Summer 2022 - Summer Fun in Early Redway: A Cabin for Generations

1953. The 1937 Austin Healy parked in front of house in Bellingham, WA, with Jeanine in behind car.

Jim McClure, one of Jack’s sons, Remembers visiting Redway from his home in Eureka and watching a school of eels swimming by. He remembers skipping rocks across the river and jumping off rocks on the other side of the river. He also remembers the Austin Healy broken down in the yard that my father drove down from Bellingham, WA to Redway in 1953. While too young to drive yet, he asked about buying the car. Of course, my father declined the offer. Jim also remembers helping with some of the construction on the new house by working with an old-fashioned adze, probably on the beams that were used in the ceiling.

1966 Redway Elementary kindergarten class Christmas play with girls dressed up as dancing dolls. Holly Foster is 5th from left in jumper made by her grandmother. As dolls, they were allowed to wear makeup, the only memory Holly has of the event. Other children unidentified.

The Fourth Generation’s Memories

The 1964 flood changed the river in front of the houses. The swimming hole that three previous generations enjoyed was gone; you could wade all the way across the river. The path to Stinky Joe’s was gone so you could no longer pick the blackberries from that location. Most of the memories of the next generation were of the newer house and lower Redway area.

The next generation visited grandparents, Bill and Elenor, on vacation and holidays. All have fond memories of their visits. The oldest grandchild, Buddy Coombs, would spend his entire summer there. What freedom for him as his mom, Bonnie, drove him from Southern California to lower Redway where he could wander freely and play in the river whenever he wanted.

Buddy remembers peanut butter and honey sandwiches that his grandma made for him and serving it to him on a rickety table and chair he had made from scrap wood. He would sit on the porch of the cabin for his lunch. His memory reminds me of his grandpa that had his recliner sitting in front of a large window in the living room of the newer house. He ate his lunch there every day, looking out over the river.

During his summers at Redway, Buddy would float down the river with a friend to Redway Beach on inner tubes. Once there, they would watch people dive off the cliff and then walk back home, picking blackberries and huckleberries along the way. They had fun climbing on fallen redwood trees, available in all the redwood forests. He would hunt squirrels with his Uncle Scotty. They never got any but Buddy enjoyed the experience. 

A memory of several grandkids was visiting Grandpa while he worked at the Garberville Liquor Store and he would give them Beemans or clove gum. 

If the grandkids were in Redway in August they would pick blackberries and Grandma would add milk and powdered sugar to the berries. This is a tradition they have continued to this day—berries in milk and powdered sugar— which they have passed down to their kids. Another memory of the grandkids was cinnamon toast in the morning. And, sugar sandwiches for lunch—bread spread with butter and sprinkled with granulated sugar. I also remember those but wouldn’t eat one today.

Granddaughter Stacy says Grandma would spend hours pin curling the girl’s hair. They would sleep on cots in the living room. The only thing keeping them awake was the TV and hearing, “Here’s Johnny” and Grandma telling Grandpa to turn the TV down.

Several of the grandkids remember Grandma always drinking Mountain Dew. They also remembered her teal-colored couch because of the texture of the fabric. Several grandkids remember Grandpa making smoked salmon but it seems this was not a favorite of any of them. 

Grandma would make plum and blackberry jam. Granddaughter Holly remembers jars of plum jam stored downstairs and to this day has a fond spot in her heart when she runs across plum jam. 

Stacy has memories of playing on the screened in porch of the cabin. Using broken wicker basket chairs without the frames they would sit and roll around. 

Walking in the lower Redway neighborhood, Stacy remembers older sister Holly convincing her one of the houses they walked by was the witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel.

Stacy would ride with Grandpa to the dump in Garberville and they’d chew Beachnut gum which he always kept in the center console of the van. Grandpa gave Stacy her first fishing pole. He would take her down to the river and Stacy caught her first fish, a whopping three or four inches. She learned to clean the fish and then Grandma would fry it up in a pan.

Stacy adored her grandpa and would follow him everywhere. One day while he was up on the roof of the newer house doing repairs, he turned around and there was three year old Stacy. She had climbed the ladder after him. When he noticed Stacy he immediately got her down. It was then that her mother Jeanine found out. The kids played outside all the time and you just didn’t worry about them, nor would you expect them to head up a ladder to a roof.

Granddaughter Heidy remembers visiting Grandpa at the Garberville Liquor Store, where he worked a part time job, and he would give them liquor displays that were to be tossed out. Some of them were inflatable displays of Jack Daniels and other liquors. They would take them home to lower Redway and float on them in the river. He also would use old liquor display Christmas decorations. These items would be stored in the cabin until the next Christmas and then used in the newer house where family would gather. These Christmas items were usually large items, some about three feet tall. The grandkids loved them.

Even the pets enjoyed their visits to lower Redway. Heidy tells of their dog, Charlie Brown, knowing when they were getting close to Eel River Lane. He would start whining and they’d let him out of the car and he would race them all the way to the house. 

Louise’s kids didn’t get to lower Redway as often as the other grandkids. But, they still have fond memories of their time there. Karen remembers her mom teaching her how to skip rocks across the river. (This was something all generations of McClures learned.) To this day, Karen’s favorite jam is plum, a result of Grandma’s homemade plum jam. Karen remembers the prisms in the window sills along with rocks that her grandpa had collected years ago while living in Medford, Oregon. The grandkids remember the collection of Grandma’s vases and pitchers that she also had along the window sills. 

Richie, Louise’s oldest, remembers sleeping in the cabin with his cousin Buddy. He felt this an honor as it meant they were old enough to stay in the cabin by themselves and it felt like a big campout. 

Richie remembers being with Buddy and finding what seemed to be a graveyard for condors with feathers everywhere. They gathered up a bunch of the feathers, attached them to cardboard and then the cardboard to their arms. Then they would try and fly, running down a hill and jumping off the ground and flapping their wings. Since it didn’t work they thought they needed more speed. So, again, running down the hill, faster than before, but tripping. Richie remembers being so disappointed as he was sure he had gained enough speed this time to fly. 

Sadie and Jimmie Ratchford

I don’t know when Sadie and Jimmie Ratchford arrived in lower Redway. They lived on Forest Drive where Jimmie was a sign painter in the area. I remember seeing him on a ladder across the street from the West Coast Mill painting a sign for Hartsook Inn. I remember seeing a photo of Jimmie with the large fish he caught at Shelter Cove. 

But, I remember Sadie the most. This lady was the most patient lady I’ve ever known. For years Jeanine and I would walk over to the Ratchfords and almost always find Sadie sitting outside in her garden. We would sit and talk with Sadie for hours. I have no idea what we talked about, but I do remember Sadie always with a smile on her face and listening to everything we said. Then along came the next generation. They also would wander over to visit with Sadie. Sadie would serve them candy and cookies. It would be such fun to have a video of any of those visits to see what we talked about.

Christmas, 1967. Sadie Ratchford holding 1-year old Heidy Foster, with large liquor store décor on right (snowman head).

Hippies and Logging

The 1960s also brought the hippies into the area. The logging industry was declining and mills in Humboldt County began to close. Families began selling their houses and moving to other areas of the country where logging was still in progress, so property values became cheap in Humboldt County. Hippies living in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco found this a great opportunity to leave the crowded city and move to an isolated area and plant their crops in soil that was ideal for growing marijuana. This devastated my parents and other residents of the area as the hippies brought with them a totally different “culture.”

Due to the age of my parents when the flood hit, it was extremely difficult for them to rebuild and remain in the house they had built. Every time it rained they worried about another flood. With the influx of hippies, worries about another flood, and their age, they knew they had to leave Redway. In 1978 they sold the property which had a river view, two houses, and contained many redwoods. It was the best decision they ever made. They moved to Soquel, California, where they lived for several years, enjoying their retirement, not worrying about getting wood for the fireplace for heat but flipping a switch on the wall to turn on the heat, not worrying about a rising river, and growing a garden where the deer didn’t continually eat the fruits of their labor before they could enjoy them.

The Fifth Generation

The 5th generation from Dan and Ada didn’t benefit from the cabin or the newer house. But, because of the experiences of their parents and grandparents in lower Redway, vacations were taken into the area and drives taken by the property with parents pointing out the cabin and newer house, and walks taken down to the beach where previous generations swam. Each grandchild of Bill and Elenor took their children to the redwoods and lower Redway so they could see where they spent some of their childhood and relate the fond memories of vacations and summer stays.

New Owners

After the McClures sold the Redway property in 1978, the first buyer of the property made significant improvements to the new house. He added a better heating system, cleaned out the remaining silt and rebuilt the downstairs bedrooms, improved the kitchen and some of the other rooms. The new owner made improvements to the cabin so his mother could comfortably live there year round. He made the sleeping porch into a regular enclosed bedroom and enlarged the bathroom.

The next owner bought the property in 2003. She made changes to the cabin where she and her husband lived while they occasionally rented out the larger house. They upgraded the cabin kitchen, covered all the redwood walls with paneling and covered the floors with linoleum. They used 68 tubes of caulking to fill the holes between the logs of the cabin. They also made some adjustments for heating the cabin year round.

It was noted by this owner that the neighborhood began to change. Everyone began parking on the road, trash was thrown around the neighborhood, beer cans and drug paraphernalia were discarded along the road, and the swimming hole below the two houses, which had improved since the flood, was now over populated. In 2021, the property sold again. It is believed that the owners will be living in the larger house and renting out the cabin.

2017 - Back of cabin after McClures left Redway