Grocery Store Memories

 The earliest I can remember my parents shopping in the northern California town of Willows was 1950, plus or minus a year when we lived in the Villa Street house on the edge of town.  Milk was delivered to the front door, there was a meat market near the Willows Hotel, a bakery nearby and a produce market owned by a Chinese family up town on Sycamore Street.  A few years later came Tom's Super Market on Sycamore, just a couple of blocks from the Villa Street house.  It had everything--diary products, a produce section, lunch meats, bread, can goods, soda, and more.  A few years later after moving out to the County Road H house there was the Sani-Food Market on old highway 99 in town that had it all.   Our mother always had a hard time trying to control us kids as the younger ones ran around the market, especially brother Pat.   On one occasion Pat and his friend Johnny Feeney opened bottles of syrup and began consuming the contents.   Mom was not pleased.

Most of the surrounding small country communities of Bayless, Glenn, Ord Bend, Fruito, Elk Creek and Butte City had small stores with all the basics.  Some were a convenient stop for a soda and bag of chips while doing farm work.  I believe they are all gone now.  

My fondest memories are of the market in Orleans, along the Klamath River in northwestern California, where I lived from 1971 to 1977, while working for the Forest Service.  This store was owned by a husband and wife, don't remember their names.   At the end of the work day the store was inundated by Forest Service employees shopping for their dinners, lunch items for work or a cold beverage.  Both husband and wife operated the two check out counters as the employees had filled their carts with everything from cold cuts, what produce that was available, bread, milk, eggs, bacon and of course beer or soda.  The way to the cooler section was a well worn path.   The meat counter there was always interesting as we could keep track of how old the steaks were as some would turn a little green on one side and we suspected they were turned over from day to day.   There was some chicken on display too that looked like the skin had turned to leather.  There was a frozen meat section with hamburger which was the choice of many after looking over the fresh meat supply.   Most people made the two hour trip down to Eureka or  Arcata every month for some major shopping and some real fresh meat.  Winters there were always hit and miss at the market depending on severe storms and land slides that would block the highway along the river for days causing a shortage of food, and much panic as the beer and wine supply would dwindle quickly.  

Women Working in the Forest Service

 During my career with the Forest Service from 1969 to 1995.

In my early years of working as a seasonal employee for the Forest Service I remember women only working in clerical positions.   In the summer of 1970, I worked as a recreation aide on the Summit District of the Stanislaus National Forest and again only women working in the office.   In the fall of 1970, a 20 person fire crew, including myself was put together on the Stanislaus to respond to a large fire burning on the San Bernardino National Forest in southern California.   This crew was all men.  We took a plane from Stockton and flew into Ontario where the fire camp was located near a large orange tree orchard.   There could have been 200 to 300 people in this camp from different agencies all over the west.  

The camp was operated by the National Guard, who provided trucks for transportation, the kitchen and a shower unit.  Convicts did the cooking.   The shower unit must have been 80 feet by 80 feet with wooden slats or many pallets on the ground to keep our feet from getting muddy as the water just went on the ground.   The entire unit had a 10 foot high canvas wall around it with shower heads on the interior spaced out every 6 or 8 feet along the edge of the canvas.   The canvas opening at one corner is where we would enter, remove our clothing and proceed to a vacant shower head.   I don’t remember the number of people in the unit at that time, but happened to look across the wooden flooring and to my amazement there was a woman taking a shower.   Not wanting to stare I quickly turned away, finished up and got out of there.  

When I went to work on the Orleans District of the Six Rivers National Forest in 1971 there was one woman working as a seasonal on the fire crew.   If I remember correctly she got romantically involved with another crew member, got pregnant and believe they got married afterwards.   There were a few other women that came from the Supervisor’s office in Eureka and worked with road engineering doing survey work.  Some stayed in the Orleans Hotel and in one instance had to barricade their doors to keep some single men at bay with whom they had been drinking beer with in the adjacent lounge.  

There was only one woman I remember that worked in the field on the Greenville District of the Plumas National Forest from 1977-79.  She was a seasonal employee working on a timber stand improvement crew.  

On the Gold Beach District of the Sisikiyou National Forest there was a woman working in silviculture.  I do not remember if she was permanent or seasonal.  There were a few women working at the Zone 2 engineering office north of Gold Beach doing a variety of field jobs related to road survey and design work, most were seasonal. 

Before I transferred to Cottage Grove in the spring of 1988, Pete Brost, the Gold Beach District Ranger transferred to the Tahoe Forest in California.   His replacement was a woman, who had been a wildlife biologist with the state of Washington.    She was the first female ranger on that Forest and some male egos, especially on the District staff were not excited about this.   Shortly after her arrival she had a meeting with her staff assistants that were all men, and she asked how many of them had a problem with working for a woman?   Two of them acknowledged they did, the timber management assistant (TMA) and fire management officer (FMO).  The FMO quit and went to work for the Oregon Department of Forestry and the TMA eventually transferred to the Willamette National Forest.   

A year or more after I transferred to the Cottage Grove District on the Umpqua Forest I learned the woman ranger at Gold Beach developed a brain tumor and died shortly thereafter.  At Cottage Grove there were women working in many field positions, both seasonally and permanent.

Today there are many women in management positions, including the Chief of the Forest Service.   They also have their own shower units at fire camps now.

The $30 Pie

 While driving around the country side yesterday taking in all the sights before the start of summer we noticed the bakery in Oakland was open.   What really caught my eye was the word PIE on the window.   This bakery is only open certain days of the week and since we have never been inside it was about time to see what they had to offer.   Upon entering a young lady handed me a menu of what was available and I noticed an assortment of pies sold by the slice for $6.   I asked if they sold whole pies and she said only if they are pre-ordered.   Then another woman, who was the owner said there was a marion berry pie available for $30.   Being a little shocked by the price I asked if I could see it wondering how big it was.   After seeing it was hardly 10 inches in diameter the thought of Costco pies immediately came to mind for only $6 and probably three times larger, plus how could I explain spending $30 on a little pie to Celia, who was waiting in the car.  The young woman said the crust is made from scratch in hopes I would buy it, I declined and thanked her for showing it before making my exit.   A trip to Costco is warranted soon.  

The Daily Grind-Spring 2019

 Up before the sun after the usual 4 to 6 hours of sleep.  Stumble in to the bathroom with a glance in the mirror to remind me that age is getting the upper hand, then into the kitchen for a glass of water to get the bowels moving before partaking of coffee to regain consciousness.  The same old list is on the dinning room table with another older list nearby that only has half the items checked off.   Many of the items are carried over from last week.   Once the sun is up out we go to see how the garden is growing and note all the weeds that need pulling, grass that needs cutting, painting to do, fence in need of repairs and the list goes on.   The birds are singing, the spring weather is getting warmer and in general life is good.  By mid morning we are off to town for our daily bread, beans, a few other items we can not live without and prescription refills to help us make it through another day.   First stop going down the gravel road to the highway is at our mail box.  The usual bills, junk mail and an envelope that looks personal, maybe it is from a lost rich relative wanting to leave us their fortunes.   Once back home after a hectic drive through the streets of Oakland we open the mysterious envelope.   It is a free luncheon seminar for residents of Oakland presented by Smart Cremation wanting us to prepare for the inevitable.  We wonder how they got our names, but the free luncheon is tempting.   

Wonder if they give discounts for groups, want to join us for lunch?