Recap

The Eagles' Nest, The Women of the Rathskeller Inn

An update to the readers of The Eagles' Nest, The Women of the Rathskeller Inn, from the author.

Due to the break I took while authoring the story, I felt a recap of previous events would help renew the story for those reading it. I would like to thank all of you for your patience and kindness over the past couple of months. Your presence and support have meant a great deal to me.

Recap

The story begins with short biographies of the women in my family. My great-grandmother Brass was a strong woman who had to find her way in 1918 after the death of Julius Brass, her husband and my grandmother’s father. Women had no legal right to own property, a business, or vote at the time, so they had to learn how to get by financially in a world that simply did not afford women the same privileges as men.

Born in 1900, my grandmother Ann learned at eighteen what it was going to take if she were to survive in the world as a woman. She married at twenty-five, became a widow by the time she was thirty-nine. Moving back to Wallace as a widow, her formal education as a graduate of a business college enabled her to find gainful employment. She spent the next few years saving money, investing in property, and raising her two daughters.

My grandmother would remarry, my parents would eventually separate, but with every chaotic ending, my grandmother was present and helping. My mother and aunt were always at her side. The story is about how the determination of the women transformed a 1,000-square-foot beer garden into a 7,000-square-foot entertainment venue in just six years. But it is also the tale of how one person, my aunt, took our family down a dark and narrow path that was destructive for them. In the meantime, the magic of the Rathskeller never waned. The little beer garden that grew into a hugely popular venue had its own destiny to fulfill.

The Rathskeller was a happening, something to be experienced, and its popularity was explosive. The saga of the years in Coeur d’Alene continues with the upcoming chapter, What’s Next, to be released early this coming week. The family is rocked by death, by drama, and is placed in peril by the actions and decisions of my aunt, but the beat went on despite it all.

There was loss, and there was gain, but the era of the Coeur d’Alene location, where all the magic happened, was coming to an end. Find out how and why that happened.

See you soon!