The River

We lived in Red Bluff for 6 years, enough time to roam the streets and know lots of people. During this time, we lived by the river, We had a little house on the river banks, it may have been two bedrooms but we all piled into one or two beds anyway. The house was small, but to me it was home, and as good as my dad could provide, He was a cook at the chicken shack and they slaughtered their own chickens daily. Plus you can be sure it was great fried chicken, my Dad was a good cook. Better than my Mom. Poor Mom she just could not cook and she wasted so much. Garlic she hated garlic and complained when Dad used it in cooking. So back to the river. The house was small but not as small as the second house we used when the river flooded. The river would rise into our house, so we had to go to higher ground. Up the hill we had a little house, it was boards half way up like house, then a tarp was put on top, like a roof of a house with a gable to keep us dry. Warm it was not, I am sure we had a heater but also I am equally sure it was wood heater. How we cooked is a mystery, but it must have been on the wood stove, The bathroom was an outhouse, toilet, Community one at that. At one time one of the tenants of that little settlement, was on the toilet, he was the dirtiest man around. I am sure he never took a bath. He was sitting on one seat and when my Mom went up, the door was unlocked, he said, 'Come on in this is a two seater' LOL The river bridge was another issue, In those days it was a wooden bridge, you have all been across that bridge, it is the one after you exit the freeway and go directly into town, chico exit. So the story of the bridge goes, coy and I would walk across the river on the pipeline, it is a big pipe that runs under the bridge. We did this often, not a problem in our eyes, Well one day Dad saw us, he met us at the other end, He was saying come on son Dad have something for you, he had something alright, it was a belt on our rear ends. You can bet if we walked that again, we made sure Dad was not around. We saw no danger we could swim, which we often did at the red bluff plunge. No problem but in retrospect it was a very dangerous stunt, I being no older than 12 and coy 10. One of our adventures included shooting out windows of a building with a BB gun and going to weekly shows at the State Theatre in REd Bluff.