Lloyd asked when Glen Johnson and Henry Olson bought McCoy’s
Bar?  I think the sign says ‘Glen’s Bar—Beer Liquor’.  Somewhere
around early ’48,  Grandpa Henry Olson sold the Billy Wright Grocery
store and probably went into business with Glen.  I don’t know exactly
when he left Dunseith for Minot and operated the ‘Brown Derby’ on
Minot’s North Main.  He was there for a few years in the early ’50s and
then came back and built the Garden Tap in Dunseith in 1957.  I was real
young when we lived upstairs over the Brown Derby and my dad worked for
Grandpa as a bartender.  I used to sneak downstairs to the bar when I
was 2 and the barmaid, named Alice, would set me up on the end of the
bar and feed me cherries until my mother noticed I was down there and
come down to get me.  One story from the Brown Derby—An old man came
hobbling in and sat at the end of the bar and Dad got him a beer.  Dad
went back to washing glasses and a big guy came in from the railroad
crew and started to brag how strong and tough he was.  Grandpa Henry
started to tell the guy he just didn’t think he was as tough as he
said.  To this, the guy said he could whip anyone Grandpa could bring
around.  Dad knew what Grandpa was up to with the game he was running on
this big guy and just hoped he wasn’t going to do what he imagined.Â
Pretty soon Grandpa said,  “I bet I know a KID who could arm wrestle you
and take you.”  The big guy said,  “Go get him.”  Grandpa said,  “Hey
Don,  come over here and show this guy where the bear s— in the buck
brush.”  Dad went over and arm wrestled the big guy and took him in one
try.  The old fellow at the end of the bar started to laugh and the big
guy punched him in the face and ran out the door.  Dad was so disgusted
he said,  “Hank,  what the heck have we accomplished with this deal?”Â
Now you have two customers who won’t ever come back in here.  Grandpa
smiled and said,  “I don’t care,  I didn’t really like either one of
them.”  The folks who remember Grandpa Henry will know how he was always
up to something.  Never a dull moment.  Dad wasn’t cut out to be a
bartender and went back to teaching at Omemee in ’53.

     On the other of Lloyd’s questions,  I would guess Joe Morinville
would have had the store at the time the picture was taken.  It makes
sense that if he had the slides, that the picture was copied from, and
it was taken from the front door of the store,  he was probably the
owner at that time.  I believe the store was gutted by fire sometime
around 1960,  give or take a few years,  and Joe moved to the location
north of the pool hall.  The building north of the pool hall was fixed
up with the log siding front by Orlan Fuchs and he had a place he called
the Trading Post.  He wasn’t open for very long and Joe bought it and
made a grocery store in that building.  Question for Lloyd or anyone
with the memory—was the taxi service headquartered out of that
building or the little building between McCoy’s Bar and this building
that became Joe’s Store?  I know some of the people who were involved
with the taxi service were Adrian Egbert,  Jack Peterson or Martin
Evans,  and Orville Sutton.  Were there others too?    Thanks Gary!

Dick