We are in full-on California heat mode now. We have had really great weather (highs mostly in 80s/27C!) but that changed overnight, and we’ll be in above 100/38C temps until we leave. Because of that, we thought we might try some indoor activities today. Not much to choose from since we’re not shoppers, and we did want something local, so we Googled and found a couple of free options.
The first is a private home that has been converted, by the former owner’s request, into a Victorian museum. The house is in a cute area of Redding, just a few blocks west of downtown proper. It is the Behrens-Eaton home, and though it was the home of Judge Richard Eaton (who wanted the home to become a museum) we learned a bit about him, his family, and his more famous uncle, Earl Behrens.
We were led through the home by a very nice docent after ringing the bell for entry. (After trying to open the door a few times, before noticing the sign about ringing the bell. Luckily, the front door has a good lock.)
In a nutshell, Richard Eaton was a Shasta County Superior Court Judge in Redding who died in 2003. He seemed to be a nice man who was raised by his grandmother, mother, and aunt after his father died during the flu outbreak in 1918 when Richard was 4 years old. Besides the fun facts that he served in Africa in WWII, liked frilly wallpaper and collecting paintings, never married, kept $100,000 in a safe in his closet, and wanted his home to be a museum, we didn’t learn much else about him. His widowed mother and his unmarried aunt both worked. His mother served as the County Treasurer for 13 years, and his aunt was one of the first female bank tellers in Redding.
Judge Eaton’s mother, Edith Behrens, was the oldest of three children. Her sister, Edna, lived with her and Richard. Her brother, Earl Behrens, graduated from Stanford, served as the Athletic Director for Stanford before serving under Hoover in his Food Administration, and then going on to be editor of the San Francisco Journal and then the San Francisco Chronicle. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his journalistic work from President Nixon in 1970.
We also stopped at the Shasta County Historical Society to see what they might have. They had an exhibit on pollinators. Very important, not so exciting. We will resume hiking, even with heat, tomorrow.
Peckish Travels 