In Cashmere: Peace And Quiet, Aplets And Cotlets

(This is the fifth in Travel's weekly "Small-Town Washington" series).

CASHMERE, Chelan County - There was a time when if you asked folks what most impressed them about Cashmere, they'd reply without hesitation:

"Tiny's, of course - where the biggest man I ever saw runs the biggest fruit stand you ever saw."

Then they might add:

"Oh, and the nice lawns and houses, and isn't that also where they make Aplets and Cotlets?"

Well, the lawns never looked better, thanks to hard work and fertile soil. And the houses, although aging and built on a modest scale, still show what a lot of effort and a good paint brush can accomplish.

Furthermore, Cottage Avenue (Main Street) - with its covered walks, quaint shops and, at the end of the street, the columned Cashmere Baptist Church - is a natural stop for those who don't want to brave the crowds at Leavenworth.

Aplets and Cotlets are still big here, too. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of Liberty Orchards Co., by two Armenian immigrants - Mark Balaban and Armnen Tertsagian - who mixed up the first batches of Aplets and Cotlets in a battered aluminum kettle on a kitchen stove.

Plant tours last year attracted more than 55,000 visitors from all over the U.S., Canada and Japan.

"What really surprises us," a spokesperson for Liberty Orchards said, "is the number of people who come in for the tour and ask us, `What's a Cotlet?' " (At the end of the tour, there are samples, and they learn that the basic ingredient of Cotlets is apricots).

Tiny's passing

The only thing that's really changed in Cashmere the past quarter-of-a-century is that "Tiny" (Dick Graves) hasn't been a part of it. He died in 1970 and his famous fruit- and cider-stand along the highway is long gone.

The memories, however, are another matter.

Tiny - who stood 6-foot-3 and weighed 400 pounds - lives on at Barney's (home of the Barney Burger), run by his brother, Gary, and sister-in-law, Ginger. One of Tiny's enormous shirts hangs on a wall given over to Tiny memorabilia, and Ginger says it never fails to trigger still another "Tiny story."

Tiny's life also has been chronicled in a book - "Tiny, King of the Roadside Vendors" - lovingly written by his sister, Sharon Hall of Snohomish.

Hardly a day passes that someone doesn't stop in town and say, "What I always remember about Cashmere is Tiny's. Say, how long has he been gone anyway?"

Tiny put Cashmere on the map when he opened his first roadside fruit stand on the old highway through town in 1953.

A complex man - given to compassion and kindliness, but also a born promoter - Tiny saw that signs with the words "Tiny's, Cashmere, Wash." were planted along the roadside all over the U.S., at times seeming to outnumber such famous sign-planters as Burma Shave and Wall Drug.

A Tiny's sign even turned up in Vietnam.

To gain attention, he drove around in a car with a big red apple on it. A man who recalled seeing Tiny drive by in that car when he was a boy said, "I thought I'd just seen the king of England."

Partly because of all the advertising and because the gentle giant could almost always be found at his roadside stand - making jokes for the children and their parents - a glass of ice-cold apple cider bought at Tiny's on a hot summer day somehow tasted better than any other cider on Earth.

Tiny never married, but thought of the school kids as his family. If Cashmere's schools needed anything - new athletic lights, special equipment, etc. - Tiny would foot the bill. He was also the softest touch in town for civic betterment.

When Tiny died of a heart attack at age 41, everyone was sad. But few expected folks to be talking about him a quarter-of-a-century later.

At the conclusion of her book, Tiny's sister puts it this way: "On that cold winter day, as a shocked silence hushed the valley and we said our goodbye, the legend didn't end, but continued to grow. . . . We would miss him. We loved him."

A nice place to live

Cashmere (about 2,500 residents) looks so good that more than one big-city person driving through has said, "Now that would be a nice place to live."

Charlotte Hood and Emma "Lee" Smithers recently took the plunge. The two sisters, who had been living together in Everett, took their nephew, Dale Nelson, up on his request that they manage his Cashmere Coffee Co., which features coffee products, syrups and candies on Cottage Street (Main Street).

They talk about the "clean air," about "getting out of the rat race," and about "having people call us by our first names and actually recognize us at the bank."

Each morning they drive 10 miles from their temporary home in East Wenatchee - "until we can move to Cashmere" - and they rarely see more than 10 cars.

"People stop their cars in the street, open the window and talk to each other," says Hood. "I can't get over that."

Smithers, who will run the candy-making side of her nephew's business when all the equipment is installed, says she'll miss her grandchildren, who still live in Western Washington, "but that's about all."

Hood will miss the one thing that can't be transplanted, she says.

"From Everett, I could go to Mukilteo and the ferry dock. There's nothing in the world like the smell of salt water and the sound of seagulls."

Originally named Mission, because of Catholic missions established in the area, Cashmere was renamed in 1903 because it was felt that the fertile soil and beautiful valley were similar to the Vale of Kashmir in India.

By any name, it's a neat place. Bring your Tiny stories.

Don Duncan is a retired Seattle Times reporter. Next week in the "Small-Town Washington" series: Lynden. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU GO

Visiting Cashmere

-- When visiting Cashmere, trace the area's archaeological, anthropological and natural history at the nationally recognized Chelan County Historical Musuem and Pioneer Village, 600 Cottage Ave. The complex - featuring extensive exhibits of artifacts, dioramas, replicas and restorations - is staffed and maintained by community volunteers.

It's open April-early October; hours are 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Suggested donations: $5 families, $3 adults, $2 seniors and students.

The first Saturday of every month is a free "family day" at the museum, with projects, crafts and other special activities. Information: (509) 782-3230.

-- For general information about Cashmere: Chamber of Commerce, (509) 782-7404 or Liberty Orchards, (509) 782-2191.