A Trip Down Memory Lane

One thing that I wanted to do while we were in Oregon for Christmas was go to Canyonville and take some quality pictures so my kids could see where I grew up.  I have always liked hearing stories from my parents and grandparents about how life was in the olden days and I hope I can share my memories, and now these pictures, with my kids and grandkids.

195 Hamlin Drive

Going to the house was so sad.  It was abandoned pretty much.  The trees and shrubs were way overgrown and the little I could see through the windows of the inside was just gross.  It was crazy though because even 10 years later all the window hangings, blinds, curtains, everything, were the originals that we had growing up.  We knocked on the doors just to make sure no one was there, peeked in the windows, and tried to open the doors but they were all locked.  There was only one way in, through the wood box but even though Joel could have fit through we didn't attempt a break in because we were scared of rabid animals inside the house.

The house my Grandpa and Dad built.

The shop/second garage with a new weird fence, I don't like it.

Backyard with a fence up.  As we were looking at the rushing creek I was amazed that we never had a fence up while we lived there.  Mom, what were you thinking?!  I'm surprised one of us wasn't swallowed up in that swollen winter creek with the amount we played down there.

Here is the back of the shop, I remember all the Volkswagens that were back there waiting for their parts to be used.

Back of the house.  I also could have tried to climb up to the deck on the second floor and see if the sliding door was unlocked, since I HAD done it before.  But last time there was a trampoline underneath me in case I fell.

Here is the Church building across the street.  The church was in a sad state as well, there were chains up blocking the parking lot and they took the steeples down.  One of my favorite memories of the Church (besides all the churchy stuff) was when I was walking to Seminary one morning in the early morning pitch black darkness and out of the shadows from the dead end street was a tractor.  Just a guy on his tractor being creepy coming from who knows where and going who knows where.  I ran into the building so fast, I was freaked out!

Then we went down to the elementary school, again in quite a sad state.  The windows and doors were all boarded up.  We didn't stay long but Oskar did play on the toys a bit.  The snake with the ladders attached to it was still there.

Grandma and Grandpa's house was next.  I took pictures of all the houses they built and/or lived in but this picture of their last house is so beautiful.  It looks like a little paradise nestled in the mountains.  If Canyonville weren't such an armpit I would want to live in this house... maybe I would anyway.  Lots of good memories from this house, though the two that stick out in my mind right now are bad ones.  First is when Grandpa paid me and Jordan to dig a trench in the hillside but unbeknownst to him, and us, we were digging in the roots of poison oak.  I got it so bad I had to take steroids and could't go to school for a while.  The second is when I was helping Grandpa paint the house and I saw him fall off the scaffolding.  It was terrible.  I think he was jumping from one to another or something.  He just said, "Go get Grandma!"  I never ran so fast in my life.  Didn't he also drive his lawnmower off the side of one of these hills?  Luckily I didn't witness that one.  Silly Grandpa.  I miss him.

Penny Pincher, Jared's home away from home.

Canyonville Middle School, I've got some pretty embarrassing memories from there.

More embarrassing memories from here.

M-I-double toothpicks, where I was lovingly referred to as Fireball by the toothless man at the end of the conveyer belt.

There were a few other places I thought maybe I wanted pictures of but we didn't have time.  Growing up there I just did not appreciate how beautiful it is.  Compared to LA it's like the Garden of  Eden!  I wouldn't want to live in southern Oregon but somewhere similar in northern Oregon or northern California might be nice.  Can I get an amen, Joel?  Redding??  Pretty please?