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Posts published by “Brad Wiley”

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.  One of the themes we used to explore regularly in…

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 land to settle on, sink your roots, work hard, create…

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 about the immigrant Zeni family’s roots and his Army career…

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 #4 puller position working next to “Highload” Hurst. This week…

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, right next to and facing “The Boss,” Ken “Highload” Hurst.…

‘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 at The Point, Sammy Prather, leader of the Green Chain…

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 greenchain.  This week's rest of the story begins where I…

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