Doris Barott

Doris (Dodie) Barott lived in Seneca her entire life. During her time here, Dodie lived in a house on the front street. She also lived in a “cheese box” for a short time. Cheese boxes were little one-room houses that were painted yellow. Her house that she lives in now is still partly made of a cheese box.

During Dodie’s free time, she used to swim, ride bicycles, play in the woods, play in the schoolyard, and go sledding in the winter. Once she even got stuck in a tree and had to wait for somebody to go get her brother to come and pull her out. Sometimes she and her friends would go to movies; some kids even snuck into the theater without paying. During the summer she would go to the pool. At the pool a family would buy a family ticket, which lasted all summer. The kids would wear a number on their swimming suits that said that their family had purchased the ticket. The swimming sessions were from 10 to 12 in the morning, 1 to 4 in the afternoon, and 6 to 8 in the evening.

The road between Seneca and John Day was made of dirt and was narrower than it is now. When a person got sick they’d go to the company nurse, Corrine Williams. But being sick was not the only challenge. When Dodie was only one, her father recorded the record cold of –54 degrees Fahrenheit.

There used to be a large multi-business building beside the old hotel where the store, theater, tavern, and restaurant stood. Dodie started working at that store when she was 15. She has been inside the old hotel and the Coconut Grove. She said that they were both beautiful inside.

Doris Barott was born between Seneca and Burns in a car. Her parents and older siblings lived at Camp One before she was born. Her father was from Minnesota .

Dodie also went to school in Seneca from 1938-1946. In that time, the school had many principals. One of them was Mr. Dalton. Dodie also had many teachers. Some of her teachers were Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Lyons, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Klinghammer, Mr. Dalton and Mr. Allen. She says all of them were pretty strict, some more than others. Doris had many friends. One of them was Kay (Caroll) Trafton. Doris did not play many sports because the gym was so small. The gym was where the office and library are now. The school has changed a great deal since Dodie went here.

During her lifetime, Dodie has worked at many different places in Seneca. She worked at the store, the theatre, the boarding house, and she worked as a librarian aide here at the school. Her favorite part of all of her jobs was being around people. She never met or talked to Mr. Hines, though.

The funniest story Dodie remembers about working in Seneca happened when she was working in the store. Someone had put a snake in the door before she had gotten there. When she got there and opened the door, she jumped over the counter and on to the ice chest. She told us it wasn’t funny when it happened but she can look back now and laugh about it.

Dodie was fifteen years old when she first started working. Her favorite job was clerking in the store. Many other jobs besides logging were available; some of them were at the Bear Valley store as a clerk, at the restaurant punching meal tickets for the loggers, and at the O live Theatre ushering or taking tickets.

Dodie remembers lots of things about the railroad. She remembers kids playing on the train at night and the trains taking the logs to Hines. The trains were about thirty or forty cars long and could haul big logs. Dodie got to go inside the Poison Creek tunnel when she was older. Dodie also remembers going aboard and taking a ride in the caboose with the permission of the engineer.

Throughout Dodie’s lifetime in Seneca, she has watched the town change a great deal. Dodie said that the town used to look much neater when she was young and there were more houses. She remembers the women having contests in the summer for the prettiest yard. Dodie thinks that Seneca has changed because people have moved in and out so much. She remembers the store and the night it burned down. She said it was a terrible thing.