Somers reunion promises good friends, good memories

Jacob Doran / West Shore News

This weekend promises to be a big one for the town of Somers, which will host two major events on the North Shore of Flathead Lake.

In addition to being the weekend of the Montana Cup Regatta, which will be hosted by the North Flathead Yacht Club in Somers, this Saturday is the day for the bi-annual Somers Reunion. Past and present Somers residents will once again gather in the heart of the Somers community from all across the U.S. for a reunion that has taken place every other year for three quarters of a century.

Howard and Fran Ruby will serve as the chairpersons for the reunion, as they have done for the previous five reunions. Every other year, the two send out post card invitations - about 120 in all - to former Somers residents who have moved out of the area.

The Rubys have a longstanding history in Somers, since Howard's parents came to the area in 1928, right after they were married. The newlyweds enjoyed a honeymoon on shores of Flathead Lake and couldn't bring themselves to leave, choosing instead to make Somers their permanent home.

Howard's mother, Bess Ruby, was the original secretary of the West Shore Welfare Club, which was organized in 1929 to help the needy people of the community. Back then, membership dues cost ten cents per year. Since then, the club has undergone a number of name changes, including a change to the Ladies' Benevolent Club and finally the Lakeside Community Club, as it remains to this day.

Howard still lives on the property where he grew up, next door to the salmon hatchery. The original house is still standing, just behind the house in which he and his wife now live.

But the Rubys are not alone in treasuring a family history at the historic company. Among the wealth of others who enjoy such a history, one family has chosen to wed the bi-annual Somers Reunion with their own family reunion.

The Schonenberger family has owned property in Somers since 1945. Shirley Marvin, the 10th of 12 children in the Schonenberger family will always cherish her memories of growing up in Somers and those amassed over a lifetime in and around the community where she herself was raised.

The family home remains on Boon Road, about a block away from the lake, a white house with green trim that sits directly across from Vista Linda. In fact, the Vista Linda sits on part of the property once owned by the Schonenberger family. Fazooli's (formerly Mackinaw's Grill) actually sits on the very spot where Shirley's sister and parents built and ran a motel.

Needless to say, the area has undergone some pretty dramatic changes since those days, but she will always remember Somers as a sleepy little town on the banks of Flathead Lake, where everyone knew everyone else and children laid down on the highway during the summer to dry off after a swim.

"There wasn't much traffic, back then," she said. "Tourists hardly ever came around. Somers was just a small town, and life was pretty slow. It was a good, peaceful place to grow up.

"Dad worked at the tie plant, and the tie plant only worked in the summer. We charged whatever we needed at the company store. We had a cow, and Mother made butter for the neighborhood and cottage cheese for everyone. Everybody shared in those days."

A butcher by trade in Switzerland, her father came to the United States to raise his family in a land of nearly limitless possibilities. Prior to moving to Somers, the family lived on a ranch in the Big Hole Basin, where Shirley's older brothers and sisters grew up.

However, for Shirley, Somers has always been home and always will be. It is the place where she and her siblings sledding down Boon Road during the winter and formed such wonderful friendships with the neighborhood children.

"All of us neighbor kids were very close, and we had lots of fun together. We lived on in the lake during the summer and on the ice during the winter. We'd go down to the lake in the morning and eat apples from the green apple tree for lunch. We didn't have television back then, so we played games in the yard every night and made our own fun."

Now, only six children remain, Shirley, four of her sisters and one brother, August Schonenberger, who lives in the veteran's home in Columbia Falls. August is now the oldest, but her sister Helen Barringer of Hamilton is the oldest of the girls.

Shirley lives the closest, on Airport Road in Kalispell, so they all rent the house out during the winter and use it for family gatherings during the summer.

They return each summer during the Somers Reunions, to share stories, laughter and a few tears.

"It's the best thing that you can do," Shirley said. "You can't do it when you're gone, that's for sure. The Somers Reunion is almost as good as our family gathering. It's great because there are things they tell at the reunion that I had forgotten, and more and more of the younger ones are coming out. I think we're realizing how important it is to see those old friends and see our family. It's just a fun time, and I enjoy it immensely."

The Somers reunion takes place this Saturday, August 1, in the Somers fire hall. People usually begin arriving about 11 a.m. and a potluck gets underway a noon. The event is open to the public and all are invited to attend, especially those who live in Somers, have a connection to Somers or have an interest in Somers history.