THE HANDS CHAPTER 5 LOWELL HAND HAND FAMILY MANUSCRIPTS

REMINISCING
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CHAPTER 5

UPPER LAKE

During the years 1918 and 1919 a great flu epidemic caused many deaths in America but a strict quarantine kept it completely out of Sugar Pine. However, on the train, Mom became ill and we had to discontinue our journey at Ukiah. Dad rented a house and one by one we all came down with the flu. Dad got well first and went on to Upper Lake to get things started ad to find a house. He came back several times in a Stutz roadster, a real heavy car they used for towing. Great grandmother Johnson died while we were there and Mom cried when she head about it, the first time I ever saw my mother cry.

Finally we all got to Upper Lake but had to live in a little 3 room shack. At least there was a Methodist church adjacent to the house. There was no minister but we went to Sunday School and every Sunday we sang Brighten the Corner Where You Are. That was about the extent of our spiritual admonition. After a few weeks a 2 bedroom house became available, and wile there, brother Melvin was born at the Lake Port hospital, July 31, 1920. The Wehmeyer brother lived on a farm a few miles east of upper lake and his wonderful wife took the three Hand children along with three of her own to stay on the farm until Mom got home again. It was about harvest time and the harvest crew went from farm to farm, threshing out the wheat. The threshing machine ran from a steam tractor with a long belt to drive it. The days the crew was at Wehmeyer's she had to cook for them and they could really eat. The Wehmeyers also had milk cows and a hand cranked cream separator. She made butter from the cream and sold it. I started in the first grade in September at the age of seven less one month. Well Dad's partner was a good mechanic when he was sober. This factor together with the recession and the fact that Dodge cars cost more than Fords meant things didn't work out and soon the money was gone. We went on two meals a day and people gave us food. Every morning before school I would go down the road to a lady's house to get free milk mostly for Melvin since she had a cow. One man gave us a sugar sack full of jerked venison. I got so I liked the stuff and would chew on a piece when ever I wanted a snack. That Christmas I got a comb which probably cost 5 cents. So Dad had to arrange a way to get out of Upper lake. As his share of what they had put into the business he took the new Dodge which was in stock and sold it to a school teacher for $200.00 plus her old Saxon. I suppose the new Dodge was worth about $650.00 in those days. On a dreary winter morning in 1921 we left in the rain for Bakersfield. We made about 55 miles by 9:00 PM and stayed in Cloverdale at a hotel. The road was being re-built between Ukiah and Cloverdale and we had to pick our way through the mud and red lanterns for miles. By the next night we had made 80 miles more to San Francisco Bay, and after dark we took a ferry from Sausalito to Berkeley and another ferry back across to San Francisco. The ferries were no permitted to operate directly across the rougher water of the Golden Gate channel. They sat low in the water and could easily swamp in rough water. They were also very unsafe because of their completely open interiors. We stood on the passenger deck and looked over the inside railing all the way down into the engine room. If they had ever caught fire, those old wooden ships would have been a terrible disaster. But they were sure exciting to watch. All the machinery was painted bright red with gold striping and polished brass. The steam engine turned paddle wheels at the sides of the boat and moved slowly with very little noise.

The next day as I recall we made it to Fresno and from there to Bakersfield over much better roads. We stayed with aunt Ola and Bill Hubbard ad I attended first grade for two weeks. By then Dad had rounded up a job as manager of the Sell-Right Grocery in Lancaster, CA. Mom didn't want to move there but beggars can't be choosers.

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