The family, as a whole, lived quite routinely. Work in the winter is quite slow in this small town, which has now grown to about 1500 population in the city. In the Illinois Valley, from Selma to O'brien, we tally about 15,000 people. It is a beautiful valley, and a usually friendly community. I have been working at the Illinois Valley Branch Library for 16 years. I'm not quite the stereotype librarian of past years. The only similarity would be age. There are many retired people here, and they enjoy seeing an older person working at the library. So the years rolled on, the family is intact, and the next thing we know, it is Y2K time. We started the nineties with Senior Bush in the whitehouse, and darn if we didn't end it with Junior Bush in the whitehouse. But those in between years were great politically--BILL CLINTON was president!! He was an intelligent, charismatic and very decent president. I was happy for eight years.
Most of us feel Mr. Bush stole the 2000 election. Regardless, we have to live with that. He was failing miserably in the first year, until September 11th, 2001, occurred. I could hardly believe what I was seeing on TV--those two planes heading straight for the Twin Towers--and then watching the towers slowly collapsing, was 'mind-blowing'. And then two other planes with the same intent in mind, were lost somewhere. Finally, word came that another hi-jacked plane had crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. And the last of the Hi-jacked planes crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, killing all aboard. So the 21st century is upon us, it seems, with vengeance!!
On July 31, 2002, this town and the whole valley was put on a 24 hour evacuation order. It all started in mid-july-- a lightning strike in the Siskiyou National Forest started a fire. Two weeks later, on a Sunday afternoon, this huge, black, ominous cloud hung over CJ and the valley. It scared the 'bejeebers' out of me. It was one of the most frightening times that I've experienced. We were on evacuation notice for a month--we became the No 1 fire in the country. There were many firefighting units from various places-we received updates twice a day from radio station kldr. It did so much to keep us informed and calm our nerves. When we went to town, we always saw groups of firefighters. The whole town took them to heart. Really, you could feel the special love and vibrations the town had for them. They did such a STUPENDOUS job--Bless them all!! So this is my last page--no place to go except into the future!! At this point in time, my health is good, my mind is good, my family are all here and that's good, and I am still working at the library, and that is good. So what can I say except LIFE HAS BEEN VERY GOOD TO ME!!!!!!!PEACE AND LOVE!!!