Interview with John Dillavou

John Dillavou age 94, came from Iowa in 1939 and did a number of different jobs.

He worked as a telephone operator across from the theater, down the hill from the stone house off of Hwy 140. He worked at the phone office quite a spell and then worked in the store as a clerk and as a butcher.

The phone office connected to Klamath Falls and you could talk to Lakeview. There were quite a few phone lines in Bly. Ivory Pine and the ranch were on the same line. He made 100 per month.

He lived in a house behind the Sycan Store. That house has been moved to where Rod and Beth Hadley now live. He went back to Iowa and then came back again. He worked for Larry Svensgard for 6 years and lived along the highway, next to the preacher's house. He also lived in the house across from the post office.

He hurt back while working at the store and retired.

Titus ran liquor store. He sneaked up behind his wife and shot her with a shotgun. It blew her all over the house. He had already killed another guy outside.

House coming out of Beatty, Indian fell in love with someone so he killed his wife and threw her in the river.

There used to be a bank here. It was by where John Bryant lives, the drugstore was located in the Pastime. (Log house was built on the Pastime site, after the tavern burned down) It wasn't a tavern at that time. Mulligan lived in the house across the street.

Jacks Place was a bar with an attached restaurant.

John cooked at the Halfway House across the street on his off days. Kathy Melsness-Smith worked at that cafe.

Across from the telephone office was a garage ran by Greasy Oly. John's brother Max owned the other garage. There was a Shell station about where the Chevron station is now. It was ran by Milligan.

The post office started out a gas station and they changed it over. The house next to the theater was once the post office. The post office was originally on a hill out from the Merkley place about two miles east of Bly. It was moved somewhere else after that. The old stage road from Lakeview was south of the highway. There used to be a barn where they stopped in front of Hall place. This is now the Baio Ranch. The house is set at an odd angle because of this the kitchen is in front. This is a century ranch. The manure was so deep near the livery barn and it would catch fire. The stage road went out by the dump and over to Bonanza. Part of the stage stop at Royston is still there but only one building. Another stop was next to Drew's Reservoir, big two story house was a stop.

Remember the Green Lantern? No. Picture shows there were slot machines. He did remember that the Loggers club had slot machines. He worked in the restaurant for Pauline. They lived in house next to it.

The grocery store owned by Jack Harrison then Bill Hamilton.

The old building next to Nisha Hadley was a store. Depot was right next to the railroad track. John's bathtub came from there.

I couldn't find a house, just a small one owned by the Redfields. I bought the old school house from Camp 6 from Bill Lawrence. It came down in sections on trailers. Francis Hague hauled it to town. He spent all of his money on the house.

Bill Lawrence lived in behind the filling station. Would stop and have coffee with Bill, good friends.

John opened ceramic shop after learning how in Yreka. The state gave him $200 to buy his kiln. He moved a small cabin in to use for pouring molds. Zelmer Bomenger taught John how to do ceramics.

John's brother Max ran a garage, June Cummings was his sister. He is the only one left alive. He had twin sons, Dwight and Duane. Daughter Arlene lives in Klamath Falls, Norma is in Redding. Duane comes out a lot. Dwight lives in Bend. I went up two years ago to go fishing; never caught a fish.

Bly cemetery? The old lady that lived in house at the big corner, Molly Garrett, drove team and wagon and took care of grave, had to dip out the water, put the box in, came across mud flat, take team and go down to get the body, pall bearers rode, don't know who or how it was dug.

We were out shoveling gravel with another fella, had just traded sides when the pile collapsed. The front of pickup rose up two feet and broke the axle. There was a small piece of shirt showing; dug him out by hand, but he was dead. I got help and it started to rain. I asked the kid that was with Ruth, to help pull the guys legs out. It happened just before Molly. The undertaker asked questions; I was shaking so badly. It would have been me if he hadn't traded place. I had to go out and pull the truck into town; found the guys hat in the gravel. It broke every bone in his body. I never did know his name. He came from Portland and was relation to a guy from Shady Rest named Charlie.

The railroad is near Butch Hadley's place. There used to be an old house near there. We loaded cars to haul to Klamath Falls. I worked with Martin Melsness at Ivory Pine. Had a beer with Martin, remembers the kids sitting around. John played the accordion and went all over. He liked to play the beer barrel polka. The keys stick now. John had 11 lessons; would often play for dances.

The old roller skating rink was turned into the Assembly of God church. Bart Shelly would flop down on his butt when he skated. He always wore a cowboy hat.

Martin Cavan ran the Loggers Club. That was a wild place with lots of fights. When one of the Jacobs would fight they would all fight. The old Liquor store is now a Junk Store.

The Haven cafe was east of Jacks' place. Haven ran one and his wife ran the other one. Mary Gordon had cabins to rent. There was a block house next to it. Indians lived in the house started a fire with gas and burned the house down.

There used to be a car lot next to Dean's old building. Walt and Eleanor Ellingston lived near there. There were two cabins there. The Ellingston and Melsness families were the last family to move out of Ivory Pine.

Some of the buildings were moved out of Ivory Pine. The mill moved to Dinuba when it left here. Sharon remembered that they moved the buildings on lowboys.

Harry Stone and Greasy Oly lived across the street from John. The Redfield's owned the house that Jean Pool now lives in.

John thawed out pipes for people. He would have to go to the logger's club every day. The cabins behind tried to thaw the pipes out by burning tires.

John ever had lady friends? I wasn't interested in Bly women. Bly was a wild, wild place. There were a lot of people around Bly; most worked in logging industry. Weyerhaeuser had a logging camp at Camp 6. A woman up there had twin boys. I had lemon pie with them when I went up to bring the building to Bly.

Where the grade school is a house, school teacher, Ruby McCain lived in. Ruby met and married Wayne Elder, who worked for the Forest Service.

My kids started school in Bly. They didn't know they were supposed to stay in the school all day. They would call June and she would have to go take them back.

John's boys and the preacher's boys broke all the windows out of a house. John had to replace them. Preacher wouldn't help. Boys put gravel in his gas tank. John refused to help pay for cleaning the tank. He wouldn't let the preacher take the fence down between their houses.

Next to the tennis court was a house and Jews lived there, torn down. Lots of houses burned down with no fire protection. The old cafeteria was moved out on Hwy 140 to be used as a house.

There used to be a whistle downtown that someone would ring when a fire started. Everyone would turn out to help fight the fire. We had to call Olive Protsman and she would ring the bell. I never worked for Protsman. Pearl Henderson worked for August Tikkanen. She would hide beer behind the store and go out later and drink it.

Protsman sold window panes, tools, etc. and later had a fountain. Jack Harrison put in a fountain but took it out. Bought butter and sold for $1.00 a pound. Guys at the phone office would send Johns kids down to buy butter and Jack told him not to send them anymore. He only wanted Bly people to buy it.

Lee and Butch Hadley sold fresh milk for quite a while. Milkman from Lakeview would deliver milk.

John watched some young fella and his girl making love while standing in the doorway of his house. They finally saw him and left.

We had a musical club with several folks belonging. You would write out something and you would have to read out loud and then do it. I had to give a speech and some woman pulled hat down over my ears.

They had plays in the old theater near Nisha Hadley's. It burned down and George Fullerton built the new one downtown. Don Wessel saw the first movie shown there. Sherm Seastrong ran the projectors. The library was in the phone office. You had to be quiet. John got to read all the books because he worked at the phone office.

John's picture is in the Klamath Echo. He is looking out the door at the Sycan Store, unloading deer. There used to be a lot of deer; it brought a lot of business into Bly. Halfway House 4:00 in the morning, waiting in line to eat. Hunters had to walk in, no roads.

Magee brought an old deer in one time and it wasn't cleaned out good. We had to hire someone to clean out the deer. Larry chewed John's ass out. Two deer locked horns. Had big hunting camps, big tent, seven beds and a big cook stove.

I went to Cow camp with Jerry and Darlene Dillavou.

Ice cream store was where Uncle Bert used to be?

I never lived at Ivory Pine. Was it company owned? Coke was the big boss. I worked at night, drove carrier and the chain would come off; hard to see in the dark. First trailer house at Ivory pine, set down on the stool while he took a shower. Bunch of colored guys lived out there. Would strip their clothes off and run for the shower.

Barbershop, ran by Nisha's brother, Bannister, Pauline Bell had a barbershop.

John played at the dances at the bowling alley. Jim Hyatt got ulcers so he would take milk. Would offer people to have a drink on him, and then would serve them milk. Who worked there? Mary lived in Lakeview last. I bought a rifle from them one time.

Mike Dillavou's wife shot his tire out. Hoppe was her name. She later married Elmer's brother. She would chew.

Elmer Cramer lives at Gary Dillavou's place. Elmer got stuck going to the Gerber ranch last winter. There was a guy that worked at the Gerber ranch, named Spike and he died in the kitchen. We had to haul him out. We didn't have an undertaker come out like they do now. Duke the hair lip was stuck on the Gerber girl. Old man Gerber canned him to keep him away from the girl.

What happened to John's wife? She had a tumor on her brain and died when the boys were two years old. All four children were under the age of 7. We lived in Iowa at that time. John raised the kids by himself. He had a housekeeper part of the time. State would help pay.

The CCC was torn down right after John got here. Tore them down and took it to the dump. They had a guard out there to watch so people wouldn't salvage.

Jerry Chase lived on the corner of Edler and Metler. House on the corner, Harry and Inez Obenchain bought the house and moved it out to the ranch. Frank Obenchain said he had to build a house for his bride. John wallpapered their bedroom. Armstrong from the Forest Service asked John to play the piano; they dressed like women, one guy covered with hair, John played "you're too fat for me" etc, Mrs Campbell told him she wanted an outfit like his. He had a reading and then play the piano.

They tore the old school house down and took material out to the boy's ranch. There were lots of rats when the ranch closed. Long building where the boys slept burned down years ago. Arlene bought a dog from out there. The boys were mean and would run away. John drove bus and would see the boys along the road trying to hitch hike. John drove the activity bus for 7 years. There got to be too many kids and had to get a bigger bus. Late nights, pick kids up at 10:00. Keller house, had nights flashing, someone drunk, went by and then stopped. John would eat the kids' asses out but the kids didn't want him to quit. Benny Baker would get off downtown and walk home. Dee People's boy; I told him to get out in the snow but the kids wouldn't get out.