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Iconic Polar Bar Razed After 65-Year History

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McKENZIE (November 2022) — The Polar Bar! Ask anyone who resided in McKenzie in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, and you will hear a favorite memory of the burger and ice cream shop. It was the hangout for high school students in the late 1950s and 60s before the chain restaurants and fast food restaurants. It was the place to get a whopper burger, fries, and ice cream and shakes. 
 
The sound of the three pinball machines and the jukebox are some of the favorite memories of people who frequented the business.
 
Junior and Ruth Owen opened the restaurant on March 1, 1957 in a small building on Highland Drive, just past what is now Gary Simmons Auto.  That small restaurant did well so the Owen family added a dining room that doubled the size building and their business. Junior constructed a new, larger restaurant in 1968 behind the small  one. He then moved the smaller building to nearby Hamilton Street, where it was converted to a rental house. It still stands there today. Two adjacent buildings were constructed for rental, where Adrian’s Car Stereo was first located, Christian Book Store, Street Dynamics, a beauty shop, and other businesses.
 
The Owens believed in hard work, paying cash with no credit and personally serving their customers. The menu was a tradition of the 1950s with malts, shakes, ice cream cones, burgers, fries and hotdogs. The ambiance of the eat-in restaurant was the sound of pinball machines and the jukebox, where customers put in their dime, selected the music, and a 45-rpm phonograph provided the musical entertainment. The business phone was a pay phone, which had a nearby sign asking the customer to limit the time of their calls. The two grew up during the depression and certainly understood that being frugal was a virtue for a successful business. The restaurant served the Owens well by providing an income to rear four children.
 
Many of their workdays were 12 hours, everyday with Junior at the grill and Ruth waiting on the front counter. 
 
Junior and Ruth closed the Polar Bar in 1985, after 28 years of operating. Their four children - Brenda Joins, Anita Montgomery, David Owen, and Lisa Page all worked in the restaurant and learned valuable lessons from their late parents. 
 
The restaurant building later served as the Polar Bar, under different management, a Chinese restaurant, and later Bobby Gee’s Diner, owned by Bobby and Cindy Gaylord. The Gaylords credit Junior for teaching them about the business and how to cook those famous Polar Bar burgers. In the year 2012, Bobby Gee’s moved to South Main Street where it continues to thrive. It’s business motive is reminiscent of the Polar Bar.
 
Wednesday, prior to the building being razed, the siblings gathered one last time in front of the restaurant building. They shared heart-warming stories, lessons learned, and funny stories of their more-than-frugal dad.
 
They each had their turn at working in the restaurant, for 25 cents per hour. Dad taught them good lessons and hard lessons. The older siblings helped babysit for the younger ones in the early years. Lisa and David recalled staying in the back room of the restaurant and jumping into their mother’s lap when she would take a break.
 
The building and adjacent land, where McKenzie Lumber Company was once located, is owned by the Owen family. 
 
The lumber company building was razed years ago. On Friday, the Polar Bar and adjacent rental buildings were razed.
 
Don Cook, broker with Premier Real Estate, said the Polar Bar building was listed for sale, but needed much love to repair for occupation.  Ronnie Cooper’s excavator, operated by Tim Sullivan, removed the building early Friday. 
 
The Owens did not watch the excavation, choosing instead to visit as a family one last time earlier in the week.