Do sons give credit to their dad’s for the paths they take in life?
While my father is still alive, I thought I should write things about him that is important to me over the years! First off, this is a young man back in about 1953 that takes on a ready made family. I was about 3 and my brother Steve was about 2 when Bill Biggs met Barbara Trumble, a widower at a very young age. Our natural father died in the Columbia River going back to the ship in an automobile accident in 1952.
It is funny how one as they gets older have total recall on the past, yet can’t remember where they put their truck keys, guess that is why most of us have a special draw or bowl for short term memory!
Having not known my natural father that I can remember at he was a Merchant Marine, Bill Biggs aka Dad from here out in this writing took us boys as his own. As I look over the years I would have to say it was that way and we always looked to him as Dad. No I never called him daddy, just dad! He was in the U.S. Navy for a number of years and this I can remember, so it was for some years forward to about the age of 6 for me. He served during the Korean War as a Navy Radar Man, in those days they would have to write backwards on a see through board so the CO and XO see what was going on in the Command Center. When he wrote is was always in printing and never script. His A’s were always flat on top!
I know we lived in Astoria, Oregon up on top of the hill while station aboard the U.S.S. Oriskany he was on was station at the once famous Tongue Point at Astoria,OR. I know that he never caught sneaking out of my bedroom window and going to the outside refrigerator to just crack open the Coke bottles and sip a little pop. I made sure they were all at the same level, each and every bottle!
Later Dad was stationed at Alameda,CA as the ship he was on the U.S.S. Oriskany, a famous aircraft carrier that was used even in the Vietnam War. The circle of that ship is pretty small, for as a kid in Tongue Point, I was able to go aboard the ship. Later while I was stationed in the Philippines in 1970, I did Comms with the COMSEC team aboard the ship. I had a chance to go aboard the ship TAD, but chose Vietnam with the 5th Marines instead! My brother Steve was over in Vietnam at Yankee Station aboard the U.S.S. Coontz DLG9, running cover for the U.S.S. Oriskany in the battle group. Steve was there when the Oriskany had a major fire aboard the top deck! You could see the fire from more 18 miles away with the naked eye! Glad I was not aboard!
My dad was of Danish & American Indian ancestry and was a statue of a man with broad shoulders, tall, lean and jet black hair with green-blue eyes. In the old days out at Janzten Beach there was a swimming area with high dives. One that was brave could got to the high dive and actually dive into the Columbia River. I still remember as a kid, him doing that in a Swan Dive and having perfect entrance into the river. One would have thought that John Weissmuller was diving into a lagoon.
Now getting to the future with Dad! I remember his hunting trips with Uncle Dave and when he bought the Mannlicher Schoenauer in 30-06, from the once famous Foster Sporting Goods in Portland, OR. He and Uncle Dave bought one each. Over the years, which are many times, I have given a bad him time about not getting that rifle. The truth is Dad it was more of a jest, as that darn thing is right handed and has such a high comb, it would definitely beat me up. I would hope that Dad did give some hunting or sporting thoughts to my sister’s son Michael and pass it along to him. That rifle can not ever be replaced in the 21st Century!
I remember a Bobcat skin that I had in my room that Dad had shot as a young man on the Feather River outside of Sacramento, California as a young man. He was riding on the fender of an old pickup and killed the Bobcat with a 22 rifle. He was a crack shot.
There are a couple of short stories as a teenager that I could have gotten into trouble, but Dad was pretty cool about it. When I got to go on my first Goose hunt to Summer Lake in Oregon, I remember being on a dike in the middle of Summer Lake. I had 5 boxes of shotgun shells and shot every one of the shells. When I got back to Dad and his hunting partner, with no birds or shells, he asked me “what were you doing”, as they had a stack of Snow Geese on the ground. I told them, I shot at every goose and duck that flew over me and none fell out of the sky. He just shook his head, and later at Sauvies Island, I learned how to lead a bird! Shooting targets with a 22, I never had to lead!
Another time while I was still at home before going in the Navy, I would have to be at work at 1:00PM, but would get up at 0300 and if not caught going out the door I would head over to the Deschutes River at Warm Springs to fish for Redsides. If caught by mom I would have to back upstairs and get up at 0600 and fish for hatchery fish on the Clackamas River. I would race over to the Deschutes in my 54 Ford at 4000 RPM; it would take me an hour and 15 minutes to get there. Never got a ticket once going there. Anyway this particular day I did not have work, so I got back at about 1700 Hour and had the Redsides in the kitchen sink and Dad got home and looked in the sink. “Son those don’t look like Clackamas River trout” With a smile he turned and went into the living room with a cup of Coffee!
When High School, I was going to Benson and I was on a rifle team with my cousins with Lucky 22’s. They all had 22 target rifles and I did not have one. My dad talked my mom into getting a German made Anchutz 22LR Target Rifle in left-handed for me at Meyer & Franks’, yep in those days they sold rifles. It was a really big deal to get this rifle and not have to borrow one. Later they both allowed me to switch from Benson Polytechnic and go to Franklin H.S. so I could shoot on their rifle team. He put up with my political fight with the school district to make it a Varsity Sport, which happened after my senior year!
There is a lot that I remember about Dad over the years, like the time while I was in Vietnam he sends me a picture of a Boone & Crockett Canadian Moose he killed up near Fort St. Johns in B.C. That picture was pretty famous with my Marine counter parts.
When I got back from over seas, we hunted a number of years together for Blacktail deer and Mule deer. The last hunt was pretty special as I saw him make a very long range shot with that Mannlicker outside of Ashwood, OR on nice mule deer buck. That was a great hunt as we both got bucks on that trip. Then there was a Blacktail deer hunt down by Falls City, OR, which I learned on that hunt was never to say, “There’s a buck”. As when ever that was said, a Blacktail never got shot! I have taken that forward in all of my hunting!
Dad also took me on my first deer hunt when I was in the 5th grade and not yet able to carry a rifle. The following year I took hunter safety.
“My first hunt that I went on with my dad was with Uncle Dave and his group of hunters, such as Uncle Harry, Uncle Monroe, Uncle Floyd, Jack Carroll, Danny Carroll and Bill Biggs (dad) to Egypt Wells, outside of Riley, Oregon. With the old 55 Studebaker loaded to hilt and trailer loaded also. Of course that group all tagged out on Mulie bucks up in the Silvies.”
In closing we also did a great deal of fishing and spent many trips up to Ollialie Lake near Mount Hood and many trips to the Metoluis River at Camp Sherman.
One last memory of how tough he was is during the gas shortages in the 80’s, he had the Chevron Station at the Memorial Coliseum on Broadway. Tough time with fights in getting gasoline for cars and all gas being allocated. Dad wore a hand gun (Colt 357 6″) on his side during the many months of this scam by the government and oil companies. He never got robbed or confronted at his place of business!
Thanks Dad for guiding me in the correct direction to the Right!
P.S. The Navy was ok also, giving responsibility in Life!
