Happy Camp Holds Kindness Week
By Judy Bushy
Happy Camp Elementary School celebrates Kindness Week this week from Febryary 10-17th. the kids always want to be kind to one another and to everyone in their family, friends and community, but this is a special emphasis.
The first six weeks of 2017 have been a whopper, weather wise! The Klamath River Community has had snow! bESIDES Lots of snow, rain, high water, rocks and mudslides, Then part of Highway 96 deciding to slip off into the Klamath River. West of Seiad Valley, you round a turn, and come abruptly onto a stop sign with the instructions beneath it “Proceed When Clear.” You precariously proceed wondering about the bumps that need to be transversed. Part of the time the road has been closed. Residents haven’t been able to get to work, or in other cases, to get home.
Oh, and let’s not forget the electrical outages and downed trees. Travel with a chainsaw down Highway 96 this winter!!
Friends drove down to see how high one of the creeks south of Happy Camp was, and on the way back had to stop due to downed trees. Before official assistance could arrive, friends and neighbors came along with chainsaws and cleared the road. Others were stuck by a downed tree after a trip to town, and walked a couple miles by moonlight to get home. After the highway crew came and cleared the tree the next morning they were able to fetch their vehicle and bring it home.
This is such a perfect time for the Happy Camp Elementary Bulletin Board to announce that they will be celebrating Kindness Week !Erica Mitchell has handed out wrist bands to her high school classes, “Be Kind”
Good time to remember that “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never ends…..”
They say you need 8 hugs a day for mental and physical health, and it must be so, since I read it on the internet! (haha) Share a hug with those you love and tell someone you care. Hopefully, our children will lead us, in kind civility. Let’s really celebrate and be thankful for Valentine’s Day! Not just today!
I would like to think “kindness” refers to showing some courtesy to anyone with a sense of curiosity. We are all “seekers of answers” in some way shape or forum. My friend Kenneth Hargens does indeed own the site of what was once called “Happy Camp” deep in the heart of gold country known as the Black Hills of South Dakota. I see he posted a question regarding anyone with knowledge who may know something about the folks who came out from California many years ago, from your locale known as Happy Camp, today. I have lived, worked, and traveled through Humboldt County for years and now call South Dakota my home. It sure would be “kind” if someone there would attempt to answer his question regarding the origin of the site here in the Black Hills which was once called “Happy Camp”…..there must be an old timer around who would love to give us a history lesson. Thanks for your efforts…..in advance. For a reference, please refer to the posting by Kenneth Hargens, shown on your website page.
Thank you Crow, not only have I asked about the possibility of someone remembering folks who moved to South Dakota, the Siskiyou County Historical Society has also asked in their Newsletter. Sometimes we are able to find the answers to questions, like when they called and asked how long the “longest bar in California” which was reputed to be in Timber Inn Bar in Happy Camp. Even though it burned down late seventies or at least before 1988, we were able to come up with estimates by some who remembered. Names are sometimes mentioned and we have found people who remembered them. But sometimes it takes awhile to for the right person to make the contact and find out more. Lately we have been very blessed to find a young man who is part of the story in the “Dear Mad’m” book by Stella W. Patterson, Benji, living in Washington. We will keep trying.