G.G. Paschke Shares 1950s Memories

Glenore Gass, known since kindergarten as G.G., arrived in Ephraim in June 1950. Originally from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, she was still in high school when a friend she knew from the Manitowoc Riding Academy became ill. Her friend was working that summer at Cornils Riding Academy. Ted Cornils (1886-1964, Ephraim Moravian Cemetery), owner of the Fish Creek establishment, needed help and fast. G.G. got the job. Though she had vacationed with family in Sister Bay and Fish Creek, this was the first time she would stay and work in Door County without her parents.

Cornils Riding Academy was located on Hwy 42 at the intersection of County A. G.G. was hired as a trail guide and riding instructor. She brought her Saddlebred horses along for the adventure, “Easter Echo” a 3-gaited show horse and “LeDette” a small mare.

Cabin Mates at Cornils

Male staff, including Ted Cornils’ German nephews Werner and Freddy, bunked at his nearby dairy farm. Women lodged in cabins that were close to the stable. The cabins had no running water so girls cleaned up in the main house and took their meals there as well. G.G.’s first cabin mate was June, a young school teacher from Iowa who was working in Door County for the summer. Another year, she roomed with a local girl hired to cook and do laundry. One day G.G. returned to the cabin and saw smoke. A very small fire was quickly extinguished. It had started from a stray wooden match, sparked by a gnawing mouse. The match belonged to G.G.’s cabin mate who had it to light her cigarettes, a vice forbidden in her home. The cabin was saved but, lamented G.G., “all my sweaters burned up.”

G.G. Encounters an Apple Tree

When asked what she learned by working at Cornils, G.G. answered by describing a riding accident. It was customary to saddle up new horses and take them through their paces in Cornils large riding ring, before young children rode them. One summer, a new horse arrived so G.G., her hair set in pin curls with bobby pins for an upcoming date, took a spin around the ring several times. While heading back to the stable, the horse jumped a fence and bolted straight towards an apple tree. G.G. collided with the tree and was soon riding in the only ambulance available at the time, the one owned by the Casperson Funeral Home. The ambulance, which easily converted to a hearse, was a beautiful shade of Buckingham gray with a black vinyl top. The vehicle’s low-hung frame prevented tipping on the curvy, harbor town hills heading south so G.G.’s pin curl hair set was still intact when she arrived at the hospital. There she met the newly hired Dr. Sheets. G.G. was one of his first patients. He told her that she had broken her arm and needed to stay overnight because she’d developed a hematoma, which needed time to clear up. G.G. ended her story by saying wryly, “I learned I couldn’t trust every horse.”

Though sidelined, she didn’t lose her job at Cornils but was instead reassigned to work in the office the rest of the summer. She began learning about bookkeeping, cash handling, and administrative skills which proved fortuitous in later years. She still worked in the tack room and also registered riders arriving for trail rides and lessons.

A Waitress at the Eagle Inn

After her freshman year of college, she returned to Ephraim to work as a summer waitress at the Eagle Inn, owned by Bertha and Ivan Thorp (c. 1895-1975). The Thorps kindly gave her a ticket to a Peninsula Music Festival matinee concert. They were early supporters of the PMA. Click on the underlined phrase to learn more about the PMA.

At the Eagle Inn, female staff lodged in rooms above the laundry building, which was located behind the Inn. G.G. remembers sharing a room with Ruth Herlache (1943-2002), a college girl from Sturgeon Bay. Ruth later married Ranny Nelson, the owner of South Shore Pier. Together, Ruth and Ranny built Ephraim Shores Resort.

Proper and Precise

Evelyn Olson (1919-2010, Epharim Moravian Cemetery) was in charge of the waitresses at the Eagle Inn. She was a task master with an eye for detail. Olson had high standards, perhaps inspired by Eagle Inn’s first owner, the formidable Eugenia Thorp (1869-1952). “You need key people,” said G.G., “to keep high school and college girls in order.”

At the Eagle Inn, G.G. and other staff learned that a quality customer experience included visual details that enhanced a room’s ambiance. Tablecloths and aprons were pristine, not just presentable. Table settings were proper and precise, not slap-dash. A lovely presentation was important, too. “It was the most beautiful hotel,” G.G. reminisced.

In 1962 the Eagle Inn was razed and lumber repurposed as the Eagle Inn Motel. Later, the motel was floated to Fish Creek and placed near the Alibi Dock.

After-hours

In the 1950s, many businesses in Ephraim and across the nation were closed or only open for limited hours on Sunday. Cornils Riding Academy, for example, offered no lessons on Sunday so while working there G.G. had free time that day. She began attending Sunday service at the Ephraim Moravian Church and began to know many people who lived in Ephraim.

Sometimes, employers hosted get-togethers. G.G. recalls Cornils treating staff to watermelon. She remembers racous seed-spitting contests, too. Summer nights, she watched movies at Skyway Drive-in Theater from Cornils’ pasture, sitting astride LeDette or Easter Echo. Later, when she worked at the Eagle Inn, she enjoyed walking to the nearby Anderson Store and Dock.

Shopping at the Anderson Store

In 1949, Mr. and Mrs. George Nau Burridge, who owned a women’s apparel store in Green Bay, visited Peninsula Players and Door County with flamenco dancer Gladys Flores O’Brien and her daughter, Hollywood star Margaret O’Brien, then age twelve. In 1950, the first year G.G. worked in Door County, Nau’s of Green Bay set up shop in a refurbished wing of the Anderson Store. Nau’s featured fashionable women’s apparel, handbags, perfume, and jewelry. G.G. saved her tip money from waitressing to purchase stylish clothes to take back to college. She remembers that Nau’s store manager stayed at the Eagle Inn and also took her meals in the kitchen at the family dining table. (“Nau’s Plan ‘Branch’ Store in Ephraim,” June 1, 1950, Door County Advocate.)

Ephraim correspondent Verra Sauer described the new shop as “a revelation.” The shed at the Anderson Store had been “rebuilt with the ceiling and walls covered with the knotty pine saved from a log taken from the [newly rebuilt] Anderson Dock.” The log had been underwater for almost 83 years. (“New Shop, Airplane Travel Mark Progress at Ephraim,” by Verra Sauer, July 6, 1950, Door County Advocate.)

In the 1950s, the tourist season ended on Labor Day. G.G. found out just how firm the end-date was. “I remember riding my horse to Wilson’s on Labor Day,” she said. “I was going to order the Wilson Basket Special for lunch: a hamburger, coleslaw, and french fries. Wilson’s was closed for the season.”

G.G. feels fortunate to have made her home in Ephraim and considers it the most pristine and beautiful village of all, with the open waterfront and scenic vistas of Eagle Harbor’s rugged shoreline. She met her husband while working at Cornils in the 1950s and they raised their three children in the village she loves. G.G. Paschke was named 2023 Fyr Bal Chieftan and has been an EHF member for over sixty years. G.G. is a long-time docent, too, and in summer can be found at the Anderson Store sharing village history with visitors. She recently said, “If we don’t keep up with history, all is lost.”  

Working in Ephraim - Closing Thoughts 

“Summer Jobs Then and Now” was submitted in 2024 by Kathleen Harris with contributions from G.G. Paschke, Amelie Doneff, Logan Mitterman, Greg Casperson, and B.D. Thorp.

Photos courtesy of G.G. Paschke, B.B. Thorp, and the EHF archives.