My earliest memories are from we lived in Igo on Gaspoint Rd. I really do not know much about the area, other than it was between 15 minutes and a half an hour from Redding. Being about three or four at this time means it took forever to get anywhere. It was, near as I can tell, not very populated but we had several neighbors fairly close to us.I remember these times with a great amount of nostalgia. Summers seemed endless back then, not being shortened by school. I remember only feeling happiness. Reflecting on these memories, however, makes me kind of wonder why. Most of my actual memories were kind of weird, if not sad.
I remember my neighbor coming in the house to inform us my dog Scottie had been hit by a car. Likewise I remember our horse getting ill and having to be put down. I remember loosing toys and choking on candy. I remember soiling my clothes by stepping on a discarded fruit punch. I remember learning that we don't color on walls, the hard way. Yes, the nostalgia is thick.
There are, however the happier memories. Going to my "first day of school", the spring before I was to begin kindergarten, was one. I remember my uncle visiting with toy boats that we floated in the mud puddle (although I never remember it raining back then) and the model train I got for my birthday.
It is this time when I recall my first memory of a religious nature. I recall going to Church on Easter Sunday. I remember a little flannel depicting the resurrection in front of the open tomb. I also recall that my parents had not stayed.
I attended Bonny View Elementary until 4th grade. I was not the most social child, but I had a good friend named Eric who lived a few houses down.
Things where always interesting then. My family is pretty big, my parents had 16 siblings between them and a lot of cousins and such. I always loved it when family and friends visited, especially when they had kids my age. A good friend of my father, Charlie, lived down the street for a while. He had a daughter my age named Susan, who was like a cousin to me. In fact growing up we always called him "Uncle Charlie". He and my father had known each other for years and worked together at Hyampom Lumber before it moved from Hyampom to Redding. Uncle Ralph was my mom's cousin, and he had three children around the age of my sister and I. Uncle Rick was Ralph's brother, and he had children my age as well and lived nearby in Central Valley for a while.
We also had others who roomed with us at times. We had an extra bedroom, so when we had friends or family who needed a place to stay we helped out, and sometimes made a little money. It wasn't enough though. My father was laid off at Hyampom Lumber and worked at Diamond Lumber in Red Bluff for a while. But it wasn't the greatest time for the Lumber Industry and he was let go there as well. Additionally, our interest rate wasn't fixed and rates where rising.
My father and mother worked at a fast food restaurant named Carl's Jr. for a while. It is a rather well known franchise that stretches from Mexico to Southern Washington, last time I knew. It was not enough to meet the financial pressure however and the bank foreclosed on our house the beginning of my forth grade year. Now, this made it all the more difficult to get an apartment. We spent some nights sleeping at the restaurant, some nights in the car, others in motel rooms. Eventually we settled for a while in a place called the Knotty Pine Motel, which was kind of a cross between a motel and a studio apartment. The rooms were rented for two weeks, and most of the residents where there for long term.
It was that July that my little brother Jason was born. I had long wanted a little brother and was very excited, as I’m sure my sister Lisa was. But within a couple of weeks my sister and I where headed to visit Aunts and Uncles in Oregon and Washington. When our parents came to pick us up they had arranged it so that we were staying with some friends from work. They however where no longer working for Carl's Jr.
At my Uncles in Oregon I began the first four days of school, but then returned with my parents to Cottonwood which is just outside Redding and continued school there. Our hostess was the single mother of a coworker of my parents. She also had her adult daughter and her husband and children living with her as well as two younger children around the age of my sister and I. My parents where in a trailer in the back yard, but my sister and I stayed in the living room of the house.
Our hostess however went Southern Oregon to work picking fruit or something along those lines, and had intentions to bring the rest of the family to her at a future point. Friction grew between my parents and the hostess' daughter and son-in-law.
Hyampom is to this day what I consider my hometown, although I was just under ten when I moved there and was only there four years, but they where very influential years of my life.
Hyampom had a population of somewhere between 200-300 people. There was little work, my parents worked at a summer camp between Hyampom and Hayfork during the summer and my Father did odd jobs throughout the year. My school had about 25 students from grades K through 7th. In 8th and High school we would take the bus for an hour to Hayfork everyday.
I think one of the things that was so great about Hyampom for me was it was as if the whole world was mine. Mill camp had about 8 houses and a few other building's on about half of the property. And most of the houses where empty, usually all except ours (and the owner who lived in the old cook house). The property extended down to the river, and there was and number of small tree's and brush along the river bank to play and make forts in. Likewise, my friends each had their own little world.
My friends Danny and Donovan lived about three miles up the mountain toward Hayfork (Roughly where the tree in the foreground of the picture points). But where they lived sloped down toward the river as well and there was no one else around except the lady who owned the property, who happened to be my uncles ex-Mother-in-Law. Along one side of the property was a creek which we could follow down to the river. Where the creek emptied into the river the soil washed away creating a very deep spot great for swimming. Likewise there was a large rock on the other side great for diving from. I however was not a very good swimmer, but it was an adventure. At one point on the property water would collect into a large pond during the winter. It was not very deep, but it provided us a place to go "boating" in an old plastic children's swimming pool as our boat. My father frequently was hired to take care of things around the property, such as maintaining the water line and so forth, and had his own adventures with Danny and Donovan hanging around like the time he stabbed himself in the thigh.
It was in Hympom, in-fact shortly after moving to Hyampom, that I began my involvement with organized religion. I was invited to a youth outreach program called “Good News Club” held across the street from the school. Although I had frequently shown interest in religion even in Redding I recall being put off by the idea, which I have long assumed was tied to parental reaction to several interactions with door-to-door missionaries. As it turned out, my Mom had attended the same program as a child and told me she felt I would really enjoy it. The next club meeting was on my tenth birthday so I started attending the following week. I cannot say with certainty I never missed a meeting but it was highly unusual. At these meetings I was presented with what was essentially the logical conclusion of my belief in the [Christian] Bible, and presumably my belief in G-d, and within a couple of months I was “born again”. It was a couple more years before I began attending main services on Sundays, not because I didn’t want to but because I felt presumptuous inviting myself. Often times I would go to the school-yard to play only to get in site of the school, and therefore the Community Hall which held the Church, and realize it was Sunday. Typically I would turn around feeling guilty for not attending but too awkward to just show up…especially late.
More to come....