Monday Memory - the old Graham house

On our annual vacations to Idaho, we generally stayed at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's home. This is the house my dad grew up in. We would spend a good part of the days over at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's, but always came back to the Graham place. It had more bedrooms

to put us all in. Plus, over at the Osgoods, at least when I was still little, I still had an aunt and uncle living there.

The "old" Graham place sat in between an apple orchard and a cherry orchard. Grandma & Grandpa bought the place in 1947. Grandpa was a farmer, like his father Guy Graham was. As you can imagine from the orchards, he grew cherries and apples. I remember them shipping our family in California a big box of apples in the fall.

It was great to be able to go and help pick cherries in the summertime. Grandma would give us a bucket and let us go on our way. We ate way more than we gathered! Fresh cherries right off the tree-delicious! I can still see my little brother red-faced with cherry juice and goo all over him! There was an oval "track" that went around the house and Grandpa's barn and garage. In between the two and around the house was a nice lawn. One winter we drove up for Christmas. I was probably around the age of 10. Dad hooked up a sled to a tractor and dragged my brother and I around that oval. It was so much fun....until I kind of fell off the sled and was dragged on the ground for awhile before Dad noticed!

On the edge of the apple orchard was Great-Grandpa Ira Shelton's trailer. He had lived there since 1961. His wife, Alice, had died a couple years earlier. (Great-Grandpa is the son of the mysterious Nathaniel Shelton that I blogged about a few days ago). I would often go and visit him in his trailer. He had stacks and stacks of paperback books out there. When I was around seven, I remember him asking me to guess how old he was. I had no idea, but knew it was pretty old. (At least from a kid's perspective...I realize as I approach 40 that the concept of "old" is relative). He held up 8 fingers and flashed them at me twice--eighty eight. He would give me bananas and we would hang out. Great-Grandpa rarely came into the house, but he did one winter when we were visiting for Christmas. It seemed to be a big deal that he was in the big house instead of his trailer. Great-Grandpa died a couple years later at the age of 90.

Great-grandpa's trailer is on the left of the barn.

Great grandpa shows us his garden in 1972

We would enter the house through the kitchen. Grandma always was able to cook enough for everyone. I found out later that when she was growing up, her mother would cook for all the farm hands in the area. She grew up learning how to feed an army!

In the living room was GRANDPA'S CHAIR. It was his and his alone. Nearby would be a TV Guide, an ashtray and some snacks. I discovered "Whoppers" there one summer. Those chocolate covered malted milk candies will always remind me of then. Grandma and Grandpa liked to watch TV. I remember them watching "The Price is Right" and a soap opera every day. I'm not sure which soap it was....I knew it wasn't the one my mom watched.

I usually slept in a bathroom. That may sound weird, but this was a big bathroom. As I recall, it was on a landing, with stairs going up on the other side of a ceiling, which was slanted. It was pink. There were two single sized beds in the room. On a table was a big shiny conch shell that we were supposed to be able to hear the ocean in. I remember trying to pretend to be asleep on the morning we would be leaving Idaho to go home. Maybe if I never woke up, we wouldn't have to leave! It didn't work. I hated those mornings.

I don't remember ever going up to the next story in that house. I'm sure I did, though.

TV was a big deal at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was on a lot. I was there eating a slice of watermelon on August 16, 1977 and hearing that Elvis Presley had died. I also remember watching the Donahue show with mom and grandma while the show topic was the Jonestown Massacre.

Grandma & Grandpa sold the place when I got a little older and Grandpa retired-it was in the late 70's, early 80's. They moved onto a smaller place in Fruitland and lived in a mobile home with less acreage to take care of. That will be the subject of another memory post in the future. It was a sad time for my dad when they sold the place. I suspect it was for others as well. A few years after that, there was a fire and the house burned down.

All you Graham relatives out there, I'd love to hear some of your memories of the old place. Leave a comment!

Monday Memory - The Summer Vacation, Getting to Idaho

It's Monday and I'm in a reminiscent mood. So here are a few "lines" about the family:

I was lucky to have both sets of grandparents live in the same small town in Idaho. Fruitland, Idaho, in Payette County. As a kid, our summer vacation consisted of driving 2 days from Southern California up to see Grandparents and other relatives who lived in the area. The cars I remember us making the trek in included: a 1968 blue Volkswagen beetle; a white Chevy station wagon with blue & white checkered curtains that mom made to cover the back windows; a blue Volkswagen bus when the family got larger; and in the end, a 1986 Plymouth Voyager minivan. With the minivan came the first air conditioned vehicle. By then, I was nearly out of High School, so I wasn't always going on those family summer trips.

We would usually set out at the crack of dawn (sometimes before) from our home in Rowland Heights. We would drive a couple hours and have breakfast at this casino restaurant in Adelanto, a tiny junction town in the desert. From there we would charge onwards. I remember stopping for lunch at Bishop, California and going to a restaurant called Hobo Joe's. It's funny how I remember the restaurants...but it was one of the few times we would get to eat out during the year! From Bishop, we headed towards Nevada.

The road seemed to go on forever. Us kids would either nap or have books or games to keep us busy. When there was a town ahead, we all would look up with eager anticipation to see something other than desert. Often the "town" consisted of a dumpy gas station and a few ramshackle buildings! Luckily, the law didn't require seat belts for kids, so we were able to lay down and stretch out.

If we were lucky, we would stop in a town called Hawthorne, Nevada, and stay at a motel for the night. If we were REALLY lucky, that motel would have a swimming pool! Sometimes, dad would push it and try to get to the next town. Sometimes, we would end up driving straight through to Idaho! When we did stop in Hawthorne, we often stayed in a Best Western that was right across the street from the "El Capitan" casino. The motel would give mom and dad a couple rolls of nickels and in the evening they would go play the nickel slots for awhile. Being the oldest, I was "in charge" back in the room. I'm certain I never abused my power. Mom and Dad would come back after having run through the nickel rolls and I remember a time or two them having "Club" cocktails in the room while we kids watched TV.

The next morning, we would have breakfast in the casino restaurant. Then it was on to Idaho! It was always exciting on the second day, because we knew we would get to Grandmas house that day. The car ride could get very long for a kid. I did a lot of napping on those trips. Once it was so hot (we were in the VW bus) that I remember taking a cup of water that I was drinking and throwing it in my own face. We would stop for lunch at Winnemucca, Nevada, usually at the A&W Root Beer fast food joint. Nothing could slow us down too much. That is, if we didn't run into car trouble. I remember a trip or two being grounded for awhile waiting for dad to magically get the car going again. When we hit Jordan Valley, Oregon, we knew we were close. It was hard not to want to drive faster, but the tiny town was known as a speed trap. Or at least, one very persistent sheriff with a radar gun. It had a reputation with us, at least, and kept dad under the speed limit.

Fruitland, Idaho is right next to the border with Ontario, Oregon. I thought it was strange but kind of neat that all the shopping was done in Oregon. When I was older, I learned that there was no sales tax in Oregon. Besides, there wasn't much in the way of commercial stores in Fruitland. To get to Ontario, you would have to drive past "Gay Way" junction, home of the pink "Gay Way" bowling alley. It was painted on the broad side of the building "GAY WAY BOWL." I learned later on that my Grandfather actually named the place after his daughter was born, back in the days when gay meant "happy."

We would stop at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's first and unload. We stayed there overnights because they had a bigger house with beds for everyone. After we had unloaded, we would head over to Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's to say hello. It felt so good to know we were out of the car, which had become dirty and just smelled like the road! Stepping out of the car for the first time and breathing in the smell of the Idaho country air was wonderful. Warm and clean, with a hint of mint in the air. It was great to know that we were at the beginning of a fun time in Idaho.