By RUTH KRAMER

When the Lake City Community Center's first-ever Salmon Bake was held 50 years ago, there was no Lake City Community Center as we know it today, only a pit to cook the salmon at the parking lot of the Lake City branch of the old Seattle First National Bank.

The fresh salmon that cost only 20 cents a pound then, according to Frank Bishop's 1968 book, "Community Motivation," now costs much more 50 years later.

Bishop, a Lake City Lions Club member and one of the founders of the Lake City Youth Center now known as the Lake City Community Center, gave the following permission to borrow the story of the first Lake City Salmon Bake "to anyone interested in reproducing parts of this book; feel free to do so, but please give me credit."

Bishop wrote: "The Salmon Bake began as a fund raiser to build a Youth Center for Lake City. The Lions Club and other community groups had used every means to raise money for the youth center.

"Albert and Ethel Davis were late comers from New York who were interested in youth activities. Albert looked like a pint-sized 'Colonel Sanders' with his snowy white goatee and Ethel pitched right in to help raise money. Salmon Bakes seemed to be getting popular. The Davis's volunteered for this project. They learned there were two basic methods: the 'stretch them out on wood sticks and smoke them' and 'the pit techniques.' The Davis's like the 'pit' method, because it was cleaner than the other method."

The first Lake City Salmon Bake was held in 1950 in a bank parking lot that today is the site of the Lake City Park on the southwest corner of NE 125th and Lake City Way NE.

There was no proper pit and the parking lot was covered with sawdust so the cooks had to keep brushing it away from the fire to keep the whole place from going up.

To add authenticity to the whole affair, some American Indians were brought in from Yakima to do some dances. "They carried their own teepees and set them up behind the bank. They asked Ethel Davis if she would save the salmon heads - for them a real delicacy - and Ethel was pretty sure none of her customers would miss them!

"Unfortunately, Ethel didn't realize that the oil content in salmon heads makes them cook faster and hotter than the rest of the salmon and the heads all caught fire and burned up in spite of her frantic efforts to cool them off. The Indians came back from the parade to collect their salmon heads and were they angry! To calm them, Ethel told them she'd give them a whole salmon dinner free. So there went 25 dinners' profits right there, but she learned a thing or two about the way a salmon cooks!"

The menu for the first Lake City Salmon Bake consisted of salmon, cole slaw, pickles, potato chips, hot garlic bread, ice cream, coffee and punch.

The menu for this year's Salmon Bake has barbecued salmon served with lemon garlic sauce, O'Brien baked beans (in memory of longtime Lake City Community Center director Frank O'Brien), cole slaw or potato salad, hot buttered French bread, coffee, punch and ice cream.

On Friday and Saturday, Aug. 4 and 5, from noon to 7 p.m., the 50th annual Lake City Salmon Bake at the Lake City Community Center's parking lot, 12531 28th Ave. NE, volunteers will be barbecuing fresh salmon on a grill on cement blocks over hot coals. For more information, call (206) 362-4378.

The Lake City Lions and many other community volunteers and leaders are still working on the line both serving and fire lines.

For half a century now, the Lake City Salmon Bake has been a tradition and reunion spot for several generations of attendees. The staff and Board of Trustees of the Lake City Community Center would like to thank all those who attend the Salmon Bake and those who help make it such a success. There are so many we cannot name them all.

Please save Friday and Saturday, Aug. 4 and 5, for the 50th anniversary of the best Salmon Bake in town.