Sunday, May 07, 2006
Seam Squirrels and Graybacks
This is another excerpt from my great-grandfather’s autobiography. Based on his age, I think it takes place around 1903 or 1904 in Washington. I know everything in this world is relative, but I must admit I feel a little soft after reading this account of life at one of the logging camps where he worked. He would have had to work a couple years to pay for the Herman Miller chair I purchased recently to alleviate back pain while I type.
Granddad wrote:
“The next spring when I was 16, I went to work at Buck’s Camp, near Monroe, setting chokers. This was a hard place on men and one month saw 20 men killed. If 30 men were killed in one month, the company had to shut down for 90 days. I forgot to say in all the bunkhouses, fleas, lice (graybacks), and bedbugs (seam squirrels) were plentiful. My pay was $2.25 per day for 11 hours. Every morning the boss would kick open the door and yell, ‘Roll out, or roll up,’ and he meant just that. The bunkhouse was about 20 x 20 square. The bunks were just boards and made with one end against the wall on each side, and three bunks high. In the center of the room there was a ‘Sidney Stove’ sitting on a box filled with dirt. The stove pipe went up through the roof. The door opened in the middle of one side, a window in the opposite side. All men carried their own blankets. There were no mattresses on the bunks. The lighting system was a kerosene lantern hung on a hook in the ceiling. You washed in a wash basin outdoors--the ‘john’ was outback.”
(The photo above was taken in Blewett, Washington, in 1915. Granddad’s brother, Dean, is driving the team. Granddad is standing behind him. Here’s another picture from 1912 that shows “the first truck there is any record of hauling logs in Washington.” It was owned by Rucker Brothers in Everett.)
