'With this stove I thee wed'

(I had the opportunity to talk to Fred Blood and ask some questions about what it was like growing up in Dover. When you read this you will find some qualities that lead to a full and happy life. The willingness to work, patience, and dedication are a few of the traits you will see that makes Fred Blood's story, in his words, "food for thought.")

"I have been in this area since 1919. My mother was an accountant in Chicago and she and my dad got married and they lived in Cadillac, Mich., and that is where I was born. My dad had a pamphlet, put out by the Humbird Lumber Company, that showed an up-to-date farm and that is why my folks came west. When they got here they were still logging in town. There were only three farms in the whole county that came anyway near what that pamphlet said, it had been doctored up.

"They came here to Sandpoint and my dad worked at the planer mill at Humbird Lumber Company. We then moved to Dover and he started working at the A.C. White Mill. My mom was the postmistress and the post office was in the front room of our house. I lived there with my folks and my brother and sister.

"I lived in Dover from 1921 to 1933, when we moved out here to the stump ranch. One of the first things that I remember was when I was about 3-years-old. My dad was working in the garden and I heard a buzzing sound and I bent over to see what it was. A bumble bee stung me in the rump and needless to say that brought a tear or two.

"I recall the old barn the lumber company had and they would fill it with hay for the horses.

"All of us kids would play in there and we would make tunnels in the hay. It is a wonder that we didn't smother to death. When I was in school I got in a lot of fights. I had real red hair and I think that is one reason some of the older kids picked on me.

"When I was a kid you couldn't run into town and there was no TV or things like that.

"We did have a radio and the family would gather around that and listen to some programs on certain nights of the week. One program we liked was, "Digger O'Dell." We had a phonograph and we would wind it up and listen to "Turkey in the Straw", and things like that.

"Back in those days the roads were all dirt or gravel and dusty. To drive from Sandpoint to Spokane took a long time. We would get up at four in the morning and if you were real lucky, and drove fast, you could get home at a little after midnight. When I was in high school, the one on Pine and Euclid, we used to drive to Priest Lake for the Senior Sneak -a class picnic. The speed limit was 70 miles per hour but no one could go that fast in a Model T.

"I graduated from high school in 1935 and I went in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp). The first camp I went to was up on Kalispell Bay on Priest Lake. We built the cabin that is now used as a museum. They put us to work cutting down the snags that were left after a fire. We built roads, lay telephone lines and did blister rust work. We made $30 a month and we sent $25 home each month. With the five dollars left we could go to a movie, buy a hamburger, a coke, and a bag of popcorn - four times a month.

"I went in the service in 1941 and they sent us to Ft. Lewis, WA for training. I was in the Field Artillery for 39 months in the South Pacific. In those days you were there for the duration before you got to come home.

"When I came back from the service I met one of my sister's friends from work, and her name was Veva Prather. She was helping her mother by working at the court house. We started going roller skating and to church parties together. We went together for five years and we got married in 1950.

"I was working in Spokane and I was doing the books for a hardware store. They had a sale on electric stoves and I could save about $75 on the thing. I called my wife on the phone and asked her if she would like a ring or an electric stove.

"She chose the stove and she thought that was pretty nice because we had an old wood stove, like everybody else. So she took the electric stove right a way. I did get her a ring 10 years later."

(Today, Veva and Fred live in Spokane. When I asked Veva why she picked the stove instead of the ring, she said, "I couldn't cook on a ring).