Viewpoints: Letters / Opinions
Jim Pinkerton & the Fireside Lounge
By
Betty Lee Lien Marl
January 02, 2013
Wednesday PM
Jim Pinkerton was an odd fellow and for sure no one knew of his childhood or his hardships. He was a very hard worker and smart as a whip. In 1962 my husband, Stan Marl, was killed in a hunting accident leaving me with 4 very young children. The town rallyed around me and my family. My mother, Anne Evensen, was a waitress at the Blue Fox Cafe. Jim always ate lunch there. One day he asked my mother what he could do for me. She didn't know what to tell him. A few hours later one of the employees from the cold storage wheeled in a hand truck with this enormous plastic bag, easily 25 pounds or more, of frozen halibut cheeks. He knew that I loved halibut cheeks and this was his way of helping me out. He was a very private person and when my mother called me and told me to come and get this huge bag of halibut cheeks I was dumb founded. Luckily I had just bought a freezer! It was a very compasionate thing for him to do.
Regarding the story about the Fireside, my husband, Stan Marl, played the piano at the first Fireside Lounge in Ketchikan as well as the Elk's Club, Eagle's Club, etc. He also played for a number of our local musicals which I also participated in, singing and dancing. Stan was a cost accountant at the Ketchikan Pulp Mill. What great memories.
Betty Lee Lien Marl
Auburn, WA
About:"I was born and raised in Ketchikan (1933). I married Stan Marl in 1956. He was a cost accountant at the pulp mill and a part time muscian. He played the piano at the first Fireside upstairs of the now sandwich place."
"I knew Jim Pinkerton. My mother was Anne Evensen and my father was O. M. Lien."
Received January 01, 2012
- Published January 02, 2012
Related Feature Articles:
KETCHIKAN COLD STORAGE and colorful Mgr. Jim Pinkerton By JUNE ALLEN - For half a century Ketchikan Cold Storage's concrete building, drab and unadorned, stood like a gray, man-made accompaniment to the rocky face of Knob Hill just behind it. A big structure shoehorned into the Front and Water Street corner of the busy downtown docks, the historic cold storage was a major factor in Ketchikan's flourishing fishing history. For fifty years the facility bought, froze and shipped halibut, salmon, and sablefish (black cod) to markets around the world. By mid-century, weakened North Pacific fishery stocks and a shrinking industry, fires in adjacent wooden storage facilities, and finally a wrecking ball reduced KCS to memory only. Today, bottoms-up Eagle Park stands as a memorial to its passing - for those who remember it. - More...
SitNews - December 2003
Remember The Fireside? By JUNE ALLEN - A lot of things depend on how long you've lived here. Did it take awhile to feel accepted by folks after you moved here? Just remember, there's an old Ketchikan saying that "An oldtimer is anybody who has lived here longer than you have." - More...
SitNews - April 2002
Viewpoints - Opinion Letters:
 Webmail
Your Opinion Letter to the Editor
Representations of fact and opinions in letters are solely those of the author.
The opinions of the author do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.
E-mail your letters
& opinions to editor@sitnews.us
Your full name, city and state are required for letter publication.
SitNews ©2012
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska
|