Back to My Roots in Shasta Retreat

A family story for my kids 

and their kids.

This is the house my grandfather

Frank built with the help of his

three girls Fran, Alice and Margie.

They started building it in 1949.  

There is a full basement underneath,

and two stories above.  

 The second story 

is a new addition to the home

and wasn't part of the house 

when it belonged to our family.

  

For some unknown reason,

Grandpa got the wanderlust and was

moving his family from Colorado

to Southern California 

and  again back to Colorado

and finally back to CA.

It was way too frequent 

for my grandmother to put up with.

On one of their trips up the state, 

they stopped in Dunsmuir.

My mom and aunts can tell

you the exact place that Grandma

told Grandpa to pull over.

She was done, and this was as

far as she would travel.

  Grandpa got a job

barbering at the barbershop

under the Bank of America

in Dunsmuir

and they finally settled in.

The shop owner Curly L.

 found out that my grandparents

and their three young girls

were living in one of those

little tear shaped campers

and sleeping in an Army tent.

Curly  sold  some of his property

in Shasta Retreat to my grandparents

and took the payment out of the wages 

Grandpa earned in the barbershop.

The land included an unfinished

basement built into the hillside.

It only had three walls, 

no floor and no roof. 

 This was in late July of 49.

Grandpa set about to building

the house during his time off of work.

They managed to get the

 fourth basement wall built

before the rains came.

They put in the floor, 

and a temporary cover of wood 

and tar paper over the top for a roof.

You can see a part of the basement in the 

photo above.  The rock retainer walls

were built using stones from Black Butte

which is next to Mt. Shasta.

~~~

On Thanksgiving that year,

the first snow fell, and not

just a dusting.

It dumped eight feet onto 

their temporary basement home

and collapsed the Army tent.

 They needed to remove the pins from

the basement door to get outside.

It was a little too late to realize

that the door had been put in 

to open outward, instead of in.

Grandpa had a mean temper,

and that was one story that 

will never be forgotten by

 my Aunt Fran.

The stone fireplace 

was built during their second summer 

in Shasta Retreat.

Grandpa fell from the roof while building the

chimney and had to spend some time

recovering from the injuries before they

could finish building the house. 

It's my Aunt Fran

climbing the stairs,

the very ones she helped build 

so many years ago.

This is Bear Creek which ran behind their 

house and down the canyon towards the 

river I posted about last week.

The girls used to head to the creek 

to cool off whenever they could 

during the summertime while 

building their home.

It was pretty amazing to hear

mom and Frans stories of their

Shasta Retreat neighborhood.

They could recall every  neighbors

name and each house that came

into view was another story to tell. 

The dogwood tree is still there on 

the property.  It was a favorite of 

my grandmother, mom and aunts.

This stone barbecue grill

has been here since my mom

and her sisters first lived in Shasta Retreat.

It's located at a cabin next door to

the house that they built.

This is that cabin,

and it's also the very first home

I lived in.  The shuttered window

was my bedroom as an infant.

Mom tells us that she was stirring

paint in that very little room,

when her labor started.

I don't have memories of 

either house.  My mom moved

away from Dunsmuir when I was

one year old.

My grandparents

 sold the home they built 

and bought another one 

in Dunsmuir that was closer

to his own barber shop. 

That's the house I remember.

~~~

Our girls weekend before last

was a trip down memory lane

for my mom and Aunt Fran.

My cousin and I soaked in their

stories as much as we could.