"That's it! That's my grandfather's store!"
The undeniable enthusiasm in the voice brought a smile to my face. At 96, Fred generally isn't real excitable.
The dawn of the day brought warm sunshine and pale blue skies, and a roadtrip to the Sacramento Delta region.
Here the Sacramento and San Jaoquin rivers meet and form a large marshland that is also fed from San Pablo Bay--North of San Francisco Bay, thus creating a mix of fresh and salt waters. This inverted delta (fifth largest in the world) covers 738,000 acres.
During the gold rush, people began settling the region and creating levees to take advantage of the rich soil beneath the marshes. It is some of the finest cropland in the country.
The thousand miles of levees were no small undertaking and required years of work and the expertise of the Chinese immigrants whose water management skills were finely honed in their homeland.
As a merchant, Fred's grandfather established a general store in Courtland serving the needs of one of the many small communities along the delta. Now I am trying to uncover when he arrived. My rough estimate would be the late 1870s, so this store has been standing for a few years now!
"It is quite a thrill to see the store still standing."
Fred never knew his grandfather, but the roots here are deep. As a teenager, he would spend his summers here in the orchards picking pears. I believe the family he worked for were descendants of his grandfather's store partner.
Amidst the ever changing world, Fred first travelled up the delta as a child by boat and as a young man by bridges and roads.
The years roll by like his first new car, a 1938 Plymouth, and he shakes his head at the approaching 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, but...
Memory lane wraps us in the familiar and brings us the comfort and warmth of an old quilt. Just as a decrepit old building brings a nostalgic, gentle smile to a face lined with living and another smile to a writer delighted by the discovery and anxious to learn the story amidst the weathered lines.
