1960s • La Habra ~ My brother-in-law—a jug-eared, skinny 6’4” guy with a dark flattop, a two-day-old shadow, and an Elvis Presley lip—worked as the night foreman at National Tapered Wings. Over the years Chuck built airplane parts for Lockheed, Boeing, and Gulfstream. When his cousin … [Read more...]
3.20 Simon Legree
1960 • La Habra ~ A letter to my father: Dear Daddy, I don’t want to live with Carleen any more. I am taking the bus to come stay with you. Please pick me up at the Greyhound station this Saturday. Please. Carleen is mean, and she doesn’t really love me. She just wants me here to be her … [Read more...]
3.19 The Furies
1960 • La Habra ~ Debbie, Randy, and I had daily chores. We made our beds, cleaned our bathroom, and fixed our breakfast. We vacuumed, swept, and dusted. I helped with dinner. Debbie set the plates and Randy got out the silverware. After dinner I washed the dishes, Debbie dried, and Randy put away … [Read more...]
3.18 Gus the Helms Man
1960 • La Habra ~ The Fuller Brush man, the Good Humor man, and the Helms man were regulars in our neighborhood. I loved the Helms man. I loved anybody who brought food around. Bow-tied Gus Gustavito drove slowly up our street, a distinctive hoot-hoot tooting his daily arrival. His mustard-yellow … [Read more...]
3.17 Queen of Hearts
1960 • La Habra ~ My sisters drank pot after pot of Folgers and smoked pack after pack of filters, complaining the whole time how crappy their hands were, bad-mouthing Mother, and bitching about their husbands. I was clear I didn’t like coffee or cigarettes, clear I was not going to grow up and be … [Read more...]
3.16 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes 1960s
Early 1960s • La Habra ~ Sequestered by the murky outline of the San Gabriel Mountains, Orange County had constant smog alerts, sometimes the air so awful they closed the schools. Everyone was told to stay inside; outside was smothered in a pea soup of haze so dense that not even a Santa Ana wind … [Read more...]
3.15 Beach Camping
1959 • Salton Sea, California ~ My least fond memory of that summer is water skiing at the Salton Sea, a huge inland lake in the desolate Sonoran Desert. The place is a forsaken moonscape: saltier than the Pacific Ocean, hotter than blazing cinders, and smellier than rotting catfish. No benches, … [Read more...]
3.14 Waiting, Waiting, Waiting
1959 • La Habra ~ That summer Chuck bought a boat, bringing an end to our Sunday drives. It was a fifteen-foot, white wood-hulled, mahogany-decked Trojan Chris Craft powered by a 50-horsepower Evinrude outboard motor with a 75 lower end. We didn’t visit missions anymore, now we went on camping and … [Read more...]
3.13 Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
1959 • La Habra ~ Chuck wasn’t prejudiced; he hated equally all those he believed were inferior to him. His spewing slurs insulted every race, color, nationality, and ethnic origin. His left middle finger was constantly raised in salute as he angrily cursed the wops, cut off the chinks, and careened … [Read more...]
3.12 Chutes and Ladders
1959/60 • La Habra ~ Carleen always called Randy a schnook, but he wasn’t, he was just innocent. On the opening day of the Pomona Fair, we were in line at the cotton candy stand when three brass-buttoned uniformed women in garrison caps smartly walked by. "Mom, what are they?" Randy … [Read more...]
3.11 Sunday Drives
1959 • La Habra ~ My brother-in-law’s idea of a family outing was a Sunday drive in his 1956 two-door Mercury Monterey, a two-toned gray and salmon (“titty-pink,” my sister called it) hardtop with a 312 engine, white-walled tires, and big chrome bumpers. He didn’t take us to the local fair or … [Read more...]
3.10 Tie Pin and Cufflinks
1959 • San Francisco ~ In the late afternoon on August 7, 1959, my step-mother, while stepping off a downtown bus in San Francisco, fell, had a heart attack, and died shortly after. She was 73. Carleen flew to San Francisco to be with Dad for the funeral; she was more broken up than … [Read more...]
3.09 The Amana
1959 • La Habra ~ Carleen had this thing about never running out of food. Her cupboards were loaded with bags of pasta, rice, and beans. Boxes of Cheerios, Wheaties, Trix, and Kix were lined up next to loaves of Wonder Bread, rolls, and buns. There were Twinkies, Oreos, HoHos, and Snowballs. There … [Read more...]
3.08 KRLA and KHJ
1959 • La Habra ~ Cruising Whittier Boulevard, we took a spin to the A&W for frosted mugs of root beer or to Tastee Freeze for fried taquitos and banana splits with extra chocolate and whipped cream, Debbie and Randy in the back, Carleen and me in the front, riding low in the seat with the … [Read more...]
3.07 Saving Grace
1959 • La Habra ~ Along the rear side fence I planted three huge sunflowers, a patch of blue lupines, and vines of sweet peas. I loved the sweet peas; they were Dad’s favorite flower. And that’s what Carleen called me, “Sweet Pea.” My sister was my sun and my saving grace, and along with my … [Read more...]
3.06 My 1954 plain
1959 • La Habra ~ I had the two coin collections Larry gave me when I lived in San Jose with Mom. The Album for 20th Century COINS of the WORLD was a large, green, four-paneled book with plastic strips sliding over 144 holes which held the coins in place. I had forty-seven holes filled with coins … [Read more...]
3.04 Nana
1959 • La Habra ~ We had a boxer named Nana. Debbie wanted a puppy and when a guy at Chuck’s work brought in a passel of puppies he brought one home for her. Debbie got to name her. Nana was good with us kids but rambunctious, jumping up and knocking over the little kids. She wasn’t allowed in the … [Read more...]
3.03 Sierra Vista School 1958
1958 - 59 • La Habra ~ I knew the way to Sierra Vista Elementary; up our street two blocks, left at the corner, then six blocks up the hill. My grades improved and I became a “B” student in Mr. Powell’s fifth grade room. He had a way with kids: when any of the boys disrupted class, he’d … [Read more...]
3.05 A Mother’s Instinct 1959
1959 • La Habra ~ Mom moved back to California soon after I did, and upon her return stayed with us for a short time. Taking me shopping, she had me try on a blue and white ruffled one-piece bathing suit, flowered shorts, matching crop top, and Capri pants. Then she had me put my own clothes … [Read more...]
3.02 Orange Groves and Crackerboxes
Late 1950s - early 1960s • La Habra ~ In 1956, Orange County, once acre-after-acre of orange and lemon groves, was transformed into row-after-row of identical single-story crackerbox houses sold on the GI Bill to young families with lots of kids. Chuck and Carleen bought one in 1957 for $12,950: a … [Read more...]
3.01 La Habra 1958
June 1958 • La Habra, Orange County, California ~ I had my picture taken with our neighbor Renie, said goodbye, then Mom boarded me on a plane for California to stay with Carleen for the summer. Having traveled alone on buses I wasn’t afraid to fly by myself. I knew as long as I got on the right … [Read more...]