Friday this and that

My good friend and Sandpoint City Councilwoman Helen Newton and I took a moment to stand in front of this sign along HWY 95 at Sagle, south of Sandpoint yesterday.

My dear former student Amy Freir took time out to snap our photo.

That was after she waited on us as we enjoyed MY birthday lunch celebration.

Well, yeah, my birthday was back in June, but Helen keeps her promises and keeps after her friends until all commitments have been honored.

Worst part is her birthday's next month, and I don't know if we're going to find time to celebrate it any sooner than we celebrated mine. Helen's last year's birthday lunch celebration occurred in February of this year.

Whatever the case, we always have a good time and enjoy a lot of laughs.

Helen suggested Stacey's Country Kitchen because she'd heard it's a locals hangout. I happily agreed cuz I first heard about the place from Don Gunter, one of Bill's former colleagues, and, yes, one of my former students.

That was one night after Don had come down from a 4-wheeling adventure in Upper Pack River north of Sandpoint.

He had come by the Samuels Store, a part of which is called The Blue Heron Restaurant, to pick up some treats for his drive home to Sagle. We motioned him over to the table where we were having dinner at our favorite neighborhood hangout.

He told us he'd be dining at Stacey's, the new Sagle neighborhood hangout. Don told me that one of the Chronics had started up the new restaurant a few months before.

My first thought was that the owners didn't need to advertise cuz, with the Sagle Gunter clan and with the Chronic clan, which extends from Heath Lake to Cocolalla and back north to Dover, they'd just need to call a key family member, and the word would spread to enough relatives to keep the place crawling with hungry mouths.

Stacey's seems to have the formula for a successful neighborhood diner. Helen noticed chicken-fried steak and said her hubby Skip would have to come. She had a patty melt; I enjoyed chicken strips with garlic bread and fries.

And, as you'll notice in the photo, I had more than my little tummy, which usually gets a slice of cheese for lunch, could handle. That made Bill and Willie happy cuz I brought home the extras.

For dinner last night, they got to split a big, nicely-spiced chicken strip to go along with their hot ham-and-cheese and Mennonite sourdough bread sandwiches.

The menu offers a good variety of time-tested favorites, and the food was good, plentiful and hot off the cookers. Plus, Amy was nice to us. We enjoyed a conversation about the wedding photos she had recently posted on Facebook. She recently married a Sutliff. I told her Mrs. Sutliff was my fourth grade teacher.

"She was mine too," Amy said.

"Couldn't be," I thought. "Amy's a lot younger than I am." Then, I realized Paula Sutliff, whom I mentioned last week as Connie Greenleaf's daughter, was her teacher, while Paula's mother-in-law Alberta was mine at Lincoln School.

Later, I taught Amy in one of my English classes and also tabbed her to serve as a member of "PAL Z." It was a group of kids representing all walks of life who worked hard to improve the school climate at Sandpoint High School. When we mentioned that class in our visit yesterday, Amy beamed with pride----rightfully so.

Anyway, the experience at Stacey's and the fun lunch with Helen brought out the usual myriad of local connections. And, for me, it doesn't get any better than that.

Thanks, Helen, and thanks, Amy. Great lunch. And, good luck to Stacey's. I think we'll make that trip across the Long Bridge to dine there again.