The Admiral

One of my favorite things to do at my Grandma and Grandpa Stockwell's house was to listen to the radio and records on their Admiral stereo. I loved the hearty click of the door when you opened it, the soft humm it made when you turned it on, and the feel of the big silver tuning knob. I remember watching with fascination as the turntable dropped the next vinyl record down it's spindle and placed the needle arm perfectly into the record's groove. I remember trying to get the red radio-station indicator needle to go from one end of the dial to the other by spinning the knob as fast as I could. I remember what Paul Harvey sounded like coming out of the Admiral's speakers any weekday at noon.

The Admiral has been at our house for several years now. For a while it sat in the living room and I remember listening to a baseball game on it one day. However it wasn't long before it's tubes and speakers wore out completely. It spent some time in the computer room but it was heavy and took up a lot of space. Mostly we'd put stuff on it - clothes, books, bills, whatever. So finally we moved it out to the garage where it has sat cozy and dry, collecting dust for the last several years.

Today it's "new" life began and it is officially on it's way to become a 're-purposed' (what an awful word) piece of furniture. I removed nearly all of it's old electronics - except for the speaker cones - and gave it a bit of a cleaning.

Syl has come up with some great ideas to give it a new hip, useful life in our house once again. And in a location where we can use and enjoy it every day. I can't wait to make it happen, and I will keep this blog updated with the progress.

A Brief Journey Up the Entiat Valley

Click on any picture to see the full-size version.
Grandpa Harold built this home on a piece of land in the Entiat Valley.

A few years later he sold the home and the new owners moved it up to the road. They used Grandpa's home as a 'temporary' home while they built the cinder-block home you see here, around it. The site of Grandpa's original home is behind the clump of evergreens at the base of the 'little bump' hill right-of-center in this picture.

Grandpa and Grandma Sines' family home is still standing. The exterior no longer resembles the wood 'vaneer' original home but it still has it's original shape and has been well taken care of over the years.
This Sines family and extended 'family reunion' picture, taken in front of the house, was taken after Roy and Russell returned home from serving in WWII. Front row: Ronnie Stockwell, Rose Stockwell (Mom) Back row: Great Grandma Gertie, Uncle Roy, Uncle Ralph, Aunt Atha, Uncle Russell, Grandma Mildred, Great Grandpa Martin, Grandpa Harold.

The original house on the original site.

This was taken in the barnyard to the east of the house. Ronnie is on Blaze, Mom is on Baldy, and Great Grandpa Martin is in between them.

This picture shows the same area of the property where the picture above was taken, but with the camera pointing east instead of west. Grandma had a huge garden and the current owner has one where the barnyard was. No wonder everything grows so well!


Ardenvoir Gradeschool where Mom's cousins went to school. The fire-escape on the left was used as a slide during recess.

The swimmin' hole (left of the large rock at the center of the picture).

Cooper's General Store, where Grandpa Harold got credit when he worked at the mill.

Uncle Fred's barn.

Brief, WA city limits. The schoolhouse where Uncle Ralph made his choice to serve God in 1932 is no longer standing (forest fire) but we think we saw where it used to be.

Artist's rendition of the Brief Schoolhouse


I am fascinated by the 'old road'. You can see pieces of the 'old road' along Hwy 97 as you drive from Entiat to Chelan. I love the little chunk of it you see off on the right just as you come out of the north end of the Knapps Hill tunnel. The reason it fascinates me is because of the stories Grandpa Harold used to tell me about it as we drove up to Chelan convention.
My favorite part of the road is the Knapps Hill section. Grandpa said that the cars would go up this section one at a time - and had to go in reverse to take advantage of the compression braking.
The first picture shows the lower part of the road as you head up the hill (some day when I have a 4-wheel drive I will go further up the road). The second picture is a long-shot of the tunnel, and if you click on the picture and go all the way to the right you can see a lot of the road as it goes up the hill. I can almost see a line of Model T's waiting at the bottom of the hill as one car at a time backs slowly up the hill.

View of the road from above.

Grandpa Harold's first car.

A picture found in Grandpa Harold's belongings.

Entiat on Dwellable

Goodbye Grandpa