The last post was one that I found very interesting and I knew my readers would love it too. It is fun to try to categorize the manner that we pursue our favorite past-time. (I think I am a mix of Steve Jobs model and Marian the Librarian.) I hope you read it through and narrow down which model best describes you. Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings added a 10th for extra credit....
10) Elizabeth Shown Mills model The professional): Considered a god of genealogy researching, writing, editing, publishing, and presenting. Extremely competent, confident, articulate, disciplined, creative, knowledgeable, friendly, supportive and helpful. S/he earns a living doing it, seems to know everybody and everything, and contributes her energy and knowledge to many endeavors.
Now to the start of my blog records of my experiences as a child - my resolve to leave a record of my childhood for my descendants.
As I've stated before, I grew up in Garden Valley, Idaho. My father was a sawyer (log cutter, starting with cross-cut saws and progressing to power chain saws) and worked in the forests of Idaho most of his adult life. When I was born the family would camp out in the mountains in the summer while dad worked, then move to Cascade or Emmett (near either dad's family in Cascade or Mom's family in Emmett) during the fall and winter while the older kids went to school. So much moving around proved to be impractical for school kids, so my parents decided they needed to find a home base. I'm not sure why they decided upon Garden Valley, but they did and we moved there when I was almost 3 (1950).
Our first home in Garden Valley was a small (for a family of eight) cabin on Warm Springs Creek (what is now a developed resort called Terrace Lakes - in fact this cabin had stood in the middle of the golf course for many years and only recently was removed - looked a little like the photo below). My earliest memories are of this warm creek where my father and older brothers lined rocks to form a pool where we could bathe. Back in those days there were many bath houses along the hot springs native to that area of Idaho. One I remember was along the road from Banks to Crouch - a wood shed where the hot water ran into a tub that could be stopped up and the walls constantly wet from the moisture reminds me of a stream room or sauna. Another was further up that road towards Lowman - a large concrete slab with piping that brought the hot water from the springs and six to eight compartments for individual bathing.
Because the homes in Garden Valley built in the 30s and 40s did not have bathrooms, these bath houses were used quite a bit. The homes that we rented all had out-houses and we used the creek or the bath houses as we could, or heated water and bathed in a metal tub in front of the wood stove during the winter months. I remember one time in grade school I had difficulty sitting at my seat, not because of a 'licking' as punishment, but because I had backed into the wood stove during one of my weekly tub baths and burned my bottom.
Another story about living in the log cabin on Warm Springs Creek was having a small dog (a Pomeranian I think) that was kind of 'skitterish.' Any way, while we were away from home one day our Billy goat jumped through a window of the house and it scared that dog so bad it had a heart attack and died. With such a large family it was not unusual for us to have lots of animals (especially the kind that would provide food). I remember always having dogs, cats, chickens, cows, calves, pigs, and even turkeys. But I don't remember us ever having any more goats.
