Remembering those who gave their all

Kathy TOland posted that the Happy Camp Cemetery District would appreciate help on getting our flags and flowers to decorate graves Saturday May 29th.

Pastor Royal Blue is going to be one of the World War II veterans whose stories will be featured on a Memorial Day special on KVIP Radio Saturday at 11:00 a.m. In Happy Camp you can get that on your radio at 98.5

Pastor Blue brought youth groups from North Valley Church in Redding to helped out the log church on 2nd Avenue many years ago.. They gave Vacation Bible School for the children and engaged fellow teens with volleyball and activities on afternoons.

Now, at 95 years of age, Pastor Blue is retired. He is still followed on his program Morning Inspiration on KVIP FM radio 89.5 in Happy Camp each weekday morning at 6:55 a.m.. We find it a wonderful way to start the day each weekday.

Thank you mother’s!!! Being a mother is the most challenging, the hardest job in the world, but the most rewarding!

Children are a blessing from the Lord, but raising them seems to take forever, but that precious time also flies by in the blink of an eye!

What are you doing for your mother this weekend? For a couple decades, a mother’s main concern is her children, and her love and concern follow them the rest of her life!.

Flowers and cards and breakfast cam be good ideas to show your mom love and appreciation, but the best thing is your time to be with her! Partner’s Deli in Happy Camp can help you our with breakfast Sunday morning for Mom, they’ll have Very berry French toast or Swedish Creme Pancakes, which Mom would certainly enjoy!
Or for a special dinner, Partner’s Deli invites you to take your mother to dinner (5 pm until gone.) They will serve a rib eye dinner, baked potato or rice pilaf, fresh vegetables, salad and drink for $30 for a special Mother’s Day dinner.

If you are on your way to the chainsaw carving demonstrations at the Siskiyou Fairgrounds, you can stop by the Klamath River Community Hall and have breakfast, or if you make it later, brunch! There will also be a Craft Show there

Abraham Lincoln said “No one is poor who has a godly mother!”

Our previous year has been so unusual! It was different for us all, taking precautions for Corona Virus, of course. Then Happy Camp experienced the trauma of 260 families homes burning. One home burned with a family fleeing is a major disaster in Happy Camp.
Everyone being told to flee, is unimaginable. But Happy Camp is strong, and has come back together helping each other. The Karuk Tribe has been able to help so many with trailers or Recreation Vehicles to live in over the winter.
Now spring has come. Rain lets up for beautiful sunny days, although we are still hoping and grateful for rain. Last trip out to the Eye Doctor it was wonderful to see snow on Mt. Shasta!. It had looked awfully bare for this time of year!
The Madrones are in full bloom, some say that the smoke traumatized them last year as well because their blossoming forth is extraordinary this spring. The lilacs, and a bush I bought to plant that isn’t even in the ground is flowering. Deciding where to put it has postponed planting.
This was an especially beautiful blooming spring, from daffodils and tulips, to the lilacs and Redbud. The drive along the Klamath River a wonderful time! After an difficulties from September to Christmas, Christmas was such a peaceful time of joy! Then January, February and March made quiet interlude of staying home. Even doctor’s appointments were often by telephone.
When April hit, being able to go out even to the doctor appointments felt like a vacation, but there’s still good times ,quiet at home, But now it is time to get back to work.
One of the biggest “getting back to “normal” signs is the beginning of the Bigfoot Jamboree planning the big event. Past few years, fire camps changed things and then when Slater Fire hit last year it was completely put off. There’s always requests for the logging show and some of the old favorite activities to resume. Perhaps that will be possible, but only if there are volunteers and participants. So, you’ve had a good time being home but now’s the time to get busy again and make our favorite hometown festival fun for all again!

Shortly after the Slater Fire some people wrote all about their experience of the fire. Many more seemed unable to dwell on the crisis and instead wanted to go forward. Indeed, it was imperative as meals, shelter and other needs took precedence. Perhaps in the quietness of winter, with a shelter, while not what we would have called “home” last year, is home for now, there is time.

Have you had time to reminisce about happy times in Happy Camp?. If you grew up in Happy Camp, what are your best recollections from your childhood? If you came later to Happy Camp, what brought you to this little town in the big forest? If your family came generations ago, have they passed down what brought them here and what they thought about it in those days.

After a holiday season like no other and entering a new year full of new unknowns doesn’t it seem that connection feels more urgent and vital than ever. Connections with family, friends and neighbors-Connections with Happy Camp!

The best way we can connect with each other is through the simple act of hearing our stories!. We can share our pleasant memories, and our hopes for the future. Take time to cut through the noise of social media and news, to the truth of what brought happiness to the community of Happy Camp, and how we can build and improve on it for the future

We may have different stories and memories, but maybe we will discover how we’re not so different. There is a FB site, Growing up in Happy Camp,you can enjoy reading many old stories. At this time, after what we survived and are recovering from, we need to hear what happy thoughts you have. Thanks for mentioning what memories you feel should be saved in an anthology on Happy Camp, from earliest Karuk culture to this year, which we will remember, and be glad to see end. Email: klamathneighbors @ yahoo.com or send a note to P. O. Box 375, Happy Camp, CA 96039. Thanks for telling your story!

We’re Lighting up Happy Camp with Love
It was so delightful to see large white flakes of snow falling from the heavens! Sunday afternoon a young buck strutted through the yard. My camera wasn’t ready to capture the moment, and didn’t run to get it. It was so special, just enjoying it with Silent Night playing in the background!

You may have seen a Facebook picture of a young lady shopping along a sidewalk with cheery lights emanating from the decorated storefront windows. Another sign that Christmas is near!
Robyn Eadie shared, “This just brings to mind; who else loved to walk the sidewalk enjoying Christmas shopping the old fashioned way, before online shopping took over…..?
The three shoppers in the photo must have finished shopping late as there aren’t bustling shoppers all down the sidewalk! Only three, properly “social distancing!”
That painting brings back memories of our family and three girls on a Sunday evening before Christmas. We often went down Nicolet Avenue in Minneapolis looking at Christmas windows. They were all decorated and many animated.

We also took an annual photo with Santa, but usually spent a day after Thanksgiving making the photos for the Christmas card Mom sent out!

Our home in Minneapolis was near enough to hear the roar of the crowds and playing of the big brass bands when the University of Minnesota played football. It was just a short way from the St. Anthony suburb where we frequented more economical shops for our own shopping. My youngest sister Nancy could buy all her family presents for a quarter in the five and dime! No one else quite matched her frugality in Christmas Shopping.

After taking a Retail Sales Class in High School, I worked at Power’s Department Store in downtown Minneapolis. I remember mostly being at the jewelry counter as people came to look at the gems for their loving Christmas gifts.
On occasion, I was able to help in the toy department. It was always in need of much straightening and calling for cleanup when kids spilled their popcorn and juice while pointing out to family what they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas.

Some Saturday’s I was able to help the “elves” in the adjacent area as they made red and white candy canes for Santa to hand out to the same kids. The two colors confections, white with the red strip, were rolled out and twisted. The candy maker was so skilled and efficient in producing candy canes! It was a rather sticky effort on my part, but fun too!

The little area of St. Anthony has made national news for a different reason lately. A nurse who came home tired from serving Covid 19 patients on the cold dark December evenings, put up a wreath and a string of lights on her home. A neighbor sent her and several others an anonymous letter chastising them for displaying Christmas lights. The anonymous “Grinch” called it a “systemic biases against our neighbors who don’t celebrate Christmas or can’t afford to put up lights of their own.”

The item was reported by Crime Watch Minneapolis. It really surprised me, as it is purely delightful to me to see Christmas Lights on our neighbors homes!

We haven’t put up a great amount of decorating since the first year that we bought the home, which was the Willis home for decades. In 2003 we put up lights, formed lights into a Christmas tree shape at the front porch and had a “Precious Moments” nativity scene on the front lawn. That was the year that Dan’s cancer was discovered by a CAT scan a few days before Christmas and New Years Day we were in Sacramento, awaiting our first of many appointments at UCDavis. We were there when he had two surgeries in February, and then daily radiation and several chemotherapy until May. He wasn’t expected to recover due to the aggressiveness of the SNUC! Friends from church took down the decorations, as we weren’t home for several months.

At that time, we appreciated so very much the prayers and kind thoughts of so many in the Happy Camp community! Dan is still “with us” but still recovering from another brain surgery, this time for an abscess infection in his brain. Again, we are very grateful for all of your kind thoughts and prayers.

In case there are thoughts that Christmas lights are unwelcome, to us they are pure joy! On a cold dark night, what could be prettier than tree lights at the Happy Camp District Office of the KNF that the Volunteer Fire Fighters lit!We are also having a Lighting Contest with $100 first prize, and other prizes of gift cards and gas cards for those who decorate for all our neighbors to enjoy! Thanks to those who decorate! They bring cheer to those driving by. Whether you celebrate the joys of the secular aspects of the holiday, Hanukkah, or Christmas birthday of the Christ Child, there are those of us grateful that you share celebrating, with the entire community!!
Don’t forget to share a little love with everyone you meet today. Give a bit of kindness, a smile or good word!