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Barbara Jean Smith passed away peacefully, December 10, 2013, following a short illness. At 81, she was the eldest child born to Jack and Leola (Hufford) Olivera, February 14, 1932 in Rohnerville.

I knew her best as Aunt Barbara.

She is preceded in death by three of her siblings, Gary, Leora, and Margery, with Leona Luiz of Fortuna surviving. She also leaves behind in-laws Orville (better known as Ozzie) and JoAnn Smith as well as Albert Mendes. all of Fortuna.

Barbara graduated Fortuna High School in 1950 and in December of the same year married Adam Duncan Smith. Together they had five children; Dan Smith, Bonanza, Oregon; Pam Nickols (Mike) Talkeetna, Alaska; Kathy Frye (David) Zenia; Gary Smith (Janice) Palo Cedro; Steve Smith (Debbie) Mad River.

She also leaves behind numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, and many friends. Aunt Barbara is to be interred at Ocean View Cemetery in Eureka.

As I reflect back on the many Christmases of my lifetime, I recall several that were memorable. From new bicycles, to model airplanes and cars, to the last as a complete family in Klamath, there is something to be said about such reminiscences.

Many Christmas gifts were truly a surprise as I had a hard time coming up with things I wanted. One time in Eureka, we lined up to talk to one of Santa’s helpers and as I sat on the bench next to the man in the red suit and white beard, I couldn’t answer his one question: “So, what would you like for Christmas?”

Sitting there – silent, I thought as hard and as fast as an eight-year-old could. Finally, “A mechanical, wind-up Santa,” I announced.

After leaving the stage, I heard him tell his assistant, “What a weird kid.”

I walked away convinced Santa was real, as he was right about that one.

Worse yet, I got into a fight with a classmate that same year after he told me Santa Claus wasn’t real. After all, I had jus’ seen a TV show about ‘Santa’s Reindeer Farm,’ and they can say something’s true when it’s not, can they?

 

When the Christmas Flood flowed through the town site of Klamath in 1964, we lost everything and I was so worried Santa wouldn’t be able to find us. However, my brother and I woke up Christmas morning to a handmade tee-pee, a store-bought bow and arrow set apiece, a feather head-dresses from the Trees of Mystery and stockings filled with nuts, and orange, an apple and a large candy cane.

 

It was 1979, when I returned for a week of leave from the Air Force, home to visit my family for the holiday. Unbeknownst to any of us, my parents included, that Christmas would be the last one the entire family would celebrate together as we had done in years past.

Divorce is like that.

One of the most memorable happened when I was jus’ moving into adulthood. Anticipating fun-stuff like roller skates, walkie-talkies or a b-b gun, I received nothing but clothing, including a ‘stupid’ suit, that holiday.

It left me so upset I went into the pasture and hid beneath an old log bridge to cry. Later, that yellow-and-blue plaid suit (the same as my school colors,) my parents bought me, and I had hated so much at the time, became one of the most treasured gifts in my memory.

I wore it until it no longer fit and even then — I refused to give it away as a hand-me down, which was customary in our family.

 

Jus’ the year before I got nothing but several old, dried-out corn cobs and three large lumps of coal under the tree. Yes, I deserved it – as I had done a number of bad things – including helping to flood my classroom and causing the same class to suffer through sex-ed talks.

 

But perhaps my favorite Christmases were the parties tossed at the VFW’s Larson Hall. Families from all over the area gathered there to have dinner, sing and dance, decorate the tree and pass out gifts.

In 1969, the VFW threw a large shindig, with kids as far as the Klamath Glen, Requa and Crescent Hill coming to the celebration. That year I received the 1955 book, “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood,” by Howard Pyle.

 

Looking back, I must have read that book a hundred times. Furthermore, I think it touched off my life-long love of old tomes and other items commonly refer to as antiques.

As I’ve grown older, my needs have since far outstripped my wants. New underwear, tee-shirts and socks, perhaps a calendar or maybe a magnifying glass will be waiting for me this holiday.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A combination dance hall, casino and restaurant, “The Dog House” was named in honor of a wire-hair terrier, named ‘Poochy.’ It opened in June 1935 at 130 North Center in Reno and remained open until April 1944.

During it’s time, “The Dog House” was one of the most patronized establishments in Reno. The club featured a wide assortment of entertainment including torch, hula, jazz, Oriental fan and strip-tease dancers, not to mention singers, musicians and magicians.

On January 1st, 1939, “The Dog House” closed and the building demolished. By April 1st of the same year, a new building had been built and it reopened for business.

The clubs gaming license was revoked in August 1939 by Washoe County District Attorney Ernest S. Brown.  ‘Shorty’ King and George ‘Shorty’ Coppersmith, who were operating the gambling, pled guilty to the charges and were each fined a $1,000, with King given an added six months in jail.

Owners, Phil Curti and Al Hoffman immediately filed to have the license restored, claiming they didn’t know anything illegal was taking place in the club. Gaming finally reopened in January 1940.

Curti and Hoffman closed “The Dog House” in April 1944, reopening it as the “Tropics,” a month later. In late 1944, the building was razed and the site is now part of the Cal-Neva’s parking garage.

At least twice a year, my wife make’s her mother’s fudge. She believes it comes from the recipe listed on the back of ‘Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallow Crème’ since the 1950s.

The earliest mention of marshmallow crème comes from the 1896 cookbook, ‘Fannie Farmer’s Boston School Cook Book.’ However, it doesn’t give a recipe for marshmallow cream in this book, instead giving a concoction for a marshmallow.

‘Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book’ by Sarah Tyson Rorer in 1902, describes her recipe for a “marshmallow filling,” but not a true marshmallow crème. It wasn’t until fifteen years later that the first commercially produced marshmallow crème hit supermarket shelves.

The recipe below has been tweaked a little from what is on the back of the jar. This one doesn’t list walnuts or baker’s chocolate as part of the ingredients.

3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 cups chocolate chips
7 oz. marshmallow creme
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups mini-marshmallows

Line a nine-inch pan with foil. Bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to a full boil in three-quart sauce pan on medium heat, stirring constantly.

Cook four minutes or until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees (Fahrenheit,) again stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add chocolate chips, marshmallow cream and vanilla, stir until melted, and then fold in mini-marshmallows. Pour into pan, spread to cover bottom of the pan.

Allow to cool completely, before cutting into desired squares.

Jeanie is a former neighbor of mine from Klamath. My family moved into the house next to the Arnold’s in January 1965 and remained there until September 1967.

She is a retired Professor from the University of Southern Nevada, living in rural Northern California. She also writes a cooking and gardening blog at gardenforestfield.com

What she shares is proof to me about what I’ve said all along: We all carry with us a piece of history,  if only we choose to have an open mind and to seek it out.

As far as I can recall they came from my Grandma on my Dad’s side. They were in a cookbook put together by the ‘Women of the Fort Dodge (Iowa) Lutheran Church’ which was published sometime between the end of the Great Depression and World War II.

The recipe refers to oleo which is short for oleomargarine, which was widely used during the 1940s. It involved mixing a yellow coloring into the margarine to make it look butter-like and more palatable.

She writes: “Coral Young Hawley, you are not the only messy cook around here! I thought you and Tom Darby would get a kick out of this old recipe. It is Tommy’s mother’s sugar cookie recipe.”

“My mom loved those cookies, and one day, she sent me over to Tommy’s house to copy down Marge’s recipe. I must have been about 8 or so, judging by my printing.”

“I have been using this recipe for almost 50 years! It is the best sugar cookie recipe ever, and the kids and I are making them next week for Christmas cookies, as we do every year.”

“It’s a testament to old paper that this recipe is still readable! I now have it in a page protector in my tenure binder cookbook.”

“Oh, and by the way, this recipe’s age (beyond my 50 years of using it) is testified to by the use of “oleo” as the fat. For those who don’t know, this refers to oleomargarine.”

“It became popular or widely used during the food rationing of WWII. A friend of mine remembers mixing the yellow coloring into the margarine to make it look like butter.”

“I grew up using margarine for everything, but of course I don’t use it any more. However, for this recipe, I usually use half shortening and half butter.”

“Also, using half powdered sugar and half flour to roll out the cookies is key. They stay sweet and crisp when baked.”

Thank you, Jeanie for bringing this home.

In 1889 real estate developers formed the Samoa Land And Improvement Company, buying 270 acres on the peninsula opposite Eureka. After John Vance Mill & Lumber Company’s Eureka mill burned in 1892, the owners decided not to rebuild the mill in Eureka but to purchase cheaper land in West Eureka or Samoa.

The north spit at the entrance to Humboldt Bay was used by a series of Federal government projects including the 1851 to 1892 Humboldt Harbor Light; in 1862, a prisoner of war camp for Native Americans captured in the Bald Hills War; the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station in 1878; and the stonemason finishing yard and trans-shipment point for foundation stones for the St. George Reef Light from 1883 to 1891 at Paysonville. The settlement was known as Brownville, after James D. H. Brown, dairy rancher, until 1889.

In 1893 the Eureka & Klamath River Railroad Co. was incorporated to run from Eureka to Samoa, then to Essex where the Vance timber was located. In 1900 A.B. Hammond purchased the Vance mill and property.

Twelve years later Hammond Lumber Company had also bought any privately owned residences by to make Samoa a company town. The Samoa Block town center was built in the 1920s.

The USS Milwaukee grounded in Samoa January 13th, 1917, breaking up in the surf. The cruiser was trying to salvage the submarine USS H-3.

The submarine had gone aground December 15th, 1916; and its crew were living in tents on the beach. It was eventually salvaged by the Mercer-Fraser Company and later relaunched.

Georgia Pacific purchased the Hammond Lumber Co. in 1956, followed by Louisiana Pacific in 1972 because of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. Simpson Timber eventually acquired the property in the 80s.

In the 1986 movie My Chauffeur a woman named Casey Meadows played by Deborah Foreman has to chauffeur Battle Witherspoon played by Sam J. Jones to Samoa, while on their way the car breaks down. The town is also home to the Samoa Cookhouse, which opened in 1890 and continues to serve lumber camp-style food.

My wife will not allow me to shovel our driveway when it snows. She knows it only makes my back hurt worse than ever.

She’s nice like that.

So after four-inches fell, she came home from work and went straight to clearing the cement. It was dark before she finished.

Concerned for her, as it was bout 25-degrees, I walked out on the porch and jokingly called to her, “Get in here before you turn into Yeren.”

“What did you jus’ call me?” she asked in anger.

Yeren is the Chinese name given to the equivalent of our Sasquatch. I guess my wife didn’t know that.

She thought I had called her ‘Urine,’ and now she’s pissed at me.

One of my favorite high school history teachers, Jerry Zottola passed away November 24, 2013, at his home in Hiouchi. He was born in the Bronx, New York, July 12, 1924.

He graduated from Grants Pass High and served in the Navy as a radioman during World War II. After leaving the service, Jerry attended Humboldt State College, where he received his teaching credential.

Upon graduation his first teaching job was at Arcata High School in 1953. By 1955, Jerry had moved to Crescent City, where he married Gertrude Jepsen of Fort Dick that same year.

“Zott,” as the students came to call him, spent the next 30 years teaching history at Del Norte High School. He was also the Varsity baseball coach for several years before his retirement and the schools first tennis coach.

He is survived by his wife, Gertrude, son Tony Zottola of Lodi; daughter Tina O’Neill of Hiouchi; daughter Gretchen Zottola-Sancier of Campbell; daughter Tami Zottola of Gasquet; son Timothy Zottola of Stockton; daughter Trudi Gugliemini of Hiouchi; daughter Gina Zottola of Gasquet and sister, Gracie Cooper of Crescent City.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, October 24th, 1870, Tasker Oddie lived in East Orange, New Jersey, where he attended school. From the age of sixteen to nineteen, he lived on a ranch in Nebraska.

After returning from Nebraska he engaged in business in New York City. During this time he attended night law school, from which he was graduated, and in 1895 was admitted to the New York Bar and becoming a member of the Nevada Bar in 1898.

Three-years later he arrived in Austin, Nevada to investigate conditions in his employers mining, railroad and banking. He uncovered several cases of fraud and as a result recovered large sums of money which they had lost.

Around 1900, he became interested in the original discovery of the Tonopah mines with Jim Butler. He was manager of the properties for the first five years.

Goldfield and other important mines were discovered as the result of the opening up of the Tonopah District, and millions of dollars a year were produced in the various camps. The effect meant the building of hundreds of miles of new railroads and the building of towns.

Oddie was heavily invested in mining in Goldfield and a number of other mining camps as well as in banks, ranches, stock-raising and other industries. However, the panic of 1907 caught him unprepared to weather the financial storm and by the following year he was broke.

From 1901 to 1903 he was District Attorney for Nye County. From 1904 to 1908, he was a state Senator, then a U.S. Senator from 1921 to 1933 and Governor from 1911 to 1915.

Throughout his political career, Oddie was in debt. In March of 1921, George Wingfield sent the recently elected U.S. Senator money to pay his bills. In return, Wingfield instructed him to nominate Washoe County Republican Louis Spellier to be U.S. marshal.

During his tenure, women got the right to vote, a state motor vehicle law was sanctioned, mining safety legislation was endorsed, and there were improvements to workmen’s compensation benefits. On March 17, 1911 he signed the city charter for Las Vegas.

Oddie died February 17th, 1950 in San Francisco, California, at the age of 79. He is buried at Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City, Nevada.

Doesn’t it seem as if the people with the most problems are often those who are most thankful for what they have? Facing a crisis tends to make us appreciate the things we take for granted.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in ‘Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community,’ — “We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.”

Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi’s) and a founding member of the Confessing Church.

His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943. He was later executed by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war’s end.

My challenge to myself and you too, is to appreciate what I have, even without a crisis prompting us. I will start and end today thinking about how fortunate I am, right here, right now.