Historic Langley

1929: Norman Clyde Garage

1929. Portion of the 1929 Sanborn insurance map showing location of Norman Clyde's Garage on Anthes Avenue. (Courtesy South Whidbey Historical Society)

Norman Clyde and his wife Hazel came to Langley in 1927 to visit Norm's father, William, who taught 8th grade at the Langley school. After working for a year at the garage on the west side of Anthes Avenue, he built his own garage across the street. His was the first building located on that side of Anthes Avenue between First and Second Streets at that time.

Circa 1929. Norman Clyde's first garage (Courtesy South Whidbey Historical Society).

Circa 1929. Logging truck in front of Norman Clyde Garage (Courtesy Lynn Willeford).

Norm Clyde constructed a larger garage at the corner of Anthes Avenue and First Street in 1935, and Edward Kyler opened a small grocery store in the building before selling it to Albert Monette.

Albert Anderson and his wife, Mildred, purchased the store from Mr. Monette in 1958 and operated it as the "Big Penny" until 1964.

1959. Mildred and Alfred Anderson in front of their Big Penny store in the former Clyde Garage (Courtesy Mildred Anderson).

Mildred Anderson served coffee and her delicious cookies. According to their daughter Linda, "local business owners looked forward to going to the Big Penny's back room at lunch time where Mildred would serve all a free and delicious hot meal."

Sandy Izett recalls, "I brought our son, Craig, home when he was one day old and weighed him on the vegetable scale in the Big Penny."

After giving up the Big Penney in 1964, the Andersons rented the building to the Good Cheer organization.

1969: Good Cheer

Good Cheer moved into the building in 1969 (Courtesy Good Cheer).

Members from St. Augustine's Episcopal Church decided to spread some holiday "good cheer" by giving donated items to their less fortunate neighbors in 1962. The success of this initial effort led to the formation of the South Whidbey Good Cheer Inc. in 1963. In 1964, the group held its first fund drive that netted a record-setting $61.60.

The organization opened a thrift store in the old post office building on First Street in 1965, and submitted an application to become a nonprofit 501(c)(3) - the first of its kind on South Whidbey.

After renting the former Big Penny space from the Andersons for several years, Good Cheer purchased the building and moved into that space in 1969.

With the move to a larger location, an in-house food bank was established to handle the increased need and slowly, throughout the 1970s, Good Cheer shifted its focus to feeding people.

Circa 1980. Good Cheer Thrift Store (Courtesy Langley City Hall).

In 1981, the thrift store made $50 a day on a good day. The board next decided to expand into the space held by Porter Insurance at the corner of Anthes Avenue and Second Street.

1992. Good Cheer Addition (Courtesy Langley City Hall).

A walk-in freezer was acquired, and an upstairs was added in 1992. It just kept growing.

1992. Good Cheer Addition (Courtesy Langley City Hall).

A second addition was added on the east side in 2011.

2018. Good Cheer (Courtesy Robert Waterman).