Riding my Sears J. C. Higgins bicycle – bought in 1963 at Sears & Roebuck in Lakewood on South Tacoma Way – into the sunset

Riding my Sears J. C. Higgins bicycle – bought in 1963 at Sears & Roebuck in Lakewood on South Tacoma Way – into the sunset

March 28, 2024 Suburban Times, Lakewood

Story and photos by Tim Marsh, Lakes High Class of 1966.

I rode my Sears J. C. Higgins bicycle — bought in 1963 from the Sears catalogue and paid for and picked it up at Sears & Roebuck in Lakewood at 8720 South Tacoma Way at the “U.S. 99 at Lakewood cutoff” – off into the sunset.

That paints a nice picture. But, it’s not accurate.

In reality, this month a local charity picked up my bike. It was loaded into the back of their truck next to a couple of couches someone else donated. The truck drove off during a brief respite from rainy weather. No rain drops. No tears from me. But, memories. 

Downsizing at home finished off the bike, which I bought at 15-years old. I’m 76. It’s been literally hanging around in our garage for more than 10 years. I lost track the last time I rode the bike. It was time for us to part. 

The bike was moved from Lakewood to western Oregon. From western Oregon to eastern Washington. From eastern Washington back to western Oregon. Next stop will be where the charity’s buyer takes it. .

In 1963 I needed the bike for transportation. I had a Saturday job doing yardwork at a home on the other side of the lake. I could walk there but riding a bike to/from was a better option. 

Looking at the Sears catalogue at home I saw possibilities. I picked a 26-inch bike with bright metallic red enamel finish and silver fenders. 

Today the finish has faded. It still has its original white sidewall tires. There’s rust. The seat is cracking. But, in general it’s in great shape for its age. The Tacoma bike license affixed on the back fender expired Dec. 31, 1963.

When the bike arrived, we got a phone call. Dad drove me to the store. He paid for it. We put the bike in a box and brought it home.

I assembled it. Then, I ordered a J.C. Higgins speedometer/odometer and did not ride the bike until I installed it on the bike. The 950 miles on the odometer are original miles. 

Not every Saturday was a bike to yard work on the other side of the lake day. Neighbor boys, older than me, worked at the same home years before. They sometimes rowed a boat over and back. I decided I’d do that, too.

Dad bought a new 8-foot pram wood rowboat from a shop in old Tacoma. We put it on sawhorses on the front porch and painted the inside and stern white and the rest of it bright blue. 

Rowing to my Saturday job was not a breeze, but do-able. Once there was more than a breeze. There was strong wind and whitecaps on the lake. Rowing back home after work was challenging. I was not wearing a life jacket and was afraid the pram would be swamped and sink. 

So, I beached the pram at American Lake Park and walked home. The next day, with better lake conditions, I walked to the park and rowed the pram home.

Having that Saturday job meant I earned money. Mrs. L (name changed) paid me after each day of work. Using a manual typewriter, she’d add the date, and my name on the check. Then, she used a neat machine to print the dollar and cents amount on the check. 

With check in hand, I’d get myself to Rhodes department store at Villa Plaza. It cashed my check in its second floor business office. Yes, on Saturdays.

Mrs. L was amazing. Not only a job, but she paid with checks. I did not appreciate it at the time, but she tallied my hours and paid into Social Security. When I retired, the first hours for which I had SocSec credit were thanks to her.

Yes, the money earned and Social Security credit was good. But, more important to me now is the memory of my bicycle and my 8-foot pram.

POSTSCRIPT – According to the TNT, the Sears Suburban Store in Lakewood opened in 1957. Store officials extended a “cordial invitation to the public to see the many facilities offered in this great new Sears store of almost 11,000 square feet.” Interesting to note, the building formerly housed a Safeway grocery store.

The store had a South Tacoma Way address and was at the intersection with Steilacoom Boulevard. Phone JU 8-3661.

Sold in the store were Coldspot freezers and refrigerators. Kenmore ranges, washers and dryers. Silverstone television sets and radios and Craftsman power tools. No mention of J. C. Higgins.

Oh, you recall, as do I, the Sears store on Broadway in downtown Tacoma. I always entered in through the back (top of building) parking lot. Go into the back door, ride the escalator down and smell the popcorn.

ALSO – A TNT classified ad in the Nov 18, 1952 mentions “Sears Farm Store, 1408 So. St.” in Tacoma.

 

https://thesubtimes.com/2024/03/28/riding-my-sears-j-c-higgins-bicycle-bought-in-1963-at-sears-roebuck-in-lakewood-on-south-tacoma-way-into-the-sunset/

Named telephone prefixes in Portland, Oregon

ALpine

ATlantic

AVenue

BElmont

BUtler

CApitol

CHerry

COlumbia

CYpress

EAst

EMpire

EVergreen

FIlmore

GArfield

KEnwood

LIncoln

MErcury

MItchell

MOhawk

MUrdock

NEptune

OLive

PRospect

SUnset

TAbor

TUxedo

TWinoaks

UKiah

VErmont

WEbster

Gary and Bonnie Eisler were active parts of La Grande

 

During the years Gary (1944-2002) and Bonnie (1944-1996) Eisler and their family lived in La Grande, they were active parts of the community in a variety of ways. After he was managing editor of The Observer, they were respective publisher and associate publisher of the Eastern Oregon Review of La Grande and the Elgin Recorder. This is Gary’s candidate’s page in the State of Oregon’s Voters' Pamphlet for the Nov. 5, 1974, General Election. He ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for a seat in the state of Oregon House of Representatives, District 58. (The Eislers are inurned at River View Cemetery in Portland.)

Rest in Peace: BONNIE SUE BROGAN EISLER (1944-1996) and GARY KARL EISLER (1944-2002)

BONNIE S. EISLER

(Jan. 22, 1996, Oregonian, Portland)

A funeral will be at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, 1996, in Sunset Presbyterian Church for Bonnie S. Eisler, who died of breast cancer Jan. 20 at age 51.

Mrs. Eisler was born March 3, 1944, in Scottsburg, Ind. She was a writer, and for two years wrote the auto reviews on the Drive Time page for The Oregonian. She was executive secretary for five years for the Oregon Private Schools Association and associate publisher of La Grande's Eastern Oregon Review, Elgin Recorder and the Molalla Pioneer.

In the 1990 USA diving master national championship, she won the title, "master diving age group national champion, 1-meter.''

Surviving are her husband, Gary of Aloha; daughters, Laura and Amelia, both of Aloha; son, John of Aloha; mother, Geneva Brogan of Jeffersonville, Ind.; brothers, Ronald Brogan of New Albany, Ind., and Thomas Brogan of Indianapolis, Ind.; sisters, Beverly Linck and Kelly Fust, both of Charlestown, Ind.; and one grandchild.

The family suggests remembrances to the church building fund. Arrangements are by Pegg, Paxson & Springer Chapel.

BONNIE BROGAN EISLER

(Jan. 23, 1996. Louisville, Kentucky, Courier-Journal)

JEFFERSONVILLE, Indiana --- Bonnie Brogan Eisler, 51, formerly of Jeffersonville, died Saturday in Portland Oregon.

She was a former newspaper writer in Oregon and a member of Sunset Presbyterian Church in Portland.

Survivors: her husband, Gary Eisler; daughters Laura and Amelia Eisler; a son, John Eisler; her mother, Geneva Brogan; brothers Ronald and Thomas Brogan; sister Beverly Linck and Kelly Fust; and a grandson.

Memorial service: 2 p.m. Saturday, Wall Street Methodist Church, Jeffersonville. The body was cremated.

Memorial gifts: the church building fund.

 

Gary Karl Eisler

(May 24, 2002, The Observer, La Grande, Union County, Oregon. In 2024, supplemental information added by Mac News.)

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Sunset Presbyterian Church, 14986 N.W. Cornell Road, Portland, for Gary Karl Eisler, 57. He died April 20, 2002, at St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Oregon.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday at Wilhelm Funeral Home, 6637 S.E. Milwaukie Ave., Portland.

Gary Eisler was born June 15, 1944, in Toledo, Ohio, to Marton and Frances Eisler.

A University of Toldeo graduate, he was a history teacher in Ohio.

He married Bonnie Sue Brogan Easler, on May 13, 1967, in Cincinnati. Her careers including being a case worker and a newspaper reporter. Formerly of Jeffersonville, Indiana, she died at age 51 in Portland on Jan. 20, 1996.

His name appeared in various publications including the Toledo Blade and through bylined articles distributed by the New York Times News Service.

In 1989, a syndicated daily newspaper column reported that Tammy Faye Bakker, is “ready to tell her life story” to ghostwriter Gary Eisler. The book was to tell her story of the rise and fall of the PTL ministry.

He was a former managing editor of The Observer daily newspaper of La Grande, Oregon.

In 1972, after he had left The Observer the Eislers purchased and published for six year the Eastern Oregon Review, La Grande. and the Elgin Recorder, Elgin. They bought the newspapers from Ken Pressler and sold them in in the late 1970s to Herb Swett.

During their lives together, he was publisher and she associate publisher of the Review, Recorder and Molalla Pioneer.

He created and they owned Newsbyte, a company which leased computers with a system he developed which took care of newspaper circulation, billing, payroll and business record keeping.

While living in La Grande, he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for a seat in the state of Oregon House of Representatives.

He was a freelance writer and co-publisher of many books, including American Heroes, Heritage: Climbing the Centuries, and Barter and the History of Money.

In 1978, one of the years he was a correspondent in La Grande for the Oregonian daily newspaper of Portland, he wrote a story about watching Bonnie pursue her favorite sport, tennis, throughout her pregnancy. She gave birth to John, the Eislers’ third child on July 3, 1978. (Gary was frequently Bonnie’s tennis doubles partner.)

The May 1998 issue of Reader's Digest magazine published Gary’s story "Bonnie's time: even at the end, life is precious. Its termination should not be encouraged." It concerned Bonnie’s final days before she died of cancer.

The Digest article was a version of an op-ed piece Gary wrote in a November 1997 issue of the Wall Street Journal. According to shadesofgrace (dot) org:

“In moving words, Eisler described the slow, painful death from cancer of his dearly-loved wife, Bonnie. When the cancer spread from Mrs. Eisler’s breast to her brain, her doctor recommended that all treatment be stopped.

“Bonnie Eisler spent the last two months of her life in agonizing pain. Yet, Eisler says, many “wonderful things” happened during that time: the birth of their first grandchild, a last Christmas together.

“In spite of his wife’s suffering, Eisler wrote that their last hours together were “some of the most intimate and precious of our marriage….Reason and compassion would have dictated that Bonnie’s life be ended weeks earlier,” he said, “but how much poorer everyone—including her—would have been.”

“Eisler closes his piece with a sober warning. Unless assisted suicide is repealed, “it will not be long before the vultures begin circling.” Cancer treatment is expensive. If Bonnie Eisler had known the cost of her treatments, her husband says, “she might well have felt she was a burden” and opted to kill herself.”

“Eisler asks one final question: “Will what has been ‘optional’ someday become ‘suggested’— and perhaps eventually require

Gary was:

-- spokesman and public relations assistant director for Emanuel Hospital, Portland.

-- spokesman for the TAV Christian group.

-- editor and general manager of Channels weekly magazine which covered broadcast stations and cable programs.

--interviewed in October 1984 on a KXL-AM 750 radio news program in Portland as campaign manager for “Stop Oregon Lottery,” discussing the negative aspects of the lottery initiative.

He was the chief executive officer of Eisler Spring Water of Happy Valley, Oregon. He was a member of the Beaverton Rotary Club, MENSA and the Sunset Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Eisler is survived by his children, Laura Baker of Happy Valley, Amy Nys of Tualatin and John Eisler of Aloha; a brother, Daniel Eisler of Toledo, Ohio; a sister, Sue Coffey of Indiana; and two grandchildren.

The Eislers are buried at the River View Cemetery in Portland. Memorial contributions may be made to the Beaverton Rotary Foundation. Arrangements are by Wilhelm Funeral Home.

:::::::::::::::

 

Gary K. Eisler

(April 24, 2002, Oregonian, Portland)

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Thursday, April 25, 2002, in Sunset Presbyterian Church for Gary K. Eisler, who died April 20m 2002, at age 57.

Mr. Eisler was born June 15, 1944, in Toledo, Ohio. He graduated from University of Toledo.

Before moving to La Grande in the early 1970s to be managing editor of The Observer dally newspaper, he was a reporter fore t the Napa Valley Register in California.

After he left The Observer, he co-owned the Eastern Oregon Review and Elgin Recorder with his wife, then they moved to western Oregon in 1980.

A free-lance writer, he contributed to newspapers and magazines, and co-wrote "Barter and the Future of Money: The Currency Crisis," "Climbing the Centuries" and "American Heroes: Their Lives, Their Values, Their Beliefs."

He was the founder and CEO of Eisler Spring Water. He also was a regular contributor to the Oregonian.

In 1967, he married Bonnie Brogan; she died in 1996.

Survivors include his daughters, Laura Baker and Amy Nys; son, John; brother, Daniel; sister, Sue Coffey; and two grandchildren.

Remembrances to Beaverton Rotary Foundation. Arrangements by Wilhelm.

L, M & J on 3/14/2024

 

 

February 1972 Tim Marsh, sports editor, The Observer daily newspaper, La Grande, Ore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 1972 Tim Marsh, sports editor, The Observer daily newspaper, La Grande, Ore.

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