Rick, in '64 we lived in a little house out in the woods, near Freshwater. That was the year they had the “thousand year” flood. The road from the highway to our area crossed a canyon with a little creek down at the bottom. During the floods the water came over the bridge several times and flooded the surrounding farmland, leaving huge redwood logs behind.
There was a massive patch of blackberry vines next to our house, that was as tall as the house. We picked enough blackberries to keep us in jams and preserves for a long time after we’d moved elsewhere.
I was in fifth grade. The elementary school in Freshwater was an old four-room, two-story building. One room had first, second and third grades in one class. Another room had fourth, fifth and sixth grades. Third room was used for storage, and the fourth was a combination gym/meeting hall. There were a lot of swallows nesting under the eaves of that building.
Out front was the original one-room, little red schoolhouse, complete with belfry. We went to Vacation Bible School there, and my dad (who had recently been ordained) held church services there on Sundays. I’ve looked on Google and the little red schoolhouse is still standing. The elementary school has been replaced by a modern building.
Before the school year ended, we moved to Arcata, and lived there until I graduated from the sixth grade. Then we moved to San Diego.
I remember the logging trucks, they were everywhere back then. I also remember the big pulp mill on the bay, and how sometimes when the wind was blowing the wrong way, we could smell it all the way over in our neighborhood.
We toured the pulp mill once, and also a couple large lumber mills. I recall being very impressed by machinery to handle those big redwood logs, especially the debarker. That used a powerful jet of water to blast the bark off the logs, and had big hydraulic arms to turn the logs as needed.
