Debra LaValley's Blog

My Nana had this photo (it is one of 3, I believe that I scanned) of the “Indians” that came to Penacook for many years at 30 Pines – back in the day when there were actual pine trees around 30 Pines! I thought I would share the memories that my Uncle Bob had of the days the Indians spent the summers – putting on shows and teaching the children about the Indian culture.

From my Uncle:

“I really can’t remember what years that they came to Thirty Pines but it was at least two and I figure I must have been around twelve + years old. Thirty Pines really did have lots of pines and where the strip mall was built there were lots of big trees and there were picnic tables spread out among the trees. People used to stop a Thirty Pines for gas (5 Gallons for $1.00) and would park in the shade of the trees for a picnic lunch. They got hot dogs, hamburgers, Tonic, ice cream, etc. at the store, there was quite a bit of traffic as the highway was the main route to the mountains, lakes and the ocean. During the motorcycle weeks the picnic area was a prime stopping point.

The picnic area was where the Indians set up their teepees and stayed for the summer season (at least two years as I remember. The “Tribe” was led by “Chief Thundercloud” and he was a real nice person, and all the braves and squaws were equally personable. I can’t remember where they came from but I seem to remember that they were from North Carolina. I guess they could be characterized as being gypsies with varying degrees of Indian bloodline.

There were a few of us from the Manor that had a lot of free time so we gravitated to Thirty Pines as there wasn’t a whole lot of action other than sandlot baseball (it was great !) and weeding the garden (not so great). Chief thundercloud took a few of us under his wing and we learned a lot about the culture from him and others. We learned how to do beading and made bracelets and belts. The most fun for me was when they would take us out in the woods to find the perfect small trees to make bows and arrows. We would spend hours looking for just the right tree with no knots to carve into a bow and learned how to make the arrows. We also made drums using coffee cans with rubber stretched over the cans and tied with leather strips.

Mom would give us food (bread, pies etc.)to take over for the people and they loved her food. The Chief and a few others came to the house for a meal as I remember. We always let Mom know where we were and many times she would send Mary or Betty? to let us know it was time to come home.

The “Tribe” used to put on shows for the tourists, they danced, sang, played Indian flutes and drums. They also sold beaded goods to support themselves and people would donate after the shows. Thirty Pines used to give them food also (The Welch family owned Thirty Pines I am pretty sure) as they brought a lot of customers to the store…”

A great snapshot of a simpler time – when summers seemed to last forever. Have a great summer everyone!
Summers certainly seem to fly by now. Can you believe the first week of July is already over? OMG!

Uncle Bob – Thanks for sharing your memories of the Indians at Thirty Pines, Uncle!

Debbie 🙂