2.. From Albany to Kings Valley to Soap Creek

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Yes.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Well, not really.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Not him. Granddad [Hindes] and grandmother [Hindes] raised him.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] I was kind of the maverick. I think I was probably too young. There's probably a question of whether they wanted to throw me back or not. But I went to live with my grandparents [Hindes] and lived with them until both of them passed away. Well, in fact, the last two or three years of his life, grandfather and I lived together. And the last few months of his life we had to move in with my father and his family. By this time, the family consisted of my brother and I and a stepbrother [Douglas Gilliam] from this lady's previous marriage and then two children [Lois and Vivian Hindes]. So it was kind of a yours, ours and mine situation of which I didn't fit in well at all. I was the black sheep. I was a maverick and never did really jell well with the family but Norman why don't you take it and I'll [be] quiet. You tell how we got into the Soap Creek area.

2. From Albany to Kings Valley to Soap Creek

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Well, they had a ranch out west of Albany. Would you call east out there by the Masonic cemetery in Albany?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Pretty much south of the cemetery.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] By the old Bloom place. And so we took granddad and Chuck out there and that's where granddad passed away. Dad, due to the fact that granddad had some misfortune too in that oil well and one thing and another, it was a bad year on the ranch. They lost the ranch as a result of mortgages against it. We buried grandad Hindes in the nearby Masonic cemetery. Dad had to have something to do so he got this job in a log camp over here at Kings Valley. And he went over there and he went to work for this McCoy and Burtrom.

Bob Zybach: Is that the McCoy that's from Airlie? That McCoy family?

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] It had the Soap Creek Mill there.

Bob Zybach: Oh, okay. Uh, McCoy and Burtrom had the mill.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] McCoy's mill it used to be.

Bob Zybach: Oh, and that became Valley Mills, Burtrom and McCoy. Oh, okay that's a different McCoy. Then, so he's the McCoy out of Wells.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] He actually lived here in Corvallis, McCoy did.

Bob Zybach: Okay, okay.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] And, I think the name was Burtrom.

Bob Zybach: Burtrom McCoy?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Yes.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Was that right? I guess that was right.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Then, we went over to Kings Valley and went to work . . . Dad went to work there in cutting didn't he?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Um, hmm. Yes.

Bob Zybach: So, he's a timber faller.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Um, hmm. That was the days when it was fell by hand, you know. And then they run out of timber, I believe.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] It would be interesting to most people that we lived in a tent with a dirt floor to begin with and finally we made a few bucks and then we gravitated to a wooden floor and wooden sides up a couple feet on our tent so we had moved up to the higher echelon by that time. The family life pretty much centered around when we're not working on weekends the Price General Merchandise Store, which was a large two story structure and the second story was a great big dance hall and of course that's where the Saturday night activities were held. We could sleep on the benches while the adults danced.

Bob Zybach: Was there very many families that lived around there in tents like that?

Charles Hindes: Well, not too many in tents. Most of them were permanent residents. Kings Valley was an old settlement.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Whenever we wasn't doing a great deal of work the kids and mom would go out and pick wild blackberries. We used to bring the berries to Corvallis and we would sell 'em. We could get . . . What was it?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] A dollar a gallon.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] A dollar a gallon. Boy, back in those days that was a lot of money.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] It took most of a half a day, but that's still pretty good money for 1928- 29.

Bob Zybach: Were those uh...

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Little wild blackberries.

Bob Zybach: Little wild blackberries.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Really delicious.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] We'd buy all our school clothes that way.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] We took our first airplane ride that way.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Hmm? Yeah. Took our first airplane ride that way out of Corvallis up there. .. Penny a pound we got to fly.

Bob Zybach: Wow. A penny a pound was the cost to fly?

Norman Hindes: That's...

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Oh, I think it was five dollars each. If I remember right.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] No, it was a penny a pound.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Was it? Well, it could be. I wouldn't argue but it was out where the Highland View Jr. high school is now here in Corvallis. There was a little airstrip out there.

Bob Zybach: Oh, Highland View Middle School was the old airstrip.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Right.

Bob Zybach: So, how old were you about that time? That would've been the...

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Oh, I imagine Norman was about 12 or 14. Well, you see we left the mill site in 1931. No, I was twelve and you're two and half years older than I.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Well you can figure out what we got... How old it was when we hit Tillamook.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Well, we left here in 1930. I was 12 when we got to Tillamook and you were approaching 15.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] That's right, I guess.

Bob Zybach: Did you go to school in the Kings Valley area?

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] No.