Dad's Story Part 8

Willis and bike

The Lewiston Idaho Period

            In 1924, Dad was transferred to Lewiston, Idaho.  The Continental Oil plant was a little bigger here, and Dad had a larger territory to cover.  Lewiston is a beautiful little city located on the Snake River where the Clearwater River joins it.  The town lies on the south bank of the Clearwater River, and the east bank of the Snake River.  Directly across the Snake River on its west bank is the city of Clarkston, Washington.  Of course the two cities were named for the famous frontier explorers Lewis and Clark who followed the Clearwater River down to it confluence with the Snake in 1805.  They continued on down the Snake and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific Coast. 

            Across the Clearwater River to the north is the famous Lewiston Hill with a winding highway that leads a torturous route from the bottom to the top in about nine miles.  This highway leads to Moscow, Idaho, the home of the University of Idaho, which is about thirty miles north of Lewiston. 

            South of the downtown or business portion of Lewiston is a “bench” or higher portion of ground, which is relatively flat.  The main residential section of the town and the “normal school” or college is located on the bench.  It was at the Lewiston College tennis court that I was introduced to the game of tennis.  I enjoyed the game, and seemed to have a “natural” ability for it.

            It was during this time of my life that I became interested and active in quite a wide variety of sports.  At our first residence in Lewiston, which was on “G” Street, located in the “downtown” part of Lewiston, I became an accomplished roller-skater.  Fortunately, all the streets had cement sidewalks, so I was able to skate from our house to the school, which was about a half a mile away. A year later, when we moved up on the hill, into the house where Frances was born, I became involved in the sports of basketball, baseball, and golf.  A neighbor across the street from us had a basketball standard or basket mounted on their garage.  I spent a lot of time over there pitching “free throws”.

Behind our house was a large vacant lot where the neighborhood boys gathered after school and on Saturdays to play baseball.  I had received a catcher’s mitt for Christmas, so I learned to be a catcher, and played that position most of the time.  There was a golf course clubhouse very near to us.  During our summer vacation from school I learned to be a caddy.  As I remember, we used to be paid fifty cents to one dollar for a round of nine holes.  While working as a caddy, I learned the fundamentals of golf, but never did have the time or money to play much. 

Lewiston was a warm climate because of its low elevation of about seven hundred feet.  One winter, at Christmas time we had roses blooming in our garden.  I also remember the California poppies that grew in front of our house.  Because of the hot summers we used to go on frequent camping trips to the mountains.  One especially memorable summer vacation was a two-week stay at Wallowa Lake, Oregon.  This is a beautiful large lake in the pine-covered mountains of east central Oregon.  We rented a little cabin at a summer resort.  There was a little rushing stream that flowed by the cabin, and lulled us to sleep at night with its musical sound.  The highlight of this vacation was a side trip I was privileged to take with Dad.  Just the two of us started early one morning and hiked to a little lake named Amatol about six or seven miles from our camp.  We took a lunch and some fishing equipment.  This little lake could only be reached by a trail.  This was a great experience to have Dad all to myself for a whole day, one that I will never forget. 

            On some of our summer camping trips there would be four or five other families go with us.  One that I remember particularly was the Phil Schnobee family.  He drove a laundry truck for the C.O.D. Laundry.  His truck was an old Dodge panel.  Phil would frequently take me with him in the summertime to help pick up the laundry bundles.  It was hot work, but my reward was several stops along the way for an ice-cold lemon pop, and then at the end of the morning, lunch at the Elk’s Club.  

Camping trip

Cabin (with a boy up top!)