The house in the left background of this photo was "home sweet home" for my maternal grandparents, Arthur and Addie McClain, and their children, from 1918 to 1947. It was next to the rail line between Albany and Lebanon, Oregon. It was a farm, but was also in a small community that had grown up at the junction of two rail lines. There was a train depot, a couple of churches, and a community hall, a schoolhouse, a seed warehouse, along with the other houses and families that made up the community of Tallman.
The group in the foreground are standing on the platform of the train depot. In back are my great-grandparents Sarah and Jack Hammel, who had come from Albany to visit. In front, from left, are my mother Florence, her brother Bernard, her cousin Pat Hutchins, and her sister Betty.
Over the years, that house saw a lot: a birth, tragic deaths, children growing up, at least two weddings in the back yard, and grandchildren coming to visit. I didn't ever get to visit that house, but my older siblings have fond memories of visiting Grandma and Grandpa there.
Sad to say, if you went to this location today, you would not see the house, the churches, the community hall, the schoolhouse, the seed warehouse, the train depot, the rail junction, or many of the nearby houses. The community is gone. Not a trace of it is left. "Sic transit gloria mundi," I guess. But during the years the house and the community around it existed, it was a place of warmth for my grandparents, their family, neighbors and friends.
