SUMMER IN 1949

By Norman Clifford

My two brothers and I and a friend were walking home from school in the
rain. It had been raining for two day's and it was just starting to let
up.
We had so much fun just walking in the rain, we were laughing and
joking back-and-forth and by the time we got home it had pretty much
stopped raining. There was a huge reservoir pretty close to where we
lived, and from the rain it was filled to the top with water. There
were trees all round it. We said, tomorrow is Saturday, let's make some
rafts and float in the reservoir with them. Our friend Richard said,
let's play pirates. We agreed that would be a lot of fun. The next
morning we were out there building two rafts. When we finished, we
started floating a round in the water, throwing big boulders
back-and-forth pretending they were cannons.
We had this old sheet that my mom threw out and we hooked it up and
used it for a sail. We were having a lot of fun. We had swords made out
of wood. My brother Charles said, what is that in the water? looks like
money, we all jumped in the water and there was three $10 bills
floating on top of the water. The water was only 2 ft. deep and we
could stand up in it.
We walked over to the side of the embankment all excited. We were
asking each other, how it got in the water. We saw this old pillow all
soaked laying on the side by a bush in the water. We picked it up and
pulled it apart and as we were looking at it, we found a $5 bill still
stuffed in it. Charles said, he had heard of people hiding money in
their pillows. Richard said, why would they stuff it in a pillow, why
not put it in the bank. Lots of people don't trust banks. We knew there
used to be a homeless guy that was living around these trees a few
months ago, maybe he left it by mistake not knowing any money was in it
or maybe he buried it there for some reason which we will never know.
We thought the rainwater softened the ground and it floated to the top.
We don't know how it got there, so we decided to split it up and not
say anything to anyone except mom and dad. We all dried off and headed
down to the neighborhood store. When we got there, we bought some candy
and different stuff.
My brother and I said, let's surprise mom and dad and buy some bread
and a couple of other items for the house, I said ok, I gave him my
money and we bought some groceries. When we got home, my mom and dad
were real surprised. They said, where did you get the money for the
food? We found a couple dollars by the reservoir and we wanted to
surprise you and mom. My dad said, you sure did, this is great. You
know in two weeks we are going on our summer vacation up north to the
mother lode country, which is north of Yosemite. We will go up there
for three weeks and camp out. Before we knew it those three weeks went
by so fast and we were all packed and ready to go. We had a small
little trailer that we loaded all our camping stuff in and as we stood
back and looked at it, it reminded us of the movie "Grapes of Wrath"
and we all had a good laugh. My mom was putting blankets and pillows in
the back of the truck; everything was packed and ready to go. We left
the next day going over the grapevine, which is a real high grade. Our
truck pulling the trailer got so hot it boiled over twice getting to
the top. Dad would always have two water bags on the front bumper of
the truck for the radiator only. It was all down hill through
Bakersfield until we got to the mother lode country. Our radiator
started boiling over a few more times as we were getting close to the
mother lode. We knocked on the window of the truck telling my dad we
were hungry, we'll be there in a couple of hours, you wait. My oldest
brother Charles said, I'll get something to eat in a few minutes. Our
sister Marie said, what are you going to do? get some food; don't worry
about it, in a little while I'll get some for all of us. We were all
stuffed in the back of the truck laughing and telling jokes and
throwing stuff back-and-forth at each other. We had so much fun riding
in the back of the truck.
From out of know where, Charles decides he's going to get some food
from the trailer. He started walking across the trailer hitch into the
trailer as we were traveling about 50 mi. an hour. We were so scared
that he was going to fall and we were telling him not to do it, you
might fall and get killed. We kept telling him, We'll be stopping in a
little while to eat.
He said, I'm not waiting, I'm getting something now. He was a pretty
stubborn guy and he wanted to get his way. We were so scared that he
was going to fall, he said don't worry about me and be quiet dad might
hear you. He got to the trailer and back and had some bread and cheese
with him and we all had some. About 20 minutes later dad pulled over to
the side and said ok if you are that hungry, we will eat a little
something. Our little brother Tito said, we already ate something,
Charles climbed in the trailer while you were driving to get some food.
My dad exploded, you could have gotten killed, he yelled, don't you
have any brains? He swung hitting him in the side of the head and
kicked out at him and yelled out all kinds of names. He was shaken and
was so upset that he kept saying you could have gotten killed, don't
you ever do anything like that again.
My mother was crying we could have lost you. My dad could not control
his self he walked around the truck and trailers a number of times and
down the road a few hundred feet trying to get himself together. He
came back to the truck and put his arm around my mother's shoulder and
said everything is ok, let's get moving. As we were getting back into
the truck, my dad was helping us. As soon as Charles started getting in
the back, my dad grabbed his hand and said, son don't ever do anything
like that again. We continued on our way, there was never anything ever
said about what happened, but I know my mother and father were very
disturbed about it for a long time. About two hours later we came to
this little town and we stop along side this little small grocery
store.
As we all got out my mom said, your dad is pretty sick. Will he be ok?
Yes. How much further to the river mom it's about a mile or two. Mom
said we better stay in town tonight, your dad can't drive any further
It was a small little town and had a pretty good size two-story hotel a
little grocery store with a barn alongside it and a gas station with
these big glass gas containers that showed how much gas was being
pumped It was a real old gas station, There was this old wood frame
house near it at the end of the street there was a huge building that
was all abandoned, it had huge metal doors on it My sisters and Charles
said it was an old jail, it looked like the cowboy days. The hotel were
we were going to stay in was $6.50 a day for all of us It had narrow
stairs going to the second floor where we stayed, it had big pillars in
front with a large wooden porch and it was like and old cowboy hotel.
The whole place was made out of wood, we were all laughing and said it
looks like the cowboy days.
My father was very sick and had a high fever. We stayed there for
overnight. My mother and father decided that we better go back home, we
were all real disappointed but my dad was very sick. We were worried
about him as we got ready to go back home, my dad said to us we will
come back next year I promise you. We slowly made our way back home.
Dad was very sick all the way so Charles did some of the driving.
The following day the doctor came to the house and examined my dad. We
ask the doctor what was wrong with him. The doctor said he has
bronchitis. In a few weeks with rest he will be ok. We were all
disappointed but we were all looking forward to going to the mother
lode country next summer. My dad told us he knew about this river there
that was real beautiful and a good spot for camping and looking for
gold.
It will be lot of fun there, but there is lot's of fools gold around
there, with a smile on his face he said, but I will show you the
difference between them if your lucky enough to find some real gold.
When he was in his early twenties he and some friends would camp along
this river and they would fish and look for gold in and around the
river in the early 1900's.
So next summer we are all looking forward to going there and panning
for gold and having fun with the whole family. We can hardly wait, it
will be so much fun camping out and fishing and looking for gold.
Can you imagine how much fun that was in 1949? And when we went back in
1950 we had so much fun that we talked about for many years after. Now
53 years later, my mother and father have passed away, my brothers and
sisters are all around in different states. I wish I could go back to
1949. When I was 9 years old.

A true story, how I remember it, a long time ago by Norman
Clifford

3-31-02