This is Al

Al Bates Born in Richmond Calif 1932..A pieceful little town before World War 11...I went up to the 3rd grade at Richmomd Elementery..Not to much to remember there except the usual kid stuff growing up..I used to go with my Dad at times to his Lodge meetings..The name of the lodge was The Knights of Pythias or something like that...

Once while I was there they had a hillbilly band performing with a washboard, gut bucket,fiddle and all that novelty stuff...From that time I knew i wanted to play and perform with some kind of musical instrument...Dad would take me fishing with him at times...Being out on the boat was fun but I liked the Orange soda and little salted crackers they served at the little beer bar on the wharf most...

Mom left for greener pastures when I was around Six so Dad farmed me out to a family up in the foothills of the Sierra's...They had six kids ,100 head of cattle,100 head of sheep,50 Angora goats,3000 laying hens,a dozen or so of hogs,kept around 4 to 6 milk cows,4 saddle horses and 2 work horses..Needless to say I learned all about work on the farm. I was 14 when my father wanted me to come live with him in the city..I was very bored with the city life and picked up an ole guitar dad had in the closet and started learning to play..A year later we didn't see eye to eye and I was off to seen the world after a short stay at my moms house in San Francisco..

The summer I was 15 I was working for a sawmill in Georgetown as a utility boy doing all kinds of cleanup and gopher duties...I started playing in dance bands at this time making a few extra bucks on weekends..

By the time i was 19 I was married to one of the girls I had known since first coming to the foothills,had a job driving log truck and started a family of my own...3 boys..Mike ,Steve and Jerry...Divorced after 14yrs and remarried having one more son,Larry...This marriage only lasted a short time...Over this time period I drove log truck,lumber truck for one of the sawmills and played guitar on weekends...Did a little drinkin,partying and the usual screwing up...

I met Jane in the early Seventy's ,went to work in a cabinet shop but after a few years and had married Jane I wanted to get back into trucking so we bought an old log truck...After 25 years or so in the trucking business, at times running as a team on the highway to make ends meet,and as a team working late at night fixing broken parts so it could run the next day I stepped out of it in Oct of 97 and joined my wife in the search for gold!!!!

Having lived most all my life in the Mother Lode Country it is fun to have a hobby in the hills I have loved so many years...


I-Bar Gold Pan Junk