Coffee house fetes Holm's lifetime

Hope is retrospective will drum up support for mural, museum

MOSES LAKE — Monte Holm, this is your life.

Photographs from the life of the longtime Moses Lake businessman/icon are on display starting today in the Noon Moon Coffeehouse and Dessert Bar.

Noon Moon owner Greg Strickland said he became friends with muralist Patty Jensen, who created a mural of Holm as the second in a series of murals depicting the area's history, and read Holm's autobiography, "Once a Hobo."

"I read it and I'm like, 'Oh my God, what a remarkable story,' everything this guy's been through," Strickland said. "My thought was, if this mural goes up, how many people are going to be like me who go, 'OK, there's a picture on the wall,' but not know what's behind it? Maybe people who didn't know the story (or are) new to town."

The photos will be on display for the month of December, filling the space normally occupied by the works of an area artists in the coffeehouse. Holm's daughter Karen Rimple helped Strickland to go through photographs, which have been blown up for the display.

Strickland hopes that the photo retrospective will help people not aware of Holm's history as a hobo during the Great Depression become aware of the reasons for the mural, and also to help support the mural project.

Jensen presented Holm with an oil painting of her proposed mural in July when it appeared movement on that project had stalled.

In August the Noon Rotary Club of Moses Lake Community Development Committee announced that it would coordinate the acquisition of the site, publicity and raising the necessary funds for Jensen to paint the mural.

Committee chair Stroud Kunkle said the committee is sending out a request for funds letter, planned for release either Wednesday or today.

The mural will be painted on two panels made of wood and fiberglass.

"We're going to be able to paint over the winter indoors, and then we've got lines on a couple buildings," Kunkle said.

No site has been selected, but when the committee figures out where the mural will go, it will be mounted on the selected site.

"Then if we ever have to, for whatever reason, we'll actually be able to move the panel," Kunkle said. "By doing it on panels, we could actually, with proper framing, put it on the side of a one-story building, or it could be freestanding if we built (something) for it. We would just like to get the mural done so that we have it. If we have a hold-up in buildings, it could never happen."

Kunkle estimated that the cost of painting the mural would be about $12,000 to $12,500. The panels themselves will cost about $1,000, he said. Creation of the mural will commence when the committee has the money, but Kunkle said he feels "pretty positive" about reaching this point.

"We haven't really asked for any money yet," he said, noting committee members did not want to begin until they were certain the mural was going to happen. "This is going to be our first attempt at it, and we already have raised some just from people sending stuff in."

Another thing that surprised Strickland was how few people seem to know of Holm's House of Poverty Museum. In informing people of the retrospective going up before a performance at the Noon Moon, Strickland asked by a show of hands how many people did not know Holm.

"There was like 65 people in there, and about three people raised their hands," Strickland said, adding that was about what he had been expecting. "Then I asked how many people know what the House of Poverty Museum is. There was like two people that knew what it was."

The photo display follows Holm's life in chronological order, ending with a picture of Holm in his museum.

"To me, it was kind of more reflective — what was I doing when I was 27, 13, and being able to see that whole story," Strickland said. "My hope is that people will buy the book and read it; it's fascinating."

Strickland was struck by Holm's perseverance and positive attitude, and said he views Holm as a role model for people.

"All these things are stacked against him and he's still, it's a success story," he said. "It could very easily have gone a much different way. Your mother dies, your aunt dies, your stepmother is basically evil, you're forced out on the road, one in four Americans is unemployed and the only way you're going to get around is by hitching a ride on a train to go try and find work."

Holm said Rimple plans to bring him to the Noon Moon to see the retrospective. It will be the 89-year-old Holm's first time in the Noon Moon, as he doesn't get to many places any more, he said.

"I was there when it used to be another store, but that was a long time ago," he said. "I think it's very nice of them, I really do. And I appreciate them doing it."