The Summer I Found Home

Oregon, 1925. Like his semi-reclusive parents, ten-year-old George Graham doesn’t have friends, preferring to live inside the safe and predictable world of his books. This all changes when his classmate Louise Pearson, new to town, befriends him. Curious about his family’s secrets, and with plenty of her own, the pair become an irrepressible, inseparable team, bantering and bickering their way through what turns out to be an unforgettable summer.

Louise’s quick brain puts together the scattered clues she and George scrounge up about his parents’ past. They discover that George’s dad has another family back in England—a wife and four daughters—and that he’s still sending them almost every penny he earns. Hoping for answers, Louise writes to the eldest of George’s half-sisters, Susan, never expecting Susan herself to turn up on the family doorstep unannounced. And all the long-held family secrets begin to unravel.

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Photos of Turner:

1. Location: Twin Oaks Cemetery, Turner, Oregon. Image: A memorial stone laid flat into the grass which reads: FELICIA H, wife of H. Platner, Mar. 8 1885, Aged 35 y's, 7 m's, 18 d's. shed not for her the bitter tear, nor give the heart to fond regret, tis but the casket that lies here, the gem that fills it sparkles yet.

2. Location: Twin Oaks Cemetery, Turner, Oregon. Image: Upright headstone carved to look as though a scroll is unfurling from top to bottom. Text says: In loving remembrance of Mary S, wife of C F Durfee, born May 24 1842, died Feb 1 1907.

3. Location: Twin Oaks Cemetery, Turner, Oregon. Image: A view of headstones between the titular twin oaks of the cemetery.

4. Location: Twin Oaks Cemetery, Turner, Oregon. Image is looking up through the foliage of the titular twin oaks, green against a blue sky.

5. Location: Twin Oaks Cemetery, Turner, Oregon. Image: a view into trees across the road from the cemetery. Through the trees can be seen a building.

6. Location: Turner Elementary School. Image: A white, two-storey building with dark blue pillars on either side of the door, and dark blue trim where the floor and ceiling of the upper storey would be. The sign at the top says 19 Turner School 22.

7. Image is a column from the 1925 school record book which lists the children who would have been George's classmates. From top to bottom, it reads:Mary Alexander, age 13; Sarah Alexander, age 13; Raymond Alexander, 10; Inez Barnett, 10; Maud Archibald, 12; Harlan Bones, 9; Hildred Bones, 11; Glenn Clymer, 10; Louis Demytt, 10; Lucile England, 9; Gladys Given, 11; Wilfred McKay, 8; Homer Mitchell, 10; Robert Mitchell, 8; Evelyn Mullennix, 12; Reva Porter, 10; Roscoe Porter, 12; Margret Robertson, 10; Agnes Moore, 10; Albert Savage, 13; Wayne Savage, 11

8. Image is the left half of the daily school schedule page.

9. Image is the right half of the daily school schedule page.

10. Image is a chest with an open drawer. On top of the chest is my open notebook and pen; in the drawer the 1925 record book is visible.

11. Image is a photograph taken from a book, showing two pillars on either side of the window of Patton Bros. Books in Salem.

12. Image is a photograph taken from a book, showing the Grand Theatre in Salem.

13. 1912 photograph of Turner, with Mill Creek in the foreground and 3rd Street with its row of business buildings behind it. You can see the school building in the upper left-hand corner, and the Turner Tabernacle is faintly visible just right of centre in the background. In those days it still had two towers; now it only has one.

14. Image is a photograph taken from the Turner Centenary booklet (1971) with images of Bone Bros Blacksmiths and the same view of 3rd street in the previous picture.

15. Image is a photograph taken from the Turner Centenary booklet (1971) with two views of 3rd Street from Mill Creek.

16. Image of Ball Bros garage.

17. Image of a weathered, rust-red old building.

18. A grassy field with oak trees dark in the background and blue sky.

19. Green bushes in the foreground, with a peek at a yellow-green field and dark green oaks in the background under a blue sky.

20. Bright green, thick foliage of trees right by the edge of the road.

21. Another view of the yellow-green field with more field visible. The dark green trees are still in the background.

22. Image of sparse foliage with closely-spaced tree trunks.

23: Mill Creek with brushy trees on either side and a small triangle of blue sky meeting the receding point of the creek.

24: Image of a cream-coloured building with two tall windows.

25: Image of a cream-coloured building in shadow, with a large gothic window and three small windows beneath it.

26: Image of a cream-coloured building with a staircase.

27: Inside view of the gothic window.

28: A cosy corner room with three tall windows and several leather chairs.

29: Two tall narrow windows behind the bar.

30: The Turner Tabernacle, a large building with a tower at the right corner. The remains of the second tower can be seen on the left corner.

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