I was looking at my calendar the other day and saw it was almost Columbus day …. Now that brought back some memories. It was 1962 and I was sitting in my class room in Portland Oregon when I noticed it was getting windy; sometimes the wind would kick up and throw stuff at the window. Before long there was a constant tapping of debris. Soon my teacher’s phone buzzed and the next thing I knew it was early dismissal. A friend of mine and I shared a bike ride from time to time and it was his turn to pedal while I sat on the seat. We got about half way home when he said that he couldn’t pedal any more because of the strong wind so we walked the bike the rest of the way……… I should say ……. more like pushing the bike home. The wind was so strong that we had to lean forward just to keep going. After getting home from school I did my chores and went back out into the wind. By now it was getting dark and my parents would be home soon. I noticed all the lights in the house were flickering but I never thought it was because of the wind. As my dad backed the car up the drive way I could see they both had a funny look on there face. I found out what their look was when they got out of the car, the look was for me, and they had words that went with the look too. They made it known to me very fast that I shouldn’t be in the storm….. ‘Storm!” I said. “I didn’t know it was a storm I thought it was just windy.”

My dad was always in some way or form in scouting. For a number of years he even taught first aid to the explorers and it seemed to me that he was always prepared. As soon as we went into the house he explained to me that this wind has now turned into a big storm and that we should go into the basement to be safe. He also told me that the lights might go out but that we had candles and flashlights. We also had food and wood for the fireplace in the basement. We could hear the storm even in the basement. The wind howled. I kept my ear to the transistor radio until I fell asleep.

By the next morning the storm had ended and seemed very quiet. Mom said we had no electricity, Dad said it was a good thing it was Saturday! There’s no way they could have driven to work because of all the downed trees on the roads. I was told to stay in the house because of the downed wires; Dad said that some of the wires may give me a shock or even kill me. When I went upstairs and looked out the window I couldn’t believe what I saw. The streets were a big mess. There were fallen trees all over the place, some had fallen on houses, over the roads, on cars, one of two trees on our parking strip had fallen . It seemed that the only tree that was left standing was our giant weeping willow in our backyard. As I looked out the window I could see the older boys and men cleaning up the debris in their yards, soon you could hear the sounds of chain saws cutting through the fallen trees up and down the streets.

Some of the trees were cleared from the streets to allow the power trucks with their crews to start working on the power lines. Some big trucks were now driving up and down our street picking up debris……… It was pretty exciting! The next day Dad finally said it was ok for me to go out . I got dressed, and out the door I went. I went over to my friends’ to check out their streets and to hear their stories. We shared our adventure stories while we climbed all over the trees that were blown down.

The storm’s path went through parts of California, Oregon and Washington; 46 people died, the wind was a steady 66 mph with gusts of 100+; thousands of homes and businesses had no power for days, and property damage loss was in the millions.

Hold on, it’s windy!

Grandpa Tom

When I was growing up going out to dinner was really a fun time and only has good memories for me. Most of the time it was on a Friday night after Dad and Mom got home from work. Dad liked going out for hamburgers and eating in our Rambler station wagon

at a place called Jim Dandy in northeast Portland Oregon. The waitress…I mean carhop…would come out to your car and take your order;

after the food and drinks were prepared, the car hop would bring your order on a special tray that hooked to the outside of the drivers side window. From there Dad would hand the food out to each of us in the car. Dad even made a folding table for the inside of the Rambler so us kids had a place to sit our burgers and drinks on. Not only was the food good but the cars that came in were cool too. There were hotrods, customs, and from time to time a Harley, BSA, or maybe a Triumph motor cycle would roll in.

Triumph

BSA

Harley

Back then you didn’t even know what a Honda was.
I looked up Jim Dandy on the net. It’s still there. Next time I’m in Portland I’ll go back in time and get a burger at Jim Dandy.
When it was Mom’s turn she liked going out to a sit down restaurant; most of the time it was to a place called Bill’s Steak House. It was just down the road from Jim Dandy and it’s still open for business too. I always got the hot beef sandwich, Mom would get the veal cutlets, and Dad a giant steak. Rick would get a big hamburger or maybe a peanut butter sandwich with a side of fries.

Bill’s décor was neat too. It had a lot of cowboy stuff on the walls and a big set of horns from a Texas longhorn over the door going into the kitchen.

I always thought it was special to get my coke from the bar. The waitress would bring it out on a tray with Mom and Dad’s dinner drinks. My coke always had two thin red straws. The waitress would always place a napkin down under the drinks first. Printed on the napkins were jokes with cartoons, although, at the time I didn’t understand any of the jokes.

Back then there was no 205 freeway, Rocky Butte was known for the jail, and next door to Bill’s Steak House was the Wigwam surplus store with it’s big teepee out front….. am I jogging any memories yet? Well, how about Yaws, Scotty’s or A&W, and let’s not forget the Sandy drive -in.

Where did you go?

Grandpa Tom