Part 11  January 17, 2000 1 PM

     While I was helping Lovena (my father's only sister) move in 1994 we sorted through 79 years of accumulations.  I think this photo was one of them.  I know she gave it to me, but I'm not sure just when.  The photo was taken in 1924 or 1925.
 
 

     My father and Lovena were born in Lamonta, Oregon.  The red dot in the map above shows where it was located.  Their father operated a freight wagon between this area and the Willamette Valley.  The red line running from Bend, through Sisters, and on to the West is present day Highway 20.  Some of the old roadway still exists up in the Cascade Mountains between Sisters and Sweet Home; I've seen it.  A portion of it 35 miles East of Sweet Home has been restored. go there

     While your looking at this map:  I was born in Sisters in 1939; Doug was born in Redmond in 1938.  My grandparents Alec and Nora Houk finally settled in Redmond, but my parents moved away from this area not long after I was born.  We never lived in that part of Oregon again.

     This is an interesting photo for me.  I have no idea who all these kids with my father are, but I distinctly remember my mother telling me about 50 years ago that they were all of his brothers.  Well he only had two brother and they were both much older that him; Guy was 15 years older, and Charlie was 12 years older.  George's name is the only thing written on the back of this picture and the one below.
 
 

     This photo was in this condition the first time I saw it many years ago.  It has more miles on it than my 12 year old car!  It's a shame that my father didn't write anything on the back.  I can only guess at the location and date.  It could be Lamonta, but I think Redmond is more likely correct.
 
 

     I'm not sure when either of my parents went to Alaska, but I know they were married there December 12, 1936.  Doug was almost born there.  I don't remember what my mother may have said about coming back the the lower 48, so for whatever reason she was in Redmond, Oregon in time for Doug to be born January 13, 1938.  I do remember she told me that the ships propeller fell off on the trip back.  My father went back to Redmond shortly after Doug was born.
 
 

     This photo was taken in early 1938 in Redmond, but I don't know exactly when and where.  I don't recall my mother telling me where they lived in Redmond or Sisters.  We moved to the Willamette Valley after I was born in 1939, and we moved around a lot except for the time we spent in Foster.  I know that my mother could remember only 22 addresses from 1939 until 1961.  I had to have all that information for my security background check when I joined the Navy in November 1961.
 
 

     The photo above was taken on one of the lakes near Sisters (Three Creek Lake) or Bend (East Lake), OR in the mid to late 1940's.  Those were his favorite lakes.  I remember one fishing trip to East Lake when I was the only one catching fish, and I caught the limit for the four of us!  Including a 22 inch Rainbow Trout.

     Mr. Lumpkin was a good friend of my father, and they were known to tip a few.  This was taken in front of our house out on Long Street.  The Lumpkin house burned to the ground shortly before Thanksgiving Day 1948.  They had dinner with us that year.  I ate so much I almost got sick.

     The house in the background belonged to the Bishop family.  One of their sons robbed the Sweet Home Bank about six months before we moved in next do to them.  Doug didn't know it at the time, but he saw the Bishop kid stash something down by the covered bridge that was where Foster Dam is today.  After he heard about the robbery he put things together and had a chat with the FBI.
 
 

     This house was still there in July 1998, and had been painted lavender.  The Bishop house was to the right, but it's history.  I think my father was still working in the woods at this time.  We lived here about a year before my mother, Doug, and I moved to Seattle.  My father stayed in Oregon.  We came back to Sweet Home a year or so later, but the marraige was over, and my parents were divorced not long after.

     My mother never remarried, but my father did.  His second wife was Dorothy Scwabb <sp>; she had a teenaged daughter Jackie.  They moved to Portland, and live in four different houses that I know of in the last ten years of his life.  Jackie died about a year before my father; leaving a husband and two children.  I have not seen Dorothy since the day of my father's fueral in November 1966.