Remember When From the Past--Gambles-Western Auto

Remember When
Thursday, March 6 2008
Kenna Holm

Gambles and Western Auto

    I’ve been thinking about the old Gamble’s Store that used to be in Payson. Does anyone remember that?  It was on the corner of First South and Main Street on the east side of the road. Don McCoy (Dean’s dad and also Betty Jean Oberg’s dad) run the store. I don’t remember what was there first because it was before my time.
    Don McCoy was from Minnesota and started working with Gamble Stores in 1926. In 1927 he was transferred by the companyto Wisconsin. While in Wisconsin he met his future wife, Gertrude, and they were married in 1928.

Don and Gert in 1939 when they arrived in Payson







    In 1939 he came to Payson to manage the Gambles store here.  When they first moved here they lived in the home where Gene and Charlotte Colvin lives on West Utah  Avenue. They later built the home across the street from where they were living and moved into it.
    That little store carried about everything. You could go in there and buy car oil, bikes, guns, ammo, paint, bike parts, car parts and so on.   He later built his new store between Utah Avenue and First North on Main Street where Doug’s Auto parts was. He and Sterling Taylor both bought the property and Sterl built his barber shop next door (which is still a barber shop, but that’s a Remember When for another day)
    I remember during the war, bikes were hard to come by and Don would only get in 2 or 3 and my dad went up and stood in line to get me a bike the day they were to come into the store. He said one women was so angry that he got the bike she was ready to clean his wagon. But I guess that was alright because I got the bike.
    The new store’s name was changed from Gambles to Western Auto. It carried everything. You could get saddles, bridles, car equipment and parts, fridges, stoves, and all kinds of appliances, guns, ammo, lawn mowers, and about anything you can think of.
    Gert worked for J.C. Penney’s for a long time in the office but when theybuilt the new store, she had to quit and help Don. There were several different men who worked for Don at the store. Vernon Marshall from Benjamin, Gilly White, Stan Cole, Cy Reynolds (Carma Herbert s dad) Cleo Hill and a few more.
    Don had a pistol range in the basement of the store (like The Sportsman does now). They also reloaded shells in the back room of the store.
    Dean told me that his dad and Gilly White (I'm not sure who he was) even took a boat kit and built a boat in the back room. Then Cy Reynolds and Don built a camper for Don’s old Hudson truck. They were a bunch of talented and busy men. A lot went on in that back room of the store it would seem.
    Don was involved in many things. He was one of the Charter members of the Cockleburr Riding Club (My dad belonged to that also, along with many men from Payson), he was a charter member of the boat club, he was a member of Lions Club for over 30 years, he was on the South County Board of Health for over 12 years, he was also a charter member of the Loafer Mountain Snowmobile Club and was on the Board of Nebo District Boy Scouts of America. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1962 and was that until his death.
    Don was a doer . He loved to be involved and certainly did a lot for Payson.  He always said
he was too young for the First World War, too old for Second World War. He was small in stature
but had a large heart and was very giving.

Don and Gert when they retired

   Don and Gert retired and a Lindsay,  young fellow,  took the store over but could not make a go of it and so Doug Holt bought the building and put Doug’s Auto Parts in it in 1977. Doug also bought the place where JoAnn’s Head Shed is and also the Petal  Pantry building. He later leased the building to Car Quest and then to Keith Tribitt. Keith s wife Karen (daughter of John Olson) has a Calligraphy shop in the store now.
    Doug and Sally told me they have been cleaning  out the basement of those old buildings and found 6 or 8 gallons of vanilla concentrate. They had never gone through things down in those basements. Who knows, they may find some more treasures. Where they found the vanilla was under the Petal Pantry.  That building was built and run by Byron Staheli and was called By’s Cafe. Sally who ran around with By’s daughter Bea, said they would go there on their dates to have dinner. (probably a hamburger, she said).
    Gosh it s fun to go back in our memories and remember when....