MYRTLE POINT — It was 60 years ago that Marion Brown made the motion for the Bridge Grange to propose a food stand at the Coos County Fair. The first few years, the Grange operated out of a lean-to. Then, in the early 1950s, the Fair Board built five stalls at the edge of the Midway. The Grange took up residence in one and has never left.

Brown’s daughter, Alice McCarley, remembers the first few years of the Bridge Grange stand. She mostly helped with odd jobs in those years, but by the time the Grange had acquired a stand, she would wait on the breakfast crowd, in between her 4-H duties.

In the six decades since, the Grange food stand has become a favorite gathering place, not merely filling hungry bellies, but nourishing memories of the fair’s history.

The 69-year-old McCarley is helping out with the lunch shift this year, manning one of two cash registers. Sitting next to her on Monday, after finishing his breakfast shift, was Howard Winkelman. The 80-year-old joined the Grange in 1952 or ’53 and took on a role with the food stand operation shortly thereafter. He worked as a waiter, though his log truck operation often forced him to arrive at the fair in the evenings. When he retired in 1992, he took on a more active organizational role, and also took his turn behind the stove.

A breakfast cook, Winkelman said he doesn’t have a specialty, though on second thought, he admits he makes a pretty good pancake.

It may not be the finest food in town, but for most of the customers, what makes the food special is waiting all year to eat it at the fair.

“It’s like camp food. It always tastes better,” he said.

When the Grange first started its food stand at the fair, it served only lunch and dinner, Winkelman said. But that changed when the 4-H club opened dorms for children to stay overnight at the fair campgrounds. Some parents were concerned their children would spend their breakfast money on Ferris wheel rides, so the Grange sold meal tickets to parents, which could be exchanged for breakfast.

Back then, everything was homemade. A local butcher would butcher the beef at his farm for hamburger patties. Children would peel potatoes, boil them and make hash browns and French fries. Today, the potato salad and pies are still produced locally, though other items on the menu aren’t.

Even the servers have changed. In the past, when Grange membership was as high as 100, every task fell to a Grange volunteer. Now, the group pays Myrtle Point Swing Choir students to ferry food from the open-air kitchen. Given the narrow aisles, the youngsters’ involvement isn’t a bad development, Winkelman said.

“They can slip by each other and keep things a-movin’,” he said.

McCarley noticed the changes when she returned to the area in 1996 and resumed helping at the stand. Still, a lot has stayed the same.

 “You get to see everybody and talk with everybody,” she said. “I didn’t do it for a while, but then I just missed it.”