Getting the Point

Mom had jus’ purchased six lugs of apples from the traveling fruits and vegetables salesman. They were neatly stacked up in what had been our garage, but renovated into a family rumpus room. Both Mom and Dad were gone to Eureka as it was a few weeks before Christmas. They left Adam and me alone …

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Hard Head

The sun had dropped behind the Sages Riddles by the time I came to the last deliveries in my paper route. They were down a steep, gravel road, 100 yards south of Redwood Drive. Once finished and knowing I had to climb back uphill, I shifted to the lowest gear on my 10-speed. Then I …

Trading Up

Both of my sisters, first Deirdre in 1967 and then Marcy two-years later, were born at Seaside Hospital in Crescent City. In order to pay for their births and Mom’s hospital stay afterward, Dad paid Dr. Kasper with a whole cow for each child he traded for with my Grandpa and Uncle. What did our …

Blackwater

The building at Redwood Drive and Highway 101, next to the former Yurok Volunteer Fire Department was originally used by Judge Hopper. But the good Judge had retired a few years earlier so the building was left unused for a while. After a couple of years it became the business office for Bob White Realty. …

Scareborne

We were doing exactly what we were not supposed to be doing: playing on the roof of our home. But since mom and dad were at work, we figured we could get away with it. Dad had already warned Adam and I about climbing around on the roof. He found out we were playing on …

Black Sock Confession

It was the afternoon of the Senior Prom. It was also the day I created a real nuisance of myself with one of my best high school friends. It happened at Jeri’s home after I asked if I could use one of the back rooms to get dressed. Being the nice girl she was, she …

Never Saw It Coming

Grandpa Bill didn’t mean for it to happen. And I never saw it coming. We were in his workshop, where he did minor horseshoe repair and other odds and ends. I was fascinated by the clanging of the hammer on the anvil and the heat and steam that poured off the furnace and water tank. …

Simply Thank You

My job delivering the Eureka Times-Standard had me out everyday of the week. Five of my customers were within the National Park boundaries. After my last delivery and on my way back towards Highway 101 I stopped to talk with Karlene Rose. As we stood there chatting, we watched her younger brother Kurt riding his …

One Last Time

At first I didn’t recognize the feeble old man as he stumbled by the window of the school districts multimedia facility. He was nearly to El Dorado Drive when it dawned on who I had jus’ seen: my fourth grade teacher -- Robert Kirby. Mr. Kirby first made himself known to me when I was …

Barnstorm

We were snooping through the two old barns my Grandpa Bill had on his property. In the second one, we found an old Jenny two-seater biplane. My friend, Jimmy and I dragged it out from under the canvas tarp that covered it and rolled it out of the barn. It took us a while, but …

Coffee and Blisters

Dad sent me into the kitchen to get him a cup of coffee. He would have done it himself, however he had my sister Deirdre sitting in his lap. As I returned with the hot liquid, Dad twisted in his swivel easy-chair and the back of the seat struck the cup, knocking it out of …

Ambidextrous

As a child I had a problem that plagues most kids, who are first learning to write. I was ambidextrous.My first grade teacher, Mrs. Helen Puls thought it was a problem and she set out to find out which hand I was more prone to use. Her plan was simple, but very effective.Mrs. Puls had …

Tommy Garbage

Over the years I’ve been called by a number of nicknames: Tommy, Little Tee, T.J., etc. Two of the worst involved being tongue-tied and the other was about a television show called “Kung Fu.” But it can all be traced back to one singular event. It was the day I introduced myself to my next-door …

Rabbit Hole

Adam and I were playing in the woods around a cluster of Redwood trees, we had named, “Darby’s Castle.” It was play off the old song, our last name and the fact that the trees created a natural fort, if you knew how to get inside. It was situated on the right side of the …

Alcoa Can’t Wait

Perhaps it was to help curb the cost of heating or maybe Mom had been visited by aliens, either way she decided one afternoon to wallpaper our bathroom in aluminum foil. Yeah, I know -- weird. She didn’t take very much time in planning it out. She jus’ gathered together supplies on hand like some …

Bad Things

As difficult as it is to admit…bad things of no fault of our own sometimes happened to us kids as we were growing up. One of those bad things was having been raped by a mentally ill man as I was delivering newspapers. I will not name the family of this man, as I don’t …

Loop Hole

It was a conversation between Dad and Mom. They were angry at the fact that a neighborhood committee had given them a list of approved colors they could paint the house and that each color had a fee of some sort attached to it. As I recall the main complaint was that this group had …

Bad Art

My guard was up as I had been ambushed once and locked in the display case along Del Norte High School’s Senior Hall. I didn’t want it to happen again. However my vigilance didn’t pay off. Without warning I was jumped and dragged out of the locker room where I had jus’ stripped down, preparing …

Display Cased

Senior Hall of Del Norte High School ran from the main entrance to the doorways leading outside, jus’ pass the girl’s locker rooms and gymnasium. Midway down the hall and in between the entrances into the boy’s gym was a large glass trophy case, mounted to the wall. P.E. for me was my very first …

Out Fishing Cousin Billy

It would be three weeks before my cousin Billy would arrive from Washington State. He had already told me that he planned to out-fish me while he was visiting. To keep that from happening, I decided to rig our fishing spot. Everyday until he arrived I took a can of corn with me to the …

One Big Step

When we went to visit our Aunt and Uncle, we also stopped at Don and Evelyn Chisum's home. It was a post-Victorian building with three bedrooms and a full bathroom upstairs and a master bedroom, another full bathroom, kitchen, dining and living room on the bottom floor. During one visit, Dad went upstairs to use …

Red Dress

Mom and dad were going to a function at the airbase. For the event mom went out and purchased a bright red dress. They left the house at around six that evening and returned before jus' 11 o'clock that night. Both looked nice as they left for the evening. Dad was first through the door. …

Almost Skated

Mom and Dad were gone for the day. They left Adam and I with Ma and Pa Sanders. We were forbidden to return to our home for any reason. However we disobeyed because we wanted to play with our new roller skates. The two of us roller skated up and down Redwood Drive and in …

Zane Grey Slept Here

For three months, I worked at the Requa Inn. I was filling in for my brother, Adam after he broke his arm in a bicycle accident. At first Adam tried to blame Dad for breaking his arm. That's because Dad grabbed it after Adam attempted to stab me with a dinner fork. Dr. Kasper said it …

Got It

Mom and Dad had spent three months paneling the living room and hallway. They also put squares of gold-veined mirror up in the front room hoping to make the area look bigger.One of the extra things they did was to mount into the wall an old piece of ship’s timber that acted as a resting …

First Photo

One of the first photographs I ever took was of the stop-sign and telephone pole where Redwood Drive intersects with U.S. 101 in Klamath. I grew up in a home on Redwood Drive and anytime we went anywhere, we had to use that singular intersection to leave our neighborhood. My parents bought me a Kodak …

Like a Sailor, Like a Logger

One of my part-time jobs was working as a summer-school teacher. The position turned out to require more interpersonal skill than I had at the time. One afternoon I watched as a kid on a motorcycle raced around the playground while students were outside playing. I stopped him and told him he couldn't be on …

Hot Ashes

Mary and Russ Thompson had been visiting the area for years. They came to spend their summertime fishing for salmon and they always parked their travel trailer in space right behind our home at Camp Marigold. We came to know them a few years earlier and when they were in town, we often invited them …

Attending Governor Gibbon’s Inauguration

The weather was wonderful for a winter-day in Northern Nevada, as last year at this time the region was covered in a blanket of snow. It was also made wonderful by the fact that the state's constitution was in full swing and anyone who wanted to watch it operate was allowed to do so. For …

Hometown

My junior year civic's class teacher was a Jules Legier.  One guy, two unusual names in a school full of Bob’s, Bill’s and Tom’s. One day Mr. Legier chastised the entire class for not being able to spell "Crescent City."  Evidently some of the students were having difficulty with the proper name of the town. He …

Trying to Go National

It was an April morning when Tommy spoke with Roberta. Her husband had been killed in Iraq in October of the previous year. He wanted to find out why the Sergeant didn’t have plaque at the Fernley Veterans Cemetery near the couples home.“The veteran’s administration is refusing to allow the Wiccan symbol to be placed on …