The La Honda Voice

Verse for a warm day

Upon the arrival of our summer weather, this bit of refreshment is offered with appologies to the current literary community of La Honda ...

La Honda

    Far in the bosom of the mountains
    On the La Honda winding deep--
    A dreamland where the redwoods sleep
    On the slopes of azure blue and green;
    The rambling brook with boulders strewn
    And shaded 'neath the hazel bough,
    Sighing soft eternal vow
    To dells and pleasant fastness;

    With banks with elders soft and white
    And tiger lilies, speckled brown,
    In grace and silence bending down
    To hear the water's babbling.

    Thin winding paths along the wood
    By creeping vine and shady hill
    Where sings the crested blue-jay shrill,
    The robins, chirping gleefully.

    And oft at noon in idleness
    I lie beneath thy shady trees,
    And list the sighing of the breeze,
    The splashing of the waterfall.

    And hear the lowing of the kine
    While browsing on some far-off slope,
    The wood dove cooing while I mope
    And sink to gentle slumbering.

July 8, 1888. By E. T. C. (Probably Asa W. Collins)
From the San Mateo Times & Gazette, Saturday, July 21, 1888

Mindego Hill Opening Space

by Randy Vail

On Friday, June 25th at 1:30 pm the Use and Management Committee of the Mid-peninsula Regional Open Space District held a special meeting to decide on the development of trails in the Mindego Hill Open Space. 

Originally purchased by POST from long time land owners, the True family, Mindego Hill was subsequently purchased by MROSD with the agreement that they would provide public access to the top of the hill by the summer of 2011.

The committee decided to proceed with the first of two options of a planned trail route to the top of the hill from the gate that connects it to the adjacent Russian Ridge Open Space.  Several studies of native wildlife, including the protected San Francisco Garter Snake, are underway before further development will take place.  However, it seems likely that the Option 2 trail, which includes an existing road on the property, will eventually be opened, and there is the possibility that the two trails will be connected to create a loop around the hill. 

Initially, the trail will be open only to hikers, but in a year or so, pending the outcomes of the various studies, the trail may opened to equestrian users and possibly mountain bikers.  The process of creating a trail involves the approval of various agencies and various permits and necessitates many considerations of steepness, views of the hill, lines of sight on the trails, views from the trail, trail routes through various vegetation areas and wildlife habitats, and the potentially conflicting interests of public users. 

At the meeting, the possibility of eventually connecting the Mindego trails with the Cuesta La Honda Guild trails was raised.  Some of the committee members seemed amenable to the prospect of potentially connecting the Mindego Open Space with the La Honda Open Space.  However, discussion, decision, approval, and action are lengthy and involved processes that will take years.  In the meantime, initial public access to this beautiful and majestic open space - in our own backyard - is now only one year away.

The following is a brief history of Mindego Hill from http://www.gomindego.org/history.php

"People have lived on Mindego Hill since 500 A.D., beginning with the Ramaytush Costanoans, a group of Native American hunter-gatherers. They thrived in the area until the early 1800s, when immigrants arrived to settle the West.

In 1859, Juan Mendico, a Basque farmer and the first non-native settler, established a homestead and cattle ranch here. Historian Bud Foss, in his 1941 book History of La Honda, describes the California Grizzly Bear that once frequented Mindego Hill, and how in 1885 they got away with seven of Juan’s calves. Interestingly, in the Basque language, Juan Mendico’s name means “John of the Mountain”—a prophetic coincidence, considering the property was eventually named for him as “Mindego” Hill.

In 1954, Admiral Arnold True, a World War II veteran and professor of meteorology, and his wife, Corinne, purchased Mindego Hill, where they continued the ranching traditions of the land. In 1977, their son Chris took over management of the ranch and later began raising Brahman and Angus cattle as well as a cross of the two breeds for rodeo bull-riding. Admiral True passed away in 1979, and Mrs. True passed away in late 2006. The couple always treasured the natural beauty of their land and spoke often of preserving it. In honor of their parents’ wishes, the True family finalized an agreement with POST to protect the land permanently. Thanks to our mutual goal of land conservation, we all have a unique opportunity to save Mindego Hill for generations to come."

 

 

Reflections "76" -- A Book Review

by Mary Bordi

Reflections "76" is a slim, paperback La Honda Elementary School yearbook. The pages were obviously cut and pasted and captioned by typewriter before being sent to the School Annual Publishing Company in Kansas City MO for printing. This was a labor of love, produced in 1976 without the aid of computers.

In that red-white-and-blue Bicentennial year, Jimmy Carter was elected President, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (the movie) garnered five academy awards and the National Academy of Science determined that gases from spray cans could damage the earth's ozone layer. None of this was mentioned in Reflections "76", however.

La Honda Elementary school buildings were 16 years old in 1976 with a new Multi Use Room. Consisting of grades kindergarten through eighth, the school served around 145 students who arrived by bus from the far corners of the district. All classes were split grades except for kindergarten and eighth. It's difficult to determine the class sizes because the yearbook is laid out by grade, not classroom. The seventh grade, with twelve students, was the smallest while kindergarten, with 20 students, was the largest. Six regular teachers and a learning disability teacher handled the workload.

Mr. Bickmore was the District Superintendent/Principal; Mrs. Tainter, secretary; Mrs. Silva, librarian. Bus drivers were Gayle O'Connor and Lois Marcil.

By this time you've figured out this isn't really a book review but a description of a piece of history.

The music department, under the guidance of Mr. Raney, consisted of Beginning and Advanced Guitar as well as Band. The band picture shows ten members.

Cheerleaders as well as Pom Pom Girls inspired the La Honda Bandits Basket Ball team to victory. Between them they rated a three page spread.

Other sections include 1988 (what will eighth graders be doing then?), Activities, Polls (best dancers, best dressed, eyes...) and Candids. The pictures on the Moments to Remember, Candids and Activities pages are a little difficult to make out (you probably just had to be there) but one stands out. Titled "Snowed In" it shows a group of kids playing in a rare snowfall on school playground equipment that would nowadays be classified as unsafe.

Not noted in the yearbook but worth remembering was the lunch time Snitch Box where students could put items from their lunch bags that they didn't want, for others to "snitch", so the food did not go to waste. And kindergarten teacher Gowan Ratliff's famous money raising bake sales outside the Post Office. What didn't sell went into the freezer to be thawed for the next bake sale.

Near the front of the book is a wonderful aerial photo of the school and surroundings--at a time when Google Earth's inventor was probably just a kid himself. (No, not at La Honda School.) 

As the 1976 kindergartners celebrate their 40th birthdays, one might wonder what has become of the students in the nine grades of La Honda Elementary that year. Some have moved out of state or out of the country. At least one has passed away. Some are reconnecting on Facebook. But some of these former students regularly return to the Multi Use Room to watch their own children in school drama productions, fifth grade graduations and other activities. They still live here. By the way, can you find today's Principal in the second grade picture?

This book is long out of print. You'll have a hard time finding it on eBay or the used book web sites because nowhere in the Reflections "76" yearbook is "La Honda" even mentioned. It was just so obvious to all...

This copy of Reflections "76" will be placed in the archives of the La Honda Historical Society. Names of students have not been mentioned in order to protect the innocent.

La Honda History - "La Honda Store Model on Display"

Mary Bordi has once again discovered an interesting article about La Honda called "La Honda Store Model on Display." This time it was printed in the San Mateo Times (it was not yet called the San Mateo County Times) on December 14, 1966.

Mary said, " I came across this article about Eudele Towne's miniature of the old store. I think she donated it to the SM Co Historical Society and the museum may still have it--maybe even on display. Eudele put together a lot of these miniatures. Eudele was married to Pete Towne. They both passed away some years ago."
"HOLIDAY DISPLAY —The old country store, that treasured American memory, is somehow an appropriate subject for the holiday season. Mrs. Pete Towne of Atherton has recreated in miniature the warm setting of the Old La Honda store as oldtimers remember it back in 1904. Detailed down to lighted hurricane lamps and cards on the table, the model will be on display in the lobby of the County Courthouse in Redwood City through the holiday season.

"A model of the Old La Honda Store, located in the Redwoods on the coastal side of the County in the village of La Honda, is now on
display in the lobby of the store built by John Sears, an early settler in the area, in the days after the Civil War.

It acquired the name "Bandit Built" Store because of the fact that the Younger Brothers, Jim and Bob, worked for Sears in construction of the store. The Youngers were notorious bandits from the Middle West who hid out in the area while being sought for bank robberies and train hold-ups. They were associates of the also-notorious James boys. They later returned to their former haunts, were apprehended, and served time in the Stillwater Penitentiary.

Before the turn of the century until the twenties, the store was run by the Cavalli brothers, Charles and Frank. The operation consisted of a general merchandise store, saloon and post office. The miniature store is designed to show the store, as it appeared during the Cavalli administration in 1904, all in scale one inch to a foot.

The La Honda Store in the earlier days was a center for the logging industry and the many mills which cut redwood timber from the
surrounding mountains; also for the ranchers who lived on the many open areas between the Skyline and the coast, raising cattle and sheep, growing hay, grain and supplying dairy products such as cheese and cream, which was shipped to creameries for butter production.

The Sears family also constructed a good-size hotel adjacent to the store. This was headquarters for people who went into the mountains for vacations, fishing or hunting trips, and for traveling salesmen who called on the mill owners selling supplies to them.

Across the road from the store and hotel was a large stable which took care of the horses ridden and driven by the patrons of the hotel. To take care of the shoeing needs of the many horses in the area, those of travelers, a blacksmith's shop also operated near the small village.

In a Redwood grove across the road from the store and hotel was a dance hall which was the scene of many dances and social affairs attended by many of the ranching families in the community. They would travel to the gatherings on horseback or by horse-and-wagon. The trip home was usually in the dark or in the early daylight hours. As there were not too many of these festive occasions, they came early and stayed late.

La Honda was also a stopping point for the four-horse stage which made regular runs from Redwood City to Pescadero or San Gregorio carrying passengers, luggage and mail.

The main source of transportation of freight and supplies to a Honda was the colorful Al Weatherby Fast Freight Wagon drawn by four or six mules. This ran from Redwood City to La Honda until replaced the first automobile trucks which ran on solid rubber tires.

The La Honda store was also headquarters for many vacationers who camped in the sur- rounding redwoods along beautiful La Honda Creek.

It was the custom in those days for families living in the towns on the bayside of the County to set-up camps on the flats along the creek which would be used during most of the summer. The camps were gaily decorated with Japanese lanterns, flags and signs. It was the custom in each camp to have a large campfire every evening, around which the tents were erected. The campers would gather there to perhaps tell stories, sing and enjoy the beautiful evenings. With the coming of the automobiles, these enjoyable old days so much a part of La Honda, were soon forgotten as people seemed to travel longer distances from home for their vacation and trips.

Today all is gone the "Bandit Built" store torn down to be re- placed by a modern building. The dance hall and blacksmith shop (which later became a garage) were also torn down, and the hotel stable burned to the ground, as did the old hotel. A second hotel which replaced it, also burned. Modern buildings, including churches, a fine grammar school, a general store, refreshment businesses and many residences, make up the La Honda of today.

Local History - Shopping at Cavalli Bros. General Merchandise, La Honda

by Mary Bordi

Among some family papers, I found an invoice dated 1918 to 1919 from
"Cavalli Bros. General Merchandise" in La Honda,. When people made
their living out here farming and ranching, they did not have a weekly
paycheck. So the storekeeper would simply keep track of what they
bought. When you sold your crop you paid your bill. This one actually
covers over a year and a half of purchases.

Mom and Pop Bordi moved to the Alpine in 1913 and by the time of this
invoice they had two children with another on the way. Once a week or
so Pop might ride his saddle horse the seven miles to La Honda to get
the mail and pick up anything they might need. Or Mollie, their Stanford
Trotter, would transport Mom in the buggy. Today it takes me around 15
minutes in the car. Back then it took about a half an hour by saddle
horse and perhaps 45 minutes with the buggy or spring wagon. I've heard
that Ernest Hildebrand could get there much faster with his wagon and
mules when he lived up here on the Dale ranch.

What sorts of things would a family of four in 1918 purchase at the
store in La Honda? (Remember too, that a family might go "over the
hill" a few times a year to make their bulk purchases, much as we would
go to Costco today.)

Two cans of tomatoes were 40 cents; honey 15 cents; 5 gallons of peanut oil 75 cents.
Christmas Eve 1918 they purchased a gallon of whiskey for $8.00, wine for $1.00 and cheese for $1.30, perhaps anticipating a celebration.
Other items purchased throughout the year were: sardines (20 cents); 25 pounds chicken feed ($1.25); soap (10 cents); tobacco (65 cents); yeast (5 cents); rennet (85 cents); overalls ($6.50, later returned). And of course occasional treats like cakes, cookies, chocolate and candy.

You can also see a larger image of the whole invoice at
http://www.hununu.org/lahonda/cavalli.gif

Bringing in the Hay

By George Bordi as told to Mary

For two summers in the early 1940s I helped Joe Zanoni on his dairy in La Honda to bring in his hay. Joe was renting one of the ranches that make up what is now known as the Driscoll Ranch. At that time it was four different ranches. Going up Sears Ranch Road (past where La Honda elementary is now located) the first two ranches were owned by the Guerras, who were brothers I believe. The first of these was then rented by Manuel Alexander, who ran a dairy. I worked on the next ranch, rented by Joe Zanoni. The Zanoni family had once owned the third ranch that is further in (now sometimes called the Wool Ranch). Joe and his brothers and sisters had grown up there. But the family had sold it and the Fabers, who owned it as well as a commercial dairy in Palo Alto, grew hay and pastured their dry stock there. Joe Zanoni now farmed and ran a dairy on the second Guerra ranch. The other ranch that makes up what is now the Driscoll Ranch, near today’s Driscoll Event Center on Highway 84, was owned by Robbie Silva.

During the war, manpower was in short supply on ranch and farm. Up in the Alpine, where I live, my dad was farming the Bartley Ranch and we needed someone to bind and thresh our grain. Joe Zanoni had the equipment to do this but he also needed help to bring in the hay for his dairy cattle. So, as a trade off I went to work for him and he came up our way with his Model M tractor and equipment to thresh Pop's grain.

The dairy business was big in San Mateo county in those days. By milking 15 or 20 cows and shipping the cream in five and ten gallon cans for butter, a family could make enough to buy those things they couldn’t produce themselves. You’d bucket feed the calves and feed the excess skim milk to a few pigs. Some folks, like the Zanoni’s, milked 50 or more cows and made a real business of it.

It was natural to grow as much of your own feed as possible so they planted red oats for hay as well as for feed grain and seed for next year’s crop of hay. Most ranches around here had big redwood barns: a horse barn with stalls and room for their feed. A cow barn with stanchions for milking and an area for hay storage. Perhaps you'd also have a thick walled dairy house to process and store the cream if that wasn’t done in the barn. And a stoutly built granary to store the heavy sacks of barley for feed and the seed oats for your next crop of hay.

In the morning, before driving Pop’s Chevy pickup the eight miles to Zanoni’s in La Honda, I’d have to do the chores at home. This meant milking the cows and feeding the calves and pigs if no one else was available to do it.

When I arrived at work we took Joe’s Model A Ford flatbed truck to the fields to haul in the loose hay. The field had been mowed and the hay raked into windows and those pushed into shocks of hay. This allowed the hay to cure without becoming too dry. This country raised some of the best oat hay because we were far enough inland to escape a lot of the coastal fog yet the weather didn’t get too hot. Our hay was short and sweet because our rolling hills were not the fertile bottom land that produces tall, coarse hay.

Two of us would fork the hay from the shock to one man on the truck who would carefully place it so that the load did not slide off on the way to the barn. At the barn we pulled up to the center door. I was in charge of the team of horses that ran the Jackson fork. This fork ran on a trolly on a track in the peak of the roof of the barn. Two men would be inside the barn stacking the loose hay. Guided by a man on the ground, the Jackson fork would grab a load of loose hay from the truck. Then I’d urge the horses forward which would pull the forkful of hay up and lock it on the trolly and down the track it went. When it was in position over the stack, one of the men on inside the barn would yell, “Let her go!” and the one outside would pull the rope that tripped the release and the hay would fall from the fork. Then the fork was pulled back out to the truck and the process begun again.

At noon we’d break for lunch. Usually we’d have bread and salami and cheese, coffee and all the milk you could drink. Occasionally, if they’d done some butchering, we’d have meat. We’d never stop for more than and an hour and soon we’d be heading back to the field for another load of hay. We'd usually take another short break in the mid afternoon.

We’d quit around 5 PM because Zanoni’s had to get on with the evening milking and I had to get home to the Alpine do my evening feeding, and milking, too.

Article on the Merry Prankster Bus

Article on the Merry Prankster Bus

"http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10792061/" from Heather/Georgia

From the article: " Zane Kesey picks at clumps of moss and swirls of brightly colored paint and patches of rust covering the school bus that his father, the late author Ken Kesey, rode cross-country with a refrigerator stocked with LSD-laced drinks in pursuit of a new art form…For some 15 years, the 1939 International bus dubbed “Further” has rusted away in a swamp on the Kesey family’s Willamette Valley farm, out of sight if not out of mind, more memory than monument. That is where Ken Kesey — author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and hero of a generation that vowed to drop out and tune in with the help of LSD — intended it to stay after firing up a new bus in 1990. But four years after his death, a Hollywood restaurateur has persuaded the family to resurrect the old bus so it can help tell the story of Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and the psychedelic 1960s…Houston hopes to raise the $100,000 he figures it will cost to get the bus running and looking good. The Kesey family will maintain control of the bus, though, taking it to special events…“I consider the bus to be one of the most important icons of the ’60s Counter Culture,” says Santelli. “Inside that bus occurred many of the things the counter culture was all about, from a revolutionary perspective. That is mobility, freedom to be on the move, and to react to situations and create situations to react to, drug use and experimenting with drugs, and the importance of music in a cultural revolution.”…At La Honda, Kesey’s home in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, they installed a sound system, a generator on the back and went wild with the paint. Artist Roy Sebern painted the word “Furthur” on the destination placard as a kind of one-word poem and inspiration to keep going whenever the bus broke down. It wasn’t until much later that he found out he had misspelled it. Just as the bus was constantly being repainted, somewhere along the line the Further sign was corrected.

The day they were ready to go, Ken Kesey recruited Cassady from a bookstore where he was working, Babbs recalls. The bus pulled out of the driveway with Ray Charles singing “Hit the Road Jack,” and ran out of gas. That was quickly remedied, and down the road they went, Cassady spewing the speed-talking rap-babble that inspired Kerouac’s writing style….The wildly painted bus got stopped by the police, but with their short haircuts and preppy clothes, the Pranksters were never arrested. They carried orange juice laced with LSD, which was legal at the time. Kesey had been a guinea pig in government-sponsored LSD tests and was trying to turn the entire country on to it through events known as the Acid Tests…The film and tape rolled constantly, but when they got back to La Honda, they could never get the two to synchronize. Author Tom Wolfe used the material for his book, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” but the movie lay dormant until 2000, when a digital editing machine made it possible and Kesey issued, “Intrepid Traveler and His Merry Band of Pranksters Look for A Kool Place.”…After one last trip, to Woodstock, N.Y., in 1969, Kesey put the bus out to pasture, where it served as a dugout for softball games. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., expressed some interest in restoring the bus, but Kesey would never let it go. …Kesey’s widow, Faye, had reservations about restoring the old bus, but did not try to stop it.“I kind of liked it in the swamp covered with moss and becoming part of the swamp,” she said. “But I talked to everybody who had been on it. To a man they all wanted to see it restored. “If not, it can always go back to the swamp. Nature does a pretty good paint job, too.
[see link for whole article]

A Snippet of La Honda History

A Snippet of La Honda History
"An interesting bit from "Matters Historical" in today's Palo Alto [June 27](and probably San Mateo) Daily News
"Work-weary San Franciscans found sanctuary in La Honda, nestled high in the hills amid the redwoods between the bay and the sandy coast. The secluded hamlet of a few dozen families included a hotel, store, post office, church, school, a couple of saloons and a sawmill. "Nowhere in the world can you find a more beautiful spot, " declared writers of La Honda History tour books. It was far enough from the ocean to avoid the damp fogs; the climate was unequaled. During summer months, hundreds of campers spread their tents beneath the shady trees." "Halcyon days of San Mateo County as a vacation spot ended with tremendous abruptness, in May 1937, when the Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic, liberating landlocked San Franciscans. Now there were more exotic places to wander. Soon there were weekend traffic jams heading toward Russian River and the Redwood Empire." From Heather (message #7933)

Dog Saves La Honda as Fire Razes Hotel(reprint from 1949)

1949 Article embedded in archived version:

Download _TheLaHondaVoice26May04.pdf

(caution: large file)

Memories of Ken Kesey

Memories of Ken Kesey

"Having lived through the Kesey era in La Honda, I can speak from experience. There was a lot of change happening in La Honda about the time Kesey was here and I'm not sure if he was the result of it or if it was coincidental. Prior to the late '60s many of the homes here were summer cottages for San Francisco folks. The town seemed to decline for awhile during Kesey's reign and about that time summer homes were slowly becoming permanent residences. Properties didn't seem to improve, as I recall, until the late 70's or early 80's. Then the homes began to have a more "lived-in" look and there were more locals at the swimming pool each summer. There wasn't a lot of mingling between the summer kids and us but there were tentative friendships and a few romances. When Kesey came in a lot of stuff seemed to get stirred up. There were Hell's Angels around just about every weekend, although I don't recall any real problems with them. About the same time there was an article in Playboy magazine chronicling some of their more lurid adventures but if they were having them here it wasn't that obvious to me (I was 12 or 13 at the time). They would stop and let you cross the street at Apple Jacks and they would respect Freddy closing Apple Jacks every Sunday at 3:00 so he and his family could go to the movies and dinner. Quite often there were police hiding across the road from Kesey's house, up the steep bank, keeping watch. Kesey decorated his property is unique ways, hanging dummies from the trees was only one of the features. And of course the bathroom's decor was well documented. In my opinion, the town felt invaded and just a bit violated at that time. His kids went to La Honda School and I remember sitting next to him at the Christmas pageant. His wife at the time was very petite and pretty and his kids angelic. His Merry Pranksters certainly livened up the La Honda Days celebration, with scantily clad Mountain Girl riding on top of Further in the parade and another member of the group skinny dipping during the log rolling contest at the pond. You bet he brought notoriety to La Honda but there were lots of other local characters just as memorable to me who built and livened this community over the years, Judd Cochran, Lil Woodhams, May Cavalli, Fred and Babe Kotoff, the Zanones, Mac and Grace McCarty, Fred and Penny Laval, Basil Willet and many more. I prefer to remember those folks who came and stayed and really made this a special place." From Pam McReynolds message #7353

And some additional comments:

A recent article in the San Mateo Times written by Joan Levy was entitled, "La Honda has had a wild and crazy past" from Kim Rowden (message #7355)
" I would add to the list of local luminaries of that time Manny Alexander, Joe Espedio, Krissy Emmenson, and Otto Byer. Krissy was a pioneer radio announcer in her younger midWestern days and Manny seemed an incarnation of Zorba the Greek. When was the last time anyone roasted a goat for the neighbors? Otto could be heard chastising anyone within earshot a block away. Listening to the stories of any group of these provided hours of entertainment." From Robert M. Gray (message # 7356)
"Not a "local luminary" perhaps, but any list of legendary local characters would have to include Limey Kaye." From Paul Fourt (message #7358)
"So right. Paul has written books with some, ah, familiar looking characters, set in a town MUCH like La Honda. Charles Jones penned the book "A Separate Place" including photos of high quality and much charm, some of us have treasured copies. Earl the Pearl, Armand, Ruby, Butch Venturi, Dan Irhazy. In a small town folks come into clearer focus somehow. Wierdos are tolerated better when they're familiar and their ways are known. Richard Davis, on the distaff side. Not liked by anyone I've talked to. And, there are as many stories about why La Honda Days ended as there are people to tell them; there are some points of agreement…Limey Kay, Harry Moore, Irma Goodin [nee Nikirk], Faun and Patty, Milt Cavalli, Otto, Jack Eranosian The Tractor Gyppo. It used to be that when one town character moved out, two more would move in. Now it's too expensive for real weirdoes and crusty characters, and the town is the poorer for it. We should hire some full-time local color before we turn into Woodside West…" From James Adams (message #7363)
"Rufus has told me about the regatta's that used to be held in the lake. I guess one year that had several home made entries. You can go down to A.J.'s and ask him for pictures. There is supposed to be a truck and car at the bottom. Could be bar talk, but some kid borrowed either Limy K's or Bill Markee's car and drove it into the lake. Of course, I probably heard the story from Limy K or Bill Markee. The truck, I believe is down there and has been for a very long time. I can't remember who told me but I believe them." From John K (message 7376)