One year before our move, I had to give a book report in front of the whole class. It was hard for me to talk in front of the class. It made me feel dizzy. This time we had to do it on the stage of the school auditorium. My book was Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. I was so nervous and flustered that in my concluding remarks I mistakenly said, "This is the best book I've ever written." Everyone laughed and laughed. I thought I must have used the wrong verb tense and corrected myself with, "This is the best book I ever wrote." More gales of laughter. With a very red face I finally realized what I had said wrong and hurriedly corrected myself with, "This is the best book I've ever read," and ran off the stage, probably in tears.
This book report was when I only had one class and one teacher. Our move to LaCrescenta was a huge change in life and happened right before starting Clark Junior High School. This move from one city to another meant leaving behind friends and making new ones. This is hard to do at 12 years old. Instead of one class I now had six and they all had different kids in them. I felt pretty insecure and overwhelmed not knowing anyone. But it turned out to be a good school.
Another challenge was the long walk to school and back. It was over a mile walking each way (I checked out the distance at googlemaps.com). Back in those days there were no school buses. Sometimes my mom would drop me off early on her way to work. Then I'd sit outside and read a book until the school opened. Most of the time I walked both ways.
No, there was no snow, and it was not uphill both ways! But our home was in the foothills of California! I did this walk even when I broke my leg -- which happened quite a few times. One mile up and one mile down. I wish I had a picture of walking up that steep street, Pennsylvania Avenue that led to Alabama St. It was a longgg walk every day, especially carrying books and homework.
This book report was when I only had one class and one teacher. Our move to LaCrescenta was a huge change in life and happened right before starting Clark Junior High School. This move from one city to another meant leaving behind friends and making new ones. This is hard to do at 12 years old. Instead of one class I now had six and they all had different kids in them. I felt pretty insecure and overwhelmed not knowing anyone. But it turned out to be a good school.
Another challenge was the long walk to school and back. It was over a mile walking each way (I checked out the distance at googlemaps.com). Back in those days there were no school buses. Sometimes my mom would drop me off early on her way to work. Then I'd sit outside and read a book until the school opened. Most of the time I walked both ways.
No, there was no snow, and it was not uphill both ways! But our home was in the foothills of California! I did this walk even when I broke my leg -- which happened quite a few times. One mile up and one mile down. I wish I had a picture of walking up that steep street, Pennsylvania Avenue that led to Alabama St. It was a longgg walk every day, especially carrying books and homework.
Other changes started happening too.This was the beginning of my teenage years,
years of the “hormonal fog.” I was a
real teen, loved Ricky Nelson and Pat Boone, learned all the top songs, went to
school dances, was enjoying junior high and making new friends. I was creating what I thought was a good life. Little did I know what life changing event was to happen between junior and senior high school.
Meanwhile, during
these junior high school years, I would often get angry at my mom or sister and
acted quite selfishly. I don’t know why, but I did. Plus I didn’t like it when
my dad would call from Chicago and they would have screaming matches on the phone. We'd all end up crying then. My dad never sent any financial support for us after we left Chicago so they probably fought about that too. But my mom did start making my sister and me write letters to my dad, even if he didn't answer. When he did answer, his responses were distant or negative.
My mom made made some pretty great changes
for us too. She started taking us on family outings. Every summer we would
go some place to camp out. Crestline was the closest and we sometimes went
there in winter when it snowed too. Sometimes Mom's boyfriends would come with
us. We visited many state parks, including Yosemite and Sequoyah State
Park. Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm were also favorite places
to go.
Here's a photo of Queenie and me during one of our Crestline trips. I remember being unhappy about going on this vacation because I had to go in one of my many leg casts.
But I'm so glad our mom took us on vacations and took pictures! No "selfies" back in
those days.
One summer we went to Carpinteria State Beach and slept in a tent near the train tracks. Nancy and I experimented with putting pennies on the track and watching how they got flattened. We sometimes had to search for our treasured penny, buried in the sand. We didn't know this was illegal!
Another time at Carpinteria we heard a sudden hoard of people descend on the beach and discovered it was for grunion hunting. We'd never heard of it, but learned about it that night! If you want to learn more about California Grunion hunting, try out this link to see some pictures: California Grunion Hunting.
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