I’m talking about Goobers…peanuts! In the early days Wanker’s Corner (pronounced either “wohn-kers” or “waah-nkers”) is the name of a little pub at the intersection of Stafford and Borland Roads. From the Bud Light banners plastering the outside, to the random nicotine stained antiques and sports memorabilia hanging from the walls on the inside, “wohn-kers” offers up plenty of cheep booze and pre-cooked taco’s to feed the hundreds of riders who keep you well occupied with relentless loud pipes roaring past the shack. Yes, fall in the Northwest brings another end to Harley riding moments and now it’s the end of Taco Wednesdays.
They even had all customer service aspects covered…so considerate they are of their patrons that anyone could dispose of those pesky goober shells by just tossing them onto the floor. And if you’re too tipsy to remember the location when you call your posse/bros to have them join up, Wanker’s put their name right on their beer mugs.
It’s not well known that the original Wanker’s Corner Saloon & Cafe was opened shortly after the repeal of prohibition, in 1933. It shared space with a grocery store at the intersection of Stafford and Borland Roads, within the boundaries of Clackamas County, Oregon. Because this is not a recognized community, it has never had a post office, nor does it consistently appear on maps (although the AAA map of Oregon shows it in an inset).
As folk lore goes, the head Wanker kept collecting more and more antiques, junk, knickknacks, Americana, Australiana, movie posters, and many unidentifiable objects, that the space became too crowded, and a move to a larger building was inevitable. The Portland suburb of Wilsonville.
At the Country Store, Lois Wanker has talked about how her grandfather settled there (West Linn, Oregon area, just south of Portland) in 1895. The tavern was founded by Lois’s father in 1931 and evidently it burned down back in 1969 but they built a new one…if you could call it “new”! They own the store and lease the saloon. My research in Oregon place name books and Oregon history books revealed nothing about the place so, getting multiple sources for the information is a challenge.
The new Wankers location in Wilsonville serve up goobers to the disenfranchised and us “oil leakers” continue to post up at the Corner Saloon – the original pub on Harley nights and enjoy tacos, refreshments and good friends jawing about chrome.
Remember the Wanker motto: Go Ugly Early, and You’ll Never Go Home Alone…
Northwest Harley Blog 