The Worst Job...14º

I remember working in the potato fields as the worst job ever...All day standing in one spot, bent over a moving belt...The clanging, banging, constant noise of the digger, the cold or heat, dirt and wind...A friend of mine said it was a job that built character and I couldn't agree more...I was glad to move on to cleaner, quieter and less back breaking jobs but I will always remember the potato field as a place where I made life long friends, we took the hard work in stride, kept a sense of humor alive with practical jokes and treated each other with respect and most of all we laughed...Sometimes we were laughing so hard that our hands quit working and the machine came to a halt so we could regroup and get back to throwing clods and debris...The last fall that I worked, we put in 21 straight days in October...Each day as we climbed down the ladder, it was like leaving a boat as we reclaimed our balance on solid ground...I remember the crew changing constantly as some people simply gave up, some only worked on weekends for a few extra dollars and some like me found another job...I must say I was one of the lucky ones as I found a job I grew to love, a job that was fun, had benefits and again I made life long friends...More about that in the days to come...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Pushing Forward...21º

Clada (Clay-da) a combination of her fathers name Clay and her mothers name Ada...A very unique name and a unique lady...After Cliffs death she struggled on with help from family (3 daughters, 1 son,) friends and neighbors...She hired help to run the farming operation for a couple more years, until the lease ran out on the farm, she sold the equipment, bought a house in town with an apartment...For many years she lived in the apartment and rented the house...In later years, Clada's father passed away and Clada became a care giver for her mother...Now Clada moved into the house and her mother into the apartment...Clada's children and grandchildren were an important part of her life as well as her many friends...Over the years, I enjoyed occasional visits in her home, where she welcomed me and we reminisced about those days in the potato field...Although she passed on many years ago, I can still hear her laughter and remember her as a dear friend...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Change of Pace...29º

I asked my friend Leita if she wanted to fill-in for a regular at water therapy...She was happy to accept and I welcomed the chance for a visit with her and since I always come right home from WT and fix lunch/dinner, I invited her to join us...Leita is a lively, full of energy kind of person and Herb and I enjoy her bubbly personality...Somewhere in our conversation she said, "Della, I look forward to reading your blog and I like hearing about your move to Joseph, but I miss hearing about what you are cooking and seeing photos of dinners and bread fresh from the oven, all those yummy things."

So I don't know how much longer the "Joseph story" will continue, but think I will take a day, occasionally,  and write about what we are eating, the weather, the kids...This is after all a journal and I like to look back from year to year.

The past couple of days the weather has been pretty crappy...Yesterday it rained, turning the snow to ice, making sidewalks and roads super slick...This morning it is snowing, covering the ice, making it even more treacherous...Good day to stay home.

Before WT yesterday I made cream of tomato bisque soup, sliced leftover tri tip, cheese and mushroom for sliders, to go with our soup...A spinach/mandarine orange salad finished the meal...So busy eating and talking that I didn't get photos, so you will have to settle for some swimming photos of our one and only favorite Granddaughter, Cienna!

Also today Cienna will have her first official driving lesson on the streets/freeways, in and around Portland...Drive with caution...Just kidding Cienna, we know you will do great!...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Fall 76/Spring 77...23º

In the fall of 1976, I finished the potato digging season and landed the steady/part time job at the Joseph City library...Monday thur Friday 12pm to 4pm, not a bad schedule for a working Mom...Although I lacked education in library science, I loved books and quickly learned cataloging, shelving and buying, but our budget was very small, so I couldn't buy very many books...I was basically my own boss and found that I wasn't very good at that...I enjoyed meeting new people and getting to know the old timers who were regular customers...I had a good recall for names and what different people liked to read...But shelving books was not high on my list, so the check-in desk was always piled high and as I locked up each day, feeling guilty and thinking, first thing tomorrow, I will get them on the shelf.

I had applied for a full time job at the school cafeteria but it went to another person with more experience...The good news though was that I moved up on the sub list and got regular calls to fill in for the rest of the school year...I liked this job and loved cooking...It was fast paced, I had to adhere to a schedule and the time flew by...The staff was fun and friendly and the boss, seemed patient and kind, but I was a little nervous about her being a redhead...The size of the pots and pans was a big concern and the copious amount of food that had to be cooked was beyond my comprehension.

I had a call from Clada in May, to work cutting potatoes for the spring planting, but had to tell her that I was working afternoons...I ask if it would help if I took over her cooking chores in the morning, prepping and cooking what needed to be done for lunch...She readily agreed to this and I could handle 2 part time jobs, for a few weeks...I remember the last day there, with a deep sadness in my heart.

The day started, crew all arrived ready to work...I stopped at the cellar briefly to say hi, before going to the kitchen...Cliff and Clada were there, Clada in work clothes but Cliff was dressed to go to Union County, to contact potential buyers for the fall potato crop...He took a fair amount of kidding that morning about leaving us to do the dirty work while he was off playing...He took it all in stride and with a twinkle in his eye, reminded us that someone had to sell the potatoes or we would all be out of a job.

On the menu that day was beef stew...I put the stew meat on to brown, before measuring out flour to make a batch of bread...Nothing like fresh bread, alongside a bowl of stew...I worked steady, chopping, slicing and dicing...I hurried the dough/bread along, pulled 4 loaves out of the oven before leaving and thought, there will be enough for supper tonight.

After dark that night Clada heard the car pull in the driveway, breathed a sigh of relief, Cliff was later than usual... She walked toward the door...An abrupt knocking sounded, confused, Clada opened the door to find a policeman.

Sometime in the late afternoon, Cliff had died in a car/train collision...OWAV:)

Fitting in...23º

I continued to look at other houses, just in case we had to move within the city of Joseph...Both Bobbie Jo and Rusty made noises that they didn't want to move to Enterprise and I didn't blame them, it would be a difficult change and Herb was still looking for a transfer out of the area and that would mean another new school...Meantime, with my different jobs, I was meeting more people...Socially we stuck with FS people, Herb joined the Elks and signed on with a bowling league...I continued to say no to PTA, Sororities and "Bridge."..Although I had one well meaning lady tell me that I was "nobody" until I joined a bridge club...I attended one meeting of the "lady Elks" and it had "Clique" written all over it...I declined that one also...Wednesday nights at the Elks was fun as we could take our kids, enjoy "Family Night" eat an inexpensive meal and our kids had their first "Shirley Temple" and "Roy Rogers," while Herb and I had a cocktail.

In about 1976 Herb applied for a transfer in Northern Washington, competition was tough, with minorities, (Veterans, Hispanics, African Americans and Women) given first preference, a white male didn't have much of a chance...At about the same time Herb heard from his former Ranger in Utah, who had since moved to Las Vegas, a job was open there and he encouraged Herb to apply...The hardest part of saying no, was that Herb would have loved to take a job with his old Boss...The easy part was No, we didn't want to live in a big city, didn't want to put our kids in big city schools, I didn't want to move to the desert, we didn't want to move that much farther away from Herbs Dad and who in their right mind wanted to live in Las Vegas?...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

I Can't believe we did this...19º

True to our word, we arrived at work the next morning with tobacco...Most of us didn't smoke, NONE of us chewed...But I think we were so bored with the endless drudgery and repetition of the job that we would try anything...I remember feeling like the quilty teenager, when I tried my first cigarette, but that morning standing in front of the belt, on the "mean machine" all of us slipped tobacco, just inside our lower lip, like seasoned pros...The idea was, that slowly over the day, the nicotine, seeping into our bodies, would keep Clada from having to light up a cigarette...BAD IDEA!..It didn't take long for all of us to start feeling dizzy and nauseous... All together, we managed to spit the tobacco, toward the ground, where it disappeared along with the dirt clods...That didn't stop our antics, we continued with the practical jokes and plain craziness, but tobacco chewing had to be the stupidest thing we tried, in our career, on the potato digger.

Near the end of a long day, the field almost finished, Cliff pushed on, hopeful that we could finish before dark...Abruptly something hot and wet hit me in the face, I yelled the standard "WHOA", Cliff stopped, looked back, saw nothing piled up on the table, shook his head and immediately let out the clutch and I yelled "STOP, DAMMIT."..Again he looked back at me and this time could see that my face was splattered with oil...One of the hydralic hoses had split and I was in direct line of the spray...He felt so bad and apoligized profusely, while I mopped my face...Kiddingly I said, "Cliff, you've ruined my best pair of bibs, I'll have to send you a bill!" Not to be outdone, he answered, "Wait until I dock your wages for that hot oil treatment."..We finished the field the next morning after a new hydralic hose was installed.

I worked two seasons on the digger, alongside others, like me, looking for a few extra dollars...I remember a poet, school teacher, librarian among the women...The men were older, semi retired or younger boys, still looking for a permanent job...By the end of the two years I was doing substitute work at the Joseph City Library and the Joseph School Cafeteria...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Chewing instead of Smoking...34º

I mentioned in a previous blog that Herb and the kids were having a learning experience, taking on new responsibilities, keeping the "home fires burning," you might say.

I too was learning new things, such as patience, when the "mean machine" broke down again...On warm days it was a welcome break, when we, the women, could sit either on the sunny side or shaded side, lean up against a wheel to rest our aching backs and visit, while the men crawled under the machine to fix yet another belt, bolt or pulley...But sometimes the break stretched on and a replacement part had to be found, and we found other things to do...Joyce had a volkswagon bug and we took many rides in that, cruising the field and especially the ends of the rows, where the digger might miss a few potatoes...With a shovel and a gunny sack we could dig and share these potaoes to take home...This also gave us a chance for a potty break, across the field from the men and using the "bug" to hide behind...We all worked at making this job fun, almost anything could make us laugh, so we told jokes, pulled pranks on each other, anything to pass the time...After a potty break one day, those of us wearing bibs, decided to put our bibs on backwards and see how long it took the "guys" to notice...Two days later one of them laughed, and pointed and insinuated that we were pretty stupid, not to realize that our clothes were on backwards...Of course that produced gales of laughter from us and left them shaking their heads, dumbfounded.

Endurance was learned when a breakdown occured and the weather was cold...Sometimes we could climb up into the dump trucks and sit, out of the wind, but most of the time it was better to keep moving to keep warm and limbered up, knowing that soon we would be standing, bent over the moving table, until the next break...Endurance also occurred when one 60 acre field was finished and Cliffs parting words that night were, "Meet at the house in the morning and we will drive to Upper Prairie Creek and start on the 80 acre field."

I learned understanding, working with men and women, young and old from all walks of life and all temperaments...Cliff and Clada both seemed to be patient, understanding people but one day Cliff wasn't happy when Clada signaled him to stop so she could have a cigarette...He stopped long enough for her to light up, then abruptly put the machine in gear and away we went, Clada puffing away, using one hand for the cigarette and throwing clods with the other...The conversation that day went something like this..."Clada, have you ever tried "chewing" instead of smoking, then we wouldn't have to stop for you?"We were always looking for a way to help each other out...She finally agreed to try our suggestion but only if we would join her...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Potatoes Continued...34º

The encredibly long, dirty, cold/hot days took their toll...It was a continual struggle to find the appropriate clothing and especially gloves...Early fall mornings in Wallowa County are cold, we could put on more layers for body warmth, hats for our heads and wool socks in our boots...But our fingers were a major problem...Gloves that would keep fingers warm were bulky and made it impossible to do our job...Working with cold/freezing fingers made a dirty job almost unbearable...I think I forgot to mention that we were being paid under $2.00 an hour...My memory fails me on the exact dollar amount...I usually wasn't a quitter but I thought about quitting many times, standing at that belt, with the continual motion, noise, dirt, wondering how long before break time.

After the first week, a determination to finish the season (I think the wages went up just a bit if you did,) became a mindset...Also by this time none of us wanted to disappoint Cliff and Clada...They were out there everyday, working longer hours, Clada worrying about cooking meals and a household to manage, as well as working on the digger...Cliff was always repairing equipment at nights...Their days were long and grueling, the potato crop was a big part of their income...Plus the grain crop was getting close to harvest and all the other farm chores had to be done everyday...We for the most part became a faithful, dependable crew, staying to the end.

No matter how unbearable things became Clada was optimistic and had this incredible, infectious laugh and she had a love for smoking that came in very handy, when we needed an extra break!..Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Potato Digger/Sorter...29º

A hugh machine, similar in size to a grain combine...It dug the potatoes, and picked them up, then they went up a conveyer belt and ended up on another conveyer belt that ran across a narrow table, where 5 women (never MEN) stood waiting and ready to throw out any rocks, debris or dirt clods...The "clean" potatoes continued on and filled a dump truck that inched along beside the "digger." Really?...That first morning, Cliff gave us only a brief lesson because Clada was a seasoned hand at this job and she was standing in line with the rest of us...So we stood on a narrow platform, on a moving, jerking machine, with a belt continuously moving in front of us, we were expected to balance ourselves and pick out clods of dirt with both hands and throw them at our feet, as fast as we could...AND no matter how dizzy this made you, DO NOT throw up, as the chain reaction wouldn't be pretty!... I honestly don't remember much about that day, but it didn't take me long to figure out that the new gloves I was wearing, didn't keep my hands warm and they would be worn out before the day was over...Heavier gloves really wouldn't work because then you would never be able to pick up the clods...As the digger picked up the potatoes and dirt, hugh clouds of dirt billowed in our faces and goggles in those days didn't help much...I wondered if I would live to see the first 15 minute break.

Cliff and Clada Kiser had to be the nicest people in the world to work for...They treated all of their workers like family, welcomed us into their house, dirt and all, for a hot noon meal...A crew consisted of 5 sorters, 2 truck drivers and Cliff driving the machine, also someone in the cellar to help unload the potatoes...I knew none of these people but they soon became friends.

At home that night, my family didn't recognize the "racooned" face person that arrived at the back door...I don't remember anyone asking what was for dinner?..(I think I had sense enough to have food ready to warm up.) Most of my clothes were left outside and I made an underwear beline for the bath tub...The following days/weeks were a learning experience as Herb and the Kids, became pros at running the washing machine and dryer, not only doing their own clothes but mine as well...They did the prep work for meals that I planned, (peeling potatoes, making salads etc.) and we still had our dinner together, with Mom going to bed shortly after...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Much like the one I worked on.

Part Time Jobs...30º

I started Looking for part time work outside the home, my only experience was as a sales clerk in a drug store and of course I was a licensed beautician in Idaho...Beauty shop work really didn't appeal to me and I certainly wasn't prepared to take state boards in Oregon to get another license... I asked at Dummers Drug, but he had a long time employee, and said he would keep me in mind...I started doing the occasional haircut and perm at home for neighbors and friends...I kept hearing from women about seasonal work in the potato fields around the Joseph area...Growing seed potatoes was a new venture in the county, with at least 4 area farmers trying their hand at it...Since I had grown up on a farm, knew all about hard, dirty work, and had when still a teenager worked, cutting seed potatoes, for a potato farmer in McCall, Idaho, maybe I should pursue this...Another possibility, I heard about from a Forest Service wife, Monet, was substituting in the school lunch room and also my neighbor, Jane, worked at the Joseph Library, and asked if I would be interesting in substitute work there?..

In the fall of '74, I got a call from Laura (FS wife) that Kisers were hiring a crew to work on the potato digger, was I interested?...If the fall weather stayed warm as usual, we would need few clothes or if the weather turned cold, then lots of clothes, in layers, would be needed...Hats, gloves, boots and goggles would be a must...The job would last about two months, no days off unless it rained or the equipment broke down...Work started at 8am, breaks, morning and afternoon, so bring a snack and water...They furnished a hot meal at noon and we would finish the day, somewhere around 6pm.

Herb didn't have a problem with me working outside the home, as some men did in those days and I doubt that I discussed it with the kids, other than to let them know that I wouldn't be home after school and that they were expected to come straight home, as usual, do their chores and homework, set the table and Dad would be home at 5pm from his job...I should be home shortly thereafter, and life would go on as normal...Little did I know...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Cienna...22º

Keeping up with Cienna, school, swimming, and Austin....Seems that they are enjoying each others company, swimming, movies, basketball games....Having fun...Hugs to Ci and Austin...OWAV:)

Early Years...25º

The years between 1973-77 brought many changes to our life...In that time Herb put in for transfers, (didn't get selected for one) and welcomed new Rangers, hoping his job might get better...I did find a couple of part time jobs...We bought a newer boat, became partners with friends in a ski/swim dock on Wallowa Lake and bought a large tent...Our summers were spent either boating and camping or camping and boating with Herb going on fires every chance he got...We spent as much time with Dad as possible and Bobbie Jo and Rusty took turns, during summer vacation, staying with him on his 10 acres in Coundil, Idaho...We thought we would be spending time with my Mom in McCall, Idaho but in July of 1973, 3 short months after we moved to Joseph, she took advantage of rising property prices, sold her home and moved to Bountiful, Utah, where she had purchased her parents home, a couple of years earlier.

Bobbie and Rusty seemed to have settled into our new life, Bobbie stayed in Girl Scouts, until the troop disbanded and Rusty made it through Cub Scouts but had no interest in Boy Scouts...He did go out for Little League Baseball but ended his "career" with that...Bobbie was coping with the tumultuous years of Jr High, headed for High School...Some weeks Sunday School was included.

We continued to make small improvements to our rented house because Hayes' now were thinking of retiring to the San Juans Islands instead of Joseph and maybe that would be an opportunity for us to buy the house...After looking at other properties in Joseph/Enterprise we began to realize what a "gem" we were living in and saw nothing that suited us better...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Our Bridge..28º

Today seems like a good time to include this essay that I wrote nearly 10 years ago...The bridge was a special part of Barton Heights history and it was indeed a sad day, watching the fire that signaled its demise...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Barton Heights Foot Bridge

 A small mill once sat beside the Wallowa River not far below the Wallowa Lake damn.  I imagine they milled lumber for some of the surrounding houses and barns. Above the river in the early 1900’s one to five acre parcels were sold and Joseph’s first subdivision was formed with houses soon to follow.  With surplus lumber a footbridge was built from the mill spanning both the irrigation ditch and the river to a trail leading to Barton Heights.  By using this bridge the people had fast and easy access to the town of Joseph.

       Jumping ahead many years to 1973, the year we arrived in Joseph, the bridge still standing and usable was in a state of disrepair.  Our children walked over it every morning on their way to school.  Now, what was left of the old millpond was a frog pond where our son spent many hours with his new friends catching frogs.  A perfect playground for little boys. 

       We worried about the rickety bridge, but until we received a letter from Joseph City didn’t really think about doing anything about it.  It seems that because the bridge joined our land to the city we were responsible for it and had to do something about it.  After talking with our neighbors we decided to attend a city council meeting and stressed the importance of the bridge, not only for our convenience but the historical side of it as well.  They agreed to let us use a CETA crew for the labor and the lumber was donated by Monschke’s mill.  Down came the old bridge with the high span and two new lower bridges one over the river and the other over the ditch, were built.  Everyone on Barton Heights agreed to help with the upkeep and we used the bridge for the next twenty years.

       Walking to work in the early morning hours the bridge became a special place for me.  I loved to stand on it listening to the leaves rustle in the breeze, the water rushing beneath my feet.  Maybe a squirrel or a bird would bid me good morning as the sun brightened my path.

       But things started changing on and near the bridge, parts of the railing were pulling off and sometimes it would get vandalized.  It was harder and harder to keep it repaired so it would be safe.  When I walked home from work there were signs along the river of small campfires, cigarette butts, beer cans and garbage.  I started carrying a bag to pick up the litter on my way home from work.  We put up no trespassing signs but they did no good.  It wasn’t the same place and I started walking by way of the road.

       It seemed inevitable that this bridge also would have to come down.  After much thought, I talked to the city officials. They volunteered to tear the bridge down and burn the lumber. So now the road is the only way to Main Street. I can take the trail down to the river where it is again quiet and peaceful without any garbage strewn about and I know that tearing down the bridge was the right thing to do although it still brings a tear to my eye.

Water Color of the Barton Heights foot bridge, by Angie Toothman.

First Winter 1973...27º

After spending a summer on the hill (Barton Heights,) we had met all of our neighbors and felt comfortable in this little neighborhood that was still in the city limits, had city water and sewer but was removed from main street...We attended the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo, including a carnival for the kids, we could hear some of the noise but didn't have to deal with having the carnival set up next door or people parking on our lawn, like the people did, that lived "down town."

All of the houses on Barton Heights sat on a small acreage and we were connected to town by a foot bridge that spanned not only the Wallowa River but an irrigation ditch as well...We used this bridge daily for many years...Our neighbors, Williams' to the South, had a milk cow and to the North, Lewis' had horses, so it was a rural part of the city...Mr. Williams was the school superintendent, and he and his wife Jane become not only neighbors but lifelong friends...All the kids in the neighborhood were either older or younger than our kids, so only fleeting friendships were made on the hill...I will write more about our neighbors at another time.

With the kids back in school, weather cooling off, we found that Joseph was known for its "Indian Summers."..A time to enjoy cool evenings, brisk fall days, the changing not only of the leaves but the yellowing of the tamarack...It was a time to hunt deer/elk, get a supply of firewood for the winter and get serious about winterizing the house...Sometime during the summer, Herb had partitioned off a small space, in the basement for a fruit room...He and Dad built shelves and I stacked all the canned goods that we brought with us from Utah, plus what I canned that first summer...In another corner of the basement, with a dirt floor, he made a space to store wood to keep it dry and easy to access for the winter.

That first winter was a struggle to keep the house warm...First thing we did was cover the windows with plastic but the two heat sources were so close to one another that we had to use one or the other or we ended up with a house full of smoke...We made it through the winter and by the next summer had convinced the landlord that the floor furnace was a big mistake and they agreed to install an oil furnace with duct work to all rooms of the house..(Actually only one vent to the upstairs but it worked.)Herb also installed a barrel stove in the basement, knowing that if we could keep the floors warm, the oil furnace could do a better job of keeping the rest of the house warm...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Stuck...37º

I think I need a break from the "Joseph Story," so back to a blathering blog today...We awoke to wind this morning as the temperature rose and light rain was falling...A cloudy, dreary day...Guess I will have to start a baking project or make a pot of soup.

Events taking place in the county to chase away the winter blahs are the "Big Read" and the featured book is "Our Town."..The local theater group will also be doing the play of the same name, later in the spring...The "Eagle Cap Extreme", sled dog race starts on the 20th for a 3 day event and is a qualifier for the Iditarod...Always an exciting winter event, hope it is snowing in the mountains!..That's all for today from Barton Heights...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Groovin'...19º

A hot dry summer unfolded for us, following a real spring...At times I thought I had died and gone to heaven, never before living in a place where spring was an actual season...I found out in the coming years that "spring" seldom happens in Joseph and that year was an anomaly...No matter, we pushed on with our new life...The kids finished the school year, Herb was busy learning his new job, making acquaintances and I had met a few of the forest service wives...The lake would be a big draw for us, we tried out the fishing and even braved the freezing water on ski's...The north beach was less than two miles from our house, easy access for "swimming" on hot afternoons.

Speaking of hot, Bobbi Jo and Rusty soon found out that the upstairs bedrooms were too hot for sleeping, so spent most of the summer nights on an old mattress, on the front porch...I began to think about winter and how cold those upstairs bedrooms were going to be...In a note to Hayes, with the monthly rent check, I asked if "the house" had any insulation?..They wrote back saying that surely it did...As summer nights cooled off in late September, we turned on the floor furnace, that had been installed in the living room floor, the previous year...It sounded like a jumbo jet was reving up to take off in the middle of our living room and the heat it put out was minimal...Adjacent  to the floor furnace was a small Franklin fireplace for additional heating (not the best combination)...I checked around in the attic with a flashlight and could find nothing that looked like insulation and also paid closer attention to the upstairs windows and found where all the flies were getting in...Big spaces were on every side of the ill fitting windows....I was beginning to see signs of a long, cold winter and also signs of a huge bill for fuel oil...I started putting out feelers for a part time job.

Aside from worry about the winter, we found that in summer we could visit Herbs Dad or he us by driving the Wallowa Mountain Loop Road,(partially unpaved) a much shorter distance than going via LaGrande and the freeway...We spent weekends at his place in Council or we met at an unimproved campground at one of the reservoirs on the snake river, where we boated, fished and water skied in warmer water...He spent an occasional weekend in Joseph, where the kids delighted in showing him our new property over the hill, a veritable playground for Rusty and his friends...This playground was a plus for Bobbie Jo as it gave her freedom from always having to watch over her little brother...Did I worry about him and the river below our house, or the frog pond where he spent hours trying to catch crawdads and frogs, that he proudly brought home...I did, but never as much as I had when we lived 50 feet away from highway 40...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Finding Our Groove...5º

Bobbi Jo and Rusty experienced the usual emotions of moving and leaving behind the only friends that they had ever known...They were excited and scared but ready to give it their all...Going to school as the new kid on the block is not easy and of course all schools have their own dynamics; Pecking order, bullies, friendly kids, leaders and followers and cliques...Not sure that I gave the kids any advice, other than just try to be friendly to everyone and things will all work out and of course mind the teacher and your manners AND come straight home from school...Do not go to a friends house!...Do not stop at the Candy Store!...The schools were within walking distance and it was with apprehension that I waved goodbye and watched them disappear down the hill, out of sight and saw them again after they had crossed the Barton Heights foot bridge crossing over the Wallowa River, out of sight again as they proceeded to main street...Bobbie Jo 10, was responsible enough to get Rusty 7, to his school before walking a few more blocks to the middle/high school where her classes were...

Things seemed to go okay and I pumped the kids each day when they arrived home, asking about teachers, homework, possible friends and asked them to please find out the "new friends" last names so I could check them out...Don't all mothers do this?..Bobbie jo's birthday was coming up so we planned an afternoon party on that day, inviting all of her class to come to our house, play a game of softball in our pasture and have cake and ice cream...(Did we really do this Bob or did I dream this one?)

I had made the decision upon leaving Duchesne that I wasn't going to jump in and join clubs, including PTA, Womans Clubs, Service Clubs Etc...I would pick and choose carefully...Before fall arrived that year I was a Cub Scout leader and also volunteered to help with the Girl Scouts, but I stuck to my guns when asked to join PTA, Young Mothers, Sororities and other service organizations...I had been there, done that and hated the politics involved in all...Actually the Scouting jobs were short lived for me as well.

We were adjusting to our new house, the kids loved the stairway and their upstairs rooms, away from the rest of the house...Herb had repaired the leaky faucets and we talked to the landlords about furnishing the paint, if we did the painting...Summer was coming and we could deal with things until the winter months arrived and see what happened then...Plus we were only going to live here for a short time, until the next transfer or maybe start looking for a house to buy as the Hayes' planned to move back here when he retired..I checked the Wallowa County Chieftain every week, looking at houses for rent and houses for sale...I even made appointments and looked at some of them...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Reality...10º

It was spring in Joseph, we were surrounded by grassy fields on one side and mountains and trees on the other...The wind seldom blew and the quietness of the place truly astounded me...Each morning after the kids left for school and Herb for work, I put records on the hi-fi and turned up the volume, as the silence unnerved me...I spent the days unpacking, rearranging and true to my first impression, this house was really lacking in cupboards and closets...The kitchen was particularly depressing as it was small and someone had painted the counter tops black...Shopping was limited in the valley and after ordering the range and fridge from Montgomery Wards, I turned more and more to their catalog...I ordered light colored, stick on floor tile and used it to covered the black counters...That cleaned things up and lighten the room several shades...The kitchen appliances were soon in place and I could cook real meals instead of one-dish "goulash" in an electric fry pan...Now we began living in the house, not camping.

Herb was not treated kindly by the District Ranger when at their first meeting he greeted him with, "What are you doing here, I thought you turned this job down?"...Herb had indeed turned the job down because it didn't come with the promotion he was in line for...But he was reassured (by the higher ups,) that things could work out for him and that it was in his best interest to take the lateral transfer...He really didn't have any choice...The job was in recreation but the Ranger made sure Herb got jobs that no one else wanted and seemed to delight in setting him up for failure...Thankfully he was due to retire and one could always hope that the next Ranger would be better...The Forest Service was in a state of flux, reorganizing and consolidation of districts and adding the NRA (Hells Canyon, National Recreation Area) after the federal government condemned and usurped those properties...The Eagle Cap Wilderness was already in place...All of these changes were made at a higher level but the Forest Service employees working locally ended up taking the flak from the people affected by these changes...We soon found out that it was not easy to integrate into this close knit community...People were friendly on the surface but we found ourselves making friends within the FS community and it took many years before we would fit in with the "locals."

Over the next 20 years the new Rangers were either climbing the ladder or preparing to retire, definitely no one outstanding came along...The FS continued to change radically, leaning toward environmentalism...Logging went by the wayside, new programs were funded to start with but funds were not available to keep them going...Herb did have variety in his job, which changed with each new Ranger...He did everything from campground maintenance (cleaning toilets), jet boat patrol on the snake river and the NRA, informational programs (entertaining the Wallowa Lake Tourists) fleet management (assigning and inventorying all vehicles for employees to drive) and finally what I think was the thing he enjoyed most and that was forest fires...From the time he started with the FS in 1957 to the end of his career in 1995, every summer he could be found fighting fires...First on the line with a pick and shovel, eating c-rations to the last years when he worked dispatching and eating from the commercial, portable kitchens that blossomed as fires became big business...Hugs to Herb for sticking with the impossible, bringing home the "bacon" so we could live in this beautiful place...OWAV:)

Moving Companies...13º

I think the moving company was "Lion Van Lines."...It is close to "Lying Van Lines."...Well not out right lying but definitely telling me what I wanted to hear to get the job, but never intending to do what I was asking for...After our brief glimpse of the house in Joseph and from past experience we knew that a coat of off white paint on all the rooms would do wonders for the house and was much easier to accomplish in an empty house rather than move all our furniture in and then start painting...I figured we could just "camp out" in the house, get the painting done, then unload our furniture...So when I booked the moving van, I said, "Can we load the van on April 9th but not have it delivered to Joseph until April 15th?"..."Of course Mrs. Allen, when ever you want it delivered, we can just park the trailer in storage for a few days."...But when I called to confirm everything the day before the move it was a different story..."Mrs. Allen, you do know that we will have to unload and reload all of your furniture, in a Boise warehouse, if we don't deliver until the 15th?"...It didn't take me long to figure out that no amount of arguing was going to change this and I agreed to delivery on April 11th...So much for a freshly painted house to move into.

We camped out the first night, sleeping on the living room floor in the house on Barton Heights...The next morning we had breakfast at the Rainbow Cafe, enrolled the kids in school, Herb checked in at the Forest Service and the moving van arrived...The driver was not very happy about the narrow, dead end road and that he couldn't back the van up to the front door...He unloaded and I checked off the items as I directed him to the different rooms...Thanks to Dad, all the boxes had been marked with the name of the room to stack them in...That night we had beds to sleep in and an electric fry pan to cook our meals for the next week...Stove and fridge didn't come with the house and we had to order them at the local Montgomery Wards catalog store, located 6 miles away in Enterprise...While in Enterprise we bought groceries and ice, keeping perishables in a Coleman cooler...We were old hands at camping out, so took all this in stride, making an adventure out of it...I took my time unloading boxes and cleaning as I went, thinking about ways to make the house more livable...I honestly don't remember if we painted any of the rooms at that time or just moved in...Hugs To All...OWAV:) PS...The cat waited for a week to have her kittens.

Moving On...27º

Bright and early the next morning we left Council for the long trip home and to set the wheels in motion for our 600 mile move...Aunt Beaty (Moms sister) extended her stay to help Dad take care of estate matters, help with household chores but mostly for company to help pass the long and difficult days ahead...In two weeks time Dad would take Aunt Beaty to the airport in Boise, then continue on to Duchesne, where he would help us pack our household goods...That would give him something to do and be of great help to us.

Seven years previous when we moved from New Meadows, Idaho to Duchesne, Utah, we rented a U-haul truck, packed our own household stuff and with the help of friends, loaded the U-haul...Herb drove the truck and I our Volkswagen bus...But for this latest move we called a moving company...We would still pack our possessions but they would load and haul...In the seven years in Utah we had acquired a boat, a utility trailer, a pickup and were now driving a lincoln continental...OH MY.

I had been preparing for a move from the day that we arrived at our house in Duchesne...As I mentioned before, it was on Duchesne's main street, Hwy 40 only 50 feet from our front door...Duchesne was a small Mormon community common to Utah, located 100 miles East of Salt Lake City...It was on the edge of the Ute Indian reservation, high desert, hot in summer, cold in winter and the wind blew daily...Blowing dirt east one day and west the next...The "forest" was no where in sight...I always spoke in terms of when we moved not if and had high hopes that it would be only a 2 year stay...I won't go into our life in Utah, that is for another story, but I will say that Herb was happier in his job there than either New Meadows or Joseph...We did make lifelong friends while there and the good memories out weigh the bad.

It was a whirlwind of activity for the next month...Herb got an extension on his report for work from April 1st to April 15th, I gave notice at my part-time job at the local drug store and we forged ahead...I can't remember all the details involved in packing and moving since it will be 43 years come April that we moved to our house on Barton Heights...I do remember the parties and dinners and gifts that came with the move, the goodbye's were more difficult than I anticipated...Our caravan left after noon that day because we would spend a night on the road making two short easy days, instead of a long grueling one...Along for the ride was Herbs dog, Missy and one very pregnant cat named Snoopy...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Sense of Relief...25º

Before leaving Joseph that morning, we drove by the elementary school where Rusty would finish 2nd grade, and a few blocks away atop a hill was the middle/high school where Bobbie Jo would finish 5th grade...Looking West from the school we spotted the little white house on Barton Heights that within a month would become our home...A break in the clouds gave us our first glimpse of Chief Joseph Mountain looming over the city...We left Wallowa Valley that morning, with the feeling that things were going to work out and even though we had our work cut out for us, in one short month we would be living in a different house, in a different town, starting on another of lifes journeys.

Returning to Council was a 5 hour drive on good roads, and the closer we got the more our moods changed knowing life without Herb's Mom would be very difficult for all of us...For a couple of days we had pushed her death into the back ground but now it would be staring us right in the face again...The little house would no longer ring with her ready laughter, welcoming smile and upbeat nature...She loved life and her family, always planned for our visits, with joy in her heart, cooking and cleaning, hardly able to contain herself until we arrived...But this time we came to say our goodbyes, to love and support our Dad and Grampa.

Herb was their only child and they were a tight knit trio when I met them, in 1959...Only two years before we met, Herb and his parents had moved from Clinton Corners, New York to McCall, Idaho...They moved to McCall for the clear, clean air with no humidity because of Frances' (commonly called Babe by family and friends) asthma and so Herb could enroll at the University of Idaho...Herb and I met through mutual friends and married two years later...At first his parents had some trepidation about our romance, (with good reason) I was almost 6 years younger than Herb and still in high school when we started dating but soon many miles separted us when he returned to college, I graduated from high school and moved even farther away when I enrolled in beauty school in Boise, Idaho...In those two years Herb's parents became my friends and accepted me as the daughter they never had and I in turn loved them as a second family...We married and brought incredible joy to them in the form of grandchildren...Three years later we nearly broke their hearts when Herb accecpted a transfer to Duchesne, Utah, almost 600 miles away from McCall...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Deadline...25º

I can't say that we slept soundly, without a care in the world, that night at the Walter Brennan Motel, but we had hope...Herbs phone call to Mr. Hayes in Alaska had been successful...He understood the difficult position we were in with less than a month to make the big move...He took phone numbers to call for our references and gave Herb a verbal promise, "If the references met his expectations, the house was ours come April 1st." He also would call the renters and make arrangements for us, along with the realtor, to get a quick tour of the house on Barton Heights, the next morning.

So far all we knew about the house was that it had 3 bedrooms that we could use, the 4th bedroom was locked as Hayes' had possessions stored there...It had a full unfinished basement, with an oil tank that fueled a floor furnace, recently installed to replace the old coal furnace...The rent was $100.00 a month, $40.00 more than we were paying and I was afraid it was more than our budget would allow, but somehow we would make it work.

Mrs. Patterson graciously welcomed us at the door, two little girls, eyes big, peeked around her...I was pleased with the covered front porch and then impressed as we walked into a spacious living room with two large windows, making it bright and airy...An open stairway added character to the room...My heart dropped as we entered the tiny, poorly arranged kitchen, with hardly enough room for a table and chairs...Range and Refrigerator were not included and I saw more dollar signs added to our already depleted budget...A haphazard laundry room, tiny bathroom (tub/no shower) and a small bedroom completed the main floor...Herb took a quick look at the unfinished basement and found that about half of it had cement floors and could be used for storage...Upstairs, the two small bedrooms would work for our kids...The house had a homey feel and already I could see small changes that would help and adding our own furnishings would certainly make a difference.

As we left by the back door, Mr. Wilson pointed out that the house sat on an acre of ground, that backed up to a 120 acre field...We had neighbors on either side of us, a dirt road at the front and over the hill between the road, the river and main street was a long narrow 2 acre strip that also belonged to the house...I mention this because in Utah we had raised our two children, ages 4 and 1, while living in a house that fronted highway 40...Bobbie Jo was now almost 11 years old and Rusty soon to be 8...A dirt road and 3 acres of ground sounded like heaven.

Before leaving Wallowa County that day, we made a quick trip to see Wallowa Lake, less than 1 mile from town...The lake although much smaller than Payette Lake in McCall, Idaho, where I had grown up, reminded me of that area...The forest, trees and mountains that I had learned to love and had been very homesick for in the years we spent in Utah would now be at our doorstep...This move also put us much closer to family, especially Herb's Dad, who would need our love and support after losing his wife of 40 years.

We arrived back in Council late that evening feeling good about this side trip...I tried to put aside all the worries that a major move can bring and concentrate on one day, one thing at a time, with positive thoughts and actions it would all come together...I would feel much better when we received a contract from Hayes, letting us know that we for sure had a place to live...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Keep Reading...22º

Driving into the Wallowa Valley on that early March day, clouds covered the mountains, a few snow banks, dirty and gray, covered with ash, were all that remained of the winters snow...A hugh plume of smoke from the Boise Cascade mill, settled over the valley...We made our first stop at the Forest Service (Joseph District, where Herb would work) a mile North of the city of Joseph...After introducing himself and explaining his sudden appearance (because of his mothers death,) the district clerks, (women who manned the front desks) made him feel welcome and guided him in the direction of a realtor, who could help in our search for a house...We had never really looked for a house before because FS housing had always been available for us to rent...We had no intention of buying a house because this was a short term stay, before we moved on, in a few years, to another job, in another town, never knowing where.

We met Mr. Wilson at a small yellow house just off of main street, it was actually for sale but the owners might rent it in a pinch...It was a small 2 bedroom, nothing like what we had lived in and I wondered, where would we put all of our furniture?..Mr. Wilson knew of another house that would be coming up for rent but it was occupied at the moment and we could only do a drive by...This house  was on Barton Heights, only a few blocks off main street...We followed a narrow road, up a short steep hill, and stopped in front of an older white house, similar to the one I grew up in...Mr. Wilson kept up a running commentary, answering our questions and filling us in on information about Joseph...As we sat in the car, peering out the windows he said, "The owners of this house live in Alaska and are in no hurry to rent, until they find responsible renters..."Then as an after thought he said, "Mr. Hayes works for the FS in Alaska."...Herb immediately jumped on that piece of info, asked if we could possibly get a phone number...Maybe, just maybe, he would rent to a FS family, with good references.

Thanking Mr. Wilson, we parted ways and found a room for the night at the "Walter Brennan Motel," at the end of main street...The Gold Room Cafe was our choice for a late lunch...While eating our lunch, I watched the people at other tables, wondering, who are these people, are they friends and neighbors that we have yet to meet?"...Herb had other thoughts running through his head and as soon as he finished eating, his pocket full of quarters, he left us and went looking for a phone booth...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Journey Starts...20º

February 1973 a transfer from Utah (after 7 years) to Oregon was in the works...We would be moving closer to our families, but were waiting to tell them until it was official...March 3rd fate intervened, Herbs Mother, age 61, passed away that morning of a massive stroke following an asthma attack...Herb and I were on our way to Twin Falls, Idaho, to pick up siding for my Mom, our kids were with my mother in Bountiful, UT...An urgent message to call his Dad, waited in Twin Falls, for us...In the next few hours, offers of help were carried out...My sister, Loraine and husband, Steve drove to Bountiful, picked up my Mon and our two children, drove to Duchesne, UT, .(our home) where our neighbors, (the Baileys) had suitcases packed with appropriate funeral clothing and enough other clothing for at least a week, for all of us...Late afternoon we all met back in Bountiful, where we unloaded the siding, loaded our belongings and left for Idaho, arriving at Dads, in Council, Idaho around midnight.

As you can imagine the next few days were a blur, funeral arrangement were made, family came from New York state...A constant flow of Dad's friends and neighbors brought food and did everything they could to help...We were all in a state of shock, going through the motions, doing what had to be done...Also our imminent  move to Oregon was on our minds...We were less than 200 miles away from Joseph and made the decision to go to Joseph and look for housing, as Herb was expected to be at his new job around the 1st of April...I tell you all of this because it will help if you know our state of mind before we saw Joseph, OR for the first time.

The winter of 72/73 was an open winter, little snow, which was nice for us on this journey as the roads were good...Scenery was not on our minds as we drove into the Wallowa Valley and after living  in McCall, Idaho we knew all about beautiful scenery...It was a gloomy, cloudy, bleak looking day and didn't improve much when we found out that houses to rent were few and far between...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Struggling...10º

Starting the New Year, I struggle with subjects for my blog instead of just the usual, humdrum life of a retired person, such as food, dinner, baking, daily chores, the weather and community affairs...Friend Pat, (in Maryland) who I text with most mornings suggested I write about our early days in Joseph...So with that in mind here goes.

Today I will set some ground work...The year was 1973, early April...Unlike most people who move here now, we didn't stumble onto this place, fall in love with it and never leave...Herb was transferred here with the Forest Service, his second transfer and we planned to stay 3 to 7 years, until the next transfer as that was life with the FS....Transfers came and went and we stayed.

The population of Joseph was just under 1000 people, it was a mill town and farming community...The sign "This Town Is Heaven To Us, Don't Drive Like Hell Through It," greeted us then as it does now...Joseph was famous for "Chief Joseph Days, basically the one and only annual celebration."..Tourists spent time at Wallowa Lake, not in Joseph, they laughed at the sign and drove straight through...I remember 3 gas stations, Chevron, (Paul was there as he is now.) Shell owned by Burnsides, then Steens, then Antons and now the Outlaw Cafe...Another gas station and bulk plant owned by Ken Stein, then Kilgores and now Mike Musia's garage...A small grocery story where the Cheyenne Cafe is now, a larger grocery store and meat lockers a block away, where Mountain View Cafe was for several years and now is a vacant building...Bank of Wallowa County, now Stewart  Jones Silver...Dummer Drugs now Antons, the brick building was a variety store, (now Heidi's and Teals.) The Rainbow Cafe (later the Piggy Pantry) and now "Old Town Cafe." Mel's Tavern (now an art gallery)The Hydrant (had another name.) Across the street I only remember the Bowling Alley (Playmore Lanes) and Buds hardware...Post Office, City Offices, were in place...I almost forgot the Cowboy Bar and Gold Room (Arrowhead Chocolates and Mexican Restaurant.) Pauls Sports Corral and Dr. Blackburns office.

This is really taxing my brain and I'm sure there are many corrections that can be made but this gives you an idea of how Joseph has changed...Come back tomorrow for more of our story and how our life unfolded in this beautiful valley...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Inspired...0º

On this 2nd day of 2016 Bobi's Blog inspired me to write (not take a walk at 0º)...After taking a few days off from the daily grind of spitting out a blog, i'm back to start on my 5th year and blog number 1543, never dreamed when I started this that I would keep writing, almost daily for 4 years.

What got me inspired was her subject, The Bridges of Portland...Those bridges put the fear of God in me!..We haven't made a trip to Portland in several years now and for me the bridges, and the traffic, noise, freeways, crowds are the reasons...Bobi, I think picked up on this and for the last few years they have made many trips to Eastern Oregon so we didn't have to fight the city travel...Herb is still an excellent driver but with age the reflexes slow, as well as the workings of the mind and the traffic only gets more congested, more crazy, more confusing with each passing year...So since I don't drive in Portland and he would rather not we are happy to leave it to her!

My first introduction to the Bridges of Portland was the fall of 1963...Herb's Dad had a convention to attend in Portland and invited all of us (Herb, Me and Bobbie Jo) to go along with him and Herb's Mom...A fun family trip...At the last minute Herb got a call to fight fire so just Bobbie Jo and I went along for the ride...Actually the trip is another story so I will stick to the bridges today...We arrived in Portland, and a small motel near Lloyd Center (newly built and my first time at a shopping center.)The car was parked for two days and we walked everywhere until it was time to leave...Herb's Mom was a good driver and use to traffic after having a job (when she was young) driving Nuns (no she wasn't catholic) from the Albany NY area into New York City...So she took the wheel as we left Portland and headed farther West to the Oregon Coast...A first for all of us...But for some reason Portland didn't want us to leave...After several trips, trying to follow the signs, we went over a bridge, circled around and ended up right back where we started!!!Hmmm, after the 3rd time Mom found a safe place to pull over, looked around, got her bearings (we were all getting a bit dizzy) and said, "I need to be over there!" AND before we knew what was happening she bumped over two medians, took the Oregon Beaches exit and we were on our way.

On that first trip I knew we were in Portland but I'm sure I didn't know that Portland straddled a huge river and that already many bridges had been built to facilitate traffic in this growing city...Jumping ahead many years I still didn't know much about the bridges, only that they scare me and I want to cover my eyes everytime we went over one...I clicked on the link in Bobi's blog and a couple (2) more to see what I could learn and found it all very interesting...The bridges don't look so daunting when looking at a list and a map of them all in a row...I still don't want to drive over them but will enjoy learning more about them...Now added to my fear is that Cienna will be driving these bridges but thankfully only after taking a "Drivers Ed" course through PCC, starting this month...Cienna, work hard, stay focused, cross those bridges, conquer those freeways,  but please Luv, don't jump over any medians!...Hugs To All...OWAV:)