My parents bought 500 Cottage Street in 1956, and my Mother has lived there ever since. A portion of this story is at her request. My Mom is in the process of downsizing, not an easy task since she has lived there for nearly sixty years. She has among other things a “cow jumping over the moon cooking jar,” which she is looking for a good home for it. Let me know if you are interested.
Among the relics that surfaced is the infamous golf ball. Some fifty years ago, I could not find my baseball. So, I grabbed a golf ball, and bat and did some batting practice using the retaining wall that separates Pine Street and the highway. Every now and then I popped the golf ball over the retaining wall and into the highway. Times were different and there was not much traffic back then. So this happened several times, and then I go retrieve it. Simple as that. Then in one instance it really popped up high over the wall. Past experience, the ball usually landed in the gutter and rolled down. Not this time. Being young, naive and not too bright, I started looking around in Med and Zella Arnold’s yard. With no luck finding it, and I knocked on their door, and said I was looking for a golf ball that might have landed in their yard. Zella was livid and I was mortified. It turns out the golf ball went through one of the Arnold’s bay windows. Zella had me so traumatized and before I got back home she had given my Mom a verbal lashing over the phone. After Med calmed down Zella by that evening, I was later told she had a fondness for creme de menthe, Med with the golf ball in hand, knocked on my parent’s door. Med being Med, the kind soul he was, gave my Mom the golf ball, and said to ignore whatever Zella said, and not to worry about paying for the window. Med stated, “Boys will be boys and it was not meant to do harm.” For those who did not know Med, among many things he was in charge of athletics as Lassen Union High School and the athletic field was named in his honor.
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Tim, If all else fails I could find a home for the cookie jar. I trust all is well with you. thanks, David
Tim … Before your family bought that house in 1956 it was owned by the Doe family … Tom, Beulah , Terry and Patti. They owned Griffin Variety Store on Main Street. They moved from Susanville to Livermore, I guess in 1956. That family and my family and the Crever family shared many Christmas and Thanksgivings dinners in that house. Karla McKahan
Karla, thanks for the information. Inside the front door frame were the names of the Does, but I never knew who they were. My parents were living in Evan’s Apartments on Richmond Road, but with three kids, and with me making a forthcoming debut shortly needed a place with a large lot for us kids. So who took over Griffin’s then? Would that have been Frank White? Tim
Yes, I think that was when Frank White took over. Were the Evans Apartments on Richmond Road just south of “the bridge”? If so, my family home overlooked them from across the river, up on the Gay Street hill. We had a beautiful view of Diamond Mountain and Susan River … They will always be a part of me !