I have to admit I have been sort of procrastinating this post. I felt pressure to get it right and do Timber Lake justice, as this is the town where my Grandpa grew up! It was such an honor to see the town where he lived, as I may never have gone there under other circumstances.
This is where Timber Lake (Pop: 461) is located:
At Timber Lake, we were working with 6-8 grades. This is the first time we haven't had itty-bitties, and we definitely have roles in the show designed for kindergarten and first grade students. So, we had the challenge of adjusting some things and convincing people that what they were doing was awesome - even when their parts (and costumes) were usually for 5-year-olds. Middle school is also so different than elementary - they are so concerned about being "cool". Thankfully, we had a great group of kids and they came along with us without much fuss!
The school also has a BEAUTIFUL stage - which is such a gift after weeks of performing in gymnasiums. This is extremely rare for a town this size - they have a wonderful, supportive arts community. And we told the kids, constantly, how lucky they were to have such an opportunity.
As I was saying though, this was a really special experience for me because of my family's history in Timber Lake.
My Great-Grandfather, Rev. Ole Olson, moved to Timber Lake in December of 1942, along with my Great-Grandmother, Hazel; my Grandpa, Richard; and his sister, Ruth. Rev. Olson was to serve the Baptist churches in Timber Lake and Trail City. According to my Grandpa, "he had made a good start at helping the Timber Lake churches to revive," but he passed away in July of 1944. My Grandpa was not quite 10.
My Great-Grandmother worked as the Deputy County Auditor for about 8 years. When the current County Auditor retired, she ran and won easily. Since this term can only be held for four years, she and the County Treasurer would switch positions each term for some years.
The place we were staying was actually the old Baptist Church which had been converted into a hunting lodge. (It was super nice and new and we were only the second people to stay there! We were absolutely spoiled.) At first, I thought this was the church where my Great-Grandfather preached. Then I purchased the book that the town had developed for the Centennial a few years ago, which has a section about my family, written by my Grandpa and Great Aunt. In it, I read about a Baptist Church fire on Easter of 1949. So, after checking with my Grandpa, I discovered that Ole Olson's church had been a different building, a couple blocks away. This new church was built, and was dedicated in November of that same year. This is the church where my Grandpa was raised, and later ordained, AND where Harrison and I had the pleasure of laying our heads while we stayed in Timber Lake. (Ok - For a good 7 minutes, I tried to look up on the internet whether it would be "laying our heads" or "lying our heads", and I'm still not sure. We lie down, but lay our heads down?? I think so. I should have just worded it differently, but after all that research, I had to commit. Sorry if I'm wrong.) Regardless of how I word it, it was really meaningful.
We have to get creative if we both want to be in the shot! :)
Timber Lake has a surprisingly great museum. They cover all sorts of things - a huge collection of marine fossils, Dinosaur bones and fossils, Native American artifacts, Ranching and Rodeo, and, of course, an in-depth history of Timber Lake. There is one section where they have a bunch of antique tools and household items and a sheet where you are supposed to guess what they are. Right next to that, there is a large collection of "vintage" photos, and the challenge is to see how many of these Timber Lake faces you can name. My Great-Grandmother was among them!! I was so excited. I wanted to take a picture so bad, but we were not supposed to photograph the historical photos, so you're just going to have to believe me.
We found a pretty fun playground, too!
We were also there over Halloween! Though we knew we wouldn't really have plans, it didn't feel right not to dress up, after our last few years of costumes!! In fact, let's review, in case you missed those...
2012 - Popeye and Olive Oyl
So, you see, I wasn't ready to break the streak of these fun couple costumes, even if we were going to be dressed up with nowhere to go...quite literally. I don't think I did too bad for a couple nights of hand sewing in a hotel room...
2013 - Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head
We did end up walking around to check out other people's costumes. We were a little nervous about shocking this little town. It is already unusual to see people you don't know roaming around, even when they are dressed in normal street clothes. Needless to say, it was certainly a good conversation starter! We went to the home Volleyball game. They lost by a pretty large margin, but we got free popcorn for being in costume, so...WIN!
We had bought some candy in case anyone from our cast came trick-or-treating to the hotel since they knew we were there. No one had until, pretty late in the evening, a couple of girls stopped by. I said, "No one is coming and we have tons of candy, so just take a big handful!" They sure did. And then they must have preceeded to hit the streets and tell everyone we were giving out huge handfuls because we suddenly started to get a huge rush of kids! I almost ran out of candy!!
And even after that late Thursday night, and our entire cast being crammed with sugar, we proceeded to have a great performance on Friday evening.
I had really been looking forward to this stop, and it did not let me down. It was so fun to talk to people who knew my Grandpa and family, and it will be so fun to talk to my Grandpa about who he knows and what relatives we might have had in our cast! Like I said, this is an opportunity I may not have had otherwise, and I feel very lucky to have experienced Timber Lake.
Love to all of you,
Carolyn and Harrison
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