MEMORIES IN A MOVIE

Geese were flying low overhead and honking their arrival, and lawn mowers are in full-swing this afternoon as the neighbors get in the mood with the sunshine that almost convinces me Spring is on the breeze …

Neighbor across the way, mowing

… and the hired maintenance man is driving the streets; hauling his mowers, weed whackers, and garbage cans behind in his homemade utility trailer, mowing and pruning for those who can’t.

But it isn’t Spring yet. Daffodils and crocuses may be blooming, but here in the PNW, the weather is schizoid – it’s pneumonia weather. I’ll do my yard work next month when the weather will be a bit more stable.

Last year, today, the temperature was low enough that skimpy snowflakes fell with the ceaseless rain. This year, I woke up to a light snow dusting on rooftops that was gone before noon, on the 3^rd. I’ll do my yard work next month when the weather will be a bit more stable.

Tonight, I am working on a spring themed dust cover for the dehydrator …

… while watching this logger family movie on Youtube: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4BOWoa5W4). This movie is not always available on Youtube, so tonight is a real treat even though I always cry towards the end. Bob always barked out a laugh at the end when the dead arm with the 1-finger salute went up.

Memories in a movie :-D

‘Sometimes A Great Notion’ is the first movie I watched with Bob when it was showing at the local Columbia Movie Theatre, here in Longview – everything seen in the movie was what Bob did for a living for 19 years of our married life. Bob was a logger, born into a logging family of a logging family – Bob’s grandfather was born in a logging camp on Salmon Creek, this side of Graysriver. The log rafts are dangerous, and no place to fool around – ALL of logging is dangerous, but the rafts are tricky because the logs roll, and they swell with water making them very, very heavy.

Bob told me of the time his Camero ended up on a log raft rounding a sharp bend on Puget Island – he even pointed out the spot it happened when we crossed the mainland bridge and touched down on Puget Island. I am glad I did not know Bob when he was a hell raiser. I got him after all the youthful fire and rebellion had run its course ;-)

Bob and his beloved car - that car was untouchable: it was a hotrod. 1967/Cathlamet

Bob (in jeans), his Dad/Bonnie & Merry & Kerry. 1969/Toutle, WA

Bob did just about everything there was to do in logging; and it was hard work. He started out helping his parents with their small private logging outfit in Eden Valley (his father did the cat logging and his mother drove log truck hauls – hauled logs in the back; and kids in the cab). Bob learned to cat log and drive his father’s truck when he was old enough to see over the dashboard. When Bob started working after he graduated High School, he drove log truck for Durrah & Martin Logging Company. He moved on to choker setting; then to shovel operator by the time we married (He was also doing cat logging, machine maintenance, and building truck roads/shovel-log stack landings on weekends). He drove the crew bus; it was parked in our driveway for 19 years. He could high-climb with a long, heavy, Husqvarna chainsaw slung across his chest and back; and top evergreen trees that reached high into the sky … slowly and methodically cutting that tree down piece by piece – that scared me while I watched him: I didn’t breathe easy at all until his feet were back on the ground; to him it was fun. To me, it was risky business. We burned a woodstove for heat most of our married life – and Bob could chop those cords of wood with one hand, while reaching for another chunk of wood to whittle down to stove size.

Bob was a manly man.

Handsome too; and magnificent in action to watch ;-)

When Durrah & Martin retired in 1993, we moved to Raymond, WA, where Bob drove log truck for 6 months while we waited for the birth of our daughter’s 1^st child – our granddaughter, Alyna. But Bob hated Raymond, so when he got word there was a job waiting for him back here in Longview, he came back to drive log truck for Taft Logging in September of 1995 – Alyna was born November 4^th in Grays Harbor hospital … and we were all living in Longview, on Eufaula Heights, before Thanksgiving 1995. Bob stuck with Taft for 2 years before moving on to drive chip truck for Lemmon’s Trucking: he drove for Lemmon’s for 17 years before retiring 8 years ago. Bob drove truck up and down the freeways, about as long as he worked in the forest; he didn’t particularly like driving truck because it was pretty monotonous, but he had a family to support, so he manned up and did what he knew to do. But he always preferred to be in the forest, doing what he did best on the landings.

And he always smelled so good when he came home: he smelled like a fir scented man because the saw dust and fir pollen came home on his clothes, on his skin, and in his hair. I will always associate the crisp, clean, pungent odor of fresh cut Fir with Bob. Always.

I finished the main dust cover just as the movie ended – but the trim will have to wait; I’m tired & I’m going to bed:

Waiting for trim. I haven’t decided what trims I want on it yet – maybe I’ll know tomorrow ;-)

Always ~ OX