Normally when I'm
driving this route, it's when I'm on my way to "Tokosaben," the
property my family purchased back in 1970.
When I was 13, my family
and four others bought 40 acres just outside of Greeley Hill, and the name I
came up with was voted as the unanimous winner.
Here's how I came up with the name:
I took the "T"
from the Tindall family; the "O" from the Opdyke (my) family; the
"KO" from the Kobiashi's; the "SA" from the Sato's; and the
"BEN" from the Benthin's. The
really cool thing about the name was that before we voted on the name, we all
voted on our choices for which of the five 2-acre parcels each family would get
to build their cabin on. Based on the
statistical math (5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5), the odds of each family getting their
first choice were 3,125 to 1. And that's
what happened.
Then, as if to prove
what a 'special' place it was that we were creating… the parcels that each of
the families chose as their first choice, were in the same order as the way I
had put the letters from their names together.
The odds of that happening are 9,765,635 to 1 (3,125 x 3,125).
Basically, Tokosaben had
a one in ten million chance of happening the way it did. All of the families have always felt that
this was how lucky we were to be together in the place we were. Two of the families have since sold their
parcels, but the feeling of 'community and love' is still being carried on to
this day, and I hope it continues that way forever.
