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Posts published by “Brad Wiley”

The College Kid Runs the Livestock Auction

After a summer’s absence, I am back in The Valley, adjusting to drought- and-fires life here at the vineyard, and going through my list of…

Eclectic Indeed

BOOK REVIEW: An Eclectic History of Mendocino County, by Katy M. Tahja. Tahjanjoki Press, Comptche, 2019, 166 pages, $22.00. Katy Tahja, a local retired educator and…

Settler Icons: Lyle Luckert, Part II

Thinking back on the Lyle memoir I wrote last week, I realized there were clues he and Grace were getting restless living in Anderson Valley. …

Another Frontier Icon: Lyle Luckert

George Zeni’s family represented, in my explorations into American family sagas, one pattern of immigration and settlement in our country.  Find the best piece of…

Anderson Valley Archetypes: George Zeni

This story owes a great deal to an article George’s Fish Rock neighbor Steve Alden wrote for the Mendocino Grapevine in July, 1984.  Steve’s recollections highlight much…

Greenchain Vaudeville

In the last episode of the House of Morgan saga I described my millworker career from the humble Point job up to the celebratory Greenchain…

Pulling With “Highload”

In the last episode in the House of Morgan saga I reported luck more than skill had elevated me on The Greenchain to position #4,…

‘Highload’ & His Mythic Gyppos

Sometime during the Summer of '73, after the unionization strike dust had settled at Philo Lumber, and I had resettled into the routine pulling strips…

Union Organizing in Anderson Valley

Last week's Philo Mill story left off at the encounter between the  mill Boss, Jack Davies and the sitdown strike participants gathered  sheepishly on the…

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