Six years before this early photo from early 1949, Bob Chambers, left, was in his early 40s, never married, and living in Seattle performing maintenance work. A Canadian immigrant, Robert Elmer Chambers became an American citizen on Nov. 8, 1943. Bob’s naturalization papers listed him as 5’9” tall, 150 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, medium complexion, single, with no children.
A lot happened in the ensuing six years. Bob Chambers purchased his father’s gas station where the Enumclaw-Black Diamond Road intersects S.E. 416th Street. He was nearly blinded when a battery blew up in his face, but a poultice of tobacco juice and castor oil healed the wound. While digging a well, he fell on a wooden plank that impaled his lower body, after which a doctor told him he would never have children. So in early 1949, it was something of a miracle that Bob and Betty Jean (Hubbell) Saari were standing outside their Chambers Corner filling station holding identical twin boys, Robert and Richard. Over the next five years, Bob and Betty Chambers bore three more children, Marilyn, Eloise, and Bruce.
Together with two children from Betty’s her first marriage, Dale and Barbara Saari, Bob and Betty raised seven kids while operating a business on the ground floor and living upstairs. For the next three decades, the entire family joined in pumping gas, cleaning windshields, checking oil, and selling auto supplies, food, and drink. They did so 16 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year, from 6 am to 10 pm. While Bob repaired and serviced vehicles, Betty primarily ran the store which sold soda, popsicles, candy, hand-dipped ice cream cones, cigarettes, plus a variety of groceries including milk, cheese, butter, oranges, lemons, sliced ham, sugar, flour, canned soup, and Langendorf bread.
But there was one convenience store staple the Chambers family didn’t sell – beer, wine, or alcohol. Why? Betty Chambers didn’t want the kind of customers booze drew in. According to Doug Walthers, in their early years after an ugly run-in with a late-night drunk, Bob declared, “We’re not selling no more alcohol.” It was a principled stand that’s almost unthinkable today. Bob did make one exception. He always kept a bottle of whiskey in the cupboard that he mixed into with six-ounce Cokes to share with friends over a game of cribbage on the store counter. A nearby neighbor, John Kelly Shannon, generally known as ‘old man Shannon’ was a frequent cribbage guest.
All the Chambers and Saari children worked at the station and in the store. Eloise Chambers remembered, “The store was like our living room, where we kids watched television. Richard Chambers recalled, “Growing up was just working in the store.” While all the kids got paid, Richard added, “But not that much.” Richard also called to mind, “The store never really closed. If someone knocked at the door in the middle of the night, Bob would get up and pump gas.” When telephone calls came in, they all answered the phone the same way, “Bob’s Service.” When asked for directions the stock answer was, “One mile north of Enumclaw on the Black Diamond Highway.”
In addition to home-grown help, Bob and Betty hired local teenagers to pump gas and help run the store. Like the Chambers and Saari children, the hired help were paid by commission. Doug Walthers, an Enumclaw native hung around the station and store being close friends with Bruce Chambers. Doug explained Bob’s commission system. The cash register was equipped with five keys, labeled A thru E, whose corresponding letter was punched in by whoever made the sale. On payday, Bob tallied each person’s sale totals and paid them 3% of the gross.
Next week’s final column of this five-part series will step inside the store that Bob and Betty Chambers operated for over 30 years. This chapter is indebted to Bob’s step-granddaughter, Penny (Reich) Harp, daughter of Peggy (Reich) Chambers, who wrote her grandfather’s biography while in the 8th grade. And to Robert, Richard, Marilyn, and Eloise Chambers for sharing details about their family history. The youngest brother, Bruce passed away in Feb. 2012 at age 57. Doug Walthers is from Enumclaw Class of 1972 and lives nearby operating Walther’s Honey Farm. Photo LP1025F comes courtesy of the Enumclaw Plateau Historical Museum located at 1837 Marion Street. Photo colorization was provided by Boomer Burnham, a Tahoma High School teacher doing business as: www.BoomersPhotography
