Almost every day when Marion Hay, Spokane Steel’s sales manager, was in town he would take several managers to lunch in his Cadillac. Usually that included John Tenold, Bob Tenold, Earl Folk, Ray Beach, and me, when I didn’t have something else to do. We all paid for our own meals. Occasionally I would go home for an extended lunch and miss this adventure.

At that time there weren’t that many options in the west end of Spokane Valley so we would end up at either a café on Barker Road or the Greenacres Café. The food wasn’t that great, simply typical 1970s heavy diner fare.

One day a newly hired salesman that worked under Marion who was out of town asked several of us to go with him to his favorite lunch spot. Bob Tenold, Ray Beach, and I decided to go, and rode with him. To our surprise we ended up at the Kon Tiki in Stateline, Idaho, which was a notorious night spot for drinking, dancing, and strippers.

This turned out to be a very interesting lunch. The two or three young, attractive waitresses were completely nude except for their high-heel shoes. I don’t remember much about the food, but do remember how awkward it was sitting at the table and trying to order with a patch of trimmed pubic hair at eye level. That proved to be our only lunch at the Kon Tiki.

As an aside, the salesman that took us there was soon found out to be a manic depressive and at that time had decided he was well enough to quit taking his medication. That resulted in him being very manic. His employment at Spokane Steel Foundry lasted a total of about one month.

Ken Kaiyala
2-27-2017