I was unpacking some boxes today that I pulled out of storage (because it's high-time I stopped paying for that damn thing and just cleaned it out) and started coming across artwork from when I was in elementary school. None of it was from the post-California era, but instead all came from my time at Crafton Elementary when we lived back in good 'ol Redlands. There were a lot of pictures I drew of dinosaurs, some odd ones of me I had drawn in yellow marker depicting me at the beach with black nipples for contrast, and of course a wonderfully composed poem about death.
Such a happy child!
I was suddenly reminded of visiting a place called "Roaring Camp" that we went to a couple times while visiting my grandma Natalie in northern California. I don't really remember how often we visited her... whether it was twice a year or just once a year; at that point I was a little too young to pay attention. She lived in the mountains in a place called Pine Grove, and I'll always remember that her house was on Mt. Zion road. Just one of those things you don't forget.
A couple of times we went to "Roaring Camp," which was this kind of tour/dinner thing for tourists in the area to do in a place that was otherwise pretty strapped for ideas that could involve kids. Or so I still believe unless you like hiking. And snakes. You'd start at this building where everyone paid for tickets (I just googled the place, glad to find it still exists, and saw it costs $50 a head now. Sheesh!) Once you paid you had to climb into the backs of these huge pickup trucks that had rails on the sides to sit against while on the built-in benches. Then you started the looooong (probably 15 minute (I know, just crazy!)) drive down theses steep canyon trails through the mountain.
At one point you'd stop by this waterfall and I think you could drink from it but I don't remember too sharp on that. The visit in particular I am thinking of I was with my siblings, mom and grandma. So you keep drivingdrivingdriving and eventually you're at the bottom of this huge ravine that has a campground of some sort set up and then some TP's and such. There was also a great big outdoor kitchen where the powers-that-be would be making dinner. I remember everyone got a drink token (it was a wooden nickel) and then you could either go on the tour of one of the caves where they used to mine for gold or you could go down to the river and PAN for gold.
The tour of the cave was boring, you couldn't go inside because it was roped off and at that age (probably 6 or 7) if you couldn't see the goods then it might as well not exist.
I mean really!
So we went down to the water and grabbed these big plastic/resin dishes and started panning for gold. Who knows how long it took but I did find a piece of gold in that damn river, and the big old man that ran the joint came with a little glass tube and black cap, filled it with water, and dropped the gold inside for me to take home. After that we were bored and dinner wouldn't be for a while longer so my brother started skipping stones across the water down by where everyone was still panning.
Somewhere out at Parker manor we've actually got this bit on video: Josh skipping rocks like a pro, little white-haired Sean trying to skip them as well, Megan standing off to the side playing with her hair and mom running the camera. Sean flings a rock and it SLAMS into some guy panning for gold, and then proceeds to move to hide behind mom before the man figures out who did it. I think the best part is that, ever so coolly, you hear mom say "Maybe you shouldn't do that anymore."
For dinner they made gigantic steaks that I remember being just... gigantic. That's a good word. There was of course corn and potatoes and I'm sure some kind of hardy vegetable that I didn't eat, but the BEST part was the fried bread. Words cannot describe how good the friend bread was, and you could have as much as you wanted! And what skinny little kid WOULDN'T go after that shit with reckless abandon? Certainly not a pre-fatty like Seanny Parker!
Making the glorious bread.
After dinner they played music and maybe told stories but I can't remember that much. Eventually it was time to file back into the trucks and make the excruciatingly long (...) trip back up the canyon roads . On the way back my grandma Natalie was putting on lipstick in the dark but from the light of the amber-colored bulb, it looked almost black. I told her she looked like a witch and never lived it down.
You might be asking yourself why I remember this. Tonight when I was going through boxes I came across a small metal container that at one point had held a wallet I purchased from Khol's and for some God-knows-why reason, I kept it. Before I could throw it out I realized there was something tinkling inside. So of course I opened it (I've been going through EVERYTHING and tossing the useless shit out.) There were a bunch of pieces of broken glass inside and the black plastic lid that at one point held water inside. There was something else too.
It isn't always a bad thing to be the kind of person that keeps everything. While some things are pointless to hold on to, there are others that you should keep forever. I know I have big hands but that piece of gold is actually very tiny. It's amazing how something so small and seemingly insignificant can spark such a memory from 20 years ago.
That's all I have to say about that. Toodles gang (c:
That's all I have to say about that. Toodles gang (c:
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