areas for cars from tables with umbrellas. There were also speakers outside, and “WLS in Chicago” playing the top hits all day which made it a popular place for people traveling to or from the Oval Beach. As much as I wanted to always help, I usually ended up on a stool inside with a root beer float or a foot long hotdog. I recall sweeping, or putting umbrellas down at the close of the day. The barrel wasn’t air-conditioned. I can picture my mom exhausted from working in the heat, with only a couple fans going all day. My Aunt Sharon recalls having to keep the freezer stocked with the glass mugs so they would be frosty for the floats. I remembered the Barrel was broken into and robbed one night. Police were there, and I recall discussion of some vandalizing, but it appeared they were looking for money because the cash box was taken. I think my parents did add on the kitchen area at the back of the barrel. I can ask my aunt Sharon about that, but I think they did so. From there we moved to Holland. *** Bonnie McVoy Westrate Holland, MI- Interviewed 26 Jan 2011 I am the eldest of the three children of Earle and Mary McVoy- Mike, Melissa, and myself. We came originally from Lansing, and then to Grand Rapids where my grandparents lived, then my father moved us to Douglas in 1947 I think. There he bought what was known as Bonnie Meadows from Miss Graham and Miss Butterfield and we were the second owners. My mother lived on the property for 54 years. My grandmother and grandfather were in the insurance business in Grand Rapids, it was called Vandenbosch and McVoy. My father liked this area and when he saw the house and the barn and 11 acres in Douglas on Union Street, he bought it. His father died at about 45, I think, and our father died at 39 in 1955. Before that he was sick with hypertension and he knew that he was not going to be with us forever, and he bought the root beer barrel in 1954 so my mother would have a livelihood. We had it about a year when he died. Our claim to fame was the steamed buns, the foot-long hot dogs, the frosted mugs and root beer floats. A little later they added those steamed sandwiches, I think my brother said there was a little steamer thing and the sandwiches came from a company in Allegan, and all you had to do was steam them. I have a picture of myself at the barrel serving customers. Al Pshea was the man who managed it when my mother wasn't right on deck, and then Ev Bekken worked there. I was married and busy at home, but did work there in the summers. My brother Mike worked there the most. He added the stays, the steel stays, to keep the barrel together. He got Stew's welding to put three stays, one near the top, one near the middle and one near the bottom. It was always varnished when we had it. My husband, Dave Tomlinson, borrowed my little playhouse which my Dad had built, and we made a miniature golf course which tied in to the barrel property. My mother remarried about 1957 and they sold the root beer barrel, I think at that point to Ernie Race, who was a disabled veteran. I don't know if it was difficult for them to run it or not, but he's the one who put that little run-way to that little cottage. Ernie is gone now but has a daughter Pam in Grand Rapids. Then Joan and George Gallas bought it after that. It's stood empty for many years and it is in pretty bad repair, we did go down and take a peek. My grandparents owned what is now Tranquility Lane on the Lakeshore in Douglas and it was called Sunset Orchard. They owned it together with Mr. Vandenbosch who they were in the insurance business with. You know what's ironic, my grandfather and father died young and about 6 or 7 years ago I was in Grand Rapids at an Antique Mall and I found the brass plaque from my grandfather's insurance agency, now that has to be some kind of miracle. When we lived in Douglas I won the "Fix-up, Clean-up, Paint-up" poster contest. I was sent for a week to Ox-Bow. I was in about 7-8th grade and around 1946. *** Glenn Decker Interviewed 22 Feb 2011 Joe Decker, Chuck's father, was an engineer and a graduate of the University of Illinois, and he designed the barrel. He built one of them in Saugatuck, and then my uncle Carl Decker built two. One was in Olney as kind-of a drive-in restaurant selling root beer and hot dogs. The other was put in Westport which is across from Vincennes, Indiana and it did the same thing selling root beer and foot long hot dogs and some French fries and things like that. They built three of them as far as I know. Now Chuck thought there was one in Robinson too, but I don't think there was one at Robinson, maybe they considered but never built one. My father, his name was Glenn Decker, and he and Carl and a crew built the two in Illinois. I was a little kid when they built those. The one in Saugatuck I think was built in 1952 or someplace around there. I would say the others were built in 1952-55. I was born in 44, and when I was growing up I worked at the one in Olney. The one in Olney still exists. A guy bought that and moved it out to the east side of Olney, it's about 300 yards off the road back in the woods. The one over by Vincennes was actually on the Illinois side of the river in a little town called Westport. People from Vincennes would drive across the river and get hot dogs and root beer there. There is a restaurant in the northern part of Vincennes which has a picture on the wall of the Westport barrel. Next time I get up there I'll see if I can you a copy. *** Mary Olendorf- Barrel Memories We came from Highland Park, Illinois. My husband Bill was working for Leo Burnet Advertizing Agency in Chicago and he had the territory over here. We were in our 20s and just ended up in Saugatuck for the night. I said "Wouldn't it be fun to rent a cottage over here?" It was just reckless conversations, but we rented this cottage for two summers and then we bought it, and we've had it 60 years now. My son lives there now, about 12 mail boxes north of M-89. We used to call the "What-Not Inn" the "Country Club of Pier Cove". We came in about the time when the McVoy's bought the Barrel. We had just bought our cottage on the lake shore and we have so many memories. Picking up Bill Friday night at the train from Chicago in Fennville and always going to the Barrel for a foot-long and root beer. And then when Bill was a student at Ox-Bow he'd always call and say he was going to stop and get a hot dog and he'd say "Don't wait dinner". And then there would be the cast parties the Gallas'es would have out there after the show. Then there was the time I met Burt Tillstrom out there, of course we were good friends of Burt's anyway, and I asked him if he was buying a foot-long for Kukla. I knew the Crowders (or the Clarks as they were know) and when they rented the cottage I was very good friends of theirs. Towards the end of the Barrel's operational life, there were other places coming in and the Barrel kind of faded away. The "other barrel" There was another Barrel out near the Red Barn on Blue star Highway. I don't think it was my imagination, but out there where the Shell station is today was a barrel. When we moved here I thought that's where the barrel had come from and that they'd moved it, but after hearing the history of the barrel I know now that it did not. We went by it every day going to the Red Barn. Now going back, this was when John Upjohn owned the Red Barn and Jimmy Dias ran it, there was a house there, and it was a boarding house, and I know for a number of years they used the house behind the Barrel as a boarding house for all the actors that came to the Red Barn. And I don't know if the other barrel belonged to that house or who it belonged to or what happened to it, but one day it disappeared. It was the same size as the Barrel. Maybe someone else who was here before the 50's remembers it. It came into our view when Jimmy Webster bought the big barn, and I'm sure that other barrel was gone when John Upjohn bought the Red Barn. Right behind the Shell station I think I can still see the little hill where the house had been. *** Robin Crowder Perry We knew the Gallases somehow and I believe that's how we came to live in the rental cottage at the rear of the Barrel. We were there the end of the 60s to like 72-73 when the Wislon's quit running the Barrel. When the Gallas'es operatd it I was pretty little and I don't really have many memories of it from that time, except for George and Joann Gallas were dancers and Nicki worked there and they would do a dance move and lift g=her up and twirl her around and stuff like that. But when the Wilson's ran it there Susie Wilson and I and my sister Stacey would go into the Barrel and she would let us be helpers, "let us be helpers" like in quotes and we ended up helping her get the orders ready and taking orders and hanging out there, probably really, really, bugging her but she was really nice and we were helpers there for one whole summer that I remember and it was really fun. I remember eating foot-long hot dogs and drinking root beer and people would come up and that was my first experience like with a job and she taught us everything about running a Barrel. My sister Stacey thing we have our initials carved in there, but I don't remember that. She remembers us carving our initials next to the soda fountain, where you would get the pop and stuff like that. My name is Crowder and my sister's name in Crowder, so I'm Robin Crowder and my sister is Stacey Crowder, and my other sister is Kelley Crowder. My Mom and Dad were Bob and Sue Crowder, but we were also known as the Clark family because my Dad was an announcer in Chicago, and went by the name of "Del Clark". He was friends with a lot of people up here in Saugatuck and so we would come up every summer, stay at the cottage and that's how we came to know the Root Beer Barrel. So some people know us as the Clarks. We are known to the Gallases and the Wilsons as the Clark family. We're from Evanston and that's where the Wilsons are from. We were there probably 6-7 years. We'd come up from Chicago as soon as school was out, stay at the cottage and go back in time for the start of school. And my Dad would come up and join us on the weekends. He worked for CBS, WBBM, a sports announcer for NASCAR and Indianapolis. Both radio and television, and the racing circuit…. the late 60s all through the 70s. This was our summer home. When I began High School we actually moved here in 1976 and my family is still out here and my Dad still goes back and forth to Chicago. I have great memories of the Barrel because it was coming up to Saugatuck and it was just fun to hang out there and it was my first job, it wasn't paid and I'm sure that Susie thought "This is really cool I have these two girls doing stuff free", but for us it was awesome being inside the Root Beer Barrel helping her out. I remember mostly Susie Wilson and the Gallases. Who can forget them they are really nice people. I remember thinking she's cool because I'm 10 and she's like 18. Loving foot-long hot dogs, loving the root beer. *** Al Pshea Text I was 91 last November. I graduated from Saugatuck in 1938. I can remember back to when the interurban used to run into Saugatuck, it would go in front of the big pavilion, down to where the Butler is now. There was a lumber yard down there, it would turn around at the lumber... [truncated due to length]