The way it used to be.

Welcome to my blog, drag up a chair and make yourself comfortable.


A lady that I knew, once upon a time, found my blog while she was looking for some other information. I guess that you could call that serendipity. At least I call it serendipity. It gave me the good fortune to remember many people, places, and things that I haven't thought of in years. I haven't seen her in many years. (that I know of)


She emailed me, and the way she introduced herself seriously reminded me of the days of my youth. Back then, when you met somebody, you would give them your complete genealogy. Usually you found out that you had a common friend or ancestor somewhere. Back before about 1968, people didn't move around that much. Most of the people here had families that easily went back to the 1800's. If you had shown up later than that, chances are that your family had married in to some of the local families, so you always gave your pedigree. It really was like a big family around here.


As kids we hiked and played on the hills and canyons around town. If we got tired of hiking or digging fossils, we would go to the river and go swimming. Nobody worried to much about trespassing, we just went where we wanted to. If a rancher ran into us, we just told him who we were, or reminded him that we had asked for permission to be on his ranch. As kids we were even allowed to pack guns and kill squirrels. It was pretty normal for a kid to have a 22-caliber rifle. The ranchers liked getting rid of the squirrels, so it was a symbiotic relationship.


Like I said, it was a lot like one big family. That must be really hard for the people that live here now to understand or relate to. Now, you don't dare step foot off of your own property. The hills are guarded by land owners that are totally paranoid. The canyons are filled with society's low income tourists. They crap anywhere, and there are needles laying around. The river has so much fertilizer in it from the "medicine grows" that the Blue-Green Algae blooms in early summer. Dogs can't drink the water anymore, and kids can't swim in it.


So, it was fun for me to take a trip back in time with her introduction of herself. I included it below for your perusal. She gave me her permission:
I was doing research "Larry Brown" and ended up on your blog. I remember Larry having a racoon.. Larry had a friend named Bud Miller, a Calif. Highway Patrolmen. He was my uncle. My father's name was Keith Wymer. He married Marian, Uncle Bud's sister. (Bud is a step uncle). Dad's mother, my grandmother was Ruby Blank. Ruby Valley, outside of Redway, was named for her. My step grandfather , Charlie Blank, worked at the "mill" near Briceland and lost his fingers to it. I have Grampa's 22 rifle that we used to go squirrel plinking with. Grampa Charlie taught me how to fish in that little stream under the bridge there in Ruby Valley and he would build a raft for us kids every year to play on and every winter, it would end up lost to a flood. Picked many a blackberry with Grama along that creek and picked huckleberries in the hills. Grama would make a little pot pie for each of us kids with our initial on the crust and we would pig out with a big scoop of ice cream!! Grama Ruby died in a car accident on the bridge just west of Redway. She drove off the bridge when it was under reconstruction from the floods. The Redwood Record, was of course, owned by my grandparents, Pappy and Francis Miller. Great memories in the print shop. Had to pass it on the way home from school and we were always welcome to help Grama out... Do you remember a Melvin Green? (she later remembered that it was Sid Green) He was a pilot in those days. He was a relative on Grama's side. Also, Ruth Burgess was my Great aunt as Fred Burgess was my uncle. My step sister is Mary Hurlbutt, daughter to Fred, who owned the water system supplying Garberville. So hence, I know Jim Johnson and Marie. That Marie is still a go getter!!! An absolutely adorable woman. And then there were the floods of 1955... OMG. How Garberville was landlocked. Marian would bake bread and Dad and us kids ate it before it was even cool!!! Can't justify any savings there!! And then we would be out till our alloted ration came up again when they dropped food into town by plane or something.... In the winter season, after my Dad got on with the CalTrans, he would sneak me into his truck and I would go with him to patrol for slides during the night hours... The first time, I about jumped out the window when he dropped the front blade to scrape gravel from the road at 35 mph... Dad just laughed.... I had a friend named Diana French. Her folks had a sheep ranch somewhere out that direction and I would go with her on weekends to help capture and shear the sheep.... Just thought I would say hello to you... I vaguely remember your name.... I went to South Fork High School about 1963 to 66. Known as Kay Wymer at that time... Feel free to use any of this if you wish... thanks for the memories!!! Always, Kay


She followed her first post with this:
I have just been browsing.. I used to live at Benbow ..about 1962 or so.. maybe earlier. Our house was along Highway 101, north of Benbow, going up the hill toward Garberville on the right side. It burned down one summer, I think in 1962 or 63. Used to take a school bus to South Fork High School. I had a step grandfather named Bob Welch that drove the school bus and on stormy days, he would pick us two kids up at the house instead of the designated bus stop (rules were made to break!) down the rode so we wouldn't have to brave the weather. We were spoiled by him. I used to walk down Hiway 101 (wouldn't dare do that today!) to Benbow Lake and watch the ski boats in the summer to pass the time.


Followed by this:
I was thinking... the pilot was Sid Green, not Melvin..... I remember the Brass Rail..... my Dad and stepmother, Marian, would go to dinner there sometimes. Was nothing for Marian to sew a dress in one day and wear it that night. She would inevitably be invited to sing a song at the Rail.. she had an awesome voice!!

Followed by this after she read my post on “Vehicle over the Bank” About the two kids that went over the Garberville bluff:
Wow, does that jangle some memory banks! Those guys were so lucky.. I have memory of my mother and I sitting at a stop sign on Locust St waiting to enter the main drag. We hear this funny noise, which we learned later, to be an air horn out of air. People were waving us not to go!! A few seconds later, a big crane went whizzing by us and headed straight for that bluff on the north side of town. He went over!!! I was so shook up about it, I started to cry (I think I was about 10 or 12 years old). A big mushroom cloud rose from the bluff like a hydrogen bomb.We learned later that the man's brakes had gone out on the South side of town, he rode the crane all the way through town in hopes of keeping it from killing someone and at the end, he jumped before it went over and survived with a broken leg. This was about 1961 or 62... Thanks for posting your information. That bluff will always have a bad memory for me... And those two young men, I am sure.

I know that I'm going to be boring a bunch of you, but those that want to follow all of the comments are going to learn a lot of Garberville history back in the 50's and 60's.

I replied:
Kay
Thank-you for your permission to post this stuff. Please join in in the comments box. I think that you are going to find many people that remember you.
Ernie