L o n g Shopping Trip & Nostalgic Journey

Forfeiting our right to ever complain again about our wife's requests to go shopping at any time or place, Delos, James and I drove 1600+ miles this weekend so they could shop at the Nike employees' store in Beaverton, OR., just west of Portland. Since James use to work at Nike, some friends of his got "guest" passes for us to use the store. When Delos asked me to go with them, I was a little incredulous - you want to do what? - travel 1600 miles (round trip in two days) to buy some Nike shoes and sportwear? You have to be kidding!


They assured me it would be a "bonding experience" and, of course they needed my 4-wheel drive truck in case we ran into snow (which we did on the way there). We were gone about 56 hours, from 4 pm Friday to 10 pm Sunday) and spent about 30 of those hours driving.

Well, it was actually quite fun - especially since I decided we would visit some "personal historical sites" on the way home for a little nostalgia and family history lessons.


We left Draper about 4 pm Friday, picked up James in Logan and were on our way. We ran into snow at Boise and had snow off and on from there to Pendleton. Sometimes it was pretty intense making it difficult to see (James did all the driving). Over the Blue Mountains there was substantial snow on the roads but it had stopped snowing so visibilty was much improved. We stayed with the Neals (Holly's parents) in Pendleton, arriving there about midnight, and they were more than gracious hosts. Even though they knew we were all quite crazy, the treated us just like we were "normal people".

We left there Saturday about 10 am and headed to Portland. Much to my dismay, I forgot to take a picture of the store -I know that is an important part of this saga - so later I just took a picture of all the "bags of bounty" they loaded in the back of the truck. I won't bore you with those details other than to say I bought nothing - couldn't really find anything I needed or wanted - but Delos and James combined for over $1000 (I won't say how much over!) of merchandise (everything is basically half-price) so they tell me that is $2000 of goodies so the trip was certainly worthwhile - just look at how much money they saved!

We drove back to Pendleton arriving about 7:30 pm and went out to dinner with the Neals (Steve, Susan, and Amy) at a chinese restaurant. Then that evening they introduced us to a card game they call "idiot". Had a great time. Such a super family.

And now the "rest of the story".

We headed back Sunday morning and stopped to do some ancient history studies. When we got to the Ontario/Payette area, we drove up on the "Oregon Slope" to the house and 80 acre farm that we (the Lloyd and Effie Larson family) grew up in from 1941 - 1956. Dad built the house and we moved in, in 1941. When we knocked on the door, the lady living there said her name was Marie Thomson. I would guess she was in her mid 80's. Amazingly, she is the wife of the family that bought the house from us in 1956 - still living there. Her husband passed away 3 years ago. She has sold the farm to another family (Johnsons) who are farming the land, with the agreement that she can stay in the house as "long as she needs it". After they bought the place from us they added a two story addition to the front of the house but the original part of the house is still nearly as it was. She said we could look around all we wanted. So we wandered around the "old homestead".

The picture, just above was taken from the back (northwest corner) of the house looking toward the road so you can see how the front 2-story addition was added.

While some things were certainly different, the overall look and feel of the place seemed just right and each step and each view brought with it a flood of memories. James decided to climb the straw stack in the yard up where the barn use to be. The corn field (dried field-corn) right behind the house was just recently harvested and the combine was still in the yard, we walked out in the field a ways to where the corn had not been harvested (too wet) and down to the old "draw" (drainage canal), - got a little mud on our shoes. Picked a couple ears of dried corn (Delos and James had no idea what anyone would do with that - had to give a little tutorial about feeding dried corn to pigs and cows. Never heard of "corn-fed beef"?)

Delos and James liked it so much they decided we needed to buy the place. The first farm that Grandpa and Grandma Larson (Lloyd and Effie) owned, the first new house that they built, the cinderblock garage that Dad had built to replaced the "chicken coop" garage that we started with. All that history was right there. And while we were there, a John Deere tractor and disc was working in the far northeast field of the farm (Dixie, Donna, Larry will know where I'm talking about).

We then drove back to the corner (farm intersection) where Donna was born in that 15 x 15 shack (Rood's old place). The shack is gone - replaced by a double-wide trailer. But Woodard's old one-room shack on the field across the road from our farm was still standing! We drove past the Galyens, on to the little house Ivan and Mae had lived in, then back past the Archibald's and Wheeler's places and on down to Pioneer School. That school looks amazingly good, but it is clear that the original building still has the original brick. The sign now over the main entrance says the school was established in 1896. Wow, that was old even when we went there and it is still in use. The school yard is now all grass and looks great.

So below is a picture of my 6th grade class in front of the main doors of Pioneer school -the "new part" built while I was there (sorry about the condition of the picture - I am in the back row, 2nd from left. For those that remember her, Kathleen Bangerter - the only other LDS family in that farming community - is on the front row, far right hand side). And here I am at the same door about 56 years later.

Somewhere I have a picture of our 3rd grade class sitting on the concrete steps on the east side of the original part of the school, but I can't find it. However, I decided to sit for a new pose anyway this many, many years later. (Sorry that only Donna and Larry will recognize and appreciate these pictures - everyone else will just have to ignore them).

We drove through Payette on the way back to the freeway, then headed on down the road a couple hundred miles to Murtaugh. There is a "new" sign on the old highway, we took some pictures and drove to our Murtaugh home. It was getting dark so the pictures are marginal. I don't know why I didn't get a better picture of the front of the home, just the side and Dad's patio in the back - maybe next time. The family living there now is a Grandson (and his family) of Florin and Nel Hulse (more recently the wife of Rufus Turner who passed away last year). So that home has also stayed in the same family since our parents sold it and moved to Logan - about 1964?.

Below is me on the Murtaugh football field in 1959 and then again in 2009 (sorry its blurry - it was getting darker and the shutter stayed open a long time). Then the home that Carma and her family lived in for many years. It's not being well maintained but somebody was still living there (we didn't knock on the door and ask to take that picture). The cinderblock building is Grandpa's old potato warehouse where we sorted and shipped potatoes all over the country. We also took a picture (but it is very dark so not included here) of Carma's nice "new then" brick home and beauty shop where we lived for a few weeks after our marriage before we headed down to BYU. We took many other pictures but I can't include them all on this blog. If you want to see them you will have to come see us.

So you can see we had quite a trip and documented a little history while we were at it. It was great fun.