Dan’s First Big Trip

Big adventures that took us far from home were not a part of my early childhood years. We had lots of family events near home with grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and church friends, but expensive far away trips were out of our reach. I had no sense of deprivation or disappointment because I was just a small child and my world in the vicinity of Lakeview was enormous. There was never a lack of things to explore and challenging things to do, so life was good.

I remember lots of little trips around the area. Dad loved to shoot guns and we often went to shoot jack rabbits at the airport and ground squirrels at grandpa Williams’ farm. Family hikes in the surrounding hills and fishing in the local streams were common.

The first actual vacation trip that I can remember was a family trip to Disneyland when we lived in Oregon City. We did lots of things as a family to earn some extra money for the event. Because we lived in an old farm house where there were still a few surviving trees from the original orchards, we were able to gather up a large pile of walnuts that had fallen on the ground beneath the trees. Dad placed them on some drying racks in the basement until they were dry enough to remove the outer skins and then crack the shells to harvest the nuts inside. I remember sitting with the family in the basement and cracking those walnuts for hours while we listened to music from an old radio. After all our efforts to earn extra cash for the trip, I think we managed to save up about 76 dollars.

The trip was memorable, but full of boring stuff too. The traveling in Old Blue, the family station wagon, seemed endless and I remember being stuck in traffic for what seemed forever. We had to stand in line for hours to go on a 15-minute ride. I only remember the submarine ride and the Matterhorn. The crowds and cars and big city were all a bit overwhelming for a young boy from the country. I came back from the experience wondering what the big attraction of it was. I’d rather build forts in the old prune dryer and catch crawdads in the local stream than fight with the crowds in the big city.

A loving, supportive family with lots of siblings and extended family were enough to build a world of happiness for me. I never felt that I needed to escape from the local village to see the wonders of the world. I was content with the simple life of a country boy from the sticks.