Sunday, May 11, 2014
Part 9 when I wasn't with my dad or in the orchard picking fruit I was on my own new adventure at this time One day when I was with dad working on some cars a old farmer friend came by said to me looks like your good at that and know what your doing I was around 7 years old at the time he said tell you what how would you like your own car to have he told me he had a old fixer upper out in the field he could bring by and tow in and if I could get it up and running again it was mine .Boy was I all over that so one day his old Model A shows up in our place with a note on it that said for Dean.Boy did that make this kid happy I worked on it all the time and Lowell and behold one day I had that old 1931 Model A coupe up and running again like knew. It was like having a new best friend .Boy did we go everywhere together What a adventure I was on every time I got behind the wheel I loved to discover and travel old roads and find towns time left behind or create roads where there were noneI was like a explorer discovering new territory One day I found a town time forgot like a scene from a old western movie like something out of Gun Smoke complete with dirt roads and wooden sidewalks and a old style saloon with a big mirror and wooden bar what a find it was an amazing sight to seeit was like finding my own private oasis
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Part 8
William Flood was a wealer dealer of all kinds he could sell ice to eskimos he was a extrovert extrovert and a lot of fun to be around he sold just about anything he could get his hands on like used car salesman anything he could sell on a distribution route he had built up business all over the Yakima Valley area and would always come by our Gas station convieient store to see what we needed.We often went to his home in Yakima where he a small storage building where he stored all of his stuff. He was always trying to get us to try something to see if it would sell in our small convenience store that we had turned one room into we sold bread milk Candy Pop Ice Cream and Candy bars and staple foods and snacks and oil and tires and antifreeze and car additives . Fred Kerrshaw was a older guy around late 50s or so when we first started our store he first started there stopped right off to help us to supply it with what we needed . In those days my Dad didn't sell much at a profit he always cared and helped whoever and however he could looking out for others needs all the time the only problem was My Dear Old Dad had a big heart and a soft spot and ran credit with a lot of people and barter trade like old country docs use to do in the older days so he didn't make much profit and eventually we had to sell the place and move again to a place called Granger by now I was around 10 years old during this time my dad sure was a hard worker always at it helping and doing he would put in long hours often until very late at night out back working on someone scar truck or tractor. Also during the summer months Dad and I often would go out together in the neighborhood orchards and pick fruit together for extra money. My Dear Mummsy aka mom would stay behind at this time and pump gas and tend to our new store now .Dad and I would start picking fruit around sunrise up until about four in the afternoon. Boy those were the days.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Part 7
And than after working on the house we started in on laying the foundation for the gas station in the far corner of the lot near the highway . First we just had a 20 foot by 20 foot room and two gas pumps one for regular and one for ethyl .We dug two large holes for a 500 gal tank and a 1000gal tank regular being the one most used .Dad borrowed money thru the gas company for the entire project then they held some thing like a cent and a half out of each gallons profit . We later added a room out to the back and a hoist for lube and car repair too we were really going now .My Dear old Dad was one of the smartest men I have ever known or known of .It was putting the hoist in that my dad got his hernia . When he and another guy lifted that huge hydraulic cylinder up and set it down into a cement lined hole in the ground . It seemed like it weighed a little over a half a ton . He fought with that hernia all the rest of his life until about 2 to 3 years short of his passing over in 1981 he was 81 years old when he died. The Vandersluis were good friends and great neighbors we had many good friends in town and in large farming community and out around all over. We even had customers who became good friends from as far away as Toppenish 4 miles away and Granger 6 miles away . than their was a friend named William Flood and another guy named Fred Kershaw both out of Yakima 20 miles away.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Part 6
We
started out with a wood framework, with a wood floor, and a tent stretched over
the top, with cots and mattresses to sleep on, kind of like camping-out. I was
soon learning to be a carpenter. We laid out a system of cement walls that stuck
up about 2ft. from the ground and they were about 5-6inches thick with
3-8”bolts imbedded in the cement and sticking up about 2,& a half “ inches
high. These bolts were about a foot apart. They were to hold the walls onto
this cement foundation. This was “Home-built” construction at its best. Boy,,,,
my Dad was a Whiz. If he didn’t know something, He found out-----------And---I learned it
all for my later life……. He was kind of
hard on me at times, but I forgave him in later, later years. I love my dear
old Dad, and I know he’s been with me at times in the years since he passed on
out of this life. Human bodies’ come-and-go ----but the Human soul NEVER dies it
goes on forever and ever and forever. It’s a big part of GOD,,,,I love
you,,,,,,dear, GOD>>> thank you---- thank you… In this life-time I have a very special lady
in my life, and I know that she and
I have been together many life-times
together,, our relationship is an on-going thing for the two of USS to work
with NO-ONE ELSE TO INTERFERE….. I LOVE
YOU MY –DEAR I CATHY BLESS-YOU………...Now back to my start in the BIG town of Zillah My Dad got funding from
the Signal Gas Company to
build our house and gas station. We got our house built, and moved in. Then we
dug a hole in the ground, and then constructed a small abode over the top of
it, and presto----- we had an “out-house” ----- an out-of-doors toilet to get
by with until we could get an indoor bathroom with toilet set up in the house
and connected to the city sewer, system. We also dug a big hole in the ground,
maybe 5ft. by 9ft by 7ft. deep and covered it over with tree limbs and branches
and “presto” we had a root-cellar. The
idea was to keep food-stuff cool. And it worked----- Every-thing my Dad came up
with, worked. Some of it, he learned
from his folks and growing-up but, some of it he learned on his own
endeavor. He was amazing…. I was 6 and 7
yrs old when all of this stuff was
going on, boy, it was quite a child-hood and then---- the gas-station got to
going, and I was out there at the gas-pumps and waiting on customers, pumping
gas, checking under their car-hoods, for the status of the engine oil and
water, washing the car windows, occasionally checking the tires for
air-pressure… I was 7yrs. Old. Within a short time my Dad was working on cars,
even taking the motors apart and rebuilding them, and I was right there, learning everything WOW what a
childhood . My old Dad even had an old
gas welder that I started playing with.
All this while my Mom was getting tired of having to use the “out-house “all
the time, So with me and Mom taking care of the gas-station and its customers,
he started in on the house again,--- the bathroom. He got an old used toilet
and bathtub and put them in, in place, with all of the proper plumbing---also a
kitchen sink with all the plumbing, and all of this plumbing ended up out in
the front yard in a deep, narrow ditch with a big concrete pipe in it , and
this ditch and pipe went down to the Old highway 410 , and in a round-a-bout
way ended up in the sewer plumbing coming out from the town of Zillah. Now we
had indoor plumbing, and my Mom could use the kitchen sink toooo, BOY’’’’we had
never had it so good. So far our house was only 2by4s and boards. My Dad said,
“He had to get it ready for the rainy weather. He went to the lumber yard again
and came back with a bunch of
black-plastic hunks of stuff that turned
out to be long rolls of tar-paper, which he covered the outside of the house
with, windows and all. My room was right behind the kitchen, and my window
faced the highway and Zillah, the highway curved around our place on its way
into town. This plastic paper made my room pure-dark, so I punched a hole to
let in some light. Sun-of –a-gun I
created a huge camera complete with moving cars, bicycles etc, and whatever
else might be going up or down the highway outside====FABULOUS and I could lay there and watch all of
this.
It didn’t take the place of everything that I was learning out at the gas-station though. My Dad was working on all the different parts of cars, trucks, tractor..farm-equipment and whatever else that people might bring in that needed fixed. We fixed it. Boy was I learning. All this time, I was learning a whole lot more too. At night , I would sit in the house, perched on the floor, beneath the radio listening to ‘radio’ adventure…..T. V. and all of this modern technology was stuff of the future. Anyway I had Superman, Batman, Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, Several other Super-Heroes, And then some funny-funky ones ---------------Fibber-Magge and Molley , Amos-and-Andy , My Little Margy and then some in between The Cisco Kid and Pancho -- Hoppalong Cassidy , Straight Arrow, some were continued from week to week , and some were a fresh new story each week. And on top of all of this were the Comic Books of a lot of these characters, which I was into by way of some of the shops and stores up in town. And we went to the movies at least once a week. And I had my favorite movie STARS. These days of the new millennium, we don’t really have a good choice of stuff on TV to watch. We have to be very picky. There are a few special channels that have all the good stuff, and that’s the one’s we focus on. Especially stuff put on by Larry Levinson----his stuff is always exceptional. Old movies, and old music out of the 1900,s that was when we had all the old black and white movies---- before they had any color what-so-ever___and we had John Wayne and Gary Cooper and all the other old actors and stars when they were young people. “Gone With The Wind hadn’t yet been made----Liz Taylor hadn’t yet come along Alan Ladd was a big star . Hopalong Cassidy Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Superman. Rocketman. On the radio , we had Straight Arrow----My Little Margie , Amos and Andy, The Cisco Kid and Pancho, The Peacemaker, Tarzan-the bronzed-white-son-of –the-jungle with his eerie cry of the great ape and they also had Tarzan in the theater with Les Barker playing the part of Tarzan and they put a Jane character in to the stories for Tarzans mate. Boy--- Radio==it used your imagination with the sound. And this was all before television came along. My dear-old- Dad always made it a regular schedule for us to go to the movies at least once a week, sometimes, more. It depended on what was on, or what was coming on We never missed anything special. Of course during the summer months we were out in the orchards picking fruit for extra money, and filling up on fruit in our tummies. It was natures way of counter-acting all of the sweets and candy that I was filling up on, so I never ended up with diabetes or, any of that garbage. I’m trying to do all of this on a computer, and BOTHER, it’s driving me up the wall -------------- In the course of all of this. My dear old Dad went back to working on the house, he bolted 2x4’s and 2x6’s down onto the cement foundations and then proceeded to cut and nail 1x boards on top of these, and –----presto-----we had a floor—then, WE laid out 2x4frame works in the shapes of walls and cut and nailed 1x boards onto these, and raised them up so that we had walls and we nailed these down to the floor, so that we had outside walls and interior walls. At that time, it was all done with hammers and nails. 6 penny. 8penny, 10penny, 16penny and 20penny nails. If for some reason, a nail didn’t go in properly bent over or whatever, we hooked our claw hammer under it, pulled it out and drove in a new nail. Our hammers were double sided------one side for driving the nails and one side for pulling them out. This was carpentry and construction. Knowledge and no-how that has lent to my survival and perseverance many times in past years. I’ve spent many years working in mobile-home factories , which I very much enjoyed. I learned electrical, and plumbing, and welding.
It didn’t take the place of everything that I was learning out at the gas-station though. My Dad was working on all the different parts of cars, trucks, tractor..farm-equipment and whatever else that people might bring in that needed fixed. We fixed it. Boy was I learning. All this time, I was learning a whole lot more too. At night , I would sit in the house, perched on the floor, beneath the radio listening to ‘radio’ adventure…..T. V. and all of this modern technology was stuff of the future. Anyway I had Superman, Batman, Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, Several other Super-Heroes, And then some funny-funky ones ---------------Fibber-Magge and Molley , Amos-and-Andy , My Little Margy and then some in between The Cisco Kid and Pancho -- Hoppalong Cassidy , Straight Arrow, some were continued from week to week , and some were a fresh new story each week. And on top of all of this were the Comic Books of a lot of these characters, which I was into by way of some of the shops and stores up in town. And we went to the movies at least once a week. And I had my favorite movie STARS. These days of the new millennium, we don’t really have a good choice of stuff on TV to watch. We have to be very picky. There are a few special channels that have all the good stuff, and that’s the one’s we focus on. Especially stuff put on by Larry Levinson----his stuff is always exceptional. Old movies, and old music out of the 1900,s that was when we had all the old black and white movies---- before they had any color what-so-ever___and we had John Wayne and Gary Cooper and all the other old actors and stars when they were young people. “Gone With The Wind hadn’t yet been made----Liz Taylor hadn’t yet come along Alan Ladd was a big star . Hopalong Cassidy Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Superman. Rocketman. On the radio , we had Straight Arrow----My Little Margie , Amos and Andy, The Cisco Kid and Pancho, The Peacemaker, Tarzan-the bronzed-white-son-of –the-jungle with his eerie cry of the great ape and they also had Tarzan in the theater with Les Barker playing the part of Tarzan and they put a Jane character in to the stories for Tarzans mate. Boy--- Radio==it used your imagination with the sound. And this was all before television came along. My dear-old- Dad always made it a regular schedule for us to go to the movies at least once a week, sometimes, more. It depended on what was on, or what was coming on We never missed anything special. Of course during the summer months we were out in the orchards picking fruit for extra money, and filling up on fruit in our tummies. It was natures way of counter-acting all of the sweets and candy that I was filling up on, so I never ended up with diabetes or, any of that garbage. I’m trying to do all of this on a computer, and BOTHER, it’s driving me up the wall -------------- In the course of all of this. My dear old Dad went back to working on the house, he bolted 2x4’s and 2x6’s down onto the cement foundations and then proceeded to cut and nail 1x boards on top of these, and –----presto-----we had a floor—then, WE laid out 2x4frame works in the shapes of walls and cut and nailed 1x boards onto these, and raised them up so that we had walls and we nailed these down to the floor, so that we had outside walls and interior walls. At that time, it was all done with hammers and nails. 6 penny. 8penny, 10penny, 16penny and 20penny nails. If for some reason, a nail didn’t go in properly bent over or whatever, we hooked our claw hammer under it, pulled it out and drove in a new nail. Our hammers were double sided------one side for driving the nails and one side for pulling them out. This was carpentry and construction. Knowledge and no-how that has lent to my survival and perseverance many times in past years. I’ve spent many years working in mobile-home factories , which I very much enjoyed. I learned electrical, and plumbing, and welding.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Early years part 5
Early years part 5
When school time came around and I was 6 years old I walked down the old country road about 2 miles to this farmhouse and here I started the 1st grade. The husband had grades 5 through 8 and his wife had grades 1 through 4. I loved it and the kids. One day they had this big jig dance going on at the Big Bend Ho Down. There was this big circular shaped one story building. I went there one night and they had this big Thing dance going on. People and kids were dancing all over the place . They had a live Band Country Western style music. I just hung around outside for a while and than walked home it wasn't my thing I just like to listen not dance .
In the meantime, my Dear Old Dad was gathering all of this information about a place up in the Yakima valley in the state of Washington. The area was called the Banana=Belt. It was kind of famous, because of all the fruit grown in that area, starting with cherries in the spring, and ending with apples in the fall, and it was easy to make a living, by going around to the orchards, and picking the fruit and getting paid for it. Money=money=money…,,, Any-way, he made a few special connections, and then came back “home”. And== he decided, we were going to move up there. He hooked our old 1940 Ford car onto our little 19ft. camp trailer, I quit school just before mass. And we left for Zillah, WA. The year was 1946. We ended up in the front yard of Oscar Strands home, and that’s where we pitched our “HOME”….Cherries came ripe for picking in the first part of June, so we had time to kill before Oscars cherries would be ready to pick. We spent a lot of time in Oscars big old house, and got to be really good friends with him and his wife, and I started back into school, right there in Zillah, in a big old, 3 story, brick building, with all the grades, and a large gymnasium in the bottom. I quickly made friends, with a lot of terrific kids in my class. The 1st. grade. Our teacher was a chubby, white, haired old lady by the name of Mrs. Harkima, she was terrific, and she made school fun, fun, fun. I loved her. I still remember A lot of my old classmates, by name Harlan McCoy, Roger Page, Donny Scott, Barbara Brown, Paula Carrol, Gloria Notman, Gloria Nelson, Sharon Butler (I had a crush on her) Robert Linker, Patty Ermey Thomas Duncan Victoria Rodriquez, Tommy Sainsbury, there were others whose names pop into my head periodically===ah—Rodney (Butch) Hall they were just beyond Oscar Strands place on the highway, and they had a lumber yard, and right across the road from them lived 2 old sisters and they had this old circular stone wheel that was made to turn by foot pedals, and you could sharpen knives, and axes and shovels and hoes, etc. It was quite an invention for farmers, and etc. to use. All this while, my dear old Dad was doing a lot of research. He connected with these people out on the other side of Zillah on old highway 410. They were farmers, and they had this huge patch of raspberries right on the highway just out of the city limits. The highway followed the railroad tracks. We didn’t know at the time how he managed to do so, but he purchased a big hunk out of their berry patch and had in mind to build us a home and a gas station right there in the corner of this berry patch. He had connected with the Signal Gas Company over in Toppenish, Washington===just across the Yakima River, 4 miles from Zillah (boy-O-boy was he a wheeler_deeler….. He got this gas company to purchase the land and finance the structure of a house and a gas station.. They would supply the gasoline, and then he would automatically repay them at so much a gallon out of his profit on each gallon of gas sold. He had done this setup 2or 3 times previously with gas companies and it had worked. And it worked again…these people with the berry patch turned out to be VERY good friends. Their names were Vandersluis, and this berry patch was a REAL blessing. They were as good, or better than the tree, fruit, and they were ours, to eat. They grew on vines, like grapes. They came on once a year.
In the meantime, my Dear Old Dad was gathering all of this information about a place up in the Yakima valley in the state of Washington. The area was called the Banana=Belt. It was kind of famous, because of all the fruit grown in that area, starting with cherries in the spring, and ending with apples in the fall, and it was easy to make a living, by going around to the orchards, and picking the fruit and getting paid for it. Money=money=money…,,, Any-way, he made a few special connections, and then came back “home”. And== he decided, we were going to move up there. He hooked our old 1940 Ford car onto our little 19ft. camp trailer, I quit school just before mass. And we left for Zillah, WA. The year was 1946. We ended up in the front yard of Oscar Strands home, and that’s where we pitched our “HOME”….Cherries came ripe for picking in the first part of June, so we had time to kill before Oscars cherries would be ready to pick. We spent a lot of time in Oscars big old house, and got to be really good friends with him and his wife, and I started back into school, right there in Zillah, in a big old, 3 story, brick building, with all the grades, and a large gymnasium in the bottom. I quickly made friends, with a lot of terrific kids in my class. The 1st. grade. Our teacher was a chubby, white, haired old lady by the name of Mrs. Harkima, she was terrific, and she made school fun, fun, fun. I loved her. I still remember A lot of my old classmates, by name Harlan McCoy, Roger Page, Donny Scott, Barbara Brown, Paula Carrol, Gloria Notman, Gloria Nelson, Sharon Butler (I had a crush on her) Robert Linker, Patty Ermey Thomas Duncan Victoria Rodriquez, Tommy Sainsbury, there were others whose names pop into my head periodically===ah—Rodney (Butch) Hall they were just beyond Oscar Strands place on the highway, and they had a lumber yard, and right across the road from them lived 2 old sisters and they had this old circular stone wheel that was made to turn by foot pedals, and you could sharpen knives, and axes and shovels and hoes, etc. It was quite an invention for farmers, and etc. to use. All this while, my dear old Dad was doing a lot of research. He connected with these people out on the other side of Zillah on old highway 410. They were farmers, and they had this huge patch of raspberries right on the highway just out of the city limits. The highway followed the railroad tracks. We didn’t know at the time how he managed to do so, but he purchased a big hunk out of their berry patch and had in mind to build us a home and a gas station right there in the corner of this berry patch. He had connected with the Signal Gas Company over in Toppenish, Washington===just across the Yakima River, 4 miles from Zillah (boy-O-boy was he a wheeler_deeler….. He got this gas company to purchase the land and finance the structure of a house and a gas station.. They would supply the gasoline, and then he would automatically repay them at so much a gallon out of his profit on each gallon of gas sold. He had done this setup 2or 3 times previously with gas companies and it had worked. And it worked again…these people with the berry patch turned out to be VERY good friends. Their names were Vandersluis, and this berry patch was a REAL blessing. They were as good, or better than the tree, fruit, and they were ours, to eat. They grew on vines, like grapes. They came on once a year.
.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
early years part 4
Early years part 4
Where my parents lived when they were growing up ,they used to have winters 30 to 40 below 0, and the snow was like 8 to 10 feet deep and I use to hear a lot of stories about their weather and what all that they had to live through. We had some of this kind of weather down at Adrian when I was a little kid of 3-4-5-6 years old, and than the old Snake river would freeze over and then get jammed up later with Big chunks of ice. Eventually when the time came that Uncle Dale needed his house again we found new lodging in some old cabins on the edge of the river just across from Adrian on the highway going towards Parma, Idaho. They were known as Holley's cabins. So now we were right next to some of these big ice jams. I also experienced at age 6 my first girlfriend here . She must of have been3 or 4 years older than me, we had fun a lot playing together.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Early years continued
Part 3
About 3 miles south on this little country highway going towards Homedale ,Oregon, lived my Uncle Odis on a farm with horses and cows and chickens and all the different crops raised on a farm. One day he comes up with an old dead corn cob he hollowed it out from one end, dug a small hole in one side, and then come up with a strong hollow reed about 5 inches long, stuck it in this little hole, and presto" we had a "Corn cob pipe", and then some dead weeds for tobacco. When I got home, I showed my Dear Old Dad my new wondrous "toy" and boy was he " MAD".I didn't get to go back out to Uncle Odes again for a long while. Uncle Ode Aunt Thora. They had 4 kids that I really liked a lot .I spent a lot of time out there I really loved it .Aunt Thora was a terrific cook and I remember hanging around to eat her food .I was out there one day, and Uncle Ode came up with a pony a Shetland pony I loved animals, especially horses, I was on his back in no time at all. He wouldn't go . So I tried to nudge him a little with my feet . He didn't like that at all and boy he let me know it next I knew I was head first over his head he let me know who was the boss, so that was the end of that venture . Somewhere about this time about 5 years old still, my Dad decided to sell his business venture. So up we moved all our stuff out into a large old empty shed on some friends place next to Uncle Odes.Their names were Eastman's, and they had some smart alecky kids and when 4thy of July came along, they were out in the yard playing around with all their fun fireworks and the big old shed went up in flames . The fireman came and could only save some of it, and some of our stuff. At this time we were living in a small house out on my Uncle Dales farm out on the other side of Adrian, He kept this house for his hired help to live in when they were helping him on his property. But now it was empty so he let us live there. Among the stuff saved at Eastman's was an old treadle wheel sewing machine and a old standup Victrolla record player with a hand crank on the side. These were real antiques, even for that day and time. Some of what I remember around this time at Uncle Dale and Aunt Agnes was havin these antiques and fiddling around with them . Uncle Dale had a big old, ferocious Tom turkey and he had the run of the place and he had me scared a lot of him .He sounded terrible and he knew I was scared of him . I didn't want to even want to go out of the house. Uncle Dale was another of my Dads brothers. my Dad and Mom both came from, large farm families, like 10 and 11kids. They both came from eastern Idaho, from small farming towns north of Pocatello, Idaho.
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