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Posts published by “Brad Wiley”

The House of Morgan: Strike?!

Previously, I described how a small sawmill from the Timber Boom Days after World War II operated and my first week on the job at Philo Lumber doing production work. My recollection of the first…

Gary Womack: RIP

Gary Womack, 1940-2021, was not of our Valley; he was born and raised in a small town in southern Oregon few of us have ever heard of, Central Point in the Cascade foothills west of…

The Floodgate Store

As I rambled along in my previous Floodgate stories articles, little vignettes would illuminate themselves in dusty corners of the cerebral warehouse where the larger memories were stored so many years ago. Some of them…

Sam & Marguerite

It's time to get down to the biography of Sam and Marguerite Avery's life in Anderson Valley, 1946-77. In preparation I went back to my archives to find a copy of the local monthly newspaper,…

Marguerite’s Floodgate Bar Rules of Law

As I've described previously Floodgate Store was a complex retail business operation with long daily hours.  During the day Marguerite Avery was the sole attendant at the deli, convenience goods, bar and gas pumps part…

The Friday Evening Jamborees

Last week’s Floodgate story mentioned that the gyppo logging company working for Masonite Corporation in the seventies, Shuster Enterprises (!), provided its crews with transportation to jobsite, important for those living on the Ukiah side…

First New Year, Floodgate Bar

New Year's Eve, 1971-2, my consort and my first in Anderson Valley.  We had moved here from San Francisco on April Fools Day, been in residence for nine months, had made a few friends among the…

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