Community Guide 2017
Samuel P. Taylor Park: More Than You Ever Knew from a memoir by Frances Rundall Gregg, shared by Susan Gregg Conard, with thanks to Margo Schmidt The Gregg family, Harold and Frances and four daughters, Chloe, Susan, Linda and Louise, came from Sebastopol in spring of 1942. Harold was working for the Marin County Planning Commission after his work as the architect designing Hamilton Air Force Base. The family were living for a brief while with Frances’ parents, who happened to be the first resident doctors in Petaluma. In his free time, Harold went house hunting, successful- ly finding a home finally in Yolansdale. The family arrived to take possession of the new house. Leaving the toddler twins in the car with oldest daughter, Chloe, Frances and Harold, with Susan in tow, walked up to the porch and knockd on the door. The door opened and the occupant told them, “Try to get rid of us.” This was our first lesson in tenants’ rights. Money had been paid for the down pay- ment, but we became homeless. The family returned to Petaluma. The tide was about to turn. The elderly owner of the property known today as Samuel P Taylor Park passed away. She had been diligent in her attempt to keep loggers
off her property, but the rules were soft and some cutting occurred. The owner made a request in her will about pro- tecting her land from loggers. The paper work came across Harold’s desk at the Planning Commission; interested in her request, Harold requested to go to Washington, D.C., to have the property declared a national park. This was war time, maybe not the best time for a request. Harold returned and suggested that the county take over the prop- erty, but there was not enough money to support a park. Harold’s trip to the state capital in Sacramento was a suc- cess, and the land became a state park. Now that the public was permitted to come to the park on the weekends, the park needed a supervisor. Harold, as an adventurer, asked Frances, “How would you like to go camping?” Frances was a good sidekick, so the answer was “Yes.” The goal was to camp for the summer, but it turned out to be a year. The Gregg family became the caretakers of the park. Home was a tarp to cover an area that was the kitchen, with orange crates for shelving. There were two tents with cots, more orange crates, one for each of the two daughters, Chloe and Susan. The other tent was for Harold, Frances and the twins, Linda and Louise. A fire was going all the time in the fire pit and the propane stove helped with meal preparation. Harold engineered a water heater to hold clean water. No purified water for the twins diaper clean- ing. The rule was “No talking to Mom” unless you worked the toilet plunger up and down in the washtub to wash the babies’ diapers whenever you came to talk. On his way to work, Harold took Chloe to Lagunitas School; Susan was not old enough yet for school and often went to work with Dad. She would visit the librarian and all those wonder- ful books in the basement of the county office on Fourth St. in San Rafael. Harold continued to actively look for a house. On the way to and from work Harold frequently picked up hitchhikers. In the mornings on his way to work he often picked up Madame Prevost, an elderly dowager in Victorian dress, taking her to the bus stop in San Rafael. On one of Har- old’s commutes “home to the park,” he picked up Madame Prevost at the San Rafael bus depot along with her cane, umbrella and two bags. She had taken the ferry from San Francisco and then the Greyhound bus to San Rafael depot. (The Grey- hound bus started into town from Inverness at 6:00am, stopping at bus stops through West Marin, ending at the San Rafael bus depot, then reversing the route at 6:00pm.)
Harold drove Madame Prevost to the bottom of Tamal Road in Forest Knolls. It was raining, so Harold insisted on driving Madame to her house. She invited him in, perhaps for tea. A conversa-
The Hotel was built in 1884. Camping at Camp Taylor was allowed at least as far back as the 1870s through the early 1900s. (From the Collection of Newall Snyder)
98
SGVCC
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker