At the request of Sam Traxler:
GETTING THROUGH THE ECONOMIC STORMS
One thing leads to another is a true statement for another request has come from my Grand Nephew Sam Traxler, to explain how we got through the recession in the eighties. It is a certainty that I will not be totally accurate as to dates so we will agree on the range of early 1980’s. I could be certain if I got out my old ledger books but that would be a bigger task than I want to tackle. Thus it is the memories, not the specifics I will relate.
Many folks I know had no idea there was a Recession in those years but for the logging industry there was. In the late seventies we had the “gas shortage” and folks endured long lines and alternated days at the gas pumps to refuel. We were not bothered by that because we had our own gas pump. It was somewhere during that when we discovered shortages though and found the delivery person was only putting part of what he was billing us for in the tank and selling the rest on the side for his own benefit. We changed providers and I expect he was fired.
Back to the story. When Reagan was elected all was supposed to be well, but for us not so much. I believe at the time we were working for Longview Fiber who had purchased Publishers Paper Co. who had first given us a real logging contract back in 1965. Prior to that we had the dairy and were gypo loggers. We logged on our own property and in the neighborhood but not on a regular basis. After multiple sales, I believe they are now owned by Weyerhaeuser.
We were well blessed with ten months of work they tried to guarantee yearly. In the after effects of inflation, trickle-down Reaganomics was supposed to solve all the country’s problems but it was not an easy process (google assisted). So, for one year and I am not certain if it was 81 or 82, we were without a job. It was during that year that we survived on our savings (not a lot) and logging some of our own timber. That really was our fall back source of survival over the years on various occasions.
Of course at that time we still had our own meat, eggs, butter, and milk. When we sold the dairy cattle in 1965 we kept four cows to have for our use as well as selling milk to some of the neighbors. The evening milking had always been done by Ruth, Ardie and me plus the kids who were around. After the cows were sold, the various kids did the milking in the evening without the help of their mothers. When Marc, Ben and Eddie got big enough they fed the beef animals too but they all took their turns milking. The very last ones to have that job were Ben and Tami who graduated from High School in 1985. We then sold or ate the ones left and went to the store for milk.
Of course we still had a huge family garden and lots of canned food and fresh when available so the life style was different too. That was definitely helpful and a different kind of life than is currently the norm with most of us.
The logging on our property was a big part of our survival for sure. We were selling short logs, eight footers I believe to a small mill in Boring. My brother Allan was the truck driver hauling them on our 1963 International little dump truck which by the way is still around. There is also a story with that which I had forgotten. We had purchased it in 1978 at an auction from the City of Portland. My nephew, Larry Traxler worked for the city out of Dodge Park headquarters and told them of the auction where it was available. An interesting note is the cost of getting the registration changed was the huge pice of $2.00. Wow. That was the truck that hauled the logs and one day a policeman stopped Allan on the way to the mill thinking it was overloaded. After going to the scale it proved incorrect so no ticket but the fellow asked why was he hauling such loads of logs? The answer Allan gave was, “we like to eat”. Simple enough.
Actually that year when tax time came anything we harvested from our property is taxed under Capitol Gains which is often less than regular and we only made $685 earned income otherwise. So taxes were quite low and no estimates were required as was usually the case for we self employed folks. This then created another somewhat anxious time. The next year things were much better and we knew we would face double trouble. First we had made no estimates so it would all be due plus the next first quarter estimates also. We knew we did not have enough to cover it even though it had been a good year. There had been a lot of catching up to do.
It was winter and our usual time of lay off. Frank decided to get his fourth knee surgery, (first replacement) which put him out of commission for three months. That added another problem. We needed a bit of a miracle and the Lord gave us one. The pulp market suddenly became very good (maybe they needed toilet paper) so again, family property became the solution. We had to hire a timber faller because Frank was out of commission. We logged Jim and Ardie’s property up by the Dump Road which had a lot of pulp. By April 15th we had the full amount to cover all the taxes. I am a firm believer in the scripture that says “give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’ss and to God the things that are Gods.” We got our miracle.
So, that is basically how I remember that 80‘s recession. It was not nearly as difficult as the so called Great Depression nor the Recession of 2008-09, but it definitely gave us a challenging year. And we still had a good time.
GETTING THROUGH THE ECONOMIC STORMS
One thing leads to another is a true statement for another request has come from my Grand Nephew Sam Traxler, to explain how we got through the recession in the eighties. It is a certainty that I will not be totally accurate as to dates so we will agree on the range of early 1980’s. I could be certain if I got out my old ledger books but that would be a bigger task than I want to tackle. Thus it is the memories, not the specifics I will relate.
Many folks I know had no idea there was a Recession in those years but for the logging industry there was. In the late seventies we had the “gas shortage” and folks endured long lines and alternated days at the gas pumps to refuel. We were not bothered by that because we had our own gas pump. It was somewhere during that when we discovered shortages though and found the delivery person was only putting part of what he was billing us for in the tank and selling the rest on the side for his own benefit. We changed providers and I expect he was fired.
Back to the story. When Reagan was elected all was supposed to be well, but for us not so much. I believe at the time we were working for Longview Fiber who had purchased Publishers Paper Co. who had first given us a real logging contract back in 1965. Prior to that we had the dairy and were gypo loggers. We logged on our own property and in the neighborhood but not on a regular basis. After multiple sales, I believe they are now owned by Weyerhaeuser.
We were well blessed with ten months of work they tried to guarantee yearly. In the after effects of inflation, trickle-down Reaganomics was supposed to solve all the country’s problems but it was not an easy process (google assisted). So, for one year and I am not certain if it was 81 or 82, we were without a job. It was during that year that we survived on our savings (not a lot) and logging some of our own timber. That really was our fall back source of survival over the years on various occasions.
Of course at that time we still had our own meat, eggs, butter, and milk. When we sold the dairy cattle in 1965 we kept four cows to have for our use as well as selling milk to some of the neighbors. The evening milking had always been done by Ruth, Ardie and me plus the kids who were around. After the cows were sold, the various kids did the milking in the evening without the help of their mothers. When Marc, Ben and Eddie got big enough they fed the beef animals too but they all took their turns milking. The very last ones to have that job were Ben and Tami who graduated from High School in 1985. We then sold or ate the ones left and went to the store for milk.
Of course we still had a huge family garden and lots of canned food and fresh when available so the life style was different too. That was definitely helpful and a different kind of life than is currently the norm with most of us.
The logging on our property was a big part of our survival for sure. We were selling short logs, eight footers I believe to a small mill in Boring. My brother Allan was the truck driver hauling them on our 1963 International little dump truck which by the way is still around. There is also a story with that which I had forgotten. We had purchased it in 1978 at an auction from the City of Portland. My nephew, Larry Traxler worked for the city out of Dodge Park headquarters and told them of the auction where it was available. An interesting note is the cost of getting the registration changed was the huge pice of $2.00. Wow. That was the truck that hauled the logs and one day a policeman stopped Allan on the way to the mill thinking it was overloaded. After going to the scale it proved incorrect so no ticket but the fellow asked why was he hauling such loads of logs? The answer Allan gave was, “we like to eat”. Simple enough.
Actually that year when tax time came anything we harvested from our property is taxed under Capitol Gains which is often less than regular and we only made $685 earned income otherwise. So taxes were quite low and no estimates were required as was usually the case for we self employed folks. This then created another somewhat anxious time. The next year things were much better and we knew we would face double trouble. First we had made no estimates so it would all be due plus the next first quarter estimates also. We knew we did not have enough to cover it even though it had been a good year. There had been a lot of catching up to do.
It was winter and our usual time of lay off. Frank decided to get his fourth knee surgery, (first replacement) which put him out of commission for three months. That added another problem. We needed a bit of a miracle and the Lord gave us one. The pulp market suddenly became very good (maybe they needed toilet paper) so again, family property became the solution. We had to hire a timber faller because Frank was out of commission. We logged Jim and Ardie’s property up by the Dump Road which had a lot of pulp. By April 15th we had the full amount to cover all the taxes. I am a firm believer in the scripture that says “give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’ss and to God the things that are Gods.” We got our miracle.
So, that is basically how I remember that 80‘s recession. It was not nearly as difficult as the so called Great Depression nor the Recession of 2008-09, but it definitely gave us a challenging year. And we still had a good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment