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 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» 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