Southwest Sierra — #43

The Danceathon ~ Alleghany native Wayne Brooks was born in Alleghany in 1937 in the little cabin on Kanaka Creek Road currently occupied by Eddie Barker. Not too many people can say they were born here! I got an email from Wayne recently sharing a bit more information about his great-uncle Les Kuhfeld. “John VanDoren who lives in Woodland called this evening. He gets the Messenger & has been reading your stories. He mentioned that we all called Lester, "Shelly". Shelly Kuhfeld was the name we all knew him by. He was John’s & my boss one summer when he had John & I cutting brush, Manzanita & Poison Oak from the 16 to 1 mine (sic) property going down the road to the Tightner Mine. All of the work done on the hillsides. Shelly worked in the timber carpentry dept. [at the 16 to 1 Mine] funny thing about all this is that all the time I lived up there, I didn't know I was related to him.”

For many years, one of my mom’s best friends, Jan Muller owned the cabin where Wayne was born. Jan and my mom were the same age and the same height, 5 foot and ½ inch. Following is the story about the one time that I slept in that cabin. Jan started a Teen Center in Alleghany around 1978. It was housed in the old Pioneer Club building located directly across from the current Red Star Café (now vacant). The Pioneer Club burned down in the big fire of 1987 along with three other large buildings. The buildings seemed so old to us, but had all been built after the big fire of 1933, making them 54 years old when they were lost.

With the exception of occasional health clinics that Frank Lang held independent of the Teen Center, the Pioneer Club had been vacant for years. None of us even knew its original name. The building was long and narrow (front and back on the narrow ends). The interior hadn’t been touched since it was built. The walls were covered in large sheets of chestnut colored wood paneling (like the Old School Gym still has). Colorful linoleum was on the floors. When you walked in, there was an entrance area where people probably hung their coats, then a large single room with windows out the back with a stunning view of Kanaka Creek Canyon. There was an art deco style bar to the left as you entered, and a pinball machine and pool table occupied the space in front of the bar.

Jan had tapped into some type of funding for the Teen Center, and it was open after school on weekdays. She also arranged two field trips. I didn’t get to go on the first field trip to Disneyland. The following year I was old enough to join the club. That year Jan decided that it would be a good experience for us to join a Muscular Dystrophy Association Danceathon. We were given pledge sheets that we took around town soliciting pledges for so much money per hour that we danced. The Alleghany School Bus drove us to a large auditorium in the Sacramento area for the event. I don’t remember who else attended besides my dance partner, the late Tommy McDaniel. Initially the dance floor was very crowded, but as the hours dragged on it became more and more spacious. This was a 24-hour danceathon with timed breaks. I was among the few who managed to dance (or stumble) for the entire 24 hours. All of the participants got an extra-large Jerry Lewis t-shirt. Mine served as a summer nightgown for many years.

I have a memory of getting on the school bus to go home and waking up because I had fallen from my seat to the floor. The bus hadn’t even left the parking lot yet. When we got back to Alleghany, I slept in my sleeping bag on Jan Mueller’s cabin floor. When I finally woke up sometime the next day, I could see that I’d had a bloody nose during the night. I remember thinking that Disneyland would have been so much better! I don’t know the circumstances, but the Teen Center closed shortly after that.