My Memories of Albany, Oregon

I wrote last week about using Albany, Oregon, as a setting in my current work-in-progress. Writing that post caused me to remember my own experiences in Albany dating back to my preschool years when our family lived in nearby Corvallis, Oregon.

My dad was getting his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University, located in Corvallis. We moved to Corvallis in the fall of 1959, when I was about three and a half years old. We lived there until about November 1961, when I was in the first grade.

While my dad was studying at OSU, he had a part-time job in Albany. I don’t remember if he was still working at the butcher’s counter. My recollection (and remember, I was in pre-school) is that his job in Albany was somewhere associated with the Bureau of Mines. It was most likely what is now the Albany Research Center, affiliated with the Department of Energy. But I pictured him as digging metal out of the ground and testing it, probably by pounding on it.

I loved the round sound of the word “Albany” as I stretched out the “AAALLL” first syllable, then followed quickly with “ban-ee.” But when we visited the town, it was gray and dingy, not nearly as attractive as its name.

I only went to work with my dad one day that I can remember. It was February 1960, I was almost four, and my mother was in the hospital, having just given birth to my baby sister who died. My dad found someone to care for my younger brother, but I was deemed old enough to go with him to his job in Albany . . . if I promised to be very quiet and color. So I promised, and I felt very grown up working in my coloring book while Daddy worked on whatever he did. Even if I was very disappointed that all he did was work at a drafting table like the one he had at home.

After he finished his work and I had colored several pictures in my coloring book, he and I went to the bus station to pick up my grandmother, who would stay with us until my mother was back on her feet.

My second memory of Albany is of a picnic in a park somewhere in or around the town. We ate our lunch, then picked hazelnuts that were scattered loose on the ground. My brother and I picked as many as we could and put them in a bucket. Later in the fall, my dad shelled them in the evenings so we could eat them. The shells were too hard for me to crack, though I liked cracking softer almond shells (those we bought—I never picked almonds).

This past Christmas, a cousin who now lives in Oregon sent us hazelnuts as a gift. They brought memories to mind of picking nuts near Albany. But the ones she sent were already shelled and easy to eat.

The other memory I have of Albany is of KITTENS! This might have been on the same outing where we picked hazelnuts, or it might have been another occasion. Some friends of my father’s—a fellow engineering student and his wife, as I recall—brought a litter of kittens to the park, and my brother and I got to play with them.

I SOOOOO wanted a kitten. I loved holding those little cats, and I pleaded for us to take one home.

We didn’t take a kitten home from that outing, but we did later have a kitten during our time in Corvallis. I loved my kitty, but Kitty (the only name she had) loved my mother best. The cat had a skin condition, and my mother cooked chopped liver for it every day. No wonder Kitty liked my mother best.

Kitty also loved my father, who was allergic to cats. But she stayed up with him studying when the rest of us went to bed. He wadded up papers when he wrote his equations wrong, and she chased after them.

Unfortunately, we lived near a busy street, and Kitty was killed by a car about a year after we got it. I missed the cat for a long time, even though my father got a dog when I was six. I preferred cats, and we didn’t have another cat until my sister got a Siamese cat when I was about nine or ten.

I am using kittens in my current work-in-progress. They and the little girl who loves them are scene stealers. I hope these kittens don’t die, but I don’t know yet.

What brings weekend outings from your childhood back to mind?