First of all my sister Genevieve got a job with the Blagen family as a "nanny" to their three children. The grandfather Blagen and most of the people at the mill were "old-timers" who had worked for the lumber co. up near Susanville. and so there a few families who were new to the Mill run by Mr. Blagen and his son Howard. Another brother who was younger was involved with the mill also. So the Blagens and these workers who had been with them for years all were settled into "homes" that theyhad built with the aid of the lumber from the mill and their neighbors. It was only us, the "newcomers" who had the tents! But there quite a few of us too! And like I said Genevieveworked for Howard and his wife for a couple of years. She sometime, or I guess most of the time lived with them. Of course we were just a "stone's throw" as they used to say, away from our tents. The tents were put up and ours, anyway, because we had two tents, were connected ! The season was fall and the pine needles were falling everywhere! When the rains started, and it did rain a lot, the tents started to leak. Where the tents were put together, it actually looked like a waterfall between the two tents! Everything that we couldn't cover was soaked. When it stopped after a dayof rain, we had to hang everything out on clotheslines to get dry, and the company sent men around with a second canvas roof which was placed about a foot above the existing one! It worked fine but a few places that leaked yet was in the seam between the two tents. I guess the wind would blow rain in and it would settle there! We had a little "creek" running through the house! Mother did all the cooking, on this small range, and we did have a new "store up on the highway, A "Red and White store. People by the name of Copello owned it, or at least had the franchise for it! Their son Dave, soon became the heart throb of every eligible girl in the camp. We did have a phone there and so most of the ladies would call in their grocery orders and Dave delivered them. We were the envy of the camp because Mother baked all these "goodies" and would ask Dave to have a cup of coffee and a piece of pie or cake, or a cookie or two!!! So he would come in antalk to her about everything in the world while we stood around with our eyes "glued on him! Yes, I was a little shy in those days! When we had to take a bath in those tents, of course, we had to heat up the water on the stove in kettles, etc. I used to take my bath before the rest of the kids came in from play, And we didn't bathe every day, too much trouble!! We had to use an "outhouse" for a toilet and everybody used it! We probably had two or three for the entire camp! Anyway, I was on my way there one evening with one of the kids for company and lo and behold! I could see the shadows through the tents of anyone who was taking a bath! That was the last time I took a bath in the evening after dark!!! It did snow later in the winter and we had Christmas in the tent house! I remember because a lot of the younger kids got together and asked me to play Christmas Carols for them on the piano! The parents stood around as many as could get in and if they didn't get in the tent they stood around outside singing with the kids!! Spring finally came and the company gave everyone lumber to build "rough" lumber houses. Dad and some of the men built a three bedroon one for us! We had a kitchen- dining room, and a nice large living room. We had our own "outhouse" too. Baths were still taken in a tub in the kitchen, usually after dinner was over and as I said before, not too many, when one had to carry water and fill up the tub and bail the water out to where it was light enough to empty. We were still living in this house when I met Cappy. It was not elegant but was livable and warm. We lived among the neighbors who had live near us in the tents, (they had built their houses too!) So it was rather pleasant, knowing all your neighbors and up to just a few years ago, we had kept in touch with a lot of them, but age and illness has seen many of them go to their Heavenly reward!! It wasn''t very long after I got married, (and Genevieve followed my marriage by getting married herself the next March!) the mill shut down and the Blagen Lumber Co.bought a mill in West Point, Ca. Most of the people went along with it and Dad was a millwright there. The war was on and my brother Bob went off to war and then Laurence! When they came home that mill shut down and Laurence and Bob moved, (with their wives and kids by this time!) to Torrance, Ca. Ah, the good old days!!!
