1.19 Larry’s Diary, Jun-Jul 1947

1947 • Larry’s diary (age 13)
Jun 4  Graduated from 8^th grade elementary school. I got a wristwatch and binder as gifts. Went to graduation party and danced with Barbara Miles
Jun 5  At 2 PM left for 3 week vacation to stay at George and Verda Day‘s home in Redwood City as Mom and Dad going to Minnesota
Jun 7  Jim Day (cousin) took me to a drive-in restaurant in Redwood city
Jun 9  Mowed lawn for uncle Geo. Day
Jun 10  Mowed lawns for vacation money, earned $1
Jun 15  Went to movies Odd Man Out and The Hat Box Mystery with Jim Day
Jun 18  Received letter from Mom and Dad in Rochester, Minnesota. They had an accident in their car but no one hurt.

Jun 21  Postcard from Mom and Dad in Minnesota
Jun 22  Marceline Day got married to Roy today. Reception here at George and Verda Day home after wedding.
Jun 27  Earned $4.50 today mowing lawns
Jun 29  Mom came to pick me up. She brought my cousins Shirley and JoAnne Fouch and Carleen with her. They stayed overnight.
Jun 30  Went to So. San Francisco to pick up Betty and Claudia at Aunt Velma’s and Uncle Charlie‘s. I was in Redwood City for 26 days

Jul 1  Going to work in dads store from now on regularly
Jul 2  I was delivering papers on my morning route and a girl fell on courthouse spike fence and got a very deep cut on her, cutting a vein in half. I got her off and carried her 3 blocks to get help
Jul 3  My friend Larry rode his bike into a ditch to avoid a car, fracturing his skull. I carried his bike up out of the ditch
Jul 4  I set off sparklers and Betty and Claudia had sparklers and burning snakes.
Jul 5  Sonora Hospital had big fire. I helped carry out equipment from burning building- everybody was running in and out to get equipment. No one hurt
Jul 6  Cousins JoAnne and Shirley Fouch left for Yuba City. Mom took them to Stockton so they could take the bus. They stayed with us one week.
Jul 7  I quit my afternoon paper routes so I could work at my job in Dad‘s store

Jul 9  Went fishing this evening but only caught mosquito bites
Jul 13  Went fishing and caught 4 perch. Mom and Dad were in boat and they caught 2 fish including a 14” long catfish
Jul 17  Played kick the can after scout meeting
Jul 21  Bad case of poison oak from trip. Dr. Wallace gave me a shot and I will need another one tomorrow. Cost $7.05
Jul 23  Have lived in Sonora 4 years today. Picked blackberries from Sonora Creek
Jul 26  Only worked ten hours at store this week and got $5. Couldn’t work Monday to Thursday due to poison oak—bad case
Jul 28  Went to museum, mapped out 14 mile hike for 1^st class scout requirements
Jul 31  Went on 14 mile hike with Joe to Bald Mtn. Great views

Larry 1947

As soon as they were old enough, the kids worked at Dad’s store after school and during the summers. Betty and Claudia made a nickel an hour, Larry and Carleen earned fifty cents. As holidays and seasons changed, Larry helped Dad dress the storefront windows. The kids swept, supplied, serviced, stocked, stickered, and sold. They saved part of their earnings and spent the rest; they bought ice cream cones at The Dipper near the Uptown Theatre (a long narrow building with an aisle down the middle and a balcony where you could smoke during the movie) and root beer floats at Brandi’s Ice Cream Parlor. Movies were a dime, comic books were a nickel, and gumballs were a penny. In 1947 you could buy lots of things for a penny.

On late summer evenings when it was too hot to sleep my brother and sisters played hide-and-seek and kick-the-can, or threw pebbles in the air to the bats whipping like lunatics through the sky devouring mosquitoes; the bats were fooled for a split second when they mistook the stones for supper. On hot summer days, and they were all hot, they trekked two miles out the narrow two-lane road banked with shimmering scarves of ginger poppies and purple lupine to Moss’ swimming hole, their shoes crunching on the gravel roadside. After I was born they took turns toting me. Lime Kiln Road led eventually into the woods; over the smooth boulders and under the canopy of trees, through the tall grass and around the bend of the wild creek, the kids were finally rewarded with the cool wetness of a shaded swimming hole. There were hollows to fish, pools to dive, and a safe sandy shallow spot where they parked me for the day in the company of roly-polys, wooly bears, and katydids. At the end of a lazy afternoon, the hot, dusty walk home almost made the trip seem not worth it. Almost.

Moss’s at Lime Kiln Road

to be continued …

© 2017. Catherine Sevenau.
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