Ghosts of Christmas Past, Part Two

 After we moved out of the Bangor house (the first time) we rented a house on Linden Street in Hartford, next door to Chuck and Laure Hafer. I don't guess we even had a Christmas in that house, because we moved right at Christmas time, so we probably had Christmas in the Bangor house. If so, we didn't take any pictures. That would have been 1961. We only lived in the house on Linden Street for a few months. I don't remember why we moved again so soon.

This is the house we lived in on Linden Street. I was in 2nd grade. This is what the house looked like in 1992.

This is Ricky, sitting on the front steps. I don't have any other pictures of the house while we lived there.

So...

The next house where we had Christmas was a tiny 4-room house near Van Auken Lake (between Hartford and Bangor). I was in 3rd grade. That was one of the worst winters we had when I was a kid -- and we were WAY out in the country, so we were snowed-in part of the time. 

This picture was taken in 1992. When we lived there (1962-63), only the center section of the house was there. It has had an extension added on one end and a porch on the other since then. It was on a 1-acre lot on the corner of 66th Street and 42nd Avenue -- which sounds like it should be in the middle of a big city, huh? We had a Hartford address and phone number, but were in the Bangor school district. We rode the bus to school, and it was a long ride, especially in the winter.

 In the summer of 1963 we moved back to the Bangor house because we had rented it out, and the people who moved in absolutely wrecked the place. So we moved back there temporarily so Dad could do all the repairs that had to be done. 

'Tis the Season

'Tis the Season

Well, I've about come to the end of my dad's memoirs. I think I'll turn my attention to Ghosts of Christmas Past...

Let's see if I can do it house by house (because we moved every few years when I was growing up).

307 Union Street, Bangor, Michigan

We lived in this house from 1956 - 1961 (and then again briefly in 1963). This is the first house I have memories of.

How we sent cards before the internet

If I'm not mistaken, that's a fondue pot on the coffee table. 

On the left side is a bowl of walnuts, I think. There would be a nutcracker and pick in or beside that bowl. What it's sitting on is my mother's Singer treadle sewing machine.

My dad built the room divider between the living room and dining room.

My mother painted the Santa Claus picture.

That's Bernarde and Eileen and Kim, and Grandma and Grandpa Thomas, and Mom and me and Rick.

PHOTOS: Christmases 1958, 1959, 1960

Red's Head Room

Red's Head Room

PHOTOS: Red with granddaughter Heather and the bear-skin rug

PHOTOS: Red and Wathada playing Duck Hunt (one of us kids gave it to them for Xmas)

PHOTOS: Red and Heather playing with the heads.

Pheasant, sheep, ram, wild boar, ducks, quail, squirrel, antelope, snake, guns, saddle, trophies, medals, boots, lanterns, mugs... oh, my!

The bottom half of that room is Wathada's books, books, books, books, books!

There's also a piano in that room somewhere...

Fishing

Fishing

PHOTO: Jack Treat and Richard Thomas

Bear Hunt

Bear Hunt

Miscellaneous hunting pictures

BLACK BEAR HUNT  

I had contracted a guide from Colorado with his hunting dogs. They had some people from Michigan that had been hunting mountain lions in Colorado and came to California to hunt black bear, When I got there the hunters from Michigan were on their last day and no bear. They were hunting on the east side of the Sequoia National Forest. When my turn came we decided to try the west side and went to the town of Porterville, California and my guide hired a local guide (Stormy). I later used him for a bobcat and mountain quail hunt.   

We were road hunting with four wheel drive 4x4 trucks working our way up the mountainside with the two best dogs on top sniffing the air for the scent of bear. This was our third day out but my first day alone with the guides. We soon reached the snow line and the big pine trees. We saw some old tracks but no fresh tracks. Soon we saw this large track and stopped to look. After some discussion between the guides (I had three) they agreed to put the best three dogs out. They thought the track was 12 to 24 hours old. But the bear in this area don’t range far.   

We sat and listened to the dogs. In about 15 or 20 minutes we could tell that they were coming back down the mountain. We jumped in the truck and drove up the road approximately a quarter of a mile and as we rounded a bend in the road we saw the dogs cross the road about 50 yards ahead. We drove to where they crossed and got out to look at the tracks in the snow. That bear track looked the size of a grizzly bear track to me (haha). In 10 to 15 minutes we heard the dogs barking like they do when they have treed a bear (these same dogs also hunt mountain lion). The two young guides took off running down the mountain toward the sound of the dogs. The older guide and I started to work our way down this very steep mountain. 

About a quarter of a mile down, we found the dogs, bear, and young guides saying, “Look up there.” About 60 feet up this big pine tree sat this bear looking down from time to time at us, feeling very safe.   We took some pictures and got all the dogs tied up or someone holding them. Then they said, “He’s all yours, take him.” I loaded six rounds in the 44 mag, took good aim at his left front shoulder area and fired. To my surprise, I hit him in the left rear shoulder. He made three quick jumps up the tree before I could fire my second shot. This one hit him in the upper middle of his back, breaking his spine and going on through to his heart.   

Down he comes, hitting the ground with a thud, and rolled into some logs in a sitting position. I ran up to within 20 feet, ready to finish him off if he attempted to get up. He acted like he was going to get up, so I shot him in the chest area. Later when we skinned him out is when we knew that last shot had not been necessary. However, they say to keep shooting until you know they are going to stay down. 

More pictures, and the skinning began. We quartered him out and seven of us took the hide and approximately 100 lbs. of meat back up the mountain. More pictures, and we loaded the dogs and found that one was missing. Of course, it was the best one. She was still wearing her tracking collar, so we started to drive in the direction of the strongest signal. About four miles later we came to the end of the road in a lot of snow and large Sequoia trees. The two young guides took the tracking instrument and hand held CBs and headed off through the snow and trees. After one hour we would blow the truck horn every 10 to 15 minutes. After one more hour we could pick them up on the CB. We kept blowing the truck horn now every five minutes. About 20 minutes later they were back to the truck with the dog. By now it was almost dark. They said that when they found the dog she was cold tracking a mountain lion. 

So back to town for a shower and a good dinner. 

Wild Boar Hunt

Wild Boar Hunt

Young Hunter

Cheetah, Wild Boar

WILD BOAR HUNT   

My friend Ron Kohagura and Harmie called and said they were going to schedule a hunting trip for sheep and wild boar and wanted to know if I wanted to go with them. Of course I said yes, where and when? They said to Santa Cruz Island and as soon as we can get reservations.   

We were to fly from the Camarillo airport and were only allowed 50 lbs. of luggage each which included guns, beer or liquor. Both Ron and Harmie were beer drinkers so this was a problem. I on the other hand only drink the hard stuff so I took a fifth of vodka and Mr. T's bloody Mary mix, so I had no weight problem.   

The trip over to the island was short but beautiful. You could see the whole island which is 3 ½ miles wide and 13 mile long. Our plane landed on a grass runway in a valley. We arrived early afternoon and got unpacked and went directly to the rifle range to check our rifles to be sure nothing had happened to them on the way over. Now that everything was ready for the next day's hunt we were ready for dinner and a drink. To my surprise both Ron and Harmie wanted a bloody Mary before supper, so by the time we all had two drinks my bloody Mary mix was gone, so that was my last drink.   

The next morning came early with coffee and rolls. The first half of our hunt was for the wild boar. We all loaded into two jeeps-4 hunters and 2 guides. Our first area to hunt these tuskers was a small valley with rolling hills on each side. The guides told us that we should go up on the side hills and wait while they made a drive of the valley toward the hunters. However because some of the hunters were hung over they did not choose to climb the hills. I was not hung-over so I did what the guides suggested. Soon after the drive started a large sow came running down the valley and the shooting began. With hunters on both sides of the valley it was a wonder no one got shot. However the last hunter did have a clear shot and got the sow. From my position on the hill I could see the entire valley. Soon I saw a pig in the brush just in front of the guides but was too close to the guides to shoot, so I waved at the guides pointing at the brush in front of them so they stopped and began to throw rocks to keep the pig moving down the valley. I could tell by the way the pig was going that it was following a trail and would soon be at a small opening in the brush and that would be my best chance to shoot, so I put my scope on the opening to get a shot when it walked through the open area. To my surprise it stopped in the opening to look around. I fired and it dropped on the spot. To my pleasure it was a nice boar. I was glad I did what the guide told me to. 

More of Red's hunting pictures

 More of Red's hunting pictures...

Birds

Squirrels

Antelope

We have a home movie of Rick showing off the prize cantelope he bagged one time at the Piggly Wiggly. Wish I had some still pictures to show you from that!

Red's animals now on display in Mick Thomas' house

 Red's animals now on display in Mick Thomas' house

Mick built the house himself, from scratch, using trees from the property. Decatur, Michigan.

Hunting Trips

 Merino Sheep

MERINO SHEEP HUNT  

We returned to the lodge for lunch and made plans for the afternoon hunt for the Merino sheep. The guide asked the group what kind of hunt they would like, the easy way or the hard way. I asked what is the hard way because we want a good head to mount. The guide said that a good or trophy head would require a lot of mountain climbing . Ron, Frank and I said we would take the hard way.   Soon we were on our way again in a jeep. This time we were on the other end of the island which was all mountains. 

We began our climb and soon realized how out of condition we were. Upon reaching the top the guide had spotted a large group of sheep on the next mountain side. Before I could find a good sheep to shoot Frank and Ron started shooting and the sheep started running, I took a quick shot at a nice ram running, but missed. Both Frank and Ron got a good ram. After the guide capped out Frank's and Ron's rams he told them to go back down the same way we came up and we would meet them at the jeep. 

The guide and I started our hunt for more sheep. Soon we spotted three on a smaller mountain below us. The guide said follow him and he started down this steep area full of rocks and shale. I could not stay on my feet so most of the way down I was on my backside sliding. After what seemed like a long time we reached a trail and started following this trail. Soon the trail was a ledge on the side of this mountain, then we came to a spot where the ledge stopped for a few feet. Our guide just jumped across this opening and disappeared around a cliff. Well, I did not jump across this open area, because it was 500 feet straight down. 

Soon the guide was back and said what's the matter. I said I was scared and was not going to cross this open area. He said that it was the only way down. I said I was going back up and find another way down. However, after looking back up I agreed this was the only way down, but I was not going to jump this opening.  After a long talk with myself and the guide we agreed that if I put my left foot on a rock that was protruding from the cliff and jump from that he would grab me on the other side. At this time I knew that I was not getting off these mountains alive. 

Finally I did jump and we were on our way to where we had seen the sheep.  We lay looking at the sheep across this small valley. We could now only see two, one white and one black. Because the black sheep are rather rare I decided to take the black one. The shot was only about 200 yards and from the prone position I hit him with the first shot. However, he did not go down so the guide said take him again, The second shot did put him down. After some thanks and congratulations the guide said, "you start for a valley the other side of the next two mountains and I will cap out the ram and meet you there." Because of being out of condition and the altitude, again I thought I would never get off this mountain alive. 

Soon, however, I was at the last mountain top before the valley. As I sat down to rest, here came our guide and said "let me take your gun with me back to the jeep and the other guys. We will meet you down at the river," and he pointed to the river down in the valley below. So I started down. From time to time I would slip on the grass and land on my backside. When I reached the valley floor I was in the thick brush for a few yards before the river. As I was going through the brush I came upon a sow and her piglets. They went one way and I went the other way as fast as I could. 

When I reached the river I realized I had been on these mountain's 6 hours and was in need of a drink of water. I laid down by the water's edge like you see in the movies and began to drink. By now it was getting dark After about thirty minutes I saw the lights of the jeep coming up the trail next to the river. After they picked me up we started back to the lodge. 

In a few minutes we needed to cross the river to the larger trail. However, we became stuck in the middle of the river with the water running through the jeep up to the seats. We all got to the shore line without getting too wet by jumping from the hood of the jeep to shore. The guide started up the trail for the lodge for help, which was about nine miles, so we looked around for some shelter from the wind. About nine o'clock we saw some car lights coming down the trail. The manager knew where we were hunting and when we were not back when we should have been they started out looking for us and found our guide. We were sure glad to see them because we were getting cold. 

We started to load our guns and things in to the pickup and they said that they were going to pull the jeep out. Well they couldn't pull it out from that side so they decided to cross the river and pull it out backwards, In the process of crossing the river they got the pickup wedged between the jeep and river bank, so now we had both stuck. We decided to push the pickup backwards, however it would not move, so we suggested we tip the jeep on its side. The manager did not want to do that and said let's try again to push the pickup backwards. This time we were successful and started back to the lodge. It was now eleven thirty. 

The next day I went along to help drive any game when needed and was glad to go home. 

PHOTOS: Red and his granddaughter Heather in Red & Wathada's house in Downey, California. This room was Wathada's library/Red's head-room. I don't know which one of these heads was the sheep in the story above.

Military Service

 MILITARY SERVICE

PHOTO: National Guard, Richard on the left

In 1952 I enlisted in the Michigan National Guard.  I had to attend meetings for training every Monday night, and two weeks in the summer, usually at Camp Grayling, in Michigan, but one time we went to Fort Knox, Ky. I rose to the rank of Sargent first class SFC and was a Tank Commander. The weekly meetings were at the National Guard Armory building in South Haven, Michigan. When I first enlisted we had the Sherman M-4 and M5 Tanks but the last two years we had the M-50 med. tanks. I had three enlistments for a total of 8 years, 1952 –1960.  

I can't resist posting one of my favorite pictures of me and my sweet daddy. This was my 2nd birthday, November 10, 1956. Dad was just home from National Guard camp.