Three generations run downtown businesses

Running Norm’s News and Western Outdoor is getting to be a real tradition for one Kalispell family. And after years on the job there’s no place they’d rather be.

The clothing and boot store and the family diner — with its antique soda fountains and extensive candy and magazine racks — have been open for decades in two buildings at the corner of Main and First Street West.

But a large archway in a shared wall is not the only thing connecting the two mom and pop shops. On any day there might be as many as three generations of the Pirrie family working in the businesses.

“Husband and wife across the aisle, sister and brother next door,” said Mark Pirrie. He runs Western Outdoor with his older sister Susan Munsinger while his wife, Beth, runs Norm’s News. And then there’s the kids. And their grandfather, Gordon Pirrie.

“[Gordon] had Gavin at the till at age 10. He couldn’t even see over the top,” Beth said of her now-16-year-old son. He’s one of three children who help out at the diner.

Gordon Pirrie bought Western Outdoor in 1970 and Norm’s in 1989 and he still makes it in to help, too.

“I run the cash register, help customers. I know how to do dishes real well and help stock the candy,” he said. “I kind of act like I know what I’m doing. It gives me something to do so my wife doesn’t kill me.”

Norm’s has been something of a family-run business for more than 70 years. Norm and Eleonore Schappacher opened Norm’s Place in the late 1930s and ran it together — except when Norm went off to fight in World War II — until the late 1960s when they sold it to Bill and Patsy Shiell.

The Pirrie family has tried to make the family-run business as family-friendly as possible. They stamped out smoking, stopped selling cigarettes and got rid of the ‘sophisticates’ — dirty magazines — once found on the diner’s racks.

“That really kind of changed the atmosphere in there,” Gordon Pirrie said of the changes. “We wanted to cater to families and kids. We still go through the magazines and if it’s not family-friendly we get rid of it.”

The Pirrie family also has made a number of improvements to the buildings — putting in the archway that connects them, fixing up their basements and opening five apartments upstairs that are always rented out. This year, Norm’s saw a four-day makeover with all new tables and chairs and flooring put in.

Mark and Susan grew up helping out at Western Outdoor, folding jeans, cleaning and shoveling sidewalks. Mark was a senior in high school when his father bought Norm’s.

“My only thought was free food,” he said. “I remember coming over here and buying plates of whipped cream for a dime.”

That three generations of the family can be found in the businesses on any given day is the just the way things happened to work out. The businesses give the family a way to stay close and make a decent living in the Flathead Valley — something that can be hard to do.

“Nobody’s gotten rich yet, but we’re making a living,” Gordon Pirrie said. “It’s happened quicker than I wanted, but that’s what it is.”

Mark was working in the construction field after college in 1995 while his older sister Susan, also out of college, was working at Western Outdoor. That’s when he got a call to come in and help one rainy day when the store was busy.

“He wasn’t working and we were swamped so I called him and said you need to come to work,” Susan said. “Whether he ever planned to come back, I don’t know. But he worked here that summer and never really left.”

While television is full of shows featuring squabbling families trying to make it in business, there’s none of that at Norm’s or Western Outdoor.

“We all know our responsibilities and try not to step on each other’s feet too much,” Mark said.

Of course, responsibilities can change rapidly.

“The customer’s always first wherever we are,” Mark said.

Beth, who’s been running Norm’s for six years, ever since her youngest son started kindergarten, might be working the books in back or stocking candy or helping on the grill. Mark or Susan might be walking through and take care of a table that needs to be cleared.

“We’ll bus a table or help them out. We have to work over there every once in a while to earn our free meals,” Susan said.

The biggest challenge is finding a way to get everyone off work for a family vacation, but it happens. And having so many family members at hand lets them fill in for each other if someone needs to sneak out for something like a school event or special function or doctor’s appointment.

And the two small businesses give children — their own and others — a good way to learn about work and responsibility if they want.

Norm’s is a popular first job for students who can keep their grades up. Any one of Beth’s three children might be seen helping out in the diner. Often other kids in for an ice cream cone see them working and ask how old they have to be to get a job.

“We’re always telling them, ‘Keep your grades up and come see us when you’re at least 14,’” she said.

And over the years, Mark and Susan, who started working in the businesses when they were children and took them over after college, have seen other children come in to work, meet, grow up, go off to school and have their own children.

“Now we’re the senior people,” Mark said, adding that he won’t be leaving anytime soon.

“How many places do you get to work with your dad every day, or your sister? I think it’s really neat that way,” he said. “We’re not planning to go anywhere — by our choice anyway. As long as we can keep it going forward, we’ll be here as far as I know.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.