The late Bruce D. Auld would probably be glad that the private Battle Ground Elks now have permission to sell drinks to the public on special occasions. But we cannot be sure.
Auld, the longtime owner of Battle Ground shop Bruce’s Stoves, died over two decades ago, on Jan. 6, 1996, at age 62.
So imagine his brother’s surprise to read in his morning newspaper that Auld recently applied for a liquor license on behalf of his favorite Elks lodge.
Dan Auld, 86, was spending a totally boring Labor Day reading every word in his daily Columbian, he said. But his boredom turned to amazement when his eye fell on the “Liquor & Cannabis Licenses,” a simple list buried on Page C6 of the Sept. 5 Business section.
There it was: Bruce D. Auld had applied “for a license to sell spirits, beer and wine at the B.P.O. Elks, 907 S.E. Grace Ave., Battle Ground.”
“My brother Bruce has been dead for 21 years,” Auld said. “Unless he was resurrected, there’s something going on. Is it to somebody else’s tax advantage? Who would be using his name to buy a license today?”
His suspicions led to a hunt for answers, but being extremely unplugged didn’t help Auld’s search. He has no cellphone, no computer and no internet access “and I don’t care about any of that,” he said; he hasn’t even had a new telephone book delivered to his Vancouver home in five years. Auld found a number for the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board and listened in frustration to a recording, he said. He couldn’t find any phone number at all for the Battle Ground Elks.
“You try. I hope you get an answer,” he told The Columbian.
“That is weird,” said Exalted Ruler Cheryl Collins of the Elks, who guessed it was a simple snafu and sent us to the club secretary, Dale Vessels.
About a week had passed by then, and the Auld family must have found the Elks phone number in the meantime. Vessels said Tuesday that he’d been fielding calls and assuring various relations and descendants of Bruce D. Auld that nothing evil is afoot.
“I’ve talked to six different people,” Vessels said. “Some have been pretty concerned.” But brother Dan Auld got the picture and laughed, he said.
“Way back 36 years ago, when the Elks got a liquor license, (Bruce Auld) was the original signer,” Vessels said. “Every year, you don’t get a new license; you just renew. Every year, we renewed our license, and every year his name stayed on it as the original applicant.”
The state “gladly takes your money” without verifying the signature of every Elks secretary that appears on every form, Vessels said.
“It’s a name on a piece of paper. They keep tabs on the lodge, not the person.” Vessels said the state does show up at the Elks lodge for surprise inspections several times per year.
“The only reason it became an issue this year is because we got an addendum for our license,” he said.
That addendum allows the private club to sell drinks to the general public on certain special occasions. Because that’s a change, the notice wound up in the newspaper where the dead man’s brother spotted it.
Auld confirmed that the family had been truly concerned — many pairs of eyeballs popped at seeing that name in the paper, he said — but now they’re satisfied. Auld said he never knew that his brother was so involved with the Elks that he was signing their official paperwork.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said.
Vessels said the application will be updated with the signature of a living Elk.
