In the late summer of 1940, Mother, Mary and I moved to Camp Sherman, where mother had been able to get a job teaching in a one room school.

CATEGORY: LATE CHILDHOOD​PHOTO: CARVED KNOT(WRITTEN BY GRACIE) There was a man named Owen Thompson who owned a very nice cabin on the east side of the Metolius River.  He was one of the Sherman County Thompsons and had been friends…

CATEGORY: LATE CHILDHOOD​PHOTO: SAME SCARY SELF PORTRAIT, OIL PAINTING Dearest Jean, Your article is certainly expressive of your feelings about our father ignoring your existence.  I know that Mother went to great lengths to make you feel wanted and loved.…

CATEGORY: LATE CHILDHOOD FLOOR PLAN OF GRASS VALLEY HOUSE DRAWN AT AGE TEN Almost all the things I have done in my later life, I learned as a child.  I had certain inherent inclinations.  When I learned to sew at…

CATEGORY: LATE CHILDHOOD PHOTO: TWO HORSES THAT LOOK LIKE DIXIE AND JOKER The summer after our school year in Camp Sherman, one of our Camp Sherman school mates visited us for a week in Grass Valley.  Her name was Lou…

In the late summer of 1941 we moved to Shaniko, a tiny town thirty miles south of Grass Valley in Wasco County. I was 12 and Mary was 13.

There was no church of any kind in Shaniko. Every two weeks a minister came from The Dalles and held church and Sunday school in the school house. 

Something we children loved to do when we lived at Shaniko was to go to Antelope. Antelope was a tiny town only six miles from Shaniko, and it was older than Shaniko, going back to 1871. That was only six years after…

Mother taught in Shaniko for two years.  The second year we moved into a different and larger house.  I have noticed that almost every town, no matter how small, usually has at least one, and sometimes several primo houses in…

It was in Shaniko that I learned to roller skate.  The service station where Pat lived in back rooms had an addition off to one side that might have been a dance hall at one time, but had more recently…

The summer before my first year in high school was the last summer we spent In Grass Valley. It was the summer I helped My Uncle Wallace make hay.

In the spring of 1944, I graduated from the eighth grade in Grass Valley.  Mary had spent that year of her high school education in Lakeview living with our father.  I missed her terribly, as did our mother.  She was…