ON THE ROAD

ON THE ROAD We were a traveling family until I reached fourth grade. Dad owned several trailers, the largest of which was a Great Lakes 12 wide by 50 feet, if I remember correctly. We lived in a lot of trailer parks. We lived in Baker City for a brief period, it was summer, we were not enrolled in school. That summer Richard and I uh, borrowed the neighbor kids bikes and rode them like we stole them. The earliest trailer I remember living in was in Vale, Oregon. One night there was a tremendous thunder storm, very loud. The next morning, Mom slept in. Richard decided he wanted toast. So he put a slice of bread in the toaster which got toasty to the point that it caught on fire. Mom woke up then. Fireworks ensued. We lived in American Falls for a time. I went to school there, second grade, I think. I remember that one of the neighbor ladies tried to light her stove, the gas accumulated, overflash. Her face was burned. She came to Mom and mom put butter on her face. Richard participated in a boxing match. He had fun. I remember taking a test on time and had to write down the correct time using the clock faces. I got the times exactly wrong. The day Dad came to get me out of class to move, I was outside reading and a girl came to tell me to come in, I did not believe her, so the teacher came to get me. I was all in favor of moving. One summer, we lived in Jerome in a small trailer. There was an ice box. So every other day or so the ice man would bring ice. We would beg for slivers of ice and he would oblique. We lived at Thousand Springs but in one of the cabins. My tricycle disappeared and showed up as a birthday present painted green. They had a sturgeon in a pond. When I was in the third grade and Richard was in the second, we lived on Capitol Boulevard in a Green something named place. We walked across six lanes of traffic to walk to the Boise Junion College campus where we attended school. That was the year that we got bikes for Christmas. I rode so much, my behind was sore. The next place was Evergreen Mobile Home Park in Emmett. We walked to school. In the fourth grade I attended the old three story brick school, which was later sold to the Catholic church and then half the lot sold to a bank and the public library. The Great Lakes trailer got moved around a bit, Dad had it towed to Brownlee where there was a great deal of dirt. I learned how to make button holes from a neighbor. She may have given Mom the recipe for raisen sheet cake with white frosting. There after if Mom made that cake, that meant we were going out somewhere. Usually to a dance in Ola, which I remember fondly. Later on the trailer was moved to Hell's Canyon. That summer we spent in the dammed up creek, swimming. We begged dad for a Yuke inner tube but those trucks did not actually have inner tubes. When there was lightning storms, we would see the lightning bounce back and forth off the canyon wallsl. One time we went to Halfway, Oregon with dad. We stayed at a school that had a play ground while dad worked. I played on monkey bars until I had blisters, then the blisters popped and I still played. One time Mom had to take something to Dad on a very steep hillside. She had to turn about and we all got out and watched her. When we got back in, she swore she almost had a fecal hemorrhage. We spent the summer in Hailey, Idaho. Dad was working on a Fish and game project. I was asked to sketch a picture of the construction. There were wonder hot spring pools there and the folks rented a private bathhouse. Take about fifteen minutes to turn a bunch of noisy kids into limp noodls. Also that summer, we were sleeping in a tent under a large tree, the folks were in a small camper. A huge thunder storm came up and we all bailed out of the tent into the camper. Crowded. The last time I lived in the Great Lakes, I was a senior in Highschool We parked where a store now sits. I came home one day and Mom had the sewing machine out. I looked at the pattern for a maternity top. I asked who this was for and she snarled, “Me!” Good thing I didn't ask if Dad knew. One thing I know was that Mom was excellent at stowing loose stuff in the trailers including putting pillows inside the cupboards and taping the doors shut. Never failed. All dad had to do we level the trailer and ground the sink so we would not get shocked.