Friends of the Family

Up until around 1948 we had no neighbors in sight of our home in Auburn.  Then Ken and Georgia Fox bought the three lots just around the bend in the street to the west of us. Dr. Kenneth Fox was a young dentist who had grown up locally, the son of a music teacher, as I recall. Ken was a man to be taken seriously when he applied himself to a task.  He showed up with a war surplus jeep, and proceeded to literally beat down the trees and brush on the property with that jeep.  Wh

There weren’t many jobs available to young people in Auburn.  Some kids found work in gas stations and grocery stores.  Some worked on their family cattle and fruit ranches.  The largest employer of summer help was the Mendelson-Zeller Company that operated a fruit packing shed on Nevada Street on the west side of town adjoining the north bound railroad line. There was another fruit shed further up the road, but it didn’t do as much business, and there were other sheds locate

The Gold Shows that I remember occurred in the summers of 1948, 1949, and 1950.  These years straddled the centennial of the Gold Rush.  There was at least one more Gold Show, earlier, in 1935, and perhaps more. (See picture, below.) My memory is hazy, but I think the celebrations lasted about a week.  There was a carnival which set up shop in what was a vacant lot next door to the Catholic Church, and across the street from the old Lincoln Way School (now, Auburn’s city hall

I have already made several references Blair Birdsall Dobbas Cranston, but there is more to say about her. Every community has one or more leading families, and the Birdsall family would most likely fit into that category. (See References for added information.) There were three Birdsall children: Blair, Thersa, and Mary.  I don’t know their relative ages, but, naturally, they were all members of the San Souce Club.  Thersa married Fred Haswell, who I remember little about. 

I don’t know the exact dates of Sheriff Jim Kenison’s term of office, but I do know that he was sheriff for a long time in the 1940’s and 50’s.  As with all law enforcement politicians, Sheriff Jim cast a wide net gathering his supporters.  I don’t have any idea whether or not he was a good sheriff, but I do know that he enjoyed his drinks, and didn’t like to drink alone. When I was in elementary school, my father carried a Deputy Sheriff card in his wallet.  He enjoyed showi

Andy and Loretta Dorer were also part of my parent’s circle of friends.  Loretta worked with my father at the PG&E.  I think she was fond of him for his kindness and virtues, as were several other ladies with whom I came in contact at the office.  I always considered Loretta as my father’s “office wife.”  She was the woman who looked out for my father and his best interests while at work.  I don’t exactly remember, but I think she also was a San Souci member.  Who wasn’t? And

Every town has what I would call a center of gravity, a hub or a place that serves as a fulcrum to balance all of the other places of commerce and local  interest around it.  From that point of view, my candidate for Auburn’s social hub was the local poolroom located downtown on Lincoln Way. This is not to say that the local pool hall was that common a gathering place.  On the contrary, the clientele was generally limited to three groups of “customers:”  the local louts, laya

No other place in my childhood had a greater impact on my formation than the Cranston’s ranch. Graham Cranston was born and raised in Santa Barbara.  He came from a prosperous family, and went an elite boarding school in the East for his high school education.  He subsequently went to Harvard where he majored in English and journalism. According to my mother, he came back to California after graduation, and worked as a journalist for a while in San Francisco. I don’t know why

My godfather was Sam Babcock, Vera’s husband.  My godmother was Phyllis Reed.  Nevertheless, Vera was always known to me as “Aunt” Vera., and an informal godmother. We used to go over to the Babcock’s for dinner occasionally when I was young.  They had a small two bedroom house across the street from Placer College (now Sierra College in Rockland, this campus is now part of Placer High School) as mentioned earlier concerning Pearl Harbor. What I remember most about their home

One of my mother’s best and earliest friends in Auburn was Thelma Cooper Hughes Goodman.  Thelma’s father had been a district manager with PG&E, and she could probably be classified as one of the community’s elite young ladies.  By the time I came along, she was married to Bill Hughes.  I was too young to know much about Bill.  I do know that he was drafted during WWII, and that this left Thelma to her own devices and desires. Thelma, of course, was a member of San Souci and

The Ford family lived further down the street from the Knutsons and the Lapps.  Bob Ford owned and operated the Chevron station in town, and in the late 1940’s he added a Pontiac dealership to the property.  Doris was another Sans Souci friend of my mother, as well as one of the local neighbors.  There were five children in the family.  Bobby, Betty, and Jimmy were all considerably older than me, so we were never close friends.  Larry, was two years older.  We didn’t see much

My closest neighborhood friend growing up until high school was Terry Lapp.  Terry was two years younger than me, and had a sister, Linda, who was an additional year younger. Terry was an easygoing kid.  We build forts and tree houses where we played cowboys and Indians and fought World War II over and over again.  We always made Terry’s sister, Linda, and her next door friend, Paulette, play the Indians or the Japs.  We usually quickly wore out our welcome with the girls, ma

Fred and Gay Knutson were other neighbors who lived further down the street.  Fred worked with my father for PG&E, and Gay was a stay-at-home wife who had a real knack for gardening.  Gay was also a member of Sans Souci, and a close friend of my mother. My father spent a lot of time visiting Fred on his little strolls down the street.  I think that the most important part of Fred’s friendship was that he always had a Kraft cheese glass of Gallo or Italian Swiss Colony dry she

Frequently, in the summer, my father and I would take an afternoon or evening walk around our hill.  The closest neighbor we had lived about 100 yards down the street from us.  This name was Sam Dunton.  He and his wife had a home that sided onto the street.  It had a big front porch that was sheltered from the street so that it provided a quiet place for sipping refreshments and enjoying conversation. Mr. Dunton, to my way of thinking, was older than Father Christmas.  He ha

I was never aware of any particular social pecking order in our small town, but I guess the Sans Souci Club (meaning “without concern”) came as close to social stature as any women’s group.  Perhaps the Masonic Lodge, Elk’s Lodge, Tahoe Club, and Rotary served a similar function for men. The Sans Souci Club must have been formed around 1932, the year my parents were married.  It was a women’s bridge and social club that had around thirty charter members.  According to my moth

I love the town that I grew up in.  You know what they say.  The three most important criteria of real estate is location, location and location.  Much of Auburn’s function and aesthetic charm is due to its location. Auburn lies on the western, foothill slopes of the Sierra at an elevation of about 1,200 feet.  It is high enough to escape almost all of the heavy fog that smothers the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys during the winter.  And, it is low enough to usually avoid

World War II formed the backdrop of my early recollections.  I confess that I remember Pearl Harbor, the day that the Japanese attacked our navel forces in Hawaii.  This may be my imagination, but my father would take me over to the Placer College (now part of Placer High School) campus where I could ride my tricycle on the large concrete patio. My godfather, Sam Babcock, and his wife, “Aunt” Vera lived on Orange Street across from the College.  We always parked in front of m

My home in Auburn for the first fifteen years of life The house that my parents brought me home to was built in 1937.  We lived on the northern edge of Auburn on a hill called Los Altos Heights.  The hill had been subdivided by Judge Landis, Placer County’s superior court judge.   Virtually all of the homes were built around the same time with the exception of the Hamilton family home on the south side of the hill that had been built earlier. Our home was typical of our middl

A number of years ago a friend of mine encouraged me to write down my family history and experiences.  She said, “Do it for the children yet unborn.”  I confess that I’ve spent a lot of time, especially in bed, spinning out narrative in my mind about the people, places and stories that constitute my “history.”  When it’s come time to put these stories on paper, however, my creativity and enthusiasm have wilted like a collapsing balloon;  oh well, put the project off for anoth