GRASS VALLEY: THE RANCH
When I was five, we moved to Grass Valley in Sherman County. Grass Valley was both the name of the town and the meadow-like valley in which it nestled. Besides the town, the only other man-built thing in the valley…
GRASS VALLEY: THE TOWN
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTOS: GRASS VALLEY MAIN STREET (HIGHWAY 97) GRASS VALLEY FROM THE NORTH HILL GRASS VALLEY, MAIN STREET: CITY PARK AND ROAD TO OUR HOUSE ON LEFT GRASS VALLEY FROM THE NORTH HILL The town of Grass Valley…
THE SHAPE OF THINGS: THE RANCH
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEY RANCH PLAN I love farms and ranches. I like to figure out how they are laid out and why, assuming there is a reason why people place things in a certain way. Once when my husband, Bob…
THE SHAPE OF THINGS: THE RANCH HOUSE
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEY PHOTO: RANCH HOUSE FIRST FLOOR PLAN RANCH HOUSE PLAN I said the main entry to the house at the ranch was on the south. This was not the dignified formal entry which nobody used. That was on…
THE SHAPE OF THINGS FOR KIDS
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: COOK STOVE SIMILAR TO GRANDMOTHER'S My intent, when I started writing about “the shape of things” was to describe how the ranch was laid out, and adhere strictly to geometry but memories do creep in. It is…
THE LAND WHERE SUMMER IS — Written 1975
High over there beyond those several states of hills is a place I went back to in September.
FARMING WITH HORSES
When we first moved to Grass Valley, Grandfather and Uncle Wallace didn’t yet have a tractor. All the farming was done with horses. They had a team of draft horses named Blacky and Bessie.
FIRST MOVIE
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: COWBOY WITH TRAIN There was a movie theater in Grass Valley. Mother took us to our first movie. I was six years old. There were cowboys riding horses up on the stage right inside the theater! What…
THE PIANO
Shortly after we moved into our house in Grass Valley, my mother acquired a piano.
WARBLER
We had a pet hen named Warbler. This hen liked to sing to the piano.
MOTHER AND RELIGION
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: OLD METHODIST CHURCH IN GRASS VALLEY Mary told me once, emphatically, that we never went to Sunday School. She and I do not have the same recollections. I certainly went to Sunday School at both the Methodist…
JUMPING
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: THE COW BARN AFTER 1980 For some reason known only to God and my Guardian Angel, between the ages of five and seven, I liked to jump from high places. This peculiar pastime started with climbing onto…
SMALLPOX AND CORN CHIPS
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: 1930'S CORN CHIPS CAN When I was about eight years old, I “came down” with smallpox. I cannot remember how this happened. It must have been in the same way that I got whooping cough and scarlet…
GRASS VALLEY HALLOWEEN
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: THE OLD EWE Halloween! The very word still brings back a secret little thrill of excitement--not for Halloween itself, but for the day after. That was when we found out what the big boys had been doing…
LIPSTICK
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: AD FOR TANGEE LIPSTICK In our childhood years the emphasis for women and young ladies was not on physical beauty. “Pretty is as pretty does” we were told. So you can imagine our surprise when one day…
RUBY PETTIS
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTOS: THE OLD SHERARS HOTEL INDIAN FISHING PLATFORMS AT SHERARS FALLS Whenever mother got the chance, she liked to take us and whatever children were at our house (we all rode in the rumble seat) and drive over…
CHARM
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: MARY AND JEAN AT TIME OF BIRTHDAY PARTY. (MARY'S HAIR WAS SHORT BECAUSE SHE WAS ALWAYS CUTTING IT) When I was seven and Mary was eight years old, Mary and I were invited to a birthday party…
JAMES
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEY PHOTOS: 1) JEAN, JAMES AND MARY 2) WE THREE GIRLS AND SOME OF OUR FRIENDS. HARRY STANDING LEFT. JAMES KNEELING RIGHT. 3) THE GRASS VALLEY SCHOOL WITH BOARD WALK James Hartley was a part of our family…
BEAR SPRINGS
In the summer time when the huckleberries were ripe in the mountains, mother would pack a tent and take us into the mountains.
CELILO
Whenever we drove from Grass Valley to The Dalles, we drove past Celilo, an Indian village on the Colombia River.
COUSIN EVERETT
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: GRANDMOTHER AND EVERETT JR. My mother’s brother, our Uncle Everett was one of the most outgoing, hospitable, kind and generous men I have ever known. In direct contrast, his son, Everett (Everett May, Jr.) was the least…
INEZ
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: HARVEY AND INEZ--DO YOU THINK THEY ARE OLDER THAN FOURTEEN? After my Uncle Harvey died of tuberculosis at age twenty five, his wife, who had been Inez Jones, and her two year old daughter, Velma, remained important…
BAD TIMES
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: SELF PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER AS I REMEMBER HIM Mary and I were playing in the back yard. We heard the screen door bang open and slam shut. Gracie came running out of the house. She looked…
A COUGAR DREAM
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: COUGAR UP A TREE I cannot remember when I had this dream. The scene was my childhood home in Grass Valley. My father was in the process of building a play house for Mary and me out…
THE PARTY
CATEGORY: GRASS VALLEYPHOTO: A MAZE SIMILAR TO THE ONE MOTHER MADE Mother had a party for Gracie. It was not for her birthday which was in January. It was in the summer time. Maybe she did this because the rest…