M any o f us living today w ill bridge the
2 0 th and 21 at centuries M y fa th e r's life
bracketed the 19th and 2 0 th Kis fourscore
years w itnessed profound events w hich
figured and shaped w hat we and our country
have becom e He was born m M anistique
M ichigan m 1891
A t that tim e, the C ivil War
still cast a lingering shadow over the affairs of
m an A crum pled Fourth of Juiy photograph
show s m y father. Harvey I mdsey. and a
rabble of young boys assembled on the
courthouse steps at Omro. W isconsin, w ith
w hiskery veterans of the Union Arm y, men of
4 0 odd years dark, stern eyed w ounded
His years extended through eras of
sig n ifica n t change and increasing co m p le xity
the advent o f the autom obile w orld w ide
w arfare urbanization, and the shock o f the
A to m ic Age He died in 1971 fo llo w in g my
return from the Vietnam War He often spoke
to me of that w ar and its effe ct as a catalyst
fo r political and social change The tim e of
his youth w a s n 't sim pler nor easier than ours,
only d iffe re n t
In his childhood the land was fresh
W oodlands, sw im m ing holes, hom esteads,
and church socials were the order of the day
People could still read subtle signs of the
seasons A pocket knife could fashion fresh
spring w illo w branches in to a w ooden w h istle
th a t som etim es w ould, som etim es " w o u ld n '"
w h is tle He lived in a tim e when everyone
could tell a story This is part o f his
“ I am convinced that there is no more
sa tisfa cto ry place for a boy to g ro w up in
than the environs o f a small to w n w ith four
d is tin c t seasons Our to w n of Om ro w as |ust
such a place Om ro w as then, as now , a
to w n o f about 1 .5 0 0 souls set in the m iddle
of lovely and prosperous M idw est farm
co u n try The to w n itself straddled the Fox
River, a slow , m eandering, navigable stream
The land adjacent to the stream w as marshy,
rising gently aw ay from the river Annual
floods provided soil of unusual richness and
depth, lending itself to diversified farm ing and
dairying *
'W e m oved to Om ro m ,8 9 5 The
to w n had seven churches, five grocery stores
tw o dry goods stores, a hardw are store,
butcher shop, grist mill, saw mill, druggist,
one saloon, an undertakers parlour, lum ber
yard. 3 schools, a cobbler, blacksm ith, five
carriage makers, and Yep W ang's Chinese
Laundry Yep laundered and pressed the
countless shirt collars and detachable cu ffs
fashionable in those days Yep spit a stream
o f w ater explosively from his m outh providing
the m oisture necessary for "steam ing*
laundered goods "
Horses and horse draw n conveyances
dom inated transport and com m erce m the
1 8 9 0 's MY dad and his pards haunted
A b b o tt's Carriage shop as boys of m y tim e
loitered around the local service station
custom izing cars
"O ld Man A b b o tt specialized m wheel
equipped buggies and phaetons for summer
use and "c u tte rs * (light w eight sleighs w ith
runners! for w in te r use It was a good show
to w a tch M r W iles "s w e a t" an iron tire on a
new w agon w heel The rim and other
w ooden parts w ere seasoned oak the nm
slig h tly tapered to receive the iron tire The
tire, usually 3 or 4 inches w ide and 3 4 feet
in diam eter had been made from a flat strip by
firs t heating it cherry red, then shaping and
w elding it on the anvil Mr W iles let us boys
pull the bellow s chain for the forge W hen
the iron tire w as the right tem perature it was
q u ickly fitte d to the w ood nm amid m uch
pounding and scorching of w ood The dm of
ham m er and iron and the billo w s of acrid
sm oke lent excitem ent to the proceedings "
"F ortunate, indeed, is the boy w ho
has a river in his c h ild h o o d ," m y father once
to ld us M uskrat trapping, sturgeon fishing,
and surfing w ake w aves from the
sternw heeler Fashion out o f Oshkosh
occupied m any o f his childhood hours He
describes the sternw heeler Slocum engaged in
hauling log rafts
"The Slocum w as a w o rk horse She
w as a sternw heeler A log raft was hauled
behind the boat by a steel cable w ound round
a large drum on the roof of the low er deck
The ra ft w as allow ed to fall behind by
slackening the cable as the boat m oved
fo rw a rd W hen the Slocum was a quarter of
a mile ahead of the raft, fo rw a rd m ovem ent
stopped and the boat w as anchored by
dropping the "G ro w s e r". a large piling running
vertically through the deck It w as held in
raised position, then low ered in to soft mud
after the S locum advanced fo rw a rd The
drum retrieved slack cable and the raft
advanced *
W inter brought a river of ice, games
o f hockey, and the iceman
"In late w in te r the ice got about 2 1/2
to 3 feet th ic k The icem an appeared to
harvest his sum m er requirem ents He firs t
"c ris s crossed" w ith a horse draw n "sco rin g
p lough ", cu ttin g a stra ig h t line trench about
an inch deep m the river ice Pieces 2 feet by
three feet could be easily cracked fro m the
river and surface hauled to the icehouse
Layered w ith saw dust, the ice kept long into
summer *
"B y late N ovem ber w e virtually lived
on our ice skates S kating m iles up and dow n
river we played our version o f tee hockey,
w h ich w e called "S h in n y " For a puck we
saw ed a round block o ff the end of a large
branch Crooked w illo w branches of the right
curve laboriously carved w ith jack knives
became our "S hinny sticks*
In the rural A m erica o f m y fa th e r's
day. observance of the Sabbath punctuated
the week for virtually jH m em bers o f the
co m m u n ity regardless o f individual religious
fervor
"S unday w as a day apart From the
tim e we got up until w e w e n t to bed. strict
rules prevailed First, w e dressed in Sunday
clothes b u ttone d shoes, long black co tto n
socks, long elastic "sling shot* garters for the
stockings s s tiffly starched "sh irt w aist*,
broad ru ffle d collar, and a straw hat com plete
w ith notched ribbon hanging in back The
o u tfit was designed fo r keeping an active boy
from having any fu n "
"C hurch ran fro m 9 til 1 1 a m
Sunday school lasted fro m 1 1 a m through
noon In the evening w e all traipsed back to
church for another tw o hour service *
"Lines of m oral behavior were sharply
d raw n You either w e n t to church, w hich
virtually everyone did. or you w ere outside
the social fence If you w ere in business
y o u 'd better not be seen m the saloon ’
By 1910. the Lindsey fam ily m oved
w e stw a rd no longer able to resist the tug
to w a rd the Pacific so irresistible to
Easterners In 1912 he secured a job as
Purser on the W illam ette river boats Through
connections w ith a friend in Pacific County,
W ashington he took a job surveying land m
and around Chinook, W ashington He lodged
above the offices of The Chmpgk Observer
Its editor, Jack Payne survived the wreckage
of the vessel Strathblane arriving in Pacific
C ounty on the ta<l o f a horse
another story
T i l e Wee lb
CHI
O ie g M H ia te ry
d y n a a ite than neceeaery. b lo v in g net
only the door o il the mail car. but
d e a tro y mg th e cat i l a e l l any a o n e y
I I . 1923
The l u t greet t r u n r o b b « > in the
U nited States took piece on this day. in
S o u t h * n O i agon Twin» Rs> and Roy De
inside and k illin g lour awn in the
process The brothers lied and bid out
in the wood! Ray and Roy v e re fin a lly
A u tie n w n t and th e ir younger brother
H u gh held up S P a southbound tra in
captured in 1927. lollow ing the aoat
extensive and expensive manhunt in the
• IJ io tunnel IJ
U S up to that t i a e
The brothers lumped
the tra in iu«t belo«» it enter ed Ihe
h a lf - a il e long tunnel, u a u a io g that
the bleat of the exploeivea they planned
to use would be s u llie d inside
A c tu a lly it acted aa an echo cham bet
O « l. 14. 1144
The State Legislature, on thia day.
ci eat ad taro new counties in Eastern
0 i agon. Grant and Union, the l i n t
being co*posed of p a rti of Wasco and
esp ecially since they uaed much s o re
U m a tilla and the le tte r c a v e d (row
Haler L ittle opposition occur ed in
either House although a le v Southern
a y a p a th is e ia objected to honor ing
General Grant and vain ly attempted to
a u b a t it u t e th e name G ranite in the
House La Gr ande was naaaed county
seat of Union and it was thought that
Canyon City would be Grant a county
seat
O ct
2 2 . 1 *4 4
Tuesday Oct 22
Cold
Having a lit t le wood and water le ft, we
had a lit t le breakfast Drove on and
i ta p e d where we had grass, wood, and
water
Her e we aee Ihe beet of the
bottora land and n early 300 horaee on
it
I never law such a lot of hot to e
They are owned by the Indiana and I
suppose they have thousands of th e «
These Indians at e io located that they
get c attle in abundance fr o « the finest
of stock and w ill soon be ric h
(E n try Ir o « anonymous pioneer a
diary made on the Oregon T ra il The
lo c a l ion that mot ru n g was an open
p ra irie near the snow covered Blue
Mountains )
Oak. 3 1 . 1915
Silas C h r is to ff« io n . who aaased
i pec tat or I w ith bia aerobatic teats and
But th a t's
nay beet be lereeabeted (or h it d a mg
H ight Ir o « the top of the Multnoeaah
Hotel to Vancouver during the Rose
Festival, was k ille d in an airp lan e
ciaah thia day The young P o rtla n d «
who b u ilt and llew bia own a irc ra ft at
Peter Lindsey
HJfWv
T r-*
O H «}
the age of 20 had |uat a « a wot Id a
a ltitu d e record, c h a b in g to n early
20.00 lest, the year before
(The above la fa ra w tio n was supplied by
the Oregon Hiator icel Society and 'T h is
Day In Or agon by laage Waat Preas.
PC Box 3511. Eugene. Or )
( d iiiK ii Beach le a th e r
I kw* i
( i U B m
atwl At t m t « lea
ii H
I’hi I ip Thompson
'
/.z*y
Sandra L Ward
"
m is
a rchileo
,riwexee,rAi»<,t l ’uvea
P O Box 116
238 N Hemlock
Cannon Beach. OR 87110
an h ilet lure & e n v iro n m en l.il p l a n n i n g
sj Ik-knsKd S< apfiotx*. OK 97056
(503)436 0208
T»(H) 54I-2ÌXX)
stopped her in her tra c k s Bud was s ittin g
at a table w ith several people One of
them was a woman w ith long, blond h a ir
Bud had his arm around her and she was
s m ilin g up in to h is face S a lly shut the
door and drove home
’ That was it by God Ihe end I'd fla t had
CAMMOW BEACH
BOOK CO m PAMY
V O So* S3«
112 N o’ ’ h «•">l»<l>
Connor Sotx^
4 M I JO I
Bud and S a lly lived in the h ills east of
Newport This occured e a rly in the
m arriage S a lly te lls it
'I w asn't very happy M other warned me
about m a rryin g a man whose fa m ily I'd
never met Put when Bud asked. I said
Yes *
’ I was beginning to wonder if I'd made
the rig h t decision I s t i l l hadn't m et Buds
fa m ily and they only lived a couple hundred
m ile s away Then there was the boat
‘ It never entered my m ind th a t, w ith o u t
saying one w ord to me, Bud w ould put us
over a thousand d o lla rs in debt to buy some
fancy fis h in g boat It made me mad every
tim e I looked out the w indow and, there ,t
sat, a ll shiny in the drivew ay
’ Then one night he was la te fo r supper
and he knew I was fix in g ro ast It would
be w e ll done, ruined if he did n't get home
’ W ell, fin a lly , I turned the oven o ff,
stomped out to my old Volkswagen and
went looking fo r him and there was his
pickup parked in fro n t of the tave rn Damn
him ' I was so mad'’
S ally parked behind the tavern and
s ta rte d in the back door What she saw
enough.’
She began th ro w in g Bud s c lo th e s out in
the yard She added h is guns and fis h in g
tack le I hen she had an idea
"I th re w it a ll into the boat, took the cap
o ff the gas can and turned it over on top of
h,s s tu ff * She stepped back fro m the boat,
l i t a m atch and threw ,t in The gasoline
took o ff w ith a s a tis fy in g whump
’ I hadn't been back in the house more
than a m inu te when I could hear the f ir e
engine com ing ’ The neighbor must have
called The w hole boat was involved in the
fir e by then
’ lo o late Take th a t, Buddy b o y ’
"1 hen the phone rang and, Oh God it was
a w fu l It was Bud Hey honey' he says,
get dressed up and meet us at the tavern
My fo lk s showed up ju s t at q u ittin g tim e
and dad w a n ts to take us a ll out to dinner
And honey, guess w hat, L ita , my tw in
s is te r is here a ll the way from the east
coast They can t w a it to meet you You
there honey'? W hat's wrong, honey*? You
sound lik e y o u re c ry in g ” (That was 17
years ago, they re s t i l l wed )
urrw Lin wt octo & lr ins 5