Well wha'da ya know!

Living in this house that I grew up in holds SO many memories! As a kid, every year we would take a vacation "up home". Since my Mother was born in Sonora, CA. and my Dad in Knights Ferry, CA., and since my Dad was one of nine kids, we'd always end up 'visitin' folks' during that trip "up home".

Our mainstay was at one of his sister's, Dorothy Hall, in Manteca, hence when either Mom or Dad would say, "We're goin' "up home" here next week.", that would mean start getting things together to pack cuz we were going to Aunt Dorothy's!

It was generally seven days that we'd be gone. We'd take a day to drive around visiting an aunt & cousins, plus an uncle who all lived in Lathrop. We'd leave early on another day and to over to Sonora but stop in Oakdale to Aunt Nervie's (cookies or fresh made bread 'n jam to eat!) and go see Aunt Vadna & Uncle Bill (they had a farm with chickens, cows & cats. LOT'S of cats! Counted 40 something once!) who lived near a Hershey's plant. Driving past that place smelled SO good but you'd have to time that big inhale just right or you'd smell nothing but cow manure since there were cattle pens all around! Next we'd head over to see Uncle Leslie in Knights Ferry (he had a turkey ranch!) and we'd usually have lunch, get a bunch of turkey eggs, then go off to Aunt Helen's in Sonora to spend the night or two. (that's a whole n'other set of stories!)

The best part of going to see Uncle Leslie tho was getting to go over the bridge that spanned the river. My Dad told us how he & his brothers would kick loose a couple boards on the sides and jump into the river below! I would picture my Dad beating his chest hollerin Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan yell as he fell to the water! One time we got to spend a whole day there and all the family came to a picnic at a park next to the river. All us kids got to play in the water and we could see the bridge not too far from where we were & we saw a couple fellows jump ... then came sirens and the police were trying to find who it was. My Dad laughed 'n laughed!

When we'd stay at Aunt Helen's, she'd take us out to dinner to some 'fancy' place. Once we went early in the afternoon and we went into Columbia National Park and got to ride a real stagecoach where, of course, we'd gotten held up by outlaws. I cried 'n cried when my Mom handed over her watch. She didn't want to spoil it for the other kids so I wasn't very happy until after we'd gotten back and she got her watch back plus we were introduced to the robbers. I remember they sure laughed as I stood behind my Momma's skirt! That place sure was fun tho with the park they had & all the old time stores and horses everywhere. I loved the ride home when the car windows would be down and the clean crisp smell of the pine trees would just engulf my senses.

Those smells and memories were all jogged by seeing these photo's. I was simply amazed and I also felt a sort of a sense of pride of knowing exactly where that tree came from!