August 21, 2019

Liz Writes Life

Prediction: Dog days of summer will continue. Shock!

I’ve been checking different weather forecasting stations – all summer – to keep track of the predicted temperatures. (I really like cool nights in the summer.) Anyway, it looks like we are in for another two weeks of these 90-plus day temps. But, I must say I’ve noticed the ground is not drying out as fast as it was at the height of summer in June and July. Yep, the days are getting shorter and this week will be exactly two months since the summer solstice. Already, there is nearly two hours less daylight compared to June 20^th – at my house. The cool breeze starts sooner in the evening, so I can open up the house.

Also, I found another friend that was happy to take a bunch of zucchini. Yay!

Yreka

Last week’s column jogged some memories and it was fun to talk to Linda Dunham Livesay, who called me. She left a message and when I called her back, we chatted about life in Yreka in the late 1950s and 1960s. Even though Linda is six years older than I am, we recall some of the same things. She was born in 1949 at the hospital on Yreka’s Main St. I think it was called Siskiyou County General Hospital? I was born there in 1955.

Linda’s parents, Anna and Paul Dunham, lived on N. Oregon St. near the old Yreka High School. She, and her older brother, Gordon, and the neighborhood kids often gathered at the gym that was typically open and it had a trampoline. Yep, they jumped on it with no adult supervision! And, the school or parents didn’t worry about vandalism.

Roller skating was popular and the kids enjoyed skating on the cement and sidewalks at the school. If they were lucky, Linda said, someone would talk a parent into driving them over to Montague, which boasted a real roller skating rink with boot-skates available for rent.

In the 1960s, teen dances were held at the Veteran’s Hall, especially in the summer. It was located where the middle Yreka on-off-exit onto Interstate-5 is now. That is where she met her husband, Larry Livesay. Linda and her friends liked to browse at Barklow’s dress shop in the downstairs of the old Warren Building hoping to purchase a new Poorboy sweater to wear to the next dance.

I have an impression of a men’s clothing store on the bottom floor of the Warren Building. One year, I think mom twisted dad’s arm to go Christmas shopping to Yreka, after his ranch work was done. It was night and holiday lights added sparkle and excitement of Christmas that I had not experienced before. Yep, it was the big city to me! This was probably the only time my dad ever went Christmas or any other kind of shopping at night! Ha, ha.

One of Linda’s worst memories is of the old Warren Building. There was a dentist office on the second floor and the stairs were broad and high. Yes, it was a dreaded long climb, when she had to go to the dentist. Linda’s memory of those stairs matched mine. Well, of the stairs being big and steep. I didn’t go to the dentist there. My parents were the first Cal Farm Insurance agents in Siskiyou County and rented an office on the second floor. At the top, I remember turning left.

The Warren Building burned down in the late 1960s (we think). It was located where the Tri-County Bank and parking lot is today.  

Downtown Yreka was a busy place, she said. The Broadway Theater held nightly movies and many matinees. It was also used for other special events. When Linda was young, her parents earned extra money working for film companies when one of its movies played. Apparently, the companies wanted an exact count of how many people attended its movies and paid a third-party to get that number. Linda recalls standing behind her parents as they used clickers to do the count as customers paid for their tickets. She still has one of those clickers!

“I think I saw parts of ‘The Ten Commandments’ at least 20 times,” Linda said. She added that folks of all ages were always looking to make extra money and so her parents were happy to get the part-time film company job. Her father owned and operated Dunham Hay and Fertilizer Company, which was his day and long-hours-summer job.

Linda also remembered the Purity grocery store located near Broadway Theater. She recalled going there with her dad to pick-up a beautiful gold-plated coffee pot that he had won in a drawing. Stores held lots of drawings – and offered S&H Green Stamps -- back then to entice customers. The hot-spot for teens was Melody Mart featuring 45 rpm single records and you could actually go into a back room and play it before buying. Linda remembers paying $1.01 for one record. She still has many of those vinyl records.

Anna Dunham often shopped at Lake’s dress and jewelry shops on Broadway. Over on Miner’s St. was Louie Berg’s Feed store, Cooley and Pollards, several restaurants, Elsie’s Tot’s and Teen’s, the Tic Tock Shop and Con Brown’s bar, where typically only men visited. Apparently, they played cards. (Oooo, gambling?) There were several other saloons in the area: Empire Room, Log Cabin and Rex Club. Bob and Hazel Ohlund operated a stationary store.

On the corner of Miner’s and Broadway was the Yreka Drug, which had the best toasted hot dogs ever! At the south-end of that block was Handley’s shoe store. Linda remembered the name and I recalled my mom taking me there every April to get a new pair of cowboy boots before the May Pleasure Park Rodeo in Etna. Yep, it was a special place.

While growing up, Linda said her mom often drove the old Highway 3 road on Forest Mt. to Etna to visit her parents, Millie and Henry Sethman. Millie served as the Etna Librarian for 40 years and, yep, I do remember Mrs. Sethman reading to us kids. Sethman’s lived on Etna’s Main St. across from the Congregational (Berean) church with a big green hedge around the yard. So, Etna sorta feels like home to Linda as well as Yreka.

Thank you, Linda, for the phone call. She said that Yreka was a wonderful place to grow-up. It was bustling with family-owned businesses and they were “profitable enough to support a family!”

Last Sunday, Aug. 18^th, was my mom’s 100^th birthday anniversary. I was tempted to check out the internet to learn what was happening in 1919! Hum, maybe another time.

POW

Scott Valley Protect Our Water will meet Aug, 29, 2019 at the Fort Jones Community Center at 7 p.m. Ray Haupt, Dist. 5 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor, will be speaking.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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