Janice Officer

Janice Officer was not born in Seneca, but moved here with her family in 1938 because her dad worked for George Kennedy, who was the first owner of the store. Later, her dad bought the store from Phillip and Marcus Dale. When she was in high school, she worked for her dad in the store, stocking the shelves and dusting. She described the store as a big brick building with a post office inside on the south wall, an office in the back, a storage basement, an apartment, a restaurant, and some other rooms upstairs for guests. Important Hines Company people stayed over upstairs in the Coconut Grove. She remembers babysitting up there, and she took first aid classes. There was a kitchen with a breakfast nook, a living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a big playroom. Later her parents lived up there. There was a service station, the Pastime Tavern, and the Olive Theatre that were also part of this big brick building. The service station later became a sandwich shop, and a new service station was added, and later a motel on the south end.

Janice remembers using Seneca money in the store, but she doesn’t have any of it left. She called it script. She told a funny story about a time when her brother worked in the store. A little boy would come in a lot and eat candy without paying for it. Before the boy could leave, Janice’s brother would pick him up and turn him upside down, shaking the money out of his pockets.

Janice’s parents sold the store in 1959 to John Saunders. At the time of the big fire that destroyed the store and everything that was attached to it, Janice drove in from Izee, but by the time she got to Seneca, the store was almost gone. She said it made her sick to think of all those good memories gone just like that.

After working in the store during high school, Janice worked for the power company. She was the payroll bookkeeper when they put the power lines in from John Day to Seneca to Drewsey, around 1946-1947. She enjoyed this job because the office was over by the swimming pool, and she would swim when she was not working. She remembers lots of water fights too. The pool had a baby pool with a fence around it, and the big pool was two feet deep to eight feet at the deep end. There was a big diving board and bath houses where people changed clothes. The pool was heated with steam from the company shops.

Janice did not live or work in Camp One, but she had friends there. At one time she lived in one of the “cheeseboxes” in Seneca, and it was very cramped. Later she lived on what was called the “back street,” on the third and last row of streets, in a house made of two boxcars in an “L” shape. There was a living room and two bedrooms, and a kitchen, bathroom, and a small porch were built on.

The Bear Valley Lodge was the hotel for the single men who worked for Hines Lumber Company. It was built in 1943. Before that, the men lived in boxcars along the logging road. The hotel was built with knotty pine from the Hines mill. Janice said it had forty rooms, and several bathrooms and shower rooms. There was a big lobby with a fireplace. It was two stories high and had a basement. At the north end there was an apartment for the caretakers. Maids would come in to clean the rooms. The men would eat at the restaurant in the store building. She remembers lots of interesting people from Minnesota who came to work for Hines.

Janice has some good memories of the Olive Theatre, which was also in the store building. The theatre did a good business and it was usually packed. One of the movies she remembers seeing there was “Gone with the Wind.” It was in black and white. She said that all of the kids in town tried to sneak into the theatre one time or another and it was a fun thing to try to do. She said the theatre closed before her dad sold the building to John Saunders, probably because they couldn’t get film or because of the drive-in in John Day. Seneca School used the theatre a lot for programs because it had a stage. The teachers would show special movies there once in awhile.

Janice went to Seneca School. She attended fourth, fifth, and part of the sixth grade. She said the school has changed a lot. When she went to school there were about ninety-six students. There used to be only four rooms upstairs, with two grades in each room with about fifteen to twenty kids in a room. There was nothing in the basement, and there was no gym. The basement would flood in the spring, so school was often closed then. The gym and the extra classrooms were built in the 1950s. Her favorite teacher was Mrs. Russell. She also remembers Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Clinghammer. Principals she remembers were Mr. Luman and Mr. Gorsline. She said almost everybody was her friend. During recess she would play basketball or play on the equipment. The boys played basketball. The backboard was in front of the school. She remembers a merry-go-round and Giant’s Strides on the playground.

Janice described the mill in Seneca as a planer mill right along the railroad tracks. The men would load the planed lumber in boxcars and the train would leave in the evening. She thought the trains were about forty cars long, and they had a push engine. She remembers the train wreck. It was in January, and to get to it you had to hike in from around where Idylwild Park is now. She never rode the train, but she did ride the hand car from Seneca out to Logan Valley with her father and some friends when she was a senior in high school.

She remembers a lot about life in Seneca. She wasn’t here when it was 54 degrees below zero, but it did get down to 32 below and she said that was cold enough! She said the trucks wouldn’t start then. In the winter she enjoyed skiing and ice skating. He dad and Dodie’s dad would take a bunch of kids out to Camp Creek to ice skate. When the streets were icy, the kids enjoyed “hookybobbing.” It was great fun to grab onto the bumper and slide behind a moving car! At Christmas time there would be a school program down at the theatre, and her dad would fill sacks of candy to give the children. After Christmas, the kids would get together to play with and share their new toys.

Warmer weather brought different kinds of fun. She remembers weenie roasts up on Porcupine Rock and 4th of July picnics. She and her friends used to ride their horses down to the J Bar L resort to swim in the hot pool. It took a while on the old road. She also remembers baseball games in the field southwest of the highway where Lavern and Linda Starbuck’s horses are now. There was a grandstand too. The Seneca team would play teams from John Day, Mt. Vernon, Long Creek, and even from as far away as Bend and Baker City.

The road to John Day then was a gravel road and it took about an hour to get to John Day. It was a one-lane road with turnouts. There was lots of snow in the winter, and no snowplows to speak of.

Since the doctor was so far away, when someone got sick or hurt they would go to the nice nurse in Seneca, Carine Williams, who was almost as good as a doctor. If someone got really sick, she would call Dr. Smith in Burns.

Now you know something about Janice Officer and her life in Seneca. She had a great life there and a lot of fun. She is a very nice lady and is very healthy still.