|
 Russ
& Peg have always shopped locally. That meant the general store in nearby
Burnt Woods, 6 miles away. The store had gas pumps, groceries, livestock
feed and a post office. It was the only place to buy ice cream that didn't
melt before they got it home to the freezer. Earlier in 1975, prior to quitting
the paper mill, Russ had a long conversation with Gerald Plunkett, the store
owner, about what it took to start up a business like Jerry's. Gerry told
Russ where he purchased his own inventory and how to manage employees. On
the way out the door, Peg remarked, "Why do you want to start a business?"
Russ said he was tired of the mill work, the smell and the union-management
problems that affected everyone.
 In July, 1975,
just after Russ left the mill, Plunkett called him and asked Russ if he
had thought about buying his store, the Burnt Woods Store. Russ told Plunkett
that he had just quit his mill job and had no money to buy the store. Plunkett
told him to consider his offer. Plunkett called again just after Labor Day
and again asked if the Dubbels wanted to buy his business. Again Russ told
Plunkett he had no money. Plunkett suggested the Dubbels come to his house
in Toledo for dinner. The Dubbels accepted. At dinner a week later, Plunkett
offered to sell his business - land, building, inventory & more - for
$29,000 with nothing down and if they fell behind in payments not to worry,
Plunkett was sure the Dubbels would make the business successful.
Russ & Peg agreed to buy the store. After all, how could they refuse
a deal like this. Plunkett told Russ to come to work the first day of October
and he would pay him minimum wages for one month and then Russ would take
over operations on November 1. During that time Plunkett and his employee
would teach Russ all they could. Russ actually took over operations on November
2, 1975. He started the till with $278 that he had earned the month before.
As a side note to offloading his business, Plunkett had taken in renters
who were literally squatting in the upstairs apartment and hadn't paid rent
for months. Additionally, the "renters" had faked neck and back
injuries and were on state disability, but as soon as they got into the
back room of the store, they tossed their neck and back braces on the storage
freezer and moved around more comfortably. The renters were asked to leave
and in retaliation sued Dubbels for the leaking roof in the kitchen. The
Dubbels went to court. The case was thrown and, by orders of the court,
the renters were tossed out of the store.
The first thing the Dubbels did was to turn the old post office room
(which the US Postal Service had closed in December, 1974) into a nursery
for the children since day care hadn't been invented yet. The room was repainted
in blue and the old safe was left for Corey to store his toys in. He could
"crack" the safe at two years of age.
The "more" they bought came about several months later. When
Plunkett gave Dubbers the keys to the store, he said that whatever the Dubbels
found in the store was theirs. He had had enough and didn't want to ever
set foot in the store again. While cleaning the back room of the store,
Russ came across love letters from Plunkett's first marriage, toys from
his childhood and several gallon milk jars that contained real silver coinage.
In all there was almost $400. The Dubbels decided to keep the money for
a rainy day never realizing that the sum would grow in value to over $1400
in 1980 when the Hunt Brothers in Texas tried to corner the silver commodities
markets. It was at that time that the silver was sold and kept the Dubbels
afloat during the recession that was raging at that time.
Plunkett meanwhile moved many of the antiques out of his business that
took over much of the retail space. Plunkett then had one of the largest
quonset sales of the day. It lasted for weeks. The first year of business
brought many changes to the Dubbels' household. Peg took over full management
of the children and the farm animals, while Russ milked the cow, and went
to work at the store. The family came over after chores were done and helped
run the store, then headed back home early to cook dinner. It was hectic
but the fledgling business grew. Sales at the time of purchase was about
$35,000 a year. By 1983, when the Dubbels sold the store, sales had been
increased to over $300,000 per year. It was late May, 1976, that the Dubbels
shut their store down for one day and went to Sisters for R&R.
The store at the time of purchase was rundown. Plunkett admitted his
heart wasn't in the business. His marriage was not going well and he had
another full time job as an accountant for Publishers Paper Co in Toledo.
He and Russ discussed that each wanted out of the business as much as the
other wanted in. Plunkett's parents, Alma & Victor Plunkett had operated
the store since the 1940's (it had been called the Tum Tum Store for many
years since the Tum Tum Creek ran through the one-acre property. The elder
Plunkett's had operated the Summit General Store before that during the
1920-1930's (called Plunkett & Thompsons).
Russ started remodeling the building in 1976. At that time the west wall
had been hit by a car operated by John Owen (who Russ had worked with at
G-P, but did not know at that time that John was the one who ran into the
store). The wall had been pushed off its foundation. Russ jacked up the
west side of the building with logs and jacks, reconstructed the wall and
then set about putting on a new wood facade including a new front porch
(the original store front had a porch (see above; Alma Plunkett in front
of the store, circa 1940's). Russ installed new gas pumps in 1977 when unleaded
gas was introduced to the market.  Russ
p
The Dubbels did much for the community as well. They hosted collections
for local families that had lost their homes to fire. They started and helped
operate an alternative school because the local public school wasn't doing
its job. They extended credit to those who didn't have ready cash. They
supported the local high school training several students who wanted to
learn about retail. The term "The Big BW" came from one of the
students, Steve "Bags" Mitchell, whose mother came to work for
the Dubbels. She and another young lady, Jackie Quetscke worked for the
Dubbels for most of the Dubbels store tenure. Jackie & her husband,
Randy eventually came to own the store (Quetsckes still own the store as
of 2010).
Some in the community didn't like that the Dubbels worked hard and were
succeeding. An arch-conservative group of church-goers attempted to get
the store's liquor license revoked. The OLCC came to "town" and
after several discussions and arguments with Steve Manning, the control
officer, Russ finally had enough and told Manning either shut him down or
Dubbels would throw Manning out the door. Manning persisted so Dubbels turned
the "Open" sign to "closed" and told Manning to leave.
He was on private property. Manning left threatening to put Dubbels in jail.
Dubbels told him to go ahead. Later that night Russ called a friend of his
from G-P, Max Rijken, who was now a state representative. Dubbels explained
the strong arm tactics. Rijken told Dubbels to attend a meeting in Newport
that was supposed to take place in two weeks. It turned out that the meeting
was an investigation into such practices by the OLCC. Dubbels testified,
and as he spoke, a tape recorder and two transcript writers took notes.
His leading testimony, combined with others, caused a complete revamp of
how the OLCC conducted its business that continues today.
It was this initial foray dealing with government that dogged Russ &
Peg for their entire career in retail. In 1978, the same group of church
people challenged Dubbels right to expand his business across the street
and having two RV rentals behind the business. They filed suit to keep the
business from expanding. Dubbels lost. But Dubbels also won when he banned
the church-goers from the store. In some cases these individuals now had
to drive up to 30 miles farther to get the items they needed.
The business continued to flourish in spite of these setbacks. Until
late 1980. The recession which had started in 1979 finally hit home in October.
Business fell to half its previous year. Most of his local customers, predominantly
loggers, were out of work. Tourism dropped. On top of that crime increased.
Shoplifting which had never been a problem became visibly bad. Peg apprehended
a shoplifter who was almost immediately picked up by the police down the
road. It turned out she was a 14-year-old runaway in a stolen car driven
by a wanted felon. Then in the span of three months the business was burglarized
four times. Several thousand dollars worth of cigarettes, beer and food
was stolen. Six weeks later, the girlfriend of the burglar turned state's
evidence and the Dubbels had to go to court. The burgler got off on a technicality,
and the Dubbels finally got their products back two years later. The cigarettes
& food were all spoiled from storage in the evidence locker. County
employees had pilfered through it as well. On the plus side, one of burglars
had spent the better part of the night "peeling" the safe. Imagine
their surprise when all they got were Tonka toys! The toys were left on
the floor near the safe.
These combined events were a kick in the teeth for the Dubbels, but the
couple looked toward the bigger goal. In March 1983, they sold the business
for almost $200,000. Russ & Peg took four years off, built a large addition
to their original concrete cabin, farmed and traveled with the children
who now liked to go camping. In the Fall, 1983, Russ returned to college
at Oregon State University. He majored in business of course. |
Meet Russ & Peggy
Dubbels, owners of Workshop Hardware. We have lived in WIlsonville since
1993, when we moved from the Tigard/Tualatin area. We owned a marketing
& graphics design firm and a utility public works trade show, but both
like to garden, build and paint. So getting a pound of nails or a gallon
of paint in Wilsonville in 1999 was impossible. Finally in frustration,
we decided to look into going back into retail. 
Retail
started here in a craft booth in Toledo, Oregon in early August, 1975. Russ
had worked for the Georgia-Pacific Corporation for four years. He had come
to the realization that he needed to strike out on his own and find his
own way in business. After quitting the paper mill in mid-July, 1975, he
came home and told his wife he had quit. No plan for the future, but free
to pursue the future.
Geraldine Suzanne Shebuski
was born August 5, 1922 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Her father, Frank Shebuski,
was a laborer, who married Suzanne Williams sometime in 1921. Their marriage
ended in annulment in 1924.
Alice Lloyd-Bloomer is going strong at age 84. Her parents came to America
in 1912 from England. Her father, Robert, had assisted in developing the
first tank used against the Germans in WWI. Upon landing in America, they
made their way to Detroit, MI, where her father obtained a job at the Ford
Motor Company as an engineer. He helped design and build the famous Ford
assembly line. He worked for Ford all of his life, but never owned a car.
He walked everywhere. Alice was born in 1927. She went to work for the Nabisco
Cookie Company.