Shopping was never easy. In the fall we would stock up on cases of vegetables and many cases of canned milk for the boys. It was 75 miles to Medford to shop and 57 miles to Klamath Falls. Either trip wasn’t exactly easy. We would have to get somebody to sit with the boys or take them along.
The doctor that attended us was in Klamath Falls so it got to be easier to go that way. Haven’t seen or heard of him for years. He was a very fine person. Very fine with they boys. We could always phone him. Well, almost always. Sometimes the lines were down and the men would be out patrolling the telephone lines so that we would have contact with civilization, shall I say.
I don’t want to emphasize the hardships at Crater Lake because the were secondary. The privilege of living in a place like that was paramount. It much outweighed any of the hardships that were there. The people that we got to know there have lasted a lifetime as friends. We wouldn’t give that up for anything. It takes a big chunk out of your life. How many years were we there? Six or Seven years. It is one of the important segments of our life. I mean, I can’t think of any other six or seven years that were that important. Or that have that much meaning to us. I suppose that is one reason why I feel special about Crater Lake.
We did have one memorable experience that I mentioned before, but it wasn’t on the tape. The time that we went down to the lake. With Wayne Karschner, wasn’t it? We took a boat and went over to Wizard Island, fished on the way and got some fish. When we got up to the top of Wizard Island, we cooked our meal and found enough flat spots that we could roll out three sleeping bags. That wasn’t easy in that little crater up there. We spent the night in a crater within a crater. That was an interesting experience. This we could do because my family was visiting and minded the children so we could do this on our own. We didn’t have too many opportunities to do things without the family. There was one CC boy that looked after the children occasionally when we were on an errand or visiting friends.
There was no church at Crater Lake and we didn’t contact the church down at Klamath Falls. We didn’t have any church life while we were up there. Though we were accustomed to it when we lived in town. We were always a part of a church community and still are. I don’t know if they have a church up there now or not.
