When I was young..........Chapter 2

crabbait · 08-01-2003, 10:04 AM

Chapter 2

In the fifties, Agness was not much of a town. There was a general store and post office where we got our canned goods and mail, a small farm down the road for eggs and milk, a one room school and the cabins that the loggers and log truck drivers lived in. These were not separate cabins, they were two series of cabins joined together with a common covered boardwalk like an old west town. I don�t remember how many rooms each cabin had, two I think, six or maybe seven cabins in each row. At the end of each row of cabins were the bathroom/shower facilities. The women�s room was attached to our row of cabins. The men�s room was attached to the other.

Mom and Dad�s friends, Harold and Betty New, lived in one of the cabins along with their kids. Harold was the one who convinced Dad that hauling logs was �the life�. Harold was a fine big man with a hearty laugh and a permanent smile. He loved his life and he loved his wife and he loved his family so much that they had three sets of kids. His wife, Betty, was the same way, sweet as whole milk and as warm as fresh baked bread. Their oldest two girls were the oldest kids in Agness, I don�t remember them much from those days and they were not the kind of girls you would forget (I asked one of them to marry me when she was about 18 and I was 5 or 6. She said we should wait awhile.) Harold and Betty were building their second set in Agness and went on to the third set when the Agness kids were high school age. Great loving parents and great kids. My parents stayed in touch with them their whole lives, but I digress.

One warm night, Harold and Dad and I set out to the men�s wash cabin to get cleaned up. As we prepared to shower, Harold emptied his pockets onto the wooden shelf above the sink. Among his possessions was a gleaming pocketknife with silver bolsters and buckhorn side plates. It was the neatest most beautiful shinning single object I had ever seen. I knew in an instant I had to have it.

As Dad prepared to shower, I climbed onto the bench next to the sink and grabbed the knife. Like a shot I was out the door and headed as fast as I could run across the field in front of the cabins. For a moment, it was just me and �my� knife, together, running naked through the moonlight. Then it was over as Dad caught me from behind and swept me into the sky. He tucked me under his arm like a small sack of potatoes and strode back to the washroom where he handed the knife back to Harold. I thought I was going to get it but Harold and Dad just laughed. Dad messed up my hair and into the shower we went.

So began and ended my life of crime.

[ 08-01-2003, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: crabbait ]

crabbait · 08-01-2003, 10:08 AM

Post Script: Some of you undoubtedly know Agness better than I do. It may be a lot different now and it may have been different than I remember then.

I am simply recording the memories of a small crabbait. Feel free to correct me or remind me of Agness as you remember it.

Straydog · 08-01-2003, 10:15 AM

It is still one of the neatest places on earth...

TundraIII · 08-01-2003, 10:18 AM

What a great story. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed that.

OceanBlue · 08-01-2003, 10:38 AM

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

I'm having a hard time picturing a 5 or 6 year-old crabbait running nekked through the woods, but that was great.

Chapter 3?

freespool · 08-01-2003, 12:44 PM

Crabbait,your memory serves you well my friend,very well indeed. One thing I remember was seeing my first close up of an airplane. The airstrip was also the main road in Agness. Not knowing it then,but I would later make a career of working on aircraft. And one can't forget the daily arrival of the mail boat,the for real way they got their mail in those days.

Tempered Steel · 08-01-2003, 08:14 PM

More! More! More! Excellent work crabbait. Almost reminds me a Patrick McManus style of writing, as far as the time period.

Anxiously awaiting Chapter 3...

TS

crabbait · 08-01-2003, 09:18 PM

Thank you all. Chapter 3 is now available.

RogueFishr · 08-01-2003, 09:18 PM

great story Crabbait! I remember going over the mountain from Grants Pass to Agness as a kid to go fishing. One lane, BAD mountain road before they paved it in the late 80's. If you haven't been over it in a while, you wouldn't belive the traffic on it now. I wish they would have never paved it. We used to camp just down river from Agness and fish half pounders in the fall. What a great place to grow up.

RF

Fshklr · 08-02-2003, 05:18 AM

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] On to 3!!!!!