Hi everyone,
It’s true, crazy people don’t write blogs. I’ve been crazy busy these last few days. We are changing staff people at CCSS, and I have answered emails, and tied up loose ends all week in the interim.
I got my signed contract for the History of Woodlake book yesterday, and I’ve also been scanning pictures like crazy, and posting them on three different Facebook Woodlake groups.
The pictures won’t win any awards, but when I post them on FB, people recognize their tia or tio (aunt or uncle), and other family members, and it’s a lot of fun. I taught the fourth grade bilingual class in Woodlake in the early 90s. Aren’t they adorable?
The pictures show the last bike trip we took before the helmet law for bicyclists went into effect around 1993 or 1994.
The goal was to get to location that hadn’t been disturbed by settlement, where a tribe of the Wachumna Indians, a sub-tribe of Yokuts Indians, lived in this area. The Yokuts, yes the ‘s’ is part of the name, was one of the largest tribes in North America. Food was plentiful, nutritious and easy to gather or hunt. However, not even missionaries or Spanish soldiers ventured this far east more than once or twice. Settlers from South Carolina discovered this area in 1853.
Kids enjoyed walking through a sort-of-cave and looking at the paintings left by the Wachumna.
The owner of this property, who is in his 80s, remembers seeing them down by Cottonwood Creek. It’s dry most of the year. It probably was then, too.
Wachumna women harvested the many oak trees in the area. Women of all ages sat around the large grinding rock and ground acorns. You can tell who sat where by the size of the holes in the rocks. Grandmas had very deep holes. You can clearly see the deep hole on the back right.
Too soon it was time to bike back to school.
Drivers followed in trucks or vans to pick up stray bikes and bikers that broke down along the way.
I biked behind them taking pictures and hoping that no one would have problems. And no one did. 🙂