Vacation Memories

It's time to get back to writing my memories and Memory Monday is a good place to help keep me on track.  I'ts not Monday, it's Friday, but I have some catching up to do.  It's been too long that I have neglected my blog even though I'm writing every day about my life and times at Bubblews I can't add photos and short blurbs are more appropriate there than the long rambles of my blog.

This weeks challenge is a Vacation Memory.  It's not hard to have one as they all fall into the same vacation year after year and what a very lucky girl I was.  My grandparents had a small bungalow in Venice, California and we vacationed there every year.  It was a day's drive back in the fifties from Concord, up in northern California to Venice and I've written before about the drive.  That was an event in itself.  I wrote about it when wrote about fruit stands  on Bubblews.



My grandmothers house was a few blocks from the beach and the first trip was always by car as our parents were with us.  We parked in front of the dime store along the covered walkway built to look like Venice.

 The columns at each archway held carvings of faces at the top that were fascinating to me.

Inside the dime store were wooden floors and bins of yesteryear.  We all picked out new tin pails and shovels and suntan lotion and other beach items then walked out onto the beach to spend the day.  I can almost smell the Pacific, the seaweed and mussel shells.  The roar of the surf and the wet sand where we collected shells and starfish are embedded in my memory.  My dad took us into the water and helped build sand castles and my mom tanned and passed out drinks and snacks.  She occasionally waded a bit as we jumped up and down in the waves holding her hand and were careful not to splash.

We had two weeks at my grandparents and it was full of activity for all of us.  In addition to the beach there was a long boardwalk of shops to explore and a recreation playground.  The playground has been in several movies and TV shows, even in Sesame Street episodes.  I see it often.  We would walk over in the mornings and play all day at the center.  There were adults in charge there and we could check out play equipment such as balls, jump ropes and such.

When we walked home to my grandparents house we passed the four square church and the Safeway Supermarket, when we arrived we would hose off the sand from the backyard hose before coming into the house. I would imagine we left plenty of sand inside as well.

 I loved their little backyard.  It had an enclosed claw footed bathtub that had been repurposed into a fish pond that was full of goldfish, some grew to be quite large.  The sides were covered by baby tear ground cover plants and other flowers and decorated with shells.  There was a garage with lots of books in it, notably Perry Mason and other detective books where we spent hours reading.  They had Adirondack chairs on the patio and a flower bed all around with tropical flowers and trees that we didn't have up north. It was a great place to play.

Year after year we spent two weeks there and the memories fade into one large impression of surf and sand and fun.

Memory Monday

My Husband Passed Away

September 12, 1947 - October 30, 2014

It's still hard to believe and hard to write but my husband has died from the illness that no one could identify at the two local hospitals.  

It wasn't until late October, after eight months of great pain and suffering, six hospital stays and releases without fixing the pain,  that they gave up and sent him to Tampa General Hospital  There he immediately received treatment to take away the pain.  They knew how to fix his problem of a leaky aorta but it was too late.  He was too weak and did not survive the surgery.  

We chose to take him home to Dayton, Ohio and he was buried  with  military honors at the Dayton National Cemetery with family and friends present.

We had a wonderful Celebration of Life at my son's home after the graveside services

There was lots of joy, laughter and Bill stories told.  

A film was shown of his life through pictures and music.

 We were married 45 years ago in Concord, California

For our 45th wedding anniversary we took our first cruise together.  

We were invited to the bridge on the ship and the captain let Bill take the wheel of the cruise ship!

This was just days before he woke up in the greatest pain of his life that the

mystified the local doctors.

We had a wonderful life together.  I am going to miss him so much but we have both trusted Jesus as our Savior we have the hope and joy of knowing we have a home in Heaven.  

I can only imagine his joy now to be with his Lord and Savior and his parents and grandparents.  

I could not wish him back.

But I will miss him for the rest of my life.  

Monday Memories: My First School

My first school was Clayton Valley Elementary in Concord California

I attended school there from Kindergarten through 6th grade beginning in 1955

The principal's name was Mr. Gas the first 6 years.  

Later when I was in the 6th grade we had a new principal, Mr. Martin.  

Neither was feared by me. 

Here is a view of the front of the school  that I have taken from the web

It is no longer a public school, its now a private school and it looks nearly the same.

I can well remember raising the flag here as part of the Safety Patrol team.  In back to the left the large building was our Auditorium and lunch room.  It was called the Multi-Use room.  We also had indoor gym and I remember learning folk dancing inside those four walls.  At the far end from your view here, inside there was a stage with a dark velvet curtain.  The tables for lunch were folded into the wall and brought down every day.  The Janitor had a large key to unlock it and then pull it out where it made two tables.with attached benches.  

Below  these are the classrooms just off the right of the photo above.  They were the kindergarten rooms.  This is the view from the back side of the classroom where there was an enclosed playground dedicated to this class alone.  

It was bright inside with all the windows.  

My teacher in 1955 was Mrs. Logston

She was older and had gray hair.  I liked her but don't remember interacting much.  We were mostly herded as a group. There were several helpers every day, probably mothers.  

It was purely a play time, there were no lessons

  I remember the day was a morning session only.  We had to take a nap in the middle of the morning for a brief time and we stored our towel/mat in wooden built in cubbies. Each cubby had a picture and our name was below the opening.  We stored our mat and sweater or coats in them and papers to take home.

There were tall wooden easels for painting with a tray in front to hold pots of poster paint that was mixed from powder.  Large brushes were used and huge sheets of paper were tacked up.on the board.  We didn't paint often enough, it was my favorite activity.  Each easel was free standing and build like an A frame.  Children painted from both sides.  

Long short tables and chairs were arranged in a U pattern on one side of the classroom.  We played with clay some days and I remember doing finger painting at the table.  A starch was poured on paper and drips of color added by the teacher.  Our clothing was protected by wearing a backwards men's shirt. 

At the tables every day most of the children had graham crackers for a snack.  Some children brought in money for milk with the crackers and they were seated separately at a round table.  There were very few at the table.  Most children only had the graham crackers. 

These were the classrooms for the older grades.,  Notice that the whole wall was windows.  The classrooms were very light.  This was the back of the building.  They were all connected by a network of covered hallways 

Here you can see the covered hall on the left side and  window side on the right./  There were no fences like you see here when I went to school.  

Here is a photo of the covered hallways.  In California the weather was mild so it was only rain we had to contend with .  I remember walking up to the school after hours or on Saturday or during the day in summer and roller skating on the smooth walkways.  

 This picture clearly shows the pipes that held up the ceiling and the horizontal pipe that kept us off the lawns back in my day (these are pictures off the web and I have no idea who these people are)

The horizontal pipe is important as we often sat on them, walked on them and laid across them on our tummies and did little forward rolls.  All illegal of course.  But the school grounds were open so they were available to us to play at during the summer and before and after school.  

Here you can see how light the classrooms were.  The ceilings were high and green blackboards lined the front wall and the wall to the right where the door way was out to the open covered walkway 

Another shot below of the outside windows.  You can see how high the ceilings were!

I have found all these photos online on the Facebook of the private school.  It's amazing how well built it was, it was almost 60 years ago that I first went to school there and it wasn't a new school.  

Read here on Memory Monday about other people who wrote about their first school

Early Memory

 I have been invited to join a brand new blog party called 

Memory Monday

This is right up my alley!  I hope to contribute often.

The first assignment was "What was your first memory?"

This was not my first memory, but it reminded me of my first memory which was attending a birthday party somewhere.  There were a lot of balloons, decorations and a long table with chairsfull of children.  I was about two.  I have a photo and have often wondered if I remember because of the photo or not.  

If I am only remembering the photo, I must choose a memory where there is not a photo.   I must choose it from the house we lived in but since I was unaware of age, my memory could have been anywhere from ages  two to four.  I have lots of memories of that residence.

I can remember eating an openfaced mustard sandwich sitting in the open glass sliding doorway feeling the sun on my face.  I loved bread and mustard!

I remember not wanting to take a nap and happily looking at picture books in my bed and another time jumping on the bed.

I remember riding double on my sisters bike (I'm sure that was forbidden) and that would be closer to age 4 as she was two years older.


As for the photo above, it was a shock to see it as I have no memory of ever seeing it before.  That is my mother in the doorway, my uncle behind her, acting up for the camera, my three sisters and my cousin sitting at the table at my grandparents home in Oakland.

It's a party, I see streamers and part of a cake with candles.  I don't know whose party, the cake is in front of Patty and an empty chair but as her birthday is Christmas Eve there are no decorations for Christmas up, so it cannot be hers.  Two cousins are missing, Susie and Terri. Terri also had a Dec birthday the same as my mothers, Dec 15, but the house still would have had Christmas decorations up.  So my guess is the the missing cousin SUSIE should be seated in the empty chair next to Patty in front of the cake.  I should have been a detective!

   I remember so many items in the room, but that ceramic doll on the table was interesting because it was a napkin holder.  I loved it.  The napkins made her skirt!  I well remember the oriental print on the wall and, peeking into the kitchen, I remember those really nice padded striped kitchen chairs.

I just discovered the photo and was planning to save it on Ancestry dot com where I've been doing a lot of research, but now I'll have it here.

I'm right in the front, by the way!  Karan is two years older, Janet 4 years younger.  Across the table from me is Patty a year and a half younger than me.  My cousin Jackie who is near Karan's age. I'm going to date this photo about 1959-60.

Linked to:

Share your cup Thursday

Beautiful Florida

Sometimes I just need to share a particularly glorious fall sunset.  There is lot's of pink in this one! 

This was a few days ago

 Bill and I sat

out in a gazebo

and just enjoyed the colors against the silhouette of the tree.

Linked to:

Pink Saturday

Beachy Sunset

There is nothing like a beautiful sunset.  It's especially nice when you are on a date!  

This last hospital stay we almost lost my husband.  He had begun bleeding out of an artery and had lost so much blood he almost died.  His blood was too thin from his blood thinner they couldn't do surgery right away.  They gave him unit after unit of blood all day and night until 3 am the next morning.  They went in and coiled off part of his kidney.  If he hadn't stopped bleeding, they were going to take the entire kidney.  

The recovery was very slow and after two weeks in the hospital he had barely recovered enough to walk.  They sent him home too early.

He developed so much fluid in his legs that on his followup doctor visit two days later, his doctor sent him to rehab.  

Bill was in the rehab center for a week because he had so much fluid on his legs and feet.  He also need physical therapy to relearn how to use his legs and being able to move well on his own.  He worked hard and improved his walking and was able to easily rise from a sitting position and strengthen his arms.

We discovered after a week in rehab, if you can walk, you can go out for a bit with someone responsible.  Rehab is not like a regular hospital stay.  Upon learning that, I whisked him off and we went home for the afternoon and he got to watch the Bucks play football and then we went off to the beach to see the sunset.

 We had a light supper afterwards at Dennys where they serve breakfast 24/7.  

It was lovely.  He came home just yesterday, discharged completely.  I hope he can stay home for awhile.  

Where the Red, Red Roses Grow

My mother sang this song to me when I was growing up.  I can remember  her coming in and sitting on the bed if I was restless and singing this song.  It was only later when I began singing it to my children that I wondered about it.  I found out it was a song her mother sang to her.

When my grandmother was dying we gathered around her hospital bed and visited and chatted.  She had pneumonia but was in good spirits.  We talked about many things.  Questions were answered and one that I asked her, if she remembered this song.  I had made up a line for it because I didn't remember it exactly.

She remembered it word for word.  She was 90 years old, the day before she died and she sang it to all of us for the last time.

There is only one recording of it on Youtube.

The song was published in 1926

just two years before my mother was born.  She was the last baby in the family

so I wish I had asked about other "lullabies"  that she sang.  

Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHRmLfxkQnY