Hood Canal enters the account through a family relocation: Harry Rantz’s job there as a mechanic for the Hama Hama Logging Company meant that his young son, Joe Rantz, had to leave home and live near the logging camp. The place is defined here less by description than by the distance and separation its work imposed on the family.

Setting and Work

The logging job was out on Hood Canal, described as a half-day journey west from the city by car and ferry. Harry took the position after the family had moved into cramped quarters in the basement of Thula’s parents’ home. The passage gives no further physical description of the canal or the camp.

Connection to the Rantz Family

With another infant to care for and Joe seeming continually underfoot, Thula was unhappy in the crowded basement. When Harry found work on Hood Canal, Joe went with him. Still ten years old, he was placed with the Schwartz family near the logging camp rather than remaining with his family at home.

Narrative Significance

Hood Canal marks a practical consequence of the family’s economic circumstances: Harry’s employment required a move, and Joe’s place in the household shifted again. The brief reference ties the location to labor and childhood separation, without depicting Joe’s life at the camp or describing what happened there afterward.