Jim Barks: Friends for all seasons

Submitted photo##Jim Barks, front, is pictured at his 2009 retirement party with longtime walking pals, left to right, Steve Davis, Gerry Sherwood and Perry Stubberfield.

By JIM BARKS 
Retired teacher and coach

July 11 hip surgery has given me time, in between doctor and physical therapy appointments, to think about things.

I’ve been thinking mostly about Steve Davis, my best friend; Perry Stubberfield, my athletic director at McMinnville High School; and Gerry Sherwood, my ninth-grade principal at the old McMinnville Junior High School.

The four of us spent the better part of 20 years walking a two-mile loop at 5 o’clock in the morning. We did this five days a week.

I hated the alarm sounding at 4:45, but my wife, I think, hated it more. Occasionally, Dan Corrigan or Jim Wright would join, but it was mainly the four of us — four guys at 5 in the morning on a two-mile walking loop.

Weather was the point of many of the conversations, because we were out in it. We didn’t miss a day because of the weather.

There were only two rules: No. 1, no umbrellas, and No. 2, no failing to show up. If you did that, you got a knock on your door waking up the household, and that was never a good thing.

The best walks were those where you made the first steps on new fallen snow. We each knew the others’ political views, so political jabs were kept on a lighter side.

We had the most fun talking about the old days in McMinnville and where places were then. Places like the:

Montgomery Ward, Swinney’s Bakery, Rutherford’s, Thrifty Drug, 88 Cent Store, Hamblin-Wheeler, Lynn’s for Men, Rexall Drugs, Palm Cafe, Lark Theater, Cameron & Price Grocery, Greyhound Bus Depot, Furniture Mart, Pair-A-Dice Tavern, Appliance Center, O’Dell Tires, Bennett Motors, Taylor-Dale Hardware, Gene’s Barbershop, Deluxe Tavern, O’Malley’s Sport Center, Western Auto, Jumbo Cafe, Combs Market, McMinnville Junior High School, Hoy’s Cafe, Bergreens, Cascade Tractor, Ericksen’s Grocery, A & W Root Beer, Chick & Eats, Walnut City Lumber, Curly’s Flower Shop, Oriental Garden and outdoor movie theater.

And the bowling alley. Did you know there was a bowling alley on Third Street back in the day?

The stories made the two miles pass quickly. Four guys taking a two-mile loop, at 5 in the morning, for nearly 20 years.

I miss Steve, Perry and now Gerry very much.

I hope my hip heals quickly. I’d like to walk the two-mile loop in their memory one more time.

Retired teacher and coach Jim Barks, a McMinnville High School and University of Portland grad, served as head Mac High track coach from 1983 to 2009, and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2014.