Sequim Irrigation Festival

Cliff Vining was born to Iona and Sidney Vining in New Mexico.  He was born in 1925, the same year that his family moved from New Mexico to Sequim.  He was the middle of five children (Lurline and Cletus born in New Mexico, Lillian and Douglas born in Sequim). 

Cliff remembers a lot of May Day celebrations when he was a kid.  There was a baseball diamond and he danced around the maypole.  In an alternating line the boys and girls they would dance, weaving in and out until they ended up with a very colorful pole.  When Cliff was in the 2nd grade he was a train bearer for Irrigation Festival Queen Dorothy Brooks.  She was a redhead and they wanted boys who were redheaded.

Cliff graduated from Sequim High School in 1939 and went to work for the Clallam Co-op grocery store.  In 1942 he moved to Grandview to help his father with their farm.  That was where he met Bette Lou King, who was the bookkeeper for a hardware store.  They were married in 1948 and she took over the bookkeeping for their businesses.  They had been married for 57 years when Bette passed away in 2005.  Cliff says he “has had a good life and a good wife”.

In 1945 he purchased a can route and hauled milk for the Carnation Company.  He discontinued hauling milk in 1957.  But in 1961 Cliff purchased Carnation bulk tank trucks and hired drivers to haul milk.  He was in the dairy business for most of his life, as he spent 35 years hauling milk.  He feels like “he was born under a cow”. 

In 1955 Cliff enrolled in television college in Portland and learned the repair business.  After graduating Cliff built a shop in Grandview and sold and repaired radios and televisions.  He sold Cliff’s TV when he retired, and it is still in business. 

In 1963 he purchased his first farm and raised grapes and asparagus.  Then in 1965 he purchased another vineyard.  They raised juice grapes and sold them to Welch’s.  He says grapes and the times were good for farmers.

Cliff always remembered Sequim and had in the back of his mind that he would return to Sequim one day.  In 1980, he and Bette sold their businesses and land and retired to Sequim.  In his spare time, he likes to golf, fish, garden and work as a volunteer at the food bank.  Cliff has been a volunteer at the Sequim Food Bank for 18 years.  He says this is a very generous community that really supports the Food Bank.