This was written for the April meeting of the Klamath River Writers. We were to bring something we had written about renewal.
“I don’t have time for renewal,” I told myself a million times in the last month. Nonetheless, springtime happened all around me. Flowers appeared and the buds of new fruit showed up on Manzanita and plum trees alike. The meadow outside my window turned green and eventually I took myself outside into all that beauty and found a comfortable spot for morning journal writing.
“No time for renewal,” I continued to protest, and yet my life was changing, reworking itself, morphing into something unlike anything I’d done before. I was swept up by the tide of my friends’ and neighbors’ enthusiasm and enrolled in a business class, then an EMT class — then… online… an Artists Way group, design group, and so much more.
My email program crashed this last week, ending my access to the last year of stored email, and though this seemed at the moment to be a disaster, in reality it was a blessing — I was forced to let go of the past and at the same time felt the joy of being released from it. An added bonus — my computer now runs better.
This email release started me over with a fresh, clean, new program, just like all good renewal does. Finally I went outside to the meadow, ready to write about renewal, and at that moment, the spring rain began to fall.
From the National Ifrastructure Protection Center:
1. Use strong passwords. Choose passwords that are difficult or impossible to guess. Give different passwords to all accounts.
2. Make regular backups of critical data. Backups must be made at least once each day. Larger organizations should perform a full backup weekly and incremental backups every day. At least once a month the backup media should be verified.
3. Use virus protection software. That means three things: having it on your computer in the first place, checking daily for new virus signature updates, and then actually scanning all the files on your computer periodically.
4. Use a firewall as a gatekeeper between your computer and the Internet. Firewalls are usually software products. They are essential for those who keep their computers online through the popular DSL and cable modem connections but they are also valuable for those who still dial in.
5. Do not keep computers online when not in use. Either shut them off or physically disconnect them from Internet connection.
6. Do not open e-mail attachments from strangers, regardless of how enticing the Subject Line or attachment may be. Be suspicious of any unexpected e-mail attachment from someone you do know because it may have been sent without that person’s knowledge from an infected machine.
7. Regularly download security patches from your software vendors.
It sometimes seems like a dream but it really happened! I had the most incredible place on earth to go through my youth, the beautiful mountains and clear creeks of Happy Camp. It has been 22 years since my parents dragged me kicking and screaming away from my childhood friends. I was 15 then. Idaho is nice but it was no replacement for what Happy Camp had to offer a boy in his youth.
When the movie “A River Runs Through it” came out I couldn’t help but be reminded of my own childhood. Thanks to my many friends, Eric Hokanson, Rusty Crocker, Tony Titus, Mouse (Wayne) Card, Lance Works, Ronnie White, Richie Bridenstein and many more, I have some of the most incredible memories. Anyone that can go a few yards from their home and have mountain creek swimming, a mountain for a play ground, and unlimited fishing holes knows how difficult it must have been to leave it all behind!
Every memory of growing up in Happy Camp brings a smile to my face. Everything from Kathy Burr giving me a bloody nose in 4th grade to teasing the bears with Eric Hokanson at the landfill. Nothing can replace the memory of playing flag football in the Crockers yard or floating tubes from our home on Indian creek to the Hokanson’s A frame. Few experiences in life have matched exploring the mountains or panning for gold on the banks of the Klamath. Where else can you be picking black berries and discover that a black bear is picking just on the other side of the bush! I have seen many logging trucks since I moved but never one that had a one log load! I have come to learn that there is nothing like a small home town football game. And Big Foot days, how could you replace that!
Thanks to the incredible aspects of Happy Camp and the wonderful people that I grew up with my childhood was like a dream. I often wonder about my old classmates and reminisce of old times. Too many times we allow life to run us over and we fail to do the really important things. Therefore, I thank you for the opportunity to avoid that mistake by expressing my sincere appreciation and love for my hometown and it’s good people.
My beautiful wife, 5 daughters and I will return to visit one day. Until then, may God bless you and find you all happy and well. Don’t take for granted what many people will never have the privilege of experiencing.
Happy Independence Day! It seems like a good time to introduce this new page to our website. Our country is 225 years old - not a long time, but enough time to really muck the government up a bit. Still, the foundation is solid, so hopefully things will get better in the future rather than continuing to deteriorate.
I know we at the new Happy Camp News should be reporting all the news, both good and bad, however since this is a new venture, I don’t want to tackle the controversial topics too soon. Part of me would like the whole world to think that Happy Camp has no problems. It is one of the most remote towns in California, a village of 1100 deep in the Klamath National Forest. We live seventy miles from the nearest California city, which is only about 7,000 people. To the north, we’re forty miles from a small town in Oregon.
I would like to think that people can go to a remote town in the forest and live a crime-free existence, with only good things happening. But reality is that even here, there are problems every now and then. Why, back in the seventies, there was even a bank robbery according to an old news article I read at the Siskiyou Historical Society Museum in Yreka. I can just imagine the robbers trying to make a “get-away” on the Klamath River Highway! How far did they get, anyway?
My plan for this online news service is to report on the good news to begin with. There’s plenty of that going on here, especially with all the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Happy Camp. Later, once I’m used to news writing again, I’ll probably feel motivated to report bad news too. Let’s just hope that this summer there won’t be anything “too” bad, that can’t be ignored.
My main news writing experience comes from working for a Libertarian newspaper in the Central Valley ten years ago. I have never been a member of a political party, so I’m not planning to feature any one political ideology over another, but I liked the newspaper’s philosophy of printing all the news, including news that the major dailies are afraid to print. Naturally here, I’m not selling advertising as the print newspapers must do, so I won’t be constrained by worries about losing my major advertising income if I say the wrong thing. Also there’s no corporate interests owning this news service, dictating what I can or cannot print. I like that. [Happy Camp News started as a public service venture.]
I have my issues I would like to write about, but am holding off, in large part because I know they are not your issues. I would like for the website to reflect the many opinions of the people in this forest, and hope some of you will feel motivated to write something for your neighbors to read here.
Thank you for your new e-publishing venture with Happy Camp focus!
I had to miss the Bigfoot Byway Dedication due to driving a car full of teenagers to San Francisco for Acquire the Fire at the Cow Palace. I was very glad to read Debbie’s remarks.
The only problem with John Titus’ account of how Happy Camp got its name is that our town was called Happy Camp over a decade before the incident in John Titus’ story. No doubt the name Happy Camp intrigued the Camp brothers (John and Heil) to come here and they did build the brick building for their business in partnership with John Titus.
Before the prospectors that settled the town renamed it Happy Camp in July of 1851 it was called “Murderer’s Bar.” So glad they changed it!
Looking forward to seeing more of your Happy Camp News!
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