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house. Well, it was the only running water in the house. someone came yelling that there was a snake up the hill
We had no indoor toilet; in fact, all of the mill houses had under a vine. The person was quite upset. Mom said “Aw
“outhouses.” An outhouse was no more than a small shed shocks.” or words to that effect, located a stick, went up
maybe 3’ x 4’ with a bench seat built on the inside with a the hill, and killed the snake. She came back down the
hole cut in it. In our case, it was usually two holes. It was hill and continued picking grapes.
always a joke whether you had a one-holer or two-holer,
and, with a large family, we had a two-holer. The shed CHAPTER 2
was built and could be moved from spot to spot. Simply
dig a hole, use it until it was nearly full, move the shed Dad continued working at the mill, but moved the family
over a new hole. You buried the old hole for sanitary to an old farm/ranch that we called Coe’s Old Place. The
reasons of course. farm was located on Perry Creek a few miles west of the
mill, off Five Mile Hill.
I bring up the outhouse to tell a story that I probably
remember more as a story than I actually remember it We had many advantages living on the old farm. We had
happening. Halloween was great fun, even in the 1940s cows for fresh milk and butter and a Shetland pony that
for poor folk. Kids would go from cabin to cabin. For helped with the chores. We had a large garden behind the
“Trick or Treat,” mothers would have made cookies house and an even larger field where Dad planted corn
and caramel apples if they could afford it. In some and potatoes. There was an existing apple orchard. Dad
cases, people were grouchy and would not treat. One continued to keep us in fresh meat with his .303 Savage.
of the favorite tricks at the time was for the bigger boys
to simply dump over or tip over the outhouse. There Broken Arms
was one grumpy gentleman in the neighborhood who
swore that no one would dump over his outhouse, so All of my brothers went to Fairplay School, located to
he buried the base about a foot deep In the ground. Well the west of the farm. They either walked by way of a
this gentleman wasn’t liked by kids, and he wasn’t really main road or cut across country down Perry Creek and
liked by adults either. A group of the younger of the over the hill to the school. That was quite a hike. Dad
ladies of camp got together on Halloween and decided bought a horse so they could ride. The horse’s name
that no matter how hard it was going to be, they were was Stranger. Soon after Dad brought the horse home,
going to dump over his outhouse. They were successful he put three of my brothers upon its back to show them
after some effort and enlisting the help of a couple of the how nice it would be to go back and forth to school
men of the area to dump the house over. There was a riding on horseback. We soon found out why the horse’s
downside however; one of the women, Gwen Burns, lost name was Stranger. Richard, I believe sitting third on the
one of her shoes in the hole and could not find it in the horse, kicked it in the flanks. Stranger gave one quick
dark. Times were hard and shoes were hard to come by; jump, throwing boys all over the yard. Eugene’s arm was
she was very distressed. The next day, she sent her kids broken. Dad tried working with the horse, but he was just
and my brothers to go and play around the outhouse hole too strange. Dad sold Stranger, and the boys continued to
and try to retrieve her shoe. The kids were not happy, but walk to school.
they did what they were told. They retrieved her shoe.
The secret of who dumped over the outhouse was not The Fairplay School was/is located on Fairplay Road
well kept. a couple of miles north of Omo Ranch Road. It was a
typical one-room school where all eight grades attended.
Money was always in short supply, so Dad was always There was a large live oak tree adjacent to the playground
trying to find ways to add cash to the family’s income. from which hung a tire swing. My brother Richard was
Both he and Mom worked at the DiAgostini Winery, playing on the swing one day. Dragging his knees across
near River Pines, picking grapes in the fall of the year. the ground, he slipped, fell, and broke his arm. Two
Mom would pick during the week and on weekends, and broken arms in a short period of time for Mom and Dad
Dad could pick only on the weekends because he was to deal with. We didn’t have universal health care.
still working at the mill. They worked piecework, which
meant you were paid “by the box.” Dad was very fast at Snakes
picking and would at times make as much money on a
weekend as he could make at the mill the entire week. Rattlesnakes are common in the Sierra Nevada foothills,
Mom would work during the week when the older boys and it was something that we always had to be aware of
were in school. I don’t remember if she worked every day, while trekking in the woods.
but she would take me with her, and I just tagged along.
One day Mom was picking and I was with her when One of the chores the boys had was collecting kindling
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