Page 15 - TalesoftheParadiseRidge-Fall2020_Neat

For a long time, I know Mom did the family laundry by
hand. She heated water on a wood cookstove and used a
washboard. Later Dad bought Mom a “kickstart” gasoline
engine-running wash machine. Mom thought she had
died and gone to heaven. The machine wasn’t perfect,
but it beat hand scrubbing. Ironing was done with the old
hand iron heated on the stove. Bathing was done in two
ways, one by heating water in a washtub. The smaller of
us boys would bathe in the tub. The other was to use the
community shower at the top of the hill. Most adults used
the showers.

School students 1940s

The home east of the school was inhabited by the
DeMillle family; I went to school with Ronald DeMille.
Continuing past the DeMille house there is a fork in the
road at which you would find an old store and blacksmith
shop owned by Pat Lawler. The blacksmith shop is now
gone. The store has been used as a residence. As of early
spring 2010, the store sat empty and was still owned by
the Lawler family. Turning left at the fork, you would
drive down into the mill site proper. The road now is
gated. In the early 40s, the homes were all east of the
mill. By the late 50s, there were homes to the west of the Example of a gas powered wringer washing machine.
mill, then the mill itself, lumberyard, company store,
bunkhouse. The mill and all of the homes are now gone. People I remember from the early years were Johnny
The mill and homes were torn down and the mill moved Burns and his sister, Joan; their parents, Phil and Gwen
to Diamond Springs after 1964. Burns; Louis Hatchet; and a big black man everyone
called “Big Tom.”

There was a young boy my own age by the name of
Timmy Twist. I don’t remember much about him except
that he liked to drink canned condensed milk straight
from the can. The Felmly family was also there. Neil was
one of the sons. Another family that I remember was the
Heizers--Charlie, Loraine, and daughter, Betty. Charlie
worked at the mill, but they lived in Fairplay [now Fair
Play]. Charlie built a small house on Perry Creek on
Fairplay Road, a short distance north of the junction of
Perry Creek Road and Fairplay Road. The house is still
there (circa 2011).
Mill houses, the woman and baby are not related to me.
Timmy and the older kids that lived up the hill got into
The houses we lived in during the early1940s were not a snowball fight with my brothers, me, and the other
painted and looked old. One might call them cabins. Dad kids that lived at the bottom of the hill. I can remember
installed cold running water. Ours was one of the first snowballs flying everywhere and I hid behind a log. I
houses to have running water. I do not remember much made a snowball as big as my hands could carry. I peeked
about the house itself, only that it was unpainted board- over the log and I saw Timmy reaching down to make a
and-bat construction on a stilted wood foundation. The snowball. I took this opportunity to let loose my beautiful
house was very small. handmade weapon. At that very moment, Timmy looked
up, and I smacked him right between the eyes. He ran
There was a small bedroom at each end of the house, a home crying. I ran home crying, too, afraid I was going to
living room and kitchen combination, and a back porch. be in trouble
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