Hi Grandkids! I'm back again with the next episode of my new beginnings in California. We stayed at the temporary housing unit at 32nd Street until my parents found a home for us. We went to see it once they had closed the deal and it was a light green house with a bougainvillea plant in the corner of the yard. The yard was pretty bare but we had a home to move into and we anxiously awaited the delivery of our furniture. We slept on air mattresses for a night and the next day our furniture was delivered. I had my own room again and my baby sister slept in my Mom and Dad's room because he was leaving again for a trip over-seas on the USS Montrose. My brother slept in my Grandma's room. We had 2 bathrooms and a large living room, dining room combination. We had a patio just off the kitchen and a 2 car garage. The weather was just beautiful and we were so happy to be on ground that wasn't covered in ice. At least I was! I was tired of falling on my keester every time I went outside and I loved the palm trees and white sandy beaches.
I fell in love with San Diego. I loved our little house and we all got busy working on the front yard. The back yard was large and fenced in and the patio was partially covered. We hadn't lived there long before we acquired a puppy. He was all white and so we named him Casper, after the cartoon character called Casper the ghost. He was so little that he would run to the edge of the patio and then stop and cry because he was afraid to jump the 2 inches to the ground from the patio. He was the cutest little puppy. My Mom loved animals and he was so friendly and cuddly. I found out in August that I would be going to a brand new High School called Castle Park High. It was huge after the one building in Kodiak. I didn't know how much fun I was going to have that year, but it would be a time I would never forget.
After I was signed in to go to school there, I went shopping for school clothes. It seemed so odd to not have to buy snow boots and a heavy winter coat and all the rest of the things we needed to survive the Kodiak winters. I bought skirts and blouses because there was a dress code and girls couldn't wear pants except on Fridays for the pep rallies. On Fridays we could wear denim pants, our Trojan Sweatshirts which were red, and tennis shoes. Our school colors were red, black and white. Being a Senior, we had a special Senior Lawn where only the Seniors could sit for lunch. Later on in the year we would have a container in the lawn where we would put our predictions for ten years from the day we graduated. I was in the Pep Club and the Benchwarmers. Benchwarmers would sit on the football field while the game was going on and keep the benches warm for the players. It was a lot of fun even though we lost every football game that first year! The school district had combined 3 different schools together to reduce the load on those schools, and the team hadn't played together before. So it really wasn't fair to expect them to win a lot the first year. I loved the school and we had so much school spirit. We had lots of activities and we were all friendly with each other. It was a great year. I liked my teachers and my classmates and had lots of friends. I became friends with a girl that would develop into my best friend and we spent the weekends buying Beatle records and shopping and just hanging out the way you do today. We had a lot of fun together and we went to all the football games. Her name was Billie-Jean and she had a little sister named Roseanne. They would come to my house for the weekend and we'd stay up late and watch scary shows on TV just to scare Billie. She was a scardy-cat and squeamish about blood, so we'd find all the Vampire movies.
That year in school made up for all the long lonely years in Kodiak. There was so much to do in San Diego and we were all amazed at the wonderful climate. My Dad was overseas and had no idea and no interest in what we were doing or how much we loved being in California. Later on in the year, Billie and I volunteered to take a Girl Scout group to Disneyland as chaperones. We had a great time. The girls were a lot of fun and we rode every ride we could in one day. Around 5 o'clock in the evening we rounded them up and got back on the chartered bus to go home. The rest of that weekend I spent at Billies' house. Her Mom always bought the kind of foods teenagers liked and she was a fun person to be around.
Then before you could turn around it was time for graduation. I bought a pretty white dress for vespers at school, and white lace pumps. I also bought a blue suit and white gloves for graduation itself. After Billie saw the suit she bought one just like it. That made my Mom mad, and it kind of irked me too. But she was my best friend, so I just let it go. We both went to a beauty college and had our hair done. Then on Graduation day we all got dressed and I put on the gown over my suit and put on the graduation hat. After we received our diplomas we were to move the tassle to the other side of the hat. Years later I still have the hat and tassle I think. I'm just not sure just where it is. I also have my diploma in the case I got it in. My Dad was overseas for graduation. He didn't call or even mention it when he got home. But he did come with more bad news. We were moving again and nothing I said or did would change his mind. I begged him to let me stay with Billie and her family, but I was just 17 and even though I had passed all the tests for Junior College and had all my classes scheduled, he would not change his mind. He said we would do things the Navy way. He would make the decisions and I would do as I was told. We at least got to say one last goodbye to Billie and we went by her house. She had a pin for me from Castle Park as a graduation gift, and I cried. David, my brother, and I were both crying. He loved California too. My Dad didn't seem to care and Mom never said a word, but I don't think she really wanted to leave.
Anyway, we were on the road for about 5 days. When we got to New Mexico, I had the worst headache ever and couldn't sleep. I drank coffee, took aspirin, but I still had no relief from it. The next morning we had breakfast and hit the road again. We went through New Mexico, a part of Texas, through Kansas, Missouri, then headed north toward Minnesota. In one city, we stopped to have something to eat and we found a park with tables and benches. We had bought sandwiches and drinks and my Mom and brother, sister and myself and grandma were all sitting on one side of the table and my dad on the other side. He wasn't overweight or anything, but when he stood up the whole table tipped over and we all landed on our backs with food all over us! We cleaned up the mess, found another place to buy food, and headed on our way.
We stopped to sleep at a motel several times, but a lot of the time the kids would just sleep in the back seat and Mom and Dad would take turns driving. My grandmother had left California ahead of us and went back east to her son's funeral. He had been sick with heart disease for a long time and had had several heart attacks. He lost a lot of weight, and one night he just died in his sleep. After the services, she went with one of her brothers to Florida to live for a while. After we finally got to Minnesota and found a house, she came back to live with us during the fall of the year. She didn't stay for long because she and my Dad didn't get along and rather than fight with him, she took the bus back to California. I don't know what the big attraction to busses was, but I decided after our trip to Kodiak that I'd never ride a bus again!
But back to where I was. When we finally got to Minnesota, I woke up freezing one morning and I knew we were there. Gone were the palm trees, only to be replaced by pine trees and more mountains. I was so sick of pine trees. I found a blanket and wrapped up in it, and fell back asleep. We pulled into Duluth one very cold evening, and found a motel to sleep at and get our bearings. We went to a restaurant called The Flame and had dinner. I remember we bought a Neapolitan Ice Cream pie and took it back to the motel along with hot coffee. We all had pie and cleaned up and got some much needed rest. Duluth had a lot of old buildings, but very tall ones and the buildings threw everything into shadows. Dad left us at the motel and went to his next duty station close to one of the Great Lakes. I think it was Lake Superior. He went to the Administration building and got his papers all taken care of and one of the men there offered for us to stay at his parents' house until they found housing.
We stayed in their basement which was finished and had a kitchen and I slept upstairs in their granddaughters bedroom as she was away visiting friends. Her name was Margie. Later on we would become friends and I showed her my High School Annual and told her about California. She was supposed to take a trip to visit some relatives in California, so I told her all about what I knew of California and hoped she would like it as much as I did. One day after Mom and Dad had been out looking for a place, they came back to the house and we all had dinner. Then my Dad said, "Let's go home!" I thought he meant we were going back to California, but to my great disappointment, they had found a house. It was really beautiful because the housing there was cheaper than in California. It was a brick house with a huge yard, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a finished basement that had a family room and 3 bedrooms that needed carpeting. There was a huge living room with a fireplace, a really beautiful dining room and kitchen with a walk-in pantry, wooden shutters on the dining room windows, and the kitchen had a window looking out on the front yard and the houses across the street. It was a much better home than we had here. But the house didn't matter to me. I just wanted to go home to San Diego.
I'll bet you are as tired as I was about all the moving and waiting for our furniture to be delivered to yet a new town. The town we moved to was a beautiful little place called Cloquet. It was a fairly new town, not exceptionally large, about the size of Spring Valley. The day we went to our house to wait for our furniture, we went out to breakfast at a little place across the bridge close to our house. I aways remember places by what we had to eat for some reason, and that morning we had bacon, lettuce and tomato club sandwiches with hot chocolate. After we ate we went back to the house to wait some more. I laid on the carpet in the living room and sulked. I was very good at sulking. I had had lots of practice over the years of moving. I just had that temperament also. I could get depressed really easy and had no idea that that was indicative of an underlying problem that would become a huge part of my life.
After our furniture was delivered and the movers were gone, we were left to unpack everything and clean up afterwards. Once more I found all my own things and made my room as comfortable and homey-looking as I could. I even moved one of the large overstuffed chairs from the living room into my room, put down rugs, found end tables and scarfs for the furniture, and my Dad and the movers had put my bed and dresser in the room for me. The dresser was one I had in my childhood and it had a large round mirror on top, and was a light oak wood. I had always had it in my room, and I remembered getting ready for graduation back in California, and sitting at that dresser and put on my makeup. My Dad had bought it along with a bedroom suite back in my hometown. The headboard and footboard got left somewhere on one of our moves and the only piece remaining was the dresser. Memories are precious. They give you stability and a foundation to stand on. Memories can also be the road to places you don't want to remember. You alone make that choice. But all are a part of who you are and to lose part of them, is to lose a part of yourself. This is good therapy for me, and at times I skip things I don't mean to skip, but that's because of things I will tell you about as this story unfolds. I may have to go back and fill in the blanks, but I will do that. You as the reader just have to be patient because I am remembering this as I go and sometimes my thoughts get ahead of me. I notice it myself and apologize for jumping back and forth but I will eventually get everything in the right place and make a more vivid picture for you of all I have experienced, to the best of my ability. You kids mean the world to me and I love my family so much. I will find all of it yet. So just hang with me and enjoy each little moment as it unfolds. I love you and will close for now because I've been doing this for a few hours and have other things I have to attend to. So please come back as often as you wish and read about Grammy's life and all the places and people I am destined to meet. See you much sooner this time. I love you, Grandma.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Bears and Salmon Berries
Hello once again Grandkids! This little entry is to tell you about all there was to see and do in Kodiak during the 3 years I lived there. First, if you didn't like to hunt bears, pick salmon berries, or fish, I found very little to do there. In the bank in town, there were large bear skins hanging on the walls with huge heads attached to them. There was a picture once of a man and the bear he had killed, and the bears head was so large, the man looked like a dwarf beside it! When we first got to Kodiak, we went to the Navy Cafeteria and there was a man there who told us about a girl who had been running away from a bear on Old Woman's Mountain and she turned her head to see how close the bear was and ran right over the cliff and fell to her death. They said she broke every bone in her body! I was already not in love with Kodiak, but that made matters worse.
Also, the crops in Alaska are huge compared to the fruit and vegies we get here. There were large berries of a pink-orange hue that the bears loved, and they were called salmon berries. They were about 2 times the size of strawberries, and really sweet. The natives of Kodiak made jelly and jam from them and it was really good. You were allowed to pick as many as you wanted, and if you didn't be careful where you picked them, you could meet up nose-to-nose with a bear! They were, at the time, the only pre-historic animal still living. They were 13 feet tall, and weighed literally tons! They were just huge! I for one was content to see them hanging in the bank!
There was a river just outside the base called the Buskin River and it was full of salmon. The bears would come down from the mountains in the spring and just reach in and take what they wanted. The sand in Kodiak was black, not white, and I assume it was caused by volcanoes. The birds would also peck at the fish and remove the eyes for food. Yucky huh!
In the winter they had storms called Willawahs, and the winds were at least 100 miles per hour! The snow would be like a white wool blanket pulled over your eyes and if you couldn't get to shelter, you'd blow away in a good storm (ha ha)! I had to wear glasses and one time I had to walk home in a blizzard and the snow froze onto my glasses and I had to take them off to be able to walk at all! I was extremely near-sighted and could only see a few feet in front of me. That was the longest walk home I can ever remember! Usually, people wore snow boots, heavy coats, hats, gloves, and a scarf just to go outside. I had red boots with black fur inside, a heavy black coat with white pile lining inside, and a hood. I had gloves of course, and I almost always managed to fall whenever we went outside. I'd find the biggest holes of slush and my feet would slip and down I'd go. Once I landed on my bottom! Ouch!!!
One end of the island was called Chinniack, and I don't remember what they called the other end of the Island. There were lots of trees, and once I saw a beautiful scene of large pine trees with moss hanging on the branches, and the sun shining through. It was a very senic place. It might not have been so bad if we hadn't felt so isolated. I lived there for 3 years, ending in May, of 1963. We left and came to our new station, San Diego! The next year, they had a major earthquake in Anchorage and it affected the Aleutian Island chain. The Island was hit pretty hard. It dipped down on one side after the quake. The tsunami, or tidal wave, was 30 feet high and it destroyed the town. The boats in the harbor ended up on top of houses and the only department store on Kodiak, called Achesons Department store, went drifting down the bay. All the residents in the little city had to be evacuated and they all were taken up on top of the 3 Sisters Mountain. From there, my friends could watch the tidal wave come rolling in. My best friend Karen came down to see me in Chula Vista after we graduated from High School, and every little movement of the ground sent her running to the door frame for cover. I didn't understand until we had one here in San Diego and I wake up every time we have one. I'm not as afraid as I use to be. After the one we had on Easter of 2010, I am no longer freaked out by the little ones!
When I first went to Kodiak, I had been on a diet and had lost my baby fat. I wore a size 10, but I was very shy and got embarrassed if a boy even looked at me. Then, being so miserable, I ate and ate and ate, for something to occupy my time and I got very heavy. I was so unhappy. The school was one little 2 story building in the middle of a muddy field. The school held all the grades in one bulding. From Kindergarten to 12th grade. They had no football team, no marching band, nothing but basketball. The kids who had always lived there were happy I guess because they hadn't experienced anything else. I had gone to large schools and been in the band and traveled to many places, and I couldn't see anything good about the place. Until my Junior year. . . .
In my Junior year, a boy came to our school from California. He was funny and very friendly, and didn't make fun of people. He was good looking, and wore nice clothes. He would tell us all about California, and his home town of Sunnyvale. The more I was around him hearing about California, I couldn't believe it when my Dad came home one day and said he had gotten new orders and we were going to move to San Diego! I don't know why I lied to this boy, but I told him we were moving to Sunnyvale! He got all excited and started telling me he was going to move back there with his Mom, because he had been sent to Kodiak to live with his Dad for a while. His Mom was in Sunnyvale, and he was homesick anyway. So, he told me all about Sunnyvale and all the places he would show me and introduce me to his friends at Sunnyvale High. I felt bad about lying, but once I had done it, I didn't know what to do about it. I waited until just before we left and told him the truth. We were moving to San Diego. He didn't get mad at me though. He just sort of looked down at the floor and smiled. I think he figured it out. I liked him a lot and we always passed notes and talked between classes. He was in my home room and we sat together. I was in love! I couldn't eat, or sleep and I lost a lot of weight before we left for San Diego. I cried when we left, but the future would hold so much fun and good things, that looking back over the years, I wish I'd known what the years would bring.
We left Kodiak on the last day of May, 1963. We took a small plane to Anchorage, where we got on a Boeing 707 and headed for Seattle, Washington. We refuled there, and flew on to Los Angeles. We flew rather low over the Golden Gage Bridge and it was pretty in the sunlight. I was excited to see what San Diego would be like. I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew we were getting off the plane in Los Angeles. The airport was huge and we had to rush to get to our next plane which was very small compared to the pane we flew out of Anchorage on. Once we were airborne, the plane was very noisy and shakey. My poor Mom was so nervous. I don't think she ever got on another plane! We landed in San Diego fairly quickly, and I was amazed at how hot it was! It was only 77*, but to me it was sweltering. I went out of the terminal before my parents did and sat on the curb, waiting for them to get the luggage. When they came out, we took a cab to a motel and got rooms for a couple of days. I just layed down and went to sleep, while they went out for dinner. They brought me food, and we stayed there a few days until my Dad was able to get checked in and find the Navy Temporary Housing at 32nd street. Then we moved in and stayed there for a month while my Mom and Dad looked for a house. I'll close for now and add some more at a later date. I love all of you so much, and I hope you have fun reading about my life and all the strange things I would see and experience. Have Fun!
Love, Grandma
Also, the crops in Alaska are huge compared to the fruit and vegies we get here. There were large berries of a pink-orange hue that the bears loved, and they were called salmon berries. They were about 2 times the size of strawberries, and really sweet. The natives of Kodiak made jelly and jam from them and it was really good. You were allowed to pick as many as you wanted, and if you didn't be careful where you picked them, you could meet up nose-to-nose with a bear! They were, at the time, the only pre-historic animal still living. They were 13 feet tall, and weighed literally tons! They were just huge! I for one was content to see them hanging in the bank!
There was a river just outside the base called the Buskin River and it was full of salmon. The bears would come down from the mountains in the spring and just reach in and take what they wanted. The sand in Kodiak was black, not white, and I assume it was caused by volcanoes. The birds would also peck at the fish and remove the eyes for food. Yucky huh!
In the winter they had storms called Willawahs, and the winds were at least 100 miles per hour! The snow would be like a white wool blanket pulled over your eyes and if you couldn't get to shelter, you'd blow away in a good storm (ha ha)! I had to wear glasses and one time I had to walk home in a blizzard and the snow froze onto my glasses and I had to take them off to be able to walk at all! I was extremely near-sighted and could only see a few feet in front of me. That was the longest walk home I can ever remember! Usually, people wore snow boots, heavy coats, hats, gloves, and a scarf just to go outside. I had red boots with black fur inside, a heavy black coat with white pile lining inside, and a hood. I had gloves of course, and I almost always managed to fall whenever we went outside. I'd find the biggest holes of slush and my feet would slip and down I'd go. Once I landed on my bottom! Ouch!!!
One end of the island was called Chinniack, and I don't remember what they called the other end of the Island. There were lots of trees, and once I saw a beautiful scene of large pine trees with moss hanging on the branches, and the sun shining through. It was a very senic place. It might not have been so bad if we hadn't felt so isolated. I lived there for 3 years, ending in May, of 1963. We left and came to our new station, San Diego! The next year, they had a major earthquake in Anchorage and it affected the Aleutian Island chain. The Island was hit pretty hard. It dipped down on one side after the quake. The tsunami, or tidal wave, was 30 feet high and it destroyed the town. The boats in the harbor ended up on top of houses and the only department store on Kodiak, called Achesons Department store, went drifting down the bay. All the residents in the little city had to be evacuated and they all were taken up on top of the 3 Sisters Mountain. From there, my friends could watch the tidal wave come rolling in. My best friend Karen came down to see me in Chula Vista after we graduated from High School, and every little movement of the ground sent her running to the door frame for cover. I didn't understand until we had one here in San Diego and I wake up every time we have one. I'm not as afraid as I use to be. After the one we had on Easter of 2010, I am no longer freaked out by the little ones!
When I first went to Kodiak, I had been on a diet and had lost my baby fat. I wore a size 10, but I was very shy and got embarrassed if a boy even looked at me. Then, being so miserable, I ate and ate and ate, for something to occupy my time and I got very heavy. I was so unhappy. The school was one little 2 story building in the middle of a muddy field. The school held all the grades in one bulding. From Kindergarten to 12th grade. They had no football team, no marching band, nothing but basketball. The kids who had always lived there were happy I guess because they hadn't experienced anything else. I had gone to large schools and been in the band and traveled to many places, and I couldn't see anything good about the place. Until my Junior year. . . .
In my Junior year, a boy came to our school from California. He was funny and very friendly, and didn't make fun of people. He was good looking, and wore nice clothes. He would tell us all about California, and his home town of Sunnyvale. The more I was around him hearing about California, I couldn't believe it when my Dad came home one day and said he had gotten new orders and we were going to move to San Diego! I don't know why I lied to this boy, but I told him we were moving to Sunnyvale! He got all excited and started telling me he was going to move back there with his Mom, because he had been sent to Kodiak to live with his Dad for a while. His Mom was in Sunnyvale, and he was homesick anyway. So, he told me all about Sunnyvale and all the places he would show me and introduce me to his friends at Sunnyvale High. I felt bad about lying, but once I had done it, I didn't know what to do about it. I waited until just before we left and told him the truth. We were moving to San Diego. He didn't get mad at me though. He just sort of looked down at the floor and smiled. I think he figured it out. I liked him a lot and we always passed notes and talked between classes. He was in my home room and we sat together. I was in love! I couldn't eat, or sleep and I lost a lot of weight before we left for San Diego. I cried when we left, but the future would hold so much fun and good things, that looking back over the years, I wish I'd known what the years would bring.
We left Kodiak on the last day of May, 1963. We took a small plane to Anchorage, where we got on a Boeing 707 and headed for Seattle, Washington. We refuled there, and flew on to Los Angeles. We flew rather low over the Golden Gage Bridge and it was pretty in the sunlight. I was excited to see what San Diego would be like. I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew we were getting off the plane in Los Angeles. The airport was huge and we had to rush to get to our next plane which was very small compared to the pane we flew out of Anchorage on. Once we were airborne, the plane was very noisy and shakey. My poor Mom was so nervous. I don't think she ever got on another plane! We landed in San Diego fairly quickly, and I was amazed at how hot it was! It was only 77*, but to me it was sweltering. I went out of the terminal before my parents did and sat on the curb, waiting for them to get the luggage. When they came out, we took a cab to a motel and got rooms for a couple of days. I just layed down and went to sleep, while they went out for dinner. They brought me food, and we stayed there a few days until my Dad was able to get checked in and find the Navy Temporary Housing at 32nd street. Then we moved in and stayed there for a month while my Mom and Dad looked for a house. I'll close for now and add some more at a later date. I love all of you so much, and I hope you have fun reading about my life and all the strange things I would see and experience. Have Fun!
Love, Grandma
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