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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

The first thing that I want to say about my father is that he was more of an observer rather than a participant in life.  My fondest memories of and about him centered on the family stories about his childhood growing up in Nevada City. We called them the “Cousin Jack” stories.  Cousin Jacks and Jennies were the Welsh and Cornish mining people that came to America and other parts of the world to work the deep shaft mines of the later 19th century.  My father’s family came fro

This photo of my great grandfather, Christopher Adam Millerwas taken shortly before his death in 1913. My mother always spoke about her grandfather with great respect and love. He died in 1913 shortly before she turned five, so her memory must have been a combination of recollection and stories she later heard about him. My great grandfather was born in Wurtemburg, Germany in 1836 or 1838. Both dates are cited from different sources. A family pedigree chart created by Aunt Ei

This photo of my great grandmother, Mary Axinger Miller was taken when she was 48 years old. Not a great deal is known about my great grandmother, Mary. She was born in Berlin, Germany, on March 8, 1848 and died of breast cancer in Oakland on February 17, 1905. The inscription on the back of the above picture indicates that she came to America at twelve years of age, went to work in a shoe factory in Pennsylvania, and later came to San Francisco. This is corroborated by infor