Zak and Lee Hyslin in front of Grandmother Catherine Hyslin’s portrait

Richard Hyslin

Hand carved chair in the Hyslin home

Hyslin side yard

The Hyslin property on Garden Home Road at SW 83^rd Avenue resembles “old Garden Home.” According to County records, this large home was built in 1930, although the family suspects it might have been earlier.

Zachary and Lee Hyslin have lived there most of their lives with their mother Lois Hyslin. Their paternal grandmother, Catherine Hyslin, also lived there in the 1940s through the 1970s. Catherine’s husband and the grandfather, Thor Hyslin, is mentioned in this story. Click here to read their father Richard Hyslin’s obituary from Texas.

Grandparents Thor, from Norway, and Catherine Hyslin were the second owners of the property. Thor’s father was a physician who died at age 57. Thor is remembered to have served in the Postal Service on the rail lines, not in Garden Home. He told the children he had to wear a service gun with that position. He worked other jobs and was an avid golfer. Catherine attended Oregon State College in Corvallis, majoring in music performance.

The father, Richard Hyslin, moved to Texas in about 1967 where he accepted a position as a professor at Pan American College, now University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. Serving as Chair of the Art Department for 13 years, he was a recognized artist who exhibited his ceramics and sculpture nationally. Lois, now retired, has been a dental hygienist.

Lee has been a mechanical engineer and Zak a software engineer.

Zak, (as he calls himself) and Lee remember a wonderful childhood of adventure and lots of kids for all the free time games. They saw pheasants all about and loved catching the tadpoles and crawdads and garter snakes to scare each other. They climbed the cedar trees and hunted golf balls from the Portland Golf Club to sell back to the players. Whiffle ball and baseball were played in the front yard. Neighboring children taught them how to pull up the strong apple tree sprouts to poke into dropped apples and sling them down the road.

Click here to see a class photo and Dick Vonada’s version of the BB gun wars.

The Hyslins were able to look down the road and see the Portland Golf Club’s annual 4^th of July fireworks and presentations, north of their property a block or two, with fewer houses and trees than now. Zak and Lee also liked earning money as caddies at the Golf Club, especially carrying two bags, and earning twice as much. The bags were heavy and a challenge to do a good job. Baseball cards and Nerf footballs, the fun goes on.

The large property, 0.7 acres, contains various fruit trees such as Royal Anne cherries, King apples, and more.