>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Good old days: A Texaco station stood at the corner of second Street and Adams Avenue for at least 80 years, according to the recollections of George Kalmbach. This picture was taken sometime in the 1930s. (Submitted photo).

- Bill Rautenstrauch

- The Observer

A person looking for proof that La Grande isn't the town it used to be needs only take a trip to the corner of Adams Avenue and Second Street.

Stand there and look around, if only for a minute. It'll take just about that long to realize something's amiss.

Gone from the southeast corner of the intersection is the gas station and service garage that stood there for well over a half century, the one that was known for a good part of its life as George's Texaco.

It was torn down this month to make way for a parking lot that will be used by employees and customers at the ODS building down the street.

The leveling of the station marked the end of a long, long stint in business for a local family.

"I didn't make a lot of money at it, but I didn't miss a lot of meals and I had a lot of friends. I'd be dumb enough to do it all over again," said George Kalmbach, who founded his gasoline and auto service business in 1953 and ran it always as a family affair.

Kalmbach will never see 80 again, and in the past few years, he's struggled with health problems. But his sense of humor — and his fondness for La Grande — come through in the twinkle of his eyes and a wry smile playing often on his lips.

He was born in a logging camp north of Elgin, back in the days when men knocked down big trees with cross-cut saws and hauled them out of the woods by rail.

He grew up tinkering with cars and engines and farm and logging equipment. When World War II broke out, he went into the Navy, operating heavy equipment in the Seabees.

A problem with his night vision necessitated an early discharge. After the service, in 1947, he married Hulda Cosner, a girl he'd met at the old Imbler skating rink. She never left his side; they will celebrate their 60th anniversary in January.

Kalmbach worked at several jobs around La Grande and elsewhere after the war, but nothing seemed to take. Then came a chance to lease the Shell gas station, on the northwest corner of Adams and Second.

Kalmbach took it. He named his new business George's Super Shell.

"I borrowed a few dollars to get into it, and I never missed a paycheck after that because I never got one," he said.

But actually, in those days before the freeway came to town, business was good.