That photo of the highway into Moclips, what memories that evokes. It is still the same roadbed, only macadam with a center line and wider. Were you to bring that photo near your grandfather’s grave he'd come out a'cussin! Going West or North out of Hoquiam when you reached the city limits, a small bump and just gravel as you see in the photo. When dry you ate alot of dust from other cars. In summer windows were down as air conditioning didn't exist. On all grades it was washboard. Even good tires would, today, be considered......rags. It was very rare indeed to escape without at least one flat tire. My dad had buttocks that could just feel a corner of the car descending to the gravel and the blue air would start. From the photo you can see what a nice place to pull over and jack the car up, pull the wheel, get tire irons(two)in place and start working that tire off the rim. Pull the tube, find the hole, scratch the area, dope it, then put the patch on (meanwhile with wife and kids looking on and cars making a fog of dust) putting the tube in tire, all back on rim ( there are mantras to utter as tire irons again at work, rim back on wheel, then the trusty tire pump goes to work (dust still coming) stop a time or two for wind, then pump some more. No one even knew what a tire gauge was, but you knew when it was right, then back on the car, put tire stuff away (never far) and the happy family proceeds to whatever beach of your choice. The tire procedure just went with the territory. The Aberdeen-Raymond road was just a narrow gravel road for years. Prior to it you took the ferry, South Bend to Tokeland then drove to Aberdeen via Ocosta......another gravel freeway of course. That photo brings to mind that all autos had only ONE windshield wiper, and being a vacuum powered unit, not much action going uphill. However that unit had a handle so a wife in the adjacent seat could, by hand, work the wiper going uphill. Nice division of labor. They sure have rights now though, don't they. Ahhhhh! The good old days. A lot of BS! |
| © 2010 Stephen Thompson All rights reserved |
| Memories of the Moclips "Highway" by Frank Thompson Photo from a real photo postcard |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Aloha Lumber Co. "Aloha Limited"
Mill switcher and rail crew bus at mill in Aloha Washington. Photo
taken in June of 1967.
Mill switcher and rail crew bus at mill in Aloha Washington. Photo
taken in June of 1967.
Moclips Local between Moclips and Pacific Beach. (Bob?) Gebhart on rear platform of
caboose.
Riding with the crew when I was around 10, this is where they would take the engine
and caboose, after switching empies into the mill, early in the morning. They would
have a 2 hour wait before picking up the loads, and usually they would try to catch up
on sleep. It happened that the very low tide coincided with our rest stop, so we all went
down and dug razor clams, brought them back to the caboose, and had clams for
breakfast. What a life!
caboose.
Riding with the crew when I was around 10, this is where they would take the engine
and caboose, after switching empies into the mill, early in the morning. They would
have a 2 hour wait before picking up the loads, and usually they would try to catch up
on sleep. It happened that the very low tide coincided with our rest stop, so we all went
down and dug razor clams, brought them back to the caboose, and had clams for
breakfast. What a life!