We've been married just about forever and sometime back at the dawning of civilization*, we lived for a couple of years in New Pine Creek. We went to see it last week when we were in Southeast Oregon. It's a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of place that straddles the Oregon-California border on Highway 395.
This little farm community is twenty miles south of Lakeview Oregon and 50 miles north of Alturas California, with nothing much else in between. It's the outback of the outback. Back then (*it really was 1959 through 1961), we thought we were so lucky to get to move there. Bill had just graduated from a two-year program at a Teacher's College in Idaho and he got a position as teacher/principal (and janitor) at New Pine Creek Elementary, a one-room school on the California side of the border. (California! It paid more than Idaho, where most of his fellow graduates went.)
We had a one-year old son and a baby on the way. (Our daughter was born in Lakeview). This is the house where we lived -- as you can see, it is about a foot from the highway. The house actually looks better now than it did then; we didn't have siding or a fence. It snowed a lot in the Winters we were there. The snowplow would come past several times a day and plow the snow into drifts that blocked the house in. Those winter days were long!
This is the old school building -- it was about the length of two blocks straight up the highway from our house. Someone is living in it now; the school closed years ago. It is funny to realize that the eighth-graders Bill taught were actually only six or seven years younger than he was.
It was a very small village even then. But there were a couple of grocery stores, a good butcher, a barbershop and a Grange Hall that had an active social schedule. Now the Grange Building looks like something straight out of a ghost story.
There isn't much left of the town now. Both of the grocery store buildings are still standing, but they are now "antique" stores. Junk shops -- especially when there are more than two in a three block stretch -- must be the last dying gasp of a small town.
After our two years here, we moved back to Eastern Washington. LIving there again, we had two more sons, bought our first house, worked a bunch of various jobs between us, and, eventually, Bill completed his degree. (That last sentence alone would be worth a hundred posts if this were really that kind of blog!) In 1971, we moved to Lane County, Oregon -- the opposite side of the State of Oregon from NPC, in every possible definition.
Our visit last week was only the third or fourth time we've been through here since we moved and we've long since lost track of the people we knew. But we'll always remember our two years here -- we did a lot of growing up and had a lot of fun too.
I wonder if there will be anything left of the town if we ever drive through here again.
Sometimes, it's really hard to comprehend the turning of time. Sometimes we find abandoned places or drive through the smallest of 'towns' and I wonder what they looked like in their heyday. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: bettyl | August 09, 2009 at 07:33 PM
That was a great story. I wish I had some pictures of my hometown, where I was born, circa 1957. That would bring back a ton of memories for me!
Posted by: Karen | August 04, 2009 at 10:45 PM
Great post, Sallie. I really enjoyed the pics to go along with it. It's nice to see the old school being used for living quarters.
I've been back to my growing up town once or twice on the east coast and have always been amazed on how it's grown and changed. There are many things I don't even recognize.
You should post the link to this post on the Remember Whensday meme. This is worth sharing with others. It's a wonderful post.
Posted by: Sally in WA | July 22, 2009 at 10:24 PM
Geoff: Your guess is as good as ours about "Old" Pine Creek. We remember asking about it back then and nobody seemed to know.
That two years was such a separate capsule of time -- we came from Clarkston and went back there after, so the Washington years blend together a little bit more. Except for certain red letter days, like, say "November 2, 1963" and a few others.
Love mom
Posted by: Sallie (FullTime-Life) | July 21, 2009 at 09:15 PM
Andy: re. your "roots" -- we looked for the Lakeview hospital where your mom was born and it's been torn down. Changes...
This post was fun to write.
Love grandma
Posted by: Sallie (FullTime-Life) | July 21, 2009 at 09:12 PM
You were only there two years? Family stories would suggest it was longer. Kind of funny to think you've spent as many months now in, say, South Padre Island than you did in New Pine Creek.
Where is Old Pine Creek?
Posted by: Geoff | July 21, 2009 at 07:57 AM
What a great post! I love hearing about that time in your lives, and your description of the decaying town and your memories is, well, powerful. Funny to think I (sort of) have roots way out there in outback Oregon. Love you, Andy
Posted by: Andy | July 20, 2009 at 07:14 PM