16.. The Tillamook Migration - Life with "Julius"

Bob Zybach: and this is the first that I'm getting any information after World War I, so I would guess World War 1.

Norman Hindes: Well they went over to Tillamook and then just disappeared. I don't know what in the world ever happened to them after that. They bought that hotel and that was about the time that it was all going to pot there, you know it was back in early 1930.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] It think the hotel actually burned down.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Huh? It did bum down.

16. The Tillamook Migration - Life with "Julius"

Bob Zybach: Well, one thing it sounds like there's at least quite a few families that migrated from Soap Creek to Tillamook. Was there any particular reason for that?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] I don't know. We have the same frequency of interchange between where I currently live in Dallas and Tillamook. There are many families that go back and forth between those two areas and I can't pinpoint any reason for it.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Well, I know that Dad was so enthused. See, when we went over there, this Julius Erickson, right where the blimp base is now. That's where we landed, right there on a little knoll, and when we got there Dad was to get five dollars a month and he was to furnish us kids, Chuck and Doug and I. We was to help milk. It was all hand milking. No, they had a machine didn't they?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] I think they did.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Yeah, they had a milking machine. Mom was to do the cooking, the washing and all Julius had to do, was come home and eat and pick the milk up. We had to load the milk cans on his truck.

Bob Zybach: Now, Julius. Was he the half brother?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] No, he was the owner of the farm.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see.

Charles Hindes: An old bachelor.

Bob Zybach: Julius Erickson. Okay.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] And he would drive the milk to the factory, which is at South Prairie and then he'd bring back hot water and we had to wash the milk cans and clean the barns and then go down and pick up sticks stumps and junk out of the field down there and we had to go down and pick up little chips like that and put them in the basket and pile them up. We never got a damn thing. Dad got the five dollars and that just about bought his chewing tobacco and Mom's what ever she needed.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Plus we got meat and milk and cheese and a house to live in.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Yeah, we had a roof over our head. Yeah, how else was it? He lived there with us. Julius did. The house was only about four rooms I think. Yeah, four rooms is what it was.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] But Dad's primary objective in going to the coast... He felt that it put him in closer proximity to shellfish and salmon and this sort of food as well as dairy products.

Bob Zybach: So basic subsistence foods. Did you hear of any families eating eels in the Tillamook area?

Charles Hindes: No, but I'm sure that happened.

Tour-stop map of Soap Creek Valley; printed labels read from the plate include BENTON COUNTY, T. 10 S., T. 11 S., DOBRININ, ROHNER, ZUNDT, TAMPICO, GLENDER, BEALS, BARZEE, MODRELL, SCHOOLHOUSE, GRIFFIN, ADAIR, VILLAGE, BROWN, HOFFMAN, JOHNSON, GOVIER, BLAKE, FEAGLES, VANDERSANTEN, MT. VIEW, BOHEMIA MILL, LEWISBURG RD., LEWISBURG, HILL, MATHEWS, and numbered tour stops 1-32.