Eric Carlson wrote a very interesting booklet called “Classic Carlson” about his life as a child in Cherry Gardens (just northeast of Duvall)and about his participation as an adult in World War ll. He explains that “the life I lived as a child and young man might seem, to the young people of today, to be from another world ... or possibly another planet.”

“I was born in the first quarter of the twentieth century, far from the nearest town and - by today’s standards- far from our closest neighbors. We had no electricity for lights nor to power the many conveniences so taken for granted today - no radio or television, no indoor plumbing, no washing machine, dryer, freezer, refrigerator, nor range .. no sink to wash dishes, shampoo hair, of lather up to shave. We had no thermostat to turn up in the

morning to warm the house, nor hot water for tub or shower. No football or baseball for “catch,” no basketball and hoop to “shoot a few,” no asphalt or concrete to dribble on. No bicycles nor tricycles to ride and there was no car for the teenagers to fight over, no vehicle, in fact, in the family. No horse and buggy nor sleigh to go to grandma’s house, and no roads or paths that would have accommodated either.

“Over 60 years later, I can scarcely relate to the primitive conditions in which I grew up. A 13’X22’ log cabin built by my father housed my parents, an older brother, two sisters and me. All living, cooking, sleeping and household storage took place within that 286 square feet; space for a bathroom was unnecessary, since that was provided in a small building about 50 yards up the trail (rough on a freezing night- or day!) The washtub,

I remember with its attendant brass scrub board sat on a stump outside the door, containing water heated either on the cook stove inside or on an open fire built under the old copper wash-boiler. Where did the water come from? Carried in buckets from the small spring a couple hundred feet from the ‘laundry room. ‘”

(Eric Carlson wrote two articles in “Jist Cogitatin” and was mentioned in an article in “Wagon Wheel, Vol. 2,” two of the Historical Society’s books for sale at the Duvall Book Store or at Duvall Family Drugs. More from his “Classic Carlson” next time in “I Remember When.”)