Since there were only a few phones on the river
and those were within a
few miles of Forks of Salmon most people used their CB for
communication. Every home had a CB name, as did most of the river
people. Some home names included Main House, Starveout, Rainbow,
Godfrey Ranch, Knownothing, Blue Ridge, Matthews Creek, Indian Creek,
and Plummer Creek to name a few. Home names were usually the name of
the mining claim or a geographical feature. People’s CB names were of
their own choosing usually although a few were awarded without consent
but stuck anyway. I always felt that being given a CB name was a sign
of affection, like a nickname. There was Donkey Puncher, Spider, Herr
Rise and Shine, Bassman, Harpo, Road Mother, Malfunction Junction,
Jawbone, Magpie, Manzanita, etc. I never did get a CB nickname though,
for the duration of my life on the river I remained Kathleen. Well,
Herr Rise and Shine did call me ‘Starveout Sweet Potato’. To which I
would always answer back on the radio, “Here I yam”.
Since everybody listened to channel 18 that was the contact channel as
well as the road channel. It was considered the height of rudeness to
carry on a long conversation on the road channel. After all, people
were calling mile markers as a real matter of safety. So, as correct
river radio etiquette would have it you would make swift contact with
your person and move off the road channel to talk. It would happen
something like this.
“Godfrey Ranch, Magpie, Magpie, are you around the radio?”
“I got you, Starveout, let’s go up.”
‘Let’s go up’ meant the two of you would both turn the CB channel to
23. Since the highest channel older model CBs could go to was 23 that
was the accepted place to meet. Of course everyone else not driving at
the moment and needing to stay on the road channel would also ‘go up’.
So no conversation was private. You could work out with your closest
friend that by saying ‘let’s go up’ you really meant to meet on, say,
channel 32. But then, when the listening public found you were not on
23 they would just run the channels till they found your conversation
in progress. In a community with out phones, television, or regular
radio, any entertainment is sought after.
The Bus Run
There was a school bus run every weekday from Cecilville to Forks to
the school there. Grades K through 8th. Norma, the bus driver, made the
run in all weather and all road conditions. The bus had a CB and the
mile markers were called. Since we were halfway between Cecilville and
Forks we were often called upon to relay messages. In the wintertime a
relayed message from Norma to the county road crew was common. That’s
when either a snowplow or the ‘rock knocker’, as it was known, would
come to the rescue of the school bus. It was in the winter; with it’s
rain, snow, freezes and thaws that the mountains would contribute their
parts to the road. Although the rocks-in-the-road phenomenon could
happen any where along the river road there was a particularly
treacherous area. This was known as the Samsonite Cliffs. It got its
name because the rocks that fell into the road resembled sets of
luggage in shape and size. A common rockslide would deposit everything
from a steamer trunk to a small squarish make up case, all composed
completely of granite.
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