Vern Larson:  

Vern Larson Class of 1960 Hi classmates, I'm looking forward to seeing all of you at our 50th high school reunion at the Flyers Club August 21, 2010. I'm so thankful to Joan (Richter) & Frank Lucchesi for their efforts, and all others who have helped to make this all possible. Anything that any of us can do to help I'm sure would be much appreciated. I thought I'd write a brief history of my life in Woodland. I was born December 31, 1942, at the Woodland Hospital on the corner of 3rd & Cross Street. My father was overjoyed with happiness. (I made it just in time to be a tax deduction for him that year.) I couldn't have chosen better parents. I never at any time ever heard my parents shout or say a mean word to each other. I never heard my parents say a "cuss" word or demean anybody. We were raised with love in the home, and food on the table. We were taught that before going to sleep, we should knee at our beds and say our prayers to our Heavenly Father. I was also blessed with incredible siblings. Leon, is without question, the best big brother anybody could ever have. He has gone throughout his life, completely unselfish, and doing good, all the time, to whoever he meets, wherever he goes. "Still waters run deep," describes my older sister, Maurine. A truly compassionate, caring, giving and sweet humble sister. She gives to everybody and asks nothing in return. I love my sister. Eldon, my younger brother, is a combination of Leon and Maurine. When he comes into a room, he takes over, and no one leaves that room the same. If they come into the room with no money, they leave with money in their pocket. If they are sad, they leave with a smile on their face. If they are hungry, they leave fed. If they have no place to stay, consider the room theirs. My parents never spanked any of us. I most certainly should have had some spankings, but I slipped through the cracks because of the goodly conduct of my siblings. Thanks, I owe you. I was raised on the S/E corner of North & Cleveland Street. Ernie Gray lived a few houses south on Cleveland, Marvin Camerina lived across the street from Ernie, Bob and Bruce Burns lived next to Marvin, Susie Cranston lived on the S/W corner of North & Walnut across the street from the Primary (Maxwell) Kindergarten School, Donna Giese lived across the street from the Catholic church on Walnut, and Phil Persson lived on Walnut across the street from Anderson's rest home. Ernie and I were playmates. I remember lying down in the middle of the street to make the cars stop. They did! One concerned driver knocked on our front door and pointed out what we were doing. That was the end of that game. Susie and I also played together. I remember a big bear skin rug in Susie Cranston's home. Marilyn (Jones) Camerina lived 5 or 6 blocks away but we also played together. Her father was a carpenter and built her a play house in their back yard. I've got a picture of us with her cowgirl & my cowboy outfit on with our six-guns drawn. Larry Hill and I went to Kindergarten together. He lived in some military style apartments on the corner of Walnut & Beamer Street that have long since been torn down. Camerina park and the water tower is now located where Larry used to live. If anybody knows who went to the kindergarten school on the corner of Walnut & North Street during 1947-1948, I would be very interested in finding out. Also, if anybody has a kindergarten class picture of that year, it would be invaluable to me. The only other person I remember being there was, I think, Pete Garrette. We moved out to the little country grocery store/gas station 3 miles North of Woodland next to Cache Creek when I was 5. The day I graduated from Kindergarten was a sad day for me. I sat down on the steps and cried. I was completely heart broken because I knew I would never be able to see my teacher again. I went to Laugenour from first to eighth grade during 1948 to 1956. When I was attending Laugenour, it was located on the West side of the highway on the North side of Cache Creek bridge. It was relocated several years later to its present location. I really enjoyed my growing up years. Some of my friends were Larry "RIP" & Gary Culley, Ramon Urbano, Mike Stump, Ken Rominger, Dick Leonard, George Baham, Bobbie Tedder,Nick & Judy Yeiser, Johnny Winn "RIP", Melvin & Mervin Dahl, Randy March "RIP", Antoinette Mass, Barbara & Sandra Marcum, Terry & Donna Morris, Levonna Bybee, Karen & Mary Frank, Naomi Fisher, Vernon Ivie, Darry Allen "RIP", Bob Bell, Wayne Barrios "RIP" and Jim "RIP" & Patsy Morales "RIP". I liked Patsy pretty much all through grade school, as did most of the other guys. I remember going to Patsy's house one evening, knocked on her door, left a valentine card, and ran out into the field and laid down to watch her reaction. She opened the door, looked around, saw nobody and closed the door. I had visions of her swooning over me and thanking me for the valentine's card. I also had a big crush on Darla Lavorn. (Two years older than me.) One day I saw her walking by our store on the way to her house which was about a mile away. I jumped on my bike and gave her a ride home. Nothing ever came of it, but it was the best bike ride of my life. Cookie Robinson (One year older) lived across the field from me. We used to ride our bikes together and go swimming in her pool. She used to wear her hair in two long braids that reached to the middle of her back. The summer after she graduated from eighth grade her mom came out with a camera and took our pictures on our bikes. Cookie had to leave to go to an appointment to have her hair cut short to get ready for her freshman year in high school. I still had another year to go at Laugenour. I never got to play with Cookie after that. During eighth grade we had an exchange dance with Willow Springs Elementary School. That was the high light of my growing years to that point. I met Barbara Hanson, and for the first time I met someone who apparently liked me in return. During one slow dance the sides of our heads touched and I was electrified. I was in love. I would sit in class and make up poems about her. I would ride my bike over to Bob Bells house on the weekends with the hopes of seeing Barbara. (Fifteen miles round trip) She was such a sweet girl and had such great parents. But being my usual self, (I'm a big jerk) I blew it, and she never forgave me. I don't blame her. I taught myself how to type in seventh and eighth grade and signed up for typing my freshman year. They discouraged the freshman boys from typing because of the rapid growth spurt at that age causing them to be uncoordinated. I insisted and was the only freshman boy in class. Steve Ribble was there also but he was older. I got straight A's in the class and could type 72 words a minute with no mistakes. Back then, "no mistakes" was a big deal, as it was quite time consuming and messy to correct your mistakes. Today all you have to do is hit the delete key. I sat behind Carol Heard. Gosh, was she beautiful. I started running around with Everette Parsons, Don Longee, Ranse Reynolds, John Monroe, Mike Stump, Ron Cross, Dan Best, Robert Chamberlin, Butch Litterell, Richard Bolen, and Roger Lunt. We would usually walk to the movies on Friday night and then try to stay out of sight of the upper classmen who would harass us on our walk back home. I would try to pair up with Everette Parsons because he knew all the short cuts through all the back yards and alleys better than anyone. Everette Parson's Dad got him a job bucking hay for Pete Blann. Everette ask if I wanted to be his partner. Neither one of us knew how to buck hay, but we went out and built a hay stack. It fell down shortly after, and we had to go back and re-stack it. Everette gave up on the job and I ask Terry Morris if he wanted to take on the job. Terry and I both started bucking hay together. Soon after, we got a job bucking hay for Barney Egan and hauled hay to the Sutter Basin pellet mill. Terry was very strong and had a great work ethic. I never saw anybody who could run faster than Terry. He was never beaten. I tried to get him to go out for track but he wasn't interested. He got his speed from his Dad who also had natural abilities. Terry and I hung out a lot together. He is one of the few people who I never at any time ever got upset with. I would go over to see Terry and end up with Donna, his younger sister. Donna was vibrant. She could outrun most boys and always had a big smile on her face. We went together on and off all through our teen age years. I had such a short vision on relationships and could change from one week to the next. I was never very dependable. Judy Hatcher put up with me for a while. She was as straight and true as a person could be. A wonderful person with a strong will and great character. The next season I started bucking hay with Bill Carter. He was the "Hercules" of the hay field. He had unbelievable strength, and was always asking for "more hay." I enjoyed the company of others such as Connie Joseph from Knight Landing. Wonderful sweet girl. Carol Ghedenelli was a freshman while I was a senior. We dated a few times and she would tease me because she was smarter than me in Algebra class. I worked night shift at Contadina and went to school in the morning. I would usually fall asleep in class. Mr. Mosher was very understanding and would let me sleep. I had tried football, swimming, and track, but seemed to like wrestling the best. We didn't have a wrestling team my freshman or sophomore year. During gym class some of the upper...Expand for more