Gladina's Poetry Path
Page 1

Happy Daze
A poem written in memory of my parents
Art and Maud Goehring
This may take a while to load
as there are a lot of photos
but if you like things about mining
it is worth the wait.

The first picture is 
 of the house I lived in 4 days after I was born.
Before Happy Daze.. The year was 1942

This picture is me in 1943

This is me at our Talc mine in 1945.
We did not mine gold during the war because talc was needed more.

This is our friend Jacks house, across the canyon from ours, 
the year was 1946.
Jack was like a grampa to me. My real grandparents died before I was born.

My Dad and Mom in 1946.
This is my favorite picture of them.

Happy Daze

When I was just a little girl 
We lived way back up in the hills
In a miner's cabin
With a cellar 'neath the floor
And a pond outside the door
And we were happy in our cabin
That was made of wood and tin
And the folks for miles around
Called our place HAPPY DAZE

This is me by the pond at Happy Daze with my cousin. 
She is learning how to pan gold.
The year was 1947 back to mining gold again.

My Mom and Daddy owned a gold mine
Where they worked real hard each day
To make a livin'
Diggin' nuggets from the sand
With a drywasher and pan
And there was sagebrush all around us
Lots of pine trees on the hills
And the folks for miles around
Called our place HAPPY DAZE

This is a drywasher.
It concentrates the gold on a riffle board 
using air that is pushed up through the riffles from a bellows 
activated by the crank. 
The gold is then removed from the riffle board 
and panned to get out all of the dirt that still remains.
This particular drywasher was designed by my Dad
He built many of them in the '30s
selling them for 50 dollars a piece.
Many Nevada Gold Miners made a good living 
using thes machines and others similar to them.
I still have 2 of them.
One like the one above and a larger one that was motor driven.

Oh I wish I was a kid again at HAPPY DAZE
When our life was plain and simple
In our cabin on the hill
Yes I wish I was a kid again at HAPPY DAZE


Dad with a 37 pennyweight gold nugget
in 1950.
An ounce of gold is 20 pennyweight.

Sometimes on summer afternoons
When big old storm clouds filled the air
The birds stopped singing
Then the lightening bolts would flare
Sounds of thunder filled the air
But when the rain had finished falling
All the air smelled fresh and clean
And the folks for miles around
Called our place HAPPY DAZE

Dad panning gold in 1949 or 50.
At our mine at Happy Daze.

Then all the cowboys would come ridin'
With their herds across the range
Their spurs a'jinglin'
Then they'd stop and rest a while
And they'd always make us smile
When they would tell us lots of stories
'bout the places they had been
And the folks for miles around
Called our place HAPPY DAZE

Each Sunday was a special day
Mom fried up chicken and baked bread
It smelt like heaven
Sometime neighbors would stop by
And we'd have some home-made pie
Then Dad would get down his ol' fiddle
And my mom her ol' guitar
And the folks for miles around
Called our place HAPPY DAZE

This picture was taken in 1953
Daddy was a really good fiddle player 
and Mom did a pretty good job on the guitar too.

Manhattan Maud

This is Mom in 1974 
She was 77 years old and still going strong and still panning gold.
This pan of gold has 11 ounces of gold in it.
Mom Passed away in 1986 at the age of 89.
She was still active up until about a year before she passed away.
And I would never trade my childhood for anything.
Happy Daze and all the other mining camps 
will always hold special places in my heart

I went back to Happy Daze in 1990
And was inspired to write the poem
You have been reading throughout these pictures
which this is the last verse of.

Not long ago I went back up
To that ol' cabin in the hills
My heart was broken
'Cuz the roof had fallen in
All that's left is wood and tin
But as I stood there I remembered
How it looked when I was young
And the folks for miles around
Called our place HAPPY DAZE

This is Mom and one of her partners
Drywashing gold in Manhattan, Nevada.
This was taken around 1973 or 74
She was either 76 or 77 when this was taken and she was still going strong.
Everyone called her Manhattan Maud

Oh I wish I was a kid again at HAPPY DAZE
When our life was plain and simple
In our cabin on the hill
Yes I wish I was a kid again at HAPPY DAZE
They were such Happy Days
for me
They were such Happy Days
for me
They were such Happy Days
for me
fffffffffffff

This and the pond which is to the right of this picture 
is all that is left of good old Happy Daze

Written by
Gail Goehring Durland
"Gail Gee"
The Gold Miner's Daughter
April 12 1991

Dad and Jack (my almost grampa)
building the tungsten mill in 1953
Jack passed away in 1955

Me and Bobby a friend of mine playing
cowboys and indians
1954
I hope you have enjoyed this trip through my life
HUGS to YOU ALL
And yes, I'm still involved in gold mining after all these years.
I just don't dig it myself any more.
I lease it out and let others do the work and pay me royalty.