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Bean Pickin’ On Barnes Road
By Minnie (Smith) Stoumbaugh

“Oh no, my bicycle tire is flat!” Hot, tired and angry, I wondered if someone did this to me, or did I ride across a nail or something? No doubt everyone in the bean field was quickly aware of my plight, seeing I was a bit vocal. “I need to have my bike to get home and deliver my papers!”

My brother Roy (13) and I (11) were no strangers to bicycles, being paper carriers for The Portland Oregon Journal since we were ten and nine respectively. We rode far and wide as the impulse moved us. The lay of the land is a bit different today, but on that day in July 1949, we likely took Canyon Road from our home in West Slope, toward Beaverton to Walker Road, then to Cedar Hills Boulevard (then a narrow two-lane road) and up to Barnes Road, a three or four mile ride.

We loved flying to the bottom of the hill on Barnes Road just southeast of Teufel Nursery (now NW118 Street) near Cedar Mill. Several acres of bush beans were ready to harvest and the people were hiring kids to pick them. Some of my classmates were also there and one girl had bloody hands from the coarse leaves!

What a distress to have worked hard and now find a flat tire! We Smith kids were accustomed to fixing our own flats, but we had nothing with us to do that. Fortunately Roy had a way of calming my strong-willed temperament. He remembered there was a gas station and garage just south of Cornell Road. He walked with me the half mile or so north as I pushed my disabled bike on up to Cedar Mill. Both of us being small of stature, riding our full-sized bikes would have been much easier than this pushing.

Yes, the garage man, George Foege, could fix my flat, but first I needed to know how much it would cost. We only had a few coins between us until payday on Friday. Surely it was out of the goodness of his heart that he only asked 25¢ for his services. I was greatly relieved and glad that we had enough to pay him.

You see, Roy was really frugal and saved his money for important things, like buying his own bicycle, and later buying mine as well. I was to pay him back at $2 a month, and the 19 months of payments were not yet complete. Unlike Roy, what I liked most to do with money was to spend it! But since we were working, it was up to us to buy our own clothes.

We could have gone on up Barnes Road and picked some apples from the tree that was across Cornell Road near the Leedy Grange Hall, but it was too early in the season and the apples were not yet ripe. I was just happy to be able to ride my repaired bicycle home to West Slope! We needed to hurry as we still had our paper routes to work!

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