A Bicycle Built for Two?

This isn't a tale Jess told but a memory he shared... before I left for graduate school in Eugene in 1970 he told me this... He and Hazel had 4 kids... no car... no money... but they did have a bicycle. When they wanted to go someplace this is what they did. They put large pannier (carry) baskets on each side over the back wheel. The 2 oldest kids were taught to sit still in their basket and hold on tight to the frame over the rear wheel. Hazel would sit balanced in the center of the handlebars with a twin enfolded in each arm. Jess' job was to pedal while peering over Hazel's shoulder. I can just visualize them peddling down a tree shaded Eugene street those decades ago with the whole family out together for a ride. It must have been a VERY sturdy bike.
Kathy Alban/Katy Tahja

The memorial was quite special... seven of us who shared an apt. at Ocean View Terrace on Old Stagecoach Road in 1968 were ALL there at Jess' memorial... no one else would have brought us all together again after 40 years.

Friends of Jess Moon

One way that Jess would describe his physical self that was so endearing was to use the phrase, "my little pink body" eg., "that___________does wonders for my little pink body".

We look out from our dining room table every day and see and enjoy a rosebush which we fondly call our Hazel rose which came from a cutting that Hazel gave us many years ago. It is a wonderfully fragrant old fashioned Hansa rose that is perfect for this coast and the only one we have that is adapted for this climate. No brown spots on the leaves, no mold. And it was Hazel and Jess who alerted us to our house over 30 years ago when it was up for sale, and we were looking to relocate in Westhaven.

Confusion Reigns

Dad gave us kids lots of advice through the years, but two pieces of advice seemed contradictory and I wasn’t always sure which one to follow:
a If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.
a Do something, even if it’s wrong.

An Explosion Under the Car

I knew Jess Moon for 50 plus years. I met him when I was dating his daughter, Margaret, who I later married. Meeting a father whose daughter you are dating can be a daunting occurrence. Well, I met Jess and you just don’t meet Jess… you meet Jess AND Hazel. Those two were as one… Jess and Hazel… Hazel and Jess. This is the way I knew them for years and years. They made me feel comfortable and at ease. And over those years I began to collect stories about Jess and his infamous temper, and this is one of my favorites. It took a while to understand this temper. It was never directed toward the person, but toward himself. So I never really took it very seriously.

The story I would like to tell was when I was helping Jess work on a car. Because I didn’t know too much about fixing cars, I was hoping to learn from Jess. One day we had jacked up one of his cars to work on it… there was just enough room to crawl underneath… it was a real tight fit. We were lying side by side under the car while Jess was fixing something near the front of the car. My main job was just to hand him the tools that he needed and to hold the flashlight. Suddenly, a big blob of oil dropped on his forehead. Well, all hell broke loose. If you knew Jess, you knew that he didn’t like greasy or sticky things on his hands or anywhere for that matter. So this sent him off and he grabbed the hammer that was close by and started beating on the tire with a lot of accompanying profanity. At the same time, I was trying not to laugh and trying to get out from under the car (because something in you was worried about where the next blow might land). I finally squeezed out and was leaning on the car silently laughing my head off while Jess continued to beat the hell out of the tire. I went into the house with tears of laughter. A few minutes later I went back under the car and we continued to fix it with nothing said about what had happened.

Larry Brown

At the memorial Matt Moon read:
The Cremation of Sam McGee

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

...

LAWN MOWER

Jess not only mowed the grass at his house, and the houses on either side of him, but also did the lots in and around the firehall and Westhaven Community Center…He also mowed the empty lots within a block or so of his house…For years and years Jess took his weed eater up to Trinidad Head and buzzed back the blackberry vines, grass and high brush on either side of the circle trail…No one ever paid him a dime…Jess loved the work…
He used a number 8 paper sack to cover his head…One April a lady from Nebraska was walking the foggy trail and freaked seeing Jess…Later she told everyone at the Trinidad Sea Scrape Restaurant that she’d seen a creature from outer space…

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