Ouita’s Great-Grandpa Zim
story by Donna Hecker & photographs courtesy of Ouita Michel family
His garden was “a sight to behold” and he once won a bet that he could grow cotton. His long legs and lean frame made him perfectly cast as Uncle Sam in the Thermopolis, Wy. Fourth of July celebration. His friends called him Pop because he ran the local Coca-Cola bottling plant. He drove a powder blue VW Beetle that’s still on the road and in later years tooled around town on an adult tricycle.
Aaron Rufus Zimmerman was Chef Ouita Michel’s great-grandpa, whom she visited every summer. He lived two doors down from her maternal grandmother and namesake, Ouita Peyton. After her grandfather Peyton’s untimely death, Ouita spent summer breaks at her Grandma Ouita’s, a joyful time for both.
Each day began with a bike ride to Grandpa Zims’s for a bowl of cereal, served in a hollowed-out cantaloupe, which he’d obligingly eaten the innards of. Other culinary treats courtesy of Grandpa Zim included chocolate-covered raisins and candy-coated peanuts. But his most notorious cooking adventure was a dish Ouita laughingly calls a “perpetual pot of beef stew.”
Grandpa Zim had moved into the Pioneer Home by then, where his kitchen facilities consisted solely of a crockpot. “He’d prepare these crockpot meals for the two of us and he never cleaned it out; just kept adding food and black pepper. It gave me food poisoning and my grandmother almost killed him.”
Like many of his generation, Grandpa Zim no doubt came by such frugality naturally. He owned and operated a successful banking business in Missouri but lost everything in the Great Depression. After a stint working auto assembly lines in Flint, Mi., Grandpa Zim moved to Thermopolis and the Coca-Cola plant.
Ouita was twelve when her great-grandpa passed away so he looms large in her memories. She’s kept a notebook full of typewritten letters from him, bearing his formal letterhead and addressed to Kris or Krista, a variation on Ouita’s middle name Kristi, and how she’s still known to family and childhood friends.
Grandpa Zim had a few unsavory streaks; he taught all his grandchildren how to chew and spit tobacco, loved playing cards – especially cribbage – and cheated like crazy, according to Ouita.
Mostly though, Grandpa Zim was loved for his sense of humor, tall tales and silly rhymes. Ouita still remembers her favorite, “did you ever see a possum in a pawpaw patch, sittin’ around eatin’ pawpaws? Poor, pitiful little paw pee.” It’s that sense of playfulness and high spirits we wanted to capture at Zim’s Cafe. It’s why we painted the walls a cheerful yellow and hung them with pictures of mischievous critters, folksy landscapes, and branches full of chirping birds.
Drop in soon and bring the family; check out the folk art on display; enjoy a steaming mug of coffee or Grandpa Zim’s signature Old-fashioned and spend a little time with us. We hope you’ll leave with happy memories and a few stories of your own to pass along.
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Thermopolis Greek Salad
Thermopolis (from the Greek words for hot water) was named for the mineral hot springs nearby but it was also home to a large Greek-American population. All the veggies in our salad (except for the artichokes and olives) grew prolifically in Grandpa Zim’s garden, which Chef Ouita said was “truly a sight to behold.” If your green thumb isn’t as green as Grandpa Zim’s, check your local farmers market for seasonal goodies!
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