Shaw's Lumber Camp
The next place we moved to was Shaw's lumber camp. We had
a small cabin in the woods. Dad worked in the sawmill.
Would you believe, I can't recall if we had electric or
even running water. I think we had water but I don’t remember a bathroom.
What I do recall with a lot of clarity is that the
Freihofer's bread truck stopped at least once a week and if we had enough money
and mom usually saved out some, we bought something besides a loaf of bread.
What I loved best were these super fresh soft bread roll type thing like a
Danish but better. I loved the lemon filled ones best but sometimes we got
raspberry because Mom loved them best.
It was winter when we moved there. I remember snow on the
fall leaves. I remember all winter long us kids would haul in the wood for the
fire. Dad chopped it and we hauled it. We didn’t have mittens and the snow was
really cold so we put socks over our hands and arms to haul it in the house. It
was usually snowing while we did it. I remember seeing our arms turn blue from
the cold. Ma would make us stand by the fire till we warmed up before sending us
out for more wood. We had to get enough inside to last all night and for
morning.
When we first moved there Mom warned us all not to touch
anything in the burn pile. She tried to burn it all before we even saw it but I
remember pretty valentines blowing in the wind through the trees.
Mom told us that the little girl who had lived there
before had some kind of terrible disease that we might catch if we touched
anything. We were very careful not to touch. I was in awe of the burn pile
because it was inside of a big black witch's cauldron. I felt sad for the little
girl.
We had some adventures while we lived there. We had to
walk over a mile to get to the school bus. Enid and Sue hadn't started school
yet.
I was supposed to be in first
grade but after coming from a one room school house I hadn't really learned all
that much. School terrified me. The teacher was mean. She expected me to know
what the other kids knew and I didn't. She told me I was stupid. I would sit in
my chair and shiver while she yelled. I was afraid to tell mom because I thought
the teacher would tell her how stupid I was. I suffered through it.
I was always glad when the bell rang and it was
time to go home.
The bus ride home seemed like
another universe to me had I known what a universe was in those days. The driver
was Ray Farr.
If someone was bad on the bus, he would stop
the bus and smack them.
I remember two big fellows on the bus called the Glazer
Brothers. Mom told us they were nice and would protect us if we needed them. I
never needed them so I don't know.
It was a small bus compared to those of today, but
otherwise the same, well except for the huge piles of dog poop in the aisle some
Monday's. Ray Farr used the bus to go on hunting jaunts on the weekend. He piled
his dogs in and never seemed to care what they left behind. You sure had to
watch your step on that bus.
Out on the main road the stop before ours was a little
house on a ridge where a tiny little boy lived. The boy was not more than five.
Usually, his mom waited for him to get off the bus but one night she wasn't
there. I have to give points to Ray Farr here. When no one was there, he
wouldn't let the little boy off the bus. He even got off the bus and checked the
door but no one was home.
He told the little boy to go home with us and Mom would
take care of him. She did, too. His Mom had to go to the hospital and his dad
tracked us down and Mom said she'd watch him till his Mom came home. So we had a
little brother for a few days. It was not fun. He was a cantankerous little brat
but he could be funny.
Dad scared him the first night. We were at the table when
Dad set his coffee cup down with a thump and the boy jumped and his eyes got
big. Dad, trying to be funny, did it again on purpose. Again, the boy jumped,
but he got a look in his eyes and reaching over he took Dad's cup and smashed it
down so hard it broke and coffee went everywhere. You could tell Dad was upset
but there wasn't much he could do, after all, he started it. He just asked mom
to get him another cup.
One night we were all playing in the bedroom that all us
kids shared, when the boy yelled, "Let's play Ray Farr." What that meant was
that we would put the chairs in two rows and play that we were riding on the
bus. He said he'd be Ray Farr. He sat in the first seat and pretended to drive.
All of sudden he jumped up and ran to the back of the row and smacked Sue across
the face hard! We were all shocked. Needless to say Sue was in tears and that
was the end of that game.
One night in late February we had a terrible ice storm.
It started while we were still in school. By the time we got off at our road, it
was frigid cold and ice was thick on everything.
We had a hill to climb but it was all glare ice. There
was just Anna, Millie and me sliding along. We tried putting one foot ahead of
us but we usually ending up two feet behind. It was awful and scary.
Part way up the hill the others couldn't make it and lay
there in the road exhausted. I was closer to the edge. I told them I'd get them
help. Using the branches and weeds along the edge, I pulled myself home on my
stomach.
Dad went out and got the girls. We all warmed up by the
fire. By then I was feeling like I'd really done something special because my
older sisters couldn't do it but I did. Of course, if they had been the one near
the edge they could have made it too.
In school all kids got milk with the lunch they brought
from home. Sometimes we got a small bowl of soup too. We took cheese wiz
sandwiches a lot.
Once in the winter on the playground a little boy stuck his tongue on the swings and it stuck. He asked me to find a teacher. I was scared. I don't know why but it took me some time to find one and even then I don't think she believed me. That little boy could be still stuck there for all I know. Well, not really. I just don't remember.
Dad was not only went to church with us here but I think he was pretty involved in it all.
I remember at Christmas time I went up on stage and sang a song that wasn't religious but was Christmassy. I sang "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" Mom said afterwards and repeated for years later that while I was singing it I grabbed the hem of my dress and started twisting it in a knot. By the time the song was finished the skirt was wound up tight at my waist and I was showing my panties. I heard there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd.
I added a link to the name of the bakery. I didn't know they had a website. I didn't even know they still were in business.