old delta tales

After reading the old delta tales postings I too went on line and bought both of Erle Stanley Gardners books on the delta. It was fun to read the stories and recognize the places, some that are still in business and some that have long closed that I remember visitng with my parents when we moved to California from Illinois. They are both fun and an easy read. A few places he mentions we haven't been to in years and we aded to our calendar for this year.
 
Another odd part of this thread is that Gardener's other favorite place was Baja. He wrote several books about his adventures down there. I have two books about Baja by him. The odd part is that I spend a lot of time in Baja and it, along with the Delta, are my two favorite places to hang out in the world. Not really odd I guess but there must be some common allure for folks like a lot of us here. A great novelette, later made into a movie with Bsad Pitt is called "A River Runs Through It", starts on the first page with the first line...."I am haunted by water..." Me too I guess.

DBH
 
I picked up Gypsy Days on the Delta from Amazon about a week ago. Great read. Interesting to hear stories from an even older era than the ones that Hal's books covered. I've got Drifting Days on the Delta and World of Water on order now.

One thing I discovered when I did a little research on the author was that he evidently married the secretary featured prominently in Gypsy Days after the book was published. He had been separated from his wife for years, and married the secretary after the wife died.
 
As I remember she was a pretty hot looking blond if that is the same one. She seemed right at home on the houseboat. How would all you guys or gals, as the case may be, like to go to work every day on your boat and take a good looking secretary or assistant along. Works for me.

DBH
 
quote:
Originally posted by etyppo

I picked up Gypsy Days on the Delta from Amazon about a week ago. Great read. Interesting to hear stories from an even older era than the ones that Hal's books covered. I've got Drifting Days on the Delta and World of Water on order now.

One thing I discovered when I did a little research on the author was that he evidently married the secretary featured prominently in Gypsy Days after the book was published. He had been separated from his wife for years, and married the secretary after the wife died.

Click to expand...
I'm sure she ended up with a boatload of cash and left the Delta for good. The book doesn't elude to anything between them, but obviously there was a little debauchery going on in the tulies.

Gypsy Days was interesting reading. Gardner did a good job of conveying what life was like in the Delta back then and provided a good reference for how things have changed.

While reading the book, I wondered what became of some of the people and places mentioned in his book. One of the people that he spent many days with was Dick DeShayzer who owned a successful brokerage business. I'm sure the free advertising in the book helped quite a bit too. One would think his business would still be in operation today in some form, yet I don't see any marina of sorts on the South side of the Bethel Island bridge which is where I think it was located. I can only suppose that he sold the business and land for a nice profit and retired.
 
I think in one of the books I have he also hosted a bunch of crooked politicians and a police chief from Fresno. He referred to them as friends from Fresno, I sort of remember a couple of them being a bit shady. Oh well, all are welcome in the delta.....by the way, I loved the term..."debauchery in the tules" Maybe we should all right a book about such daliances on the river.

DBH
 
When I first started coming to BI and the Delta in 1979, there was Carter's Bayliner on the north side of the bridge [now D'Anna's] and a big Holiday Houseboat Sales company on the south side next to the Marine Emporium. I don't know the name of the owner of the houseboat sales company.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top