Corner Market – Elgin, Oregon

The Corner Market is a piece of my childhood.  It sits on Main Street in Elgin, Oregon and was a place that my mom would send me with a few dollars to get a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk, whatever it was she needed to finish making dinner.  There would always be a few extra cents and I loved to get a 5 cent lollipop with it.  It truly was an old time, small town grocery store complete with butcher block even though it’s a tiny little store.

When I was a teenager, mom worked here for a bit. (Janice Simmons Sannar)  Sometimes during lunch break from school, I would walk down to the store to see her or catch a ride home after school.  I can close my eyes and still, all these years later, walk through the doors of that store to the same sights and smells.

Minam Road – Wallowa County, Oregon

Much of my life was spent in Union and Wallowa counties.  This is a picture of Minam road between Elgin and Wallowa taken in the 1940’s.  My great-grandfather, Harry Kennison, worked on the crew that built this one and many others in Wallowa County. I’ve traveled this road more times than I can count with my family while growing up in the 70’s and 80’s.  It’s been widened a few times over the years and some of the more dangerous curves flattened out somewhat, but this road still looks very much the same today as it did in this picture.

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“I remember that road, we traveled it many times going to Grandma Coleman’s! It was scary! When we left Grandma Weavers BIRTHDAY party, Kathleen had picked up some flash bulbs from the camera. The older kids had taken the plastic off the outside. She had it in her mouth and it popped! She had tiny bits of glass all over in her mouth and there was no where to pull over…mom was scared…told her not to swallow. Wow what an adventure! we were living in camp at that time. (Starkey). Kathleen was born in 1948, I imagine she was maybe 3 yrs old.” ~ Judy Sannar Ennis remembering her little sister, Kathleen Sannar Tannahill
(Grandma Weaver would have been Mary Pearl (Hulse)Weaver. )