More on camping.

I’ll touch on trips to Deep Creek and Conrad Meadows.

I’ll start with Deep Creek.

We would go from there to the old Copper City mine site. There were a few buildings still standing when I was young. Steve, myself, and whoever was with us, be it our cousins Tim and Terri or another family of friends from Selah would want to play in the old buildings. Our parents discouraged this and definitely forbade the old mineshaft! For some reason they thought we might do something stupid and dangerous.

Now for our ventures into explosives.

It started out small with the purchase of firecrackers in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

I already touched on Steve lighting some in a restaurant restroom in Eureka. Mom immediately confiscated them but didn’t get them all.

We had shelves of canned fruits and vegetables in the basement. On the top shelf we found a box of various fireworks that had evidently been bought by Uncle Gale, or Gingo if you prefer while we still lived in Tieton. I don’t know why they had not been discarded. Big mistake!

Up a lot tonight so here goes.

Our parents would take us to the fair every year. We had to go through the livestock barns and exhibit buildings first every year. They always looked at Highland’s FFA booth which was a perennial favorite.

Roy Hallstrom knew his stuff and taught Gary Slagg. When other schools started winning the instructor was often a Highland grad.

We watched the rodeo a few times and once or twice saw the musical headliner. There was always the requisite corn dog (often called pronto pups) or other fair food.

I’ve told some of these before but I’m trying to get a bunch recorded before I’m gone.

Steve and I would sometimes develop mysterious ailments that kept us from going to school but we miraculously recovered from by the time the folks got home. I don’t know how many remember the morning moneyman movie with Bob Iver, but something like a good Abbot and Costello film brought on sudden sickness.

When I was about 9 or 10 and Steve was 6 or 7 we had some new neighbors move in.

They came from Texas and were a new experience for us. I have relatives and friends in Texas and they are nothing like this family was.

They were going on vacation for two weeks and said they’d pay us to take care of their place. This included feeding and watering a bunch of animals, watering their lawn, and mowing twice. When they got back they gave us each 50 cents. We didn’t say anything but evidently they saw the looks on our face.