In 1976, Betty Pannell was the Westwood correspondent to the Lassen Advocate. She had a special feature entitled Yesteryear. The following is an excerpt of her interview with Lydia Schuldies, who with her husband operated a restaurant, bar, dancing floor and service station on Highway 36, near Goodrich Creek. Lydia recalls their place was not the only activity there, and now all that remains is the lone chimney.
“With the war and the advent of food stamps Lydia really had her hands full to run the restaurant at Phil’s. To arrange the menus as best as she could and for as long as possible. Then, when the food ran out, to close until she had more stamps. Lydia said she always tried to hire back the employees that had to be let off during these forced closures.
“There were many more buildings along the highway—next to Phil’s was a rooming house for the men working out there. Next to it an ice house with walls yay thick filled with sawdust for insulation to keep the ice. And back between the highway and Moonlight road was the airport. (This is where Cub Walker, one of Fletcher Walker’s son was killed in a plane accident.) On back in a beautiful spot on the meadow was the Home Ranch and during World War II when Victory—or vegetable gardens—were encouraged the Walkers set aside a good sized area for anyone to put in their own vegetables and the Walkers had a man to water it. Directly across the highway from Phil’s were the small house is, well that was the mess hall for the men. And there were was a dairy farm with big barns and the milk brought into Westwood by horse and wagon and sleigh.”
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