Pancakes, Interviews, and Goonies

Laura called Liz on her cell phone at 7:30am this morning with a crucial question: Liz, did you look out your hotel window yet?

Liz answered, Yes, Laura, I did. How about next time, you call me on the hotel phone?

Soon after we were eating pancakes at the local breakfast nook, Pig N Pancake, where Laura noticed the infamous rock from the Goonies movie on the front page of the Daily Astorian newspaper.

Deeply enthralled, she opened the newspaper to find out more and saw an article about a documentary crew from Naperville in town to interview Evelyn Leahy Hankel on the inside front cover.

Ecstatic that we had been written about in the town’s daily newspaper, we met Evelyn’s daughter, Paulette, in the lobby of our hotel and followed her to her home where Evelyn lives with her.

Evelyn greeted us with open arms and began to show us pictures of her family that she had carefully spread out on the kitchen table. She also offered us Stenger cookies which were made from a secret family recipe. Later on we joked with Evelyn about how a Stenger family cookie recipe could survive a hundred years, but the Stenger beer recipe was no where to be found. Were the cookies better tasting than the beer? There is no way to know.

While Evelyn finished showing Laura her family pictures, Liz, set up the camera, lights, and microphone. Unfortunately, Evelyn had no more photos of John Stenger nor the Stenger Brewery, but she had other great photos of her family. One of them was a wonderful photo of Louis and Marie Germann (Evelyn pronounced it Grr-men with a hard G) with animals on the Stenger farm. Apparently they were the last ones to leave the farm before their mother Anna Elizabeth Stenger Germann sold off the land and packed up all of their remaining items for their new destination, Berkeley, CA. Louis, Pauline, and Marie had all gotten jobs for Kroehler Manufacturing Co. San Francisco office, and their parents decided to move out to California with them.

Another photo shows Anna Knoch (Evelyn pronounced this Kanuck) who was a good friend of her mother or her aunt at someone’s house in Naperville sitting at a large table with about a dozen other girls all smiling for the camera.

After Evelyn explained the last photo to Laura, Liz announced it was time for the interview. Evelyn looked fantastic in her purple jacket and once she sat down, she passionately told us all about her family history.

When Liz asked Evelyn about John Stenger, she said, He was a very handsome and romantic man from my past. He came to America so young.

When Laura asked Evelyn about the Gold Rush, she responded, John Michael was very lucky in the Gold Fields, we never heard an amount, but we always heard our grandfather was very wealthy.

At 1:45pm, we wrapped up our interview with Evelyn so we could all get back to our hotel by 2pm to meet a reporter from the Daily Astorian, which Paulette had graciously arranged for us. (Paulette also graciously arranged to give me a fantastic rubber Goonies bracelet left over from the movie fest. Thank you, Paulette!!)

At the hotel, Evelyn relayed her family history for the reporter while Liz explained why we were making the Stenger Brewery documentary.

One hour later, we were taking Evelyn back home while braving the patchy icy streets. (We had to burn rubber to get up the hill to where Evelyn lived due to the unexpected ice.)

On the way back to the hotel again, Liz noticed the Astoria column, a 125 ft structure built to commemorate the founding and history of Astoria. Inside of the column is 164 steps which Liz and Laura ended up climbing in order to tape the breathtaking views of Astoria that they hope to use in the documentary. (At the top of the column, a nice couple from out of town Laura if she knew where the infamous rock in Goonies was. She confessed sadly that she did not.)

At the top, we could see the spectacular Columbia River, the extensive Evergreen forests surrounding the town, and Astoria itself with its many older, multi-colored Victorian homes. We even managed to get an amateur photographer to take our photo at the bottom of the column.

We are currently writing this blog from the Wet Dog Café/ Astoria Brewery where the fish in the fish and chips melts in your mouth and the brownies are made with their specialty stout.

Our stomachs are full, our legs stronger after the 164 steps, and our bodies thinking it’s 8pm when it’s really 2 hours earlier. We sign off here so we can some rest before our 8:30am interview with Liisa Penner at the Clatsop County Historical Society.