1956 • Willow Glen ~ It doesn’t take much Catholic upbringing to instill one with guilt, especially if the Church gets its hands on you while you’re young. The nuns prepared me for my First Holy Communion, teaching me to be thankful I’d been baptized so I wouldn’t have to spend eternity in … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2018
2.15 Gimme a Bromo
1955 • San Jose ~ He called us Daughter Number One, Daughter Number Two, and Daughter Number Three. Betty figured he called us that because he liked having daughters; Claudia figured it was because he couldn’t remember our names. Mom met Mr. Wonderful in a bar and married him soon after. … [Read more...]
2.14 Mr. Wonderful
August 4, 1955 • San Jose, another letter from Mom to her sister: Dear Verda: Hope you and your family are well as we have been (most of the time). I was married last Sunday in Carson City to Ray Haynie. No, I know you don’t know him but that’s the name. He is a grand person and the kids are crazy … [Read more...]
2.13 Mean Girls
April 1955 • San Jose ~ In April, Claudia came to live with Mom and me, and sometime after she arrived, Betty showed up on the doorstep. Mom wasn’t expecting her as she had chosen to live with Dad after we left Tuolumne. Betty stayed with him in a motel in Castro Valley for six weeks, … [Read more...]
2.12 Jefferson Elementary
1955 • San Jose ~ Jefferson Elementary was like all grammar schools, filled with the noise of kids screaming, whistles blowing, and bells ringing. I paid careful attention to my teacher, Miss Harrison, but when she started writing too many numbers on the blackboard, which was green, my mind … [Read more...]
2.11 Canned Peas 1955
1955 • San Francisco ~ My dad taught me to sew on a button, how to thread the needle and not make the thread too long because it would knot itself and catch in the fabric. He showed me how to wrap the white thread around the end of my finger and pull my finger and the thread through in one … [Read more...]
2.10 The Clue in the Diary 1954-1955
1954-1955 • San Jose ~ On my knees in my flowered flannel nightgown, my blonde head bowed, I leaned against the bed, hands folded together, and said my nightly prayers. Reciting the Our Father and Hail Mary, I ended with “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned...” scanning each day, from … [Read more...]
2.09 Toy Soldiers
1954-56 • San Jose ~ Mom was seldom around, and when she was, she wasn’t really "there." She escaped into sleep, her black eye mask blocking out the world, her small feather pillow hiding her head, and her rounded body buried beneath her blanket. The pills she took didn’t help her either, lined … [Read more...]
2.08 “Sprouse as in House”
1954 • San Francisco ~ "Sprouse as in house, Reitz as in right" was the slogan used by the company my dad worked for. Nobody said Reitz right; they rhymed it with Pete’s. I always corrected them. Sometimes Dad drove to San Jose and picked me up to spend the holidays with him, and other times Mom … [Read more...]
2.07 I Could Be Wrong
April 1954, Easter Vacation • San Francisco, California ~ I sat next to him on the #7 Haight bus as it wove through the city to the corner stop near his house. He lived just a block from the five-and-dime he managed on Haight Street, a red fronted Sprouse-Reitz. Together, we read every word in … [Read more...]