GRANDMA LAMORA'S MUSINGS
2004
Several years ago my son Alex suggested that I spend some time recapping my life story and remembrances of the family. I found an outline and decided to give it a try. It has taken a good deal of starting and stopping! And now some ten years later I am re-doing the whole thing. One way of getting things into some kind of order was to look at our photo albums and let that jog some ideas.
MY PARENTS and MY SIBLINGS
My parents were RAY HAROLD GARNER and NELLA MAE HOLLENBECK. I was born 19 September 1917 at New Monterey, California at 808 Laine Street at my parent's home. Some 75 years later my sister and I visited the area and believed that we found this little house still standing. All of the other addresses that we looked for had been replaced by apartments and the addresses no longer existed. I have attached a snapshot of my mother sitting on the front veranda two weeks after my birth.
My parents were aged 27 and 30 when I was born. My older brother, Theron Henry, was age 6 at the time. He was born 11 May 1911 at Hoquiam, Washington with his Grandmother Susan Hollenbeck and a doctorTattending. Theron was named for his two grandfathers. My father's sister Bernice Garner was present at my birth, as she told me on her death bed. It is an irony that I was present with her at the end of her life as she had been at the beginning of MY life. I could not say my brother's name well, calling him Bubba and much later Bud. My parents called him Theron.
My name was a made-up name, or an alteration of a name. The thought was to name me after a friend called LaNora, but my dad was afraid I would be nicknamed "Nora" and suggested they change it to "Lamora". But I was never called that at home. I was always "Sister" or, later, Sis. My parents intended that my first name be Bernice, but the doctor reported my name as Lanora only. When I discovered this in 1945 on my newly requested birth record I promptly dropped the "Bernice" and sent in a correction of the spelling for "Lamora". My name has been a constant source of explanation wherever I go.
On 12 October 1920 my sister Raenella was born in Pacific Grove, near Monterey, California. Her name is that of both my parents. She was never called that at home but was Baby and, later, Babe. On 29 September 1930 our younger brother Russell Harold was born in South Gate, California. Mother cleverly asked my sister and I to choose a name for him, then she steered us into using a name that appears a place or two among uncles or grandfathers and we chose our father's middle name "Harold" for his middle name so that his initials were that of his father. That brother was called Russell and Russ by everyone.
Finally, as adults, we began using our real names.
Mother devoted her time to running a well kept home. She was an excellent cook and seamstress. Gardening was also a favorite, especially flower-gardening. Every yard and house we ever lived at was much improved by the time we moved away. She and her sister Esther had worked for a year or two at the cannery in Aberdeen, Washington, cutting clams, before they married. Dad had also worked there as a mechanic. The Hollenbecks and Garners lived very near one another in Westport in 1910. The Garners had moved there before 1900 and the Hollenbecks arrived about 1908. My parents married in August 1910 and by 1913 they had moved to California. Aunt Esther and her husband, Joe Wingarter, moved to Australia soon after their marriage in 1910. Mother's younger sister, Mary, also married in 1910 to John Sprock of Point Pleasant, about 20 miles south of Sacremento, California. The VANNATTA families and the GARNER families had both lived in Grant County, Wisconsin before migrating west.
EARLIEST MEMORIES
I am not sure I remember much before about age 4. Raenella was about a year old when my father set up a woodcutting business in the foothills outside Salinas. The hot summer days are not forgotten. A summer walk in the hills and the wonderful smell of sycamore trees is today an instant trip back to childhood for me.
A bit later we lived outside Paso Robles on the Padarewski Ranch, cutting wood. Dad set up three tents with wooden walkways between. It was winter, with perhaps a foot of snow on the ground. I vividly remember two events from that time. A fire had been banked in the woodstove in each sleeping tent, and somehow the one where we three children slept caught the tent afire. Luckily my older brother raised the alarm and Dad was able to control everything.
Mother's younger brother, Albert Russell came to visit while we lived there, and talked my father into going out on a gold hunting trip. When they didn't return soon enough, Mother ran out of wood and knew that she could not remain at the tents. She readied the group and walked out to the nearest road, she carrying Raenella and Theron carrying me. The first car passing along offered a ride into the town of Paso Robles where we knew some friends. That is where Dad found us. No more living out in the hills! Mother had enough.
We rented a house in Paso Robles where Dad came down with the flu and was delirious with fever one night when we had an earthquake. He leapt from bed and tried to find the light, which was a bare bulb hanging from a long cord in the center of the room, a very common thing at that time. He was wildly swinging his arms at the equally wildly swinging light! and hollering "Babe! Babe! Get out of there!" In his delirium he thought the horse was among the tent pegs and that was causing the shaking. The horse used at the woodcutting site was called Babe.
Another hot place I recall was Hemet, California. I was 4+ that year, when we lived six summer weeks there while Dad worked a certain job. Work was scarce and Dad followed jobs about, doing cement work, running the mixer and any other machinery as needed. I remember the huge apricot tree adjacent to the little house we lived in. I played alone, as my
sister was still a baby. Those were the best apricots I have ever eaten, while avoiding the bees that also enjoyed the ripe fruit.
MORE ABOUT MY PARENTS
I began writing these memories in the 1980s. How different were the days when my parents were born. Mother Nella Hollenbeck was born 9 May 1887 in California, in the foothills of the San Joaquin Valley. Father Ray Garner was born 1 July 1890 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where his father James Henry worked for a furniture company. A letter of recommendation exists, probably given to him when the family moved to Washington State, I believe in 1894, where they may have lived for a time in Aberdeen or Hoquiam and finally moved across the bay to Westport.
My father was eldest of 6 children. He and sister Zola were born in Wisconsin. In 1894 their parents moved to Aberdeen, Washington. Their trip must have been by train. Before 1900 my Grandfather James Henry Garner had bought a lot in Westport, Washington and built a large two-story shingled house where they raised the 6 children. At age 12 Ray quit school and worked with his father in his draying business. James Henry's wife, my grandmother Mattie Stone Garner, died at age 45 of pneumonia on December 25, 1912 and was buried at Aberdeen Cemetery, Washington.
Mother was the third child in a family of ten, raised on ranches and farms in the San Joaquin Valley until age 11, when the family moved by horse and wagon to Condon, Oregon where her father, Theron Hollenbeck, set up a blacksmith business, while the family lived out of town on a rented farm. By 1908 they moved to Washington State and granddad Theron set up his blacksmith tools in the big forest out of Aberdeen. Mother and younger sister Esther decided to go into town and get work at the cannery. They put their suitcases on a broomstick between them and hiked out to the rail line, wearing old shoes and changing into better looking gear later. The two girls cleaned clams at the cannery and there met their future husbands.
By the time of the 1910 census the family lived at Westport very near the Garner family. I am not sure just where the cannery stood, but it may have been in Aberdeen. Dad worked there as a mechanic, and soon joined the Coast Guard at the Station in Westport. When he was transferred to Neah Bay, Washington he asked mother to marry him right then, in August, rather than wait for their planned day in October. Dad was age 20 and Mother was age 23.
Mother was 5' 6" tall, with light hazel brown eyes and medium brown straight hair. I favor my mother in general appearance, being 5'5" in height, with darker brown eyes and darker brown hair. We both were very thin in younger age, gaining weight in later life, but never heavy. We both had freckles. Mother's faded away by middle age, but I still have most of mine even at age 90!!
Dad was 5"9" with complexion that sunburned to a chocolate brown in his outdoor work. He had dark brown eyes that faded to a light brown in later life; and black curly hair like his mother. His dark coloring led the Portuguese in Washington to believe he was one of them. Latinos and Jews in the Los Angeles and Boyle Heights area, thought he belonged to them. All of this amused Dad very much. By age 60 he was snow white. Dad was always thin and wiry. He had a long torso and short legs. Sitting, he looked tall, but standing he was medium height or short appearing.
My parents never fought, or at least we children did not know about it. I believe they had a happy marriage. When I decided to marry Dad said to me, "You know, it is not everyone who gets along like your mother and I!" And mother cautioned, "You don't marry someone you can't live without. You choose someone you can live WITH."
Both Dad and Mother could tell a good story and many were the hours that I listened when guests were visiting. My parents could ramble on about their lives in the big woods of Washington, and the long trip by wagon in 1898 from the Fresno area up to Condon, Oregon; of Dad's rowboat trips for the cannery or lifesaving experiences for the Coast Guard; of the Indians at Neah Bay where they went immediately after marrying.
We were not the poorest of families, but certainly not very prosperous a lot of the time. We always had a car and lived in good houses, sometimes rented, sometimes owned. We moved about a great deal for various reasons, mostly following jobs. Mother made a lot of our clothes until I was about 14 years old and began sewing. And Dad mended our shoes for years, on his "last". He also cut our hair until we were teenagers. We wore "Buster Brown" cuts, with bangs straight over our brows. Most of our friends also had home haircuts. By the time we reached our teens, permanents were available. These required that we go far downtown, as beauty shops were few and far between. I would take my sister and we would go to uptown Los Angeles. We set our hair with wave-set, often making our own from flaxseed. In the 1940s home permanents came into common use and I gave perms to my mother and sister, and later to many friends and neighbors. A "Tony" cost $1.00.
Mother did most of the yard work as Dad worked long hours. Wherever we lived she soon had a wonderful flower garden in bloom. Any house that we rented was the better when we left it, both inside and out. She really believed that cleanliness was next to godliness! She was an excellent seamstress, knitter, crocheter and tatter. I learned most of these skills from her, but not how to tat.
It may be that I know my parents better looking back than I did at the time.
MY GARNER GRANDPARENTS
My Garner grandmother, Mattie Ann Stone Garner, died in December 1912, long before I was born. My Garner grandfather, James Henry Garner lived until 1938. I did not get to meet him at all. I find it sad that my parents were unable to travel far – for lack of time and money. Paid vacations were not available in their early working years. Finally, in 1938, they were getting ready to make a trip north to Washington State. Father's dad died just weeks before they could go. My parents had left Washington State in 1913 and never returned to visit, until 1938 when my father was working for the city of Los Angeles and had paid vacation time. On that trip they picked up Dad's sister Zola in Aberdeen, Washington, and went to Idaho to visit another sister, Florence,and home to Los Angeles, bringing Zola along. Zola died just a year or two later, of cancer.
Matilda Ann Stone was born 14 September 1867 in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, near present day Maxville to Hiram Booth Stone and Emily Pangborn. She was one of 8 children. She married 12 April 1889, age 21, at the home of her sister in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, her mother having died suddenly in 1871 of heart failure. Matilda had two children born in Eau Claire and then moved to Washington State in 1894. 4 more children were born at Westport, Washington. She always used the name Mattie, even on her marriage license, which now hangs at her grandson Alex' home in Camarillo, California. Mattie died at age 45 of heart failure, like her mother before her.
James Henry Garner married Mattie Stone, when he was age 24. He was born at Beetown, Grant County, Wisconsin on 6 February 1865 to Samuel Russell Garner and Emily Blewett, eldest of six children. Samuel was away in the Civil War at the time. Samuel was a carpenter and built a sturdy house in Cassville, Wisconsin, which still stands. When I saw it in 1982 I was fascinated to note that the gable ends had been bobbed off, just as my dad had done on the house he built in 1945 in Los Angeles, California on 112th Street, across from my home on the corner of Berendo Avenue and 112th Street, where I raised my family of three.
Mattie was short, with dark brown eyes and black curly hair. Her complexion was olive my mother said. She liked to paint with oils. The only painting I have that she did is a small picture of a pug-nosed dog that has hung in my house since about 1960.
My mother told me that Mattie sacrificed herself to her family, doing without to make ends meet. The last two letters she wrote to her daughters, away at high school in Aberdeen, show the shortness of cash! She died of pneumonia, which my mother felt was due to her going to feed her chickens in the rain, with holes in her shoes. She was only 45 years old, which happens to be the same age her own mother had been, when Mattie was only 4 years old.
James Henry was perhaps 5' 9" tall with dark straight hair and gray eyes, with a slight build. He did some carpentering and draying and liked to play his violin. The Garners of Cassville, Wisconsin were said to have been quite musical and played for all local events. My dad played the violin and the mandolin, by "ear". I remember begging him to play "Smokey Mokes", a ragtime piece from the early 1900s. In about 1900 James Henry built a large two-story shingle-covered home at Westport, Washington. By the time my sister Raenella and I visited there in 1994 it had been torn down.
After Mattie died in December 1912, daughter Bernice returned home to care for the younger children, Percy, Florence, and Ronald while sister Zola finished her high school education. Then Zola took over the family chores while Bernice finished her schooling. They each had lived and worked for a family in Aberdeen because there was no high school at Westport.
The first born of James and Mattie's children was my father, Ray Harold, called "Harry" on the 1900 census. but known as Ray by non-family members and by his descendants.
HOLLENBECK GRANDPARENTS
My mother's parents were Theron Edward Hollenbeck and Susan May Vannatta. They raised 10 children. I saw them for two Christmas weeks in 1928-29 when we attended a family reunion in the Sacramento area of California. This was occasioned by a visit to America from their daughter Esther who had been living in Australia since her marriage in 1910 to Joe Wingrter, who was a German, born in Russia. After the first World War her could not get a visa to visit the United States because of his origin! Ester came in 1928 and stayed a year, visiting each of her sisters and brothers before returning home, which in those days was a trip by steamer which took a month, I believe. While she was in the United States a family reunion was planned, to be held near Sacramento, California where two sons and two daughters lived nearby.
Times were very hard for us, but Dad and my brother Theron drove us to Aunt Mary Sprock's farm home at Point Pleasant, south of Sacramento. Our two men returned home immediately to Los Angeles where Dad was running a car garage and repair business. I was age 11 and sister Raenella was age 8. I remember that trip so well. It was raining and our old car stalled some 12 miles north of Kings City. Dad knew it was the timing gear, but did not have a spare with him. He had to walk back to Kings City in the dark and rain to get one. He was lucky to get a ride part way back.
The family was waiting in the cold and the dark for a good many hours. There was almost NO traffic going by. Finally, with the car in working order again, we pressed on, and the rain began to come down in torrents as we crossed a low area on a levee. By now there was a bit more traffic, as I remember the blur of oncoming headlights. The road was very narrow, with steep drop off into the water filled ditches on each side, and post and wire fences. This was near Woodbridge, California. The empty countryside offered no lighting of any kind and roads were not at all like they are today.
Susan and Theron came down from their home in Astoria, Washington. Their son Eldridge of Portland may have driven them. Grandma Susan died the next June in 1929, age 65, of infection caused by her ulcerated varicose veins. Theron lived on until 1935, age 79, when he was living with a son in Stockton, California. At that reunion Christmas Week, 1928, a group picture was taken, which included 9 of their living children, and many cousins of the family.
Susan was said to have been a wonderful cook. She would have the girls do the dishes from an early age One day she began missing her pots and pans and a hunt of the kitchen revealed them, stashed atop the cupboard where the girls hoped to avoid washing them!
In the years that they lived at Minaret Heights about 11 miles east of Madera, California, she had an Indian woman come to do the laundry. The kids would ask her what her last name was and she answered, "I don't know, maybe so Mary Joe". Her husband was Joe, and Indians usually did not use last names at that time.
There was also a Chinese cook part of the time. Mother remembered well the one that told the kids, "You no lookee me eye", and the mischievous kids thought it was grand fun to torment him until he chased them with a big butcher knife. One day Susan walked past the cookhouse and discovered the secret to the wonderful crust he could produce on the bread loaves – he sprayed the just-baked loaves with a mouthful of water! That was the last moment he spent at the Hollenbeck ranch.
It was while living at Minaret Heights that my mother learned so much about wildflowers. The teacher in the one-room schoolhouse, Miss Kelly, boarded at times with the Hollenbecks and was a great lover of the local flora. There were four Hollenbecks and three Shannons in the School. Mother passed her great interest and knowledge of nature on to my sister and I and to my younger brother Russell. My own children have absorbed some of the same hobby.
Susan was short, about 5'3", and was always heavy, once weighing as much as 300 pounds. She had hazel brown eyes and light brown hair, with curly scolders. Her parents were George Philip VANNATTA of Dutch descent, and Mary Elizabeth McCORMACK of Scotch descent, who married in Harrison Township, Grant County, Wisconsin in 1852. I found their marriage license on file at the county courthouse. In 1857 they came to Placerville, California, bringing Elizabeth's mother, Elinor MacDonald McCormack, and accompanied by several of Elizabeth's married half-brothers Taylors, McDonald's, MacCormacks and their families. Great grandmother Elinor had been widowed twice. Her gravestone cannot be located near Upper Placerville.
Susan Vannatta was the youngest of 5 children and was born at Placerville in May 1864. Her mother died just 16 months later, at Woodbridge, California. No gravestone has been found in the local cemetery. Susan was given to a neighbor and raised by them: George and Lavinia Jane HOWARD.
Her older sister Ellen was the only sibling that married and had children. She married Andrew BLOOM and lived near Franklin and Hood, California. Many years later Susan's eldest daughter Ethel married Andrew Bloom Jr, her first cousin.
Susan was of Dutch and Scotch descent. The Vannattas came to America from Holland by 1619 to Kingston, New York, moving to New Jersey in 1715 and to Wisconsin in 1845 where Samuel Vannatta married his neighbor Mary Elizabeth McCormack. Theron Hollenbeck was of German and English descent. This Hollenbeck family came to America in 1654 to New York State, near Albany. Theron was born in WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania in 1856. His father, Edward, had moved from Massachussetts in 1816 to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Theron's mother, Emily Hayden was born in Pennsylvania. Theron met Susan when he walked out to the Howard Ranch in California about 1877 . They married when Susan was age 16 in 1880 and lived for a time at Stockton.
Theron was over 6 feet tall, of medium heavy build, with blue eyes and light brown hair. He was a blacksmith and wagon builder, owning his own business and also homesteading and farming. After about 1908 he lived at Westport, Washington very near to my Garner family.
Grandpa Theron had a twinkle in his blue eyes and a teasing manner. His son Howard said he was a "tough" man, and he would have needed to be if he could blacksmith in a lumber camp.
"Mama and Papa" were much loved by their large family. Many the tales were spun at family gatherings over the years. I have printed up the family genealogy and distributed to my children and grandchildren over the years.
MY EARLY HOME LIFE
The members of my immediate family were:
Ray Harold Garner, my father, born 1 July 1890 Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, died 14 June 1956 Los Angeles, California, age 66. Inglewood cemetery.
Nella Mae Hollenbeck, my mother, born 9 May 1887 near Madera, California, died 24 February 1960 Los Angeles, California, age 73. Inglewood cemetery.
Theron Henry Garner, my brother, born 18 May 1911 Hoquiam, Washington, died 27 September 1980, Vancouver,Washington. His widow Melva Green survived him. No children.
Myself, born 19 September 1917 New Monterey, California. Living, age 90 in 2008, at Port Hueneme, Ventura County, California, having moved there in 1978, to assist her aunt Bernice Marsters, who died in 1979, leaving her house to Lamora.
Raenella Garner, born 12 October 1920 Pacific Grove, California, died 3 May 1996 Oxnard, California, age 75. She married-1 Aldo FORTUNA and divorced. She married-2 Osmer EDGAR and divorced. There were three children: Cathy Fortuna, Nena Edgar, and Raymond Edgar, and 3 grandchildren.
Russell Harold Garner, born 29 September 1930 Southgate, California, died 7 April 2002 near Hemet, California, age 71. His widow Julie Verona Gulasci survives and two daughters, Carol Stubner and Christine, and 3 grandchildren.
We lived so many places over the years that no particular place seems "home" except that in which my parents were present. See later for a list of those many addresses -- And a more extensive list of relatives.
Mother was "chief cook and bottle washer". We two girls helped as the years went by, and Theron often did the mowing. Mother did the flower garden work.
Dad worked such long hours that he was less involved with home chores until much later in life. Since he was an expert mechanic he fixed any major items needing repairs, and when we moved he was stove 'connector-upper'. He also kept our cars in top shape. Our shoes were mended by dad, and haircuts were by dad when we were young.
When we lived a year in the Sacramento Valley, Mother did some canning because fruit was cheap and sometimes free. Other cooking was done 'by scratch', as boxed cakes and other mixes were not available until much later in life. Her cakes were so rich and fluffy that they were always favorites at any gatherings where she took them to share.
I remember the wonderful soups mother made and wonder how she flavored them so well. A very amusing incident happened one time when my brother Theron decided to shave, and he used the big kettle to heat some water. We did not have an automatic water heater at that time, so wanting a small amount of hot water would mean heating it on the stove top. Theron took the pot into the bath room and set the lid aside on the counter. After shaving he replaced the lid and put the pot in the kitchen. When mother made the soup she did not realize that a bar of soap had stuck to the under side of the lid. So-o at my first taste of that wonderful smelling soup I knew instantly there was soap in the soup!! It took some explaining to figure how in the world that happened! Lunch that day was a sandwich.
Entertainment for the family was picnics with friends, card games, victrola music on a hand-cranked record player, rides in the country or out to Palos Verdes Hills just south of us. We girls played cards or jacks with each other by the hour. Or played with small dolls in the dusty miller bowers, which we pretended were fairy dells. Sometimes we skated, though our skates were of poor quality. In 1929 I was twelve years old and lived in Redondo Beach, California on Guadalupe Street. All of the cross streets ran downward toward the sea. Many a skinned knee could be blamed on those skates. Windy days would find us with coats spread wide to 'sail' along to our neighbor's house.
Reading was another favorite pastime of everyone in our family. The library was a regular part of our lives from the age of six. The BROWNIE books and the WATER BABIES stand out as favorites at that age. I can't imagine a child today would be interested in such fairy tales!
Camping played some part in our lives, also. On an overnight stay at Lake Arrowhead we girls kept sliding out of our covers as we slept on the ground. Mother got little sleep that night.
Sports did not interest any of the family to any great degree. Of course, there was no TV in my youth, and radio was a sometime thing, too, for us. Going to the ball park was too expensive and too time consuming.
MEMORABLE EVENTS
A very memorable event in my life was the birth of my younger brother Russell when I was 13 years old and brother Theron was age 20. Raenella was age 10, and for some reason she did not realize that a baby was coming. He was born at home with the doctor and a lady friend helping. Mother was age 44 and the birth was not the easiest. Theron had taken us to a friends house, and came the next morning to tell we had a new baby brother, weighing 10 pounds and looking like a doll. I had sewn a quilt-top for him, of blue and white squares, with embroidered motifs, some of which I had drawn myself.
The other most outstanding memory is of the 1928 reunion of the Hollenbeck relatives, held in the Sacramento Valley. I relate part of that experience earlier in these notes. During a big meal which was set up in Aunt Mary's living room on planks and sawhorses and covered with white linens. There was a large red candle used as part of the centerpiece. After it was lit Grandpa Hollenbeck was asked if he would like to blow it out. Gamely, from many feet away at the head of the table, he blew and blew. Suddenly the flame went out. There was a bit of giggling going on, and Grandpa said, I know someone down there blew that out, because the flame went sideways from the way I blew! I can still see the twinkle in his eyes.
During that meal my mother was seated next to her brother Albert, who was quite a wag. Mother was half apologetic about being a slow eater, but Albert said 'that is not half so embarrassing as being the first one done'. He was very tall, about 6 feet 4 inches, and weighed over 200 pounds, with merry brown eyes and a penchant for teasing. He no doubt blew that candle out for his dad.
SCHOOL DAYS
Mother did not believe in sending children to kindergarten, saying they only learn to play, so my first school experience was first grade at a school in Compton, where we lived for a few months after we returned from living 6 weeks in the summer at Hemet, California. We lived in a very small 'duplex' on the border of two school districts. I was moved back and forth a time or two, with the shifts in enrollment.
I recall several things quite well from that first year of school. The first was learning the alphabet from the board, by the rote system, all the class responding in a chant. But we did learn our alphabet and could recite it verbatim. Reading was also learned by the rote system.
My most vivid recollection is very child-like. I had a small metal lunch pail with pictures all around of 'Five and Twenty Blackbirds'. Mother often packed a piece of cake in my box. Another little girl, a very fat tyke, had the same kind of lunch pail and a mother who packed carrot sticks and raisins for her. She several times took my lunch and left me to eat her carrots and raisins, which I did not like at that time. I was outraged. Mother put special tape on my box, and also spoke to the teacher about the problem.
Another incident was of greater concern. I had been transferred to the older school, which was across a busy street. Going home one day I was struck by a policeman on a motorcycle. He had just gotten the cycle out of the repair shop and had no siren. A gauge under his handlebar caught the top of my scalp and sent me reeling. I had stepped out from between two parked cars and did not see him soon enough. He said he yelled at me!
I was taken in to a nearby drug store and laid on a cot in the back room. I was so shaken up I could not get them to understand my strange name. Finally they asked my teacher's name. She was summoned and soon identified me. I still have the crescent-shaped scar on my scalp.
My parents bought a house on Elm Street in a community called Graham. This meant a change in schools again, for Theron and myself. Theron was sent to enroll us both in the local school located on Manchester Avenue several blocks from our house. He dutifully enrolled me then he ran away, back to Compton.
Theron was about 12 years old then. He spent the day at a former neighbor's house when nighttime approached they sent him home. But he did not go home, to a new school and a strange neighborhood. Meanwhile my parents were frantic and called the police. They said he would return in due time, and sure enough he arrived the next day. He had had to sleep in a weed filled ditch. My parents figured he had enough punishment and did no more than give him a severe lecturing.
TEACHERS I REMEMBER:
- My 4th grade teacher at South Park School on the corner of Avalon and Manchester Avenue in Los Angeles gave out prizes to the best behaved row of children. I had for many years a celluloid fan that was one of those prizes.
- My 8th grade English teacher who taught diagramming and parsing and made it fun, at Home Gardens School in Southgate, California...Miss Kate.
- My 9th grade English teacher at Fremont High School in Los Angeles had us read 'The Cruise of the Cachalot' (whaling) instead of the boring book most classes were reading. We also read 'The Illiad and the Odessey' which was my introduction to the Greek myths.
- Mrs. Sutherland, the Washington High School music teacher who rapped students on the head when she emphasized her ideas.
- Then there was a beautiful teacher at Graham School who I remember from my 8th grade return there in April of 1931-2. She often supervised the playground, and also played the piano so wonderfully for school groups. Her skin was very white and her hair jet black, with large dark eyes and a pleasant demeanor. She frequently wore a flaming orange dress that stood out in my memory. MANY years later, when I was office manager at Raymond Avenue School, she was a teacher there! It was some time later that the Principal mentioned about her stint at Graham School and suddenly there flashed before me the memory of that orange dress, those black eyes, and the pleasant piano playing.
CLASSMATES I REMEMBER:
- I vaguely recall the girl at Avalon School whose house adjoined the playground and who invited me over to make fudge at noon one day. Her parents were not home. We drank some of the strong coffee her parents had left on the stove. I had nightmares that night and got a good scolding from my mother for leaving the school ground. She feared the visit to an empty house.
- At Washington High School I had three special friends who gathered each noontime. For graduation, the one who was an only child and whose parents were well off, invited the three of us to go to a very nice restaurant for dinner and a show. This was a real luxury in those depression days and I have not forgotten that.
- At art school I had several friends that I recall fondly, but none that I kept in touch with in later years. One girl asked a small group to her home for lunch. She lived in a two-story home and had a maid who served the luncheon. She had made clever place cards for the table. After lunch another of the girls took us to a show, and then drove me home, which was many miles south, in HER OWN car. Few such young people had their own car in those days.
- At Metropolitan High School where I posted for a year I discovered a girl who lived very near me on 23rd Street near Vermont in Los Angeles. We walked to school and enjoyed the friendship. She was living with an Aunt for a year or two and then returned to her home in the East. Mildred was very petite. She was impressed by the palm trees in California, calling them monkey trees. Her aunt revamped all my hats for me. Somehow I cannot remember wearing those hats, and have no pictures of hats.
SPORTS. I avoided sports as much as possible. Volleyball was tolerable, but basketball was too strenuous for me, and baseball bugged me because my astigmatism caused me to swing too early or too late and I would tip the ball, even with new glasses. High Schools in those days were without pools for the most part. The only time I learned a bit of swimming was when I lived in Redondo Beach and walked down the hill with my sister each Saturday to the huge indoor pool, now gone for many years. We never owned bicycles so that was out of the question.
MUSIC. My parents bought a big player piano one year for Christmas. My sister learned to play, with mother showing her the basics. I had one year of piano at the high school but never took to it as Raenella did. Mother played the electric guitar and taught Theron how to play. He also played the mandolin. His sense of rhythm was more than a bit staid!
ORGANIZATIONS. I was not much of a joiner. I spent one year in the World Friendship Club at Fremont High School.
HOOKY. With mother's permission I often stayed home to sew, when at Washington High School. Mother always wrote a note for me. So it was not exactly "hooky". Although I was taking a so-called college prep program, perhaps I needed more challenge!
SUBJECTS. The least liked subject was Civics. I blame the teacher for not making it interesting. One of my history teachers made her class fascinating. And several English teachers made their classes very worthwhile.
TEEN YEARS
The DEPRESSION. My teen years were during the great depression of 1929-1936. Times were very hard and money was very scarce. The big stock market crash of 1929 made an end to my Dad's job at Vanderbilt Estates on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles.
We left Redondo Beach and moved to South Gate, California, where I attended two different Junior High Schools.
RUSSELL. My brother Russell was born in September 1930 soon after we moved to Southgate. While we lived at the house where he was born a neighbor boy seemed to think I was A-OK and bought me a gift of a whole packet of tiny Irish green beads. Mother said, I'll bet he stole them! I cannot remember what finally became of those beads, but I do remember they were around for quite some time.
THERON. While we lived at the second house, actually in Home Gardens, Theron was away from home, working for the California Highway Department, stationed at Gorman on the old Ridge Route, north of Los Angeles. His good High School buddy, Bill Overholtzer was working with him. They shared a bunkhouse and were one evening reading and loafing. Bill began cleaning his rifle. Somehow it went off and a bullet went into Theron's leg. The next afternoon they pulled in to our driveway. Mother was highly disgusted, but thankful it was not worse. Recovery took many weeks on crutches.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY. Again we moved. Mother's sisters on farms kept telling them to move up there and Dad might find work on local farms nearby. There was a small house we could rent cheaply. We did move there when Russell was about 9 months old. Theron was age 21 and was helping on his uncle Nin's ranch out of Hood, California.
SISTER MARY SPROCK. The farmers could not afford to hire help, and the County did not want to help out – they said we belonged in Los Angeles County. And imagine mother's chagrin when her sister charged her for cracked eggs! So, after 5 months we packed up and were headed for home. But a big family meeting was called and Mom's older sister Ethel said, No, we should come live at their ranch in the small extra house they had, and we would eat with them. Dad could help Nin.
So we moved to Ethel and Nin BLOOM's ranch where we stayed another 5 months. That was all my parent's could stand of Ethel's strange attitudes. We left in April and I entered again in Graham School to finish the 8th grade. Ethel was paranoid about Nin's brother Pete who lived across the slough from them. Any time Nin rowed over to Pete's Ethel stood at the kitchen window with her binoculars, spying on them. Any time we were all away from the ranch she would come back and search her kitchen cupboards and vow Pete had been there and gotten into her spices!
Dad did help Nin around the place, picking up discarded items and helping plant a vegetable garden and whatever Nin needed help with. The vegetable garden was wonderful. Turnips right out of ground were so sweet even I liked them. Mother creamed them with real cream. I had never seen real cream before, rising over an inch high on the top of a large flat pan in the milk house and as thick as pudding. We did eat well.
WILD FOWL. And then there were the mud hens (coots) that settled on the slough, especially on the mud flats. A shotgun could bring in a good catch, and the women did their best to disguise the mud flavor. But no amount of cream or flavorings could disguise the mud taste.
A wild duck is somewhat different. They would be soaked in salt water and dressed with garlic to tame the wild flavor a bit, though nothing like a tame duck or goose would taste.
Nin had some big geese that were a threat whenever they had goslings with them. I don't believe we ever ate one of them.
COUNTRY SCHOOL. I remember quite a bit about those 5 months – I was 13 years old. Raenella and I had to walk across the cow pasture and down a long lane to get to the highway where the school bus would pick us up to go into Franklin where the four-room school was located. There were 8 grades, with two levels per room.
With mud a foot deep we missed a lot of time until the attendance officer threatened dad with jail time. And so, we carried our better shoes and put them on at the bus stop, hiding our old shoes beside the highway. When we suddenly started off for Los Angeles our good shoes were left behind at the bus stop.
PUMP ORGAN
Raenella and I had studied some books that we had on hand. And I played the pump organ Aunt Ethel had stored in the little house where we slept. Mother had taught me to read music when I was about 6 years old. I cannot remember whether Raenella played that organ.
WASH TUBS
We bathed in wash tubs and heated water on the woodstove room heater. Just as we had at the little house we rented on "Dutch Flats" when we first went to the Sacramento 5 months earlier. Ethel had a modern bath but we were not invited to use it. Our outdoor privy was good enough for us! So much for country living. Mother had grown up with country living until after she married.
$10.00. Nin and Ethel slipped 10 silver dollars into my hand and made me promise not to say anything until we were far down the road. Mother shook her head when I handed them to her. It may have been the only money they had! The place that we stopped to eat our picnic lunch was covered with spring wildflowers and we enjoyed them very much,, in spite of everything. This was after my parents had decided that we had no alternative to going back to Los Angeles.
GRAHAM SCHOOL
When we arrived back in Los Angeles we stayed with friends in Graham just north of 92nd Street in our old neighborhood for two weeks until Dad found a small house for us to rent just north of Manchester Avenue. There were just a few weeks of school left and Raenella and I enrolled at Graham School where I had attended my first years of school some years earlier. I graduated 8th grade there in June. The senior class put on a small skit which I did not take part in because I could not project my voice loud enough (no mikes). The orchestra played a popular piece called "Paradise Waltz".
HIGH SCHOOL
In September a group of my friends and I walked the 3 miles to enroll at Fremont High School to enroll. We made the mistake of wearing high heels. What a day that was! Three green-horns trying to follow confusing sign-up procedures and running from room to room only to find the class we needed was filled, and having to consult the big newspages to find a substitute class that fit our assignments was frustrating. When a senior tried to show me how to work the combination on my locker he asked "What's the score?" I had no idea what he wanted, and had never seen such a lock.
WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL
After finishing 9th grade at Fremont we moved to Washington High School where I went for 3 years and graduated summer 1936. Raenella also attended there, as it was a Junior-Senior High until about 1940.
We were old enough now for parties, and any time we could coax Mother to make a cake we would invite a few friends for an evening. Such tame parties they were. But we enjoyed them. I began dating a bit and met my future husband Edward H. Magdaleno. If I were away when he came to call he would stay and visit with my mother, so that by the time we married she had some idea of what his character was.
POST HIGH SCHOOL
We moved again, to better housing. Dad now had a job again, after some 6 years of depression. We rented far north on 23rd and Vermont area. Raenella continued at Washington High, taking the street car. I enrolled at Metropolitan High School and took some secretarial courses.
BERENDO HOUSE 1937
While attending Metropolitan I married. We took an apartment right near Metropolitan High until Eddie's brother Martin and his family could move from our house on 112th and Berendo Avenue. I had refused to move there until they could find accommodations. In June we moved there and raised our 3 children there.
ENGLISH ORIGINS
Many or our ancestors came from England to Massachusetts as early as 1629, settling in or near present Boston. In a very few years they migrated south to Dedham, then to Connecticut by about 1642 and so began our scatterings.
GERMAN and DUTCH ORIGINS
By 1650 our HOLLENBECK families were in Albany County, New York and the VANNATTAS were in Kingston, New York. The Hollenbecks went east to Egremont, Berkshire County, Massachusetts by 1750, and to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania about 1815. The Dutch Vannattas went to New Jersey by 1715 and to Grant County, Wisconsin by 1845 after spending a very few years in New York State and in Illinois.
SCOTCH-IRISH
These many, many families came to Virginia by about 1715 and went down into North Carolina seeking cheaper lands by 1750 or so, and on into Tennessee and Kentucky about 1780. They were in the lower counties of Illinois by 1815. These included MAULDINGS, McDONALDS, TAYLORS, McCORMACKS.
The GARNERS were in Southern Illinois by 1815 also, but their national origins are unsure. Were they German? All of the first names used in the family are seemingly English. The surnames in the above paragraph and the Garner's were in Grant County, Wisconsin by 1832 and a few as late as 1845. Our YOUNG family was in Pennsylvania by 1740, at Dauphin County and then to Luzerne to that part which later was Wyoming County and Susquehanna County, where they then married into the Hollenbeck and Hayden families.
MEXICAN and GERMAN
Our MAGDALENO family came from Guanajuato County, Mexico before 1892 to Yuma, Arizona, and the HERNANDEZ family was perhaps in Texas even earlier, and to Yuma by 1882. Edward H. Magdaleno lived in Los Angeles after 1924, and there became my husband in 1937. All of his siblings eventually came to live in Los Angeles, California.
OUR HOME LIFE 1937 and ON
OUR HOME at 11201 South Berendo Avenue was very small, about 750 square feet. But by keeping everything neat and organized we managed to raise 3 children with comfort.
Eddie's mother Adelaida had purchased the house in 1923 as a summer home away from the very hot days in Yuma. Since his father Porfirio worked for the railroad there was a free pass for the family. Some others of the family graduated from Yuma High School. The street was named Vicentia at the time Adelaida bought it. Eddie and Hope graduated from Washington High, at 108th and Normandie in Los Angeles.
The house had a dining room 10' by 10' and the living room was 11' by 13' with an arch to the dining room and one to a small den, 8' x 11'. One bedroom was 10' by 10' and the last, an add-on, was 8' by 12'.
Eddie added closets to 2 of the bedrooms, and remodeled the bath to make it more convenient. He had moved the washing area and water heater to a shed he built against the garage, and updated the kitchen. All of this work took several years as Eddie was working at the time. One year we took a camping trip to Sequoia Park, leaving the kitchen unfinished. Eddie was not in favor of going at that time, but Lamora held out – and we enjoyed that week so very much. Eventually the kitchen got finished and all was well and the vacation was long remembered.
Looking back, Lamora sees that she must have been "bossy". When we first married the house was newly updated as to paint, foundation, roof, porches and lawns replaced by Eddie in 1935-6 after he obtained an FHA loan, but it still lacked a great deal, as can be seen by the work he did in the years after we married.
HOME LIFE
I should have my children write this section! I did the housework, kept the budget and banking going, and sewed a great deal of what was needed to wear or to cover windows or beds. I helped with the truck garden and flowerbeds. Eddie and the boys did the lawns over the years.
I gave perms to my mother, my sister and neighbors. Also did ironing and house cleaning for neighbors for several years. I painted and papered inside our house and my parent's home, and for neighbors until I went out in 1955 and got a job as clerk for an insurance company in downtown Los Angeles, and later went to Los Angeles Elementary schools as clerk and later as office manager. Out-door painting was handled by Eddie, with a bit of help by Lamora on screen frames. After 1955 I worked at a regular job to be sure Raymond could attend college in Pasadena at California Institute of Technology.
BANKING
Eddie did the banking in later years, keeping a sharp eye on interest rates and moving bits of money here and there. Thank goodness for all the help he gave in that respect. Both of us were "Scotch" with our small income. We needed to be. We managed to help Raymond get through Cal-Tech for four years and he borrowed for the fifth year to get his masters degree.
WAR YEARS
The Second World War put a burden on everyone. Eddie's three brothers were called into service. They went into the Navy. We were lucky that all three returned safe and sound, though the two youngest had been at Pearl Harbor that fateful day. My brother also served, in the army, in the Philippines.
Eddie was not called. He went into war work. When the war slackened Manual and Henry often stayed on leave at our house. Eddie loaned them our car. He felt beholden to them for their many years of service to our country.
The Korean War and the Vietnam War followed a few years later; and now in 2003-4 a war in Iraq. Enough said. Now, 2008, we are still in Iraq.
DISCIPLINE
This was mostly up to Lamora. Again, I need to have my children write this. I am sure they remember it very differently than I.
WORK LIFE, Lamora
While the family was young I began doing odd jobs to augment our income. These included house cleaning, painting or papering rooms, home permanents, ironing, sewing, baby sitting as mentioned above.
OCCIDENTAL LIFE INSURANCE. In 1955 when Raymond started college I took regular work in downtown Los Angeles at a large insurance company for a year or so, and then to the Los Angeles School District for 11 or 12 years when we moved in 1968 to Port Hueneme to aid Bernice Marsters in her last illness. She deeded her home to us.
LOS ANGELES SCHOOL DISTRICT. After a year and a half at the insurance company I went to work as an office clerk at 97th Street School and after 3 years became Office Manager at Raymond Avenue School.
OXNARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT. In 1968 we moved to Port Hueneme in Ventura County to help my Aunt Bernice Marsters, who died of cancer in January 1969, leaving me the equity in her house. We took this opportunity to move from Los Angeles, where the riots of 1965 had created an uncomfortable atmosphere.
In 1969 I began a ten-year stint at the local school district, working in the Instructional Materials Center as head clerk, then as director, and my final 3 years at Haydock Junior High as librarian. I retired in September 1979.
Over the many years my relatives also moved to Ventura County: niece Cathy and her two boys, our son Alex and his wife Elma, my sister Raenella and her two younger children. Our son Raymond and family remained in Torrance area. His 3 sons now live in Orange and San Diego Counties.
WORK LIFE, Edward
Eddie worked for Good Year Tire Company about 1929 until the big Market crash; finally to the WPA as plumbing helper during the depression, and moved into war work at a pipe company, then at a rubber company. After the war he went to a sash and door company until they went out of business, then found a second sash and door company which eventually closed also. By that time we moved to Port Hueneme and he retired at 62.
EDWARD H. MAGDALENO
These thoughts were jotted down in 1990 about Grandpa Edward H. Magdaleno.
A dull knife was an intolerable thing. Grandma had better take care when using knives, never knowing whether he had just ground them down to a fine edge!
Grandpa brings home stacks of reading material, some from Goodwill and other foraging spots. He is so sure Grandma will enjoy many an evening browsing through it all, and HE enjoys knowing they cost very little. Ever on guard of the treasury!
Every morning while Grandma worked at the school district Grandpa was busy making breakfast while Grandma dressed, made the bed, and by 7:30 arrived in the kitchen to enjoy together a pleasant time of good food and conversation, or a glimpse of the morning paper.
When Grandma retired in 1969, the same routine persisted. By about 8:00 Grandpa would sweep the kitchen while Grandma washed the dishes. She then would spot clean the floor to keep it always good looking. Then Grandpa would sit at the table searching out bargains and making a list, or reading a bit more, or better yet catching a few winks in his recliner before taking off to McDonald's to read the TIMES, drink some coffee and chat with other cronies that might be there. The 4 McDonalds in the area each receive their visit sometime during the week. At 10 o'clock when they discard the papers he would bring home the editorial section for Grandma to see.
After his errands such as paying bills, shopping bargains, banking he arrives home by 12 or so and has lunch, which Grandma fixes if she is home. then a good snooze for an hour or so and change clothes to go to the garage or yard to gather the trash or wash the car, dig weeds, mow and so forth. Cold, wind or hot sun do not deter him.
By 5:00 p.m. he comes in and again rests a bit, then bathes and shaves. This is a lifelong routine.
Dinner is at 6:00 and the TV news might be on. Later evening we watch KCET nature shows, or 50 Minutes on another channel, or a favorite movie repeat such as TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE. We still find something to laugh about in that one.
Often he falls asleep while reading the newspaper, then wants to "save it" to read the next day. So when we get buried under stacks of reading matter, Grandma finally lets it disappear.
Grandpa gases both cars, usually washes both, and insists on changing the oil, carefully putting it in a container to take to the recycling center. He kept the driveway clean of spots. Just this year (1990) he finally consented to let the garage change oil for him. Grandma often helps by washing the car windows to remove the water spots that perhaps Grandpa missed.
Grandpa is such a busy one. He often does the vacuuming, removing all pillows from the furniture. If Grandma has been away she will be the one to put the pillows back.
When the laundry was out in the patio, he insisted on doing the washing. In 1988 when we added the bay windows and enlarged the kitchen the laundry was brought back inside and he didn't mind letting Grandma take over!
Words to describe Grandpa would be "sweet, good-natured, sturdy, vigorous, and always busy". He kept things in the home and the car in repair. And then there were his puns and quick comebacks that amused Grandma over all the years. It is too bad that a running account was not kept.
Many were the Sunday drives for family entertainment, even though he drove trucks at work for many years. Family recreation was nature, the mountains, hikes, picnics, and camping. Often we took along a cousin or two or a neighbor for our 3 children to enjoy. Fun shared is always better. Cathy, Celeste, Darlene, David Dumas were some of these.
He built campfires, put up tents, chopped wood and packed the gear into the car with a master's touch. No one could tie a rope better than Grandpa. He needed that skill when he was delivering doors and windows and he had it down pat.
Over all the years and in every neighborhood where we lived he was the source for a loan of tools for cars, bikes, yards. He finally painted handles blue so they might be brought back to him. His garage was a storehouse, and fairly neat, too. Any squeaking bike would soon bring out the oilcan, offering a quiet ride for the busy child. Now, in 1999 if Grandma hears a squeaking door she thinks "why doesn't someone oil that door".
It is pleasing to see that our sons have provided some of the same things to THEIR sons and on down the line.
Grandpa Eddie has been gone since March 3, 1992 but his influence is still felt. There are so many more things that should be written about Eddie, our very special Grandpa. I wish he could be here to entertain his great grandchildren with his monkeyshines that the very young children always enjoyed.
During the past 20 years, while doing the family genealogy, Grandma has been aware of how our ancestors send an "attitude" along the line. It is nice to know that there were no scalawags that she could find.
MARRIAGE
MEETING. I first met Eddie Magdaleno at several parties we both attended as singles. He had brought his younger brothers Manual and Henry. I was with my sister Raenella. Eddie lived about 3 blocks from our home on 112th Street in south Los Angeles. This was in 1935. We started dating in 1936 and married in 1937.
Eddie often worked at the gas station next to our house while the owner Mr. Nelson took a bit of time off. Eddie also walked past our house twice a week to attend the Catholic Church on Figueroa Street. After our marriage, Mr. Nelson was often invited to Sunday dinner
DATES. Some of our dates were to go to dances, some were neighborhood parties, and all were inexpensive, since this was still depression days. Did he really enjoy the museums and art shows I favored? Picnics were another favorite past time. He always had a car and liked to drive. Our sons insist that he never went over 50 miles an hour! Probably true in the early years, as roads were not like they now are.
WEDDING. We were married in the parish house with my parents attending, and his sister Hope and her husband Charlie present. There was no wedding trip. Mother made a nice dinner for us and that was the extent of our jubilation.!
APARTMENT. I was still attending Metropolitan High Extension classes until June so we took an apartment near there for a few months. Eddie was working for one of President Roosevelt's WPA programs during the depression.
BERENDO HOUSE.
Eddie had taken over the Berendo house when the FHA Program, another of Roosevelt's ideas, made it possible to borrow money. With the loan Eddie paid the back taxes and brought the house up to code as needed: porches and sidewalks, new roof, new foundation, paint and lawns. He did much of the work himself.
His brother Martin and family were living in the house. I did not want to move in until they found a place to live. About August or September we moved in. There was furniture and whatever we needed to begin our married life. What a boon this was, in that depression time. His job at that time was with the WPA.
RELATIVES.
Eddie was one of twelve children so we had many relatives, most of them living in Los Angeles. Two of his brothers, one young sister and his mother were deceased by 1930-31. Now, in 2004 there are living just 2 brothers and 1 sister, all with failing memories at ages 80-84-86. These are Manuel, Henry and Frances. In 2007, Frannie is the survivor. Fran died in 2008, in her 80s.Today, 2008, Lamora is the remaining member of her generation.
My own relatives lived in Los Angeles also, except my brother Theron, who lived in Washington State and later in Oregon.
EDDIE'S WORK
The first years of our married life were still depression days. The WPA programs that President Roosevelt introduced allowed only 9 months of work per year and about $90 per month. The other 3 months of the year could be very skimpy. Finally, about 1939, Eddie applied for welfare for 3 months, and went to a trade school for training as a custodian (janitor). He then found a job in the Los Angeles City School District. This paid $100 a month and again was just 9 months a year. Eddie was always busy, so during that 3 months off he would paint the house, and perhaps find part time work. We became very adept at husbanding our funds to cover the whole year.
WAR and JOB CHANGES
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941 it was necessary to get into war related work. Eddie went to a pipe company, and a year later to a big rubber company. At war's end the job ended, too, in 1945. He found a job at a sash and door company and worked at two such places until each was sold and closed, about 1967-8. He found a part time job driving a school bus, until we moved north to Port Hueneme. By this time he was 60 years old and finding work was nearly impossible. By age 62 he decided to take his Social Security. Lamora had been working in Los Angeles Schools since about 1956-7 and soon got on at Oxnard schools until her retirement in 1979.
CHILDREN IN OUR LIVES
BROTHER RUSSELL
Russell was the first baby I had close contact with. I was 13 years old when he was born and I helped with his care. He was 7 years old when I married and left home. He was 15 when my parents built a home across the street from us, and he finished growing up along with my children. He died in 2002, age 71. He and his wife Julie had in recent years spent 6 months per year in Baja California and 6 months in California in their large mobile home (5th wheel).
Their two daughters live in Tustin and San Diego. His widow now lives in Tustin with the younger daughter and helps with raising the grandson Michael. Now, 2007, widow Julie and daughter Christie and grandson Michael live at Alturas, California. Now, 2008, Julie and Christine live in Alturas, California near Julie's only sister.
OUR OWN THREECHILDREN
Raymond Edward was born December 9, 1937. Marla was born August 9, 1940, and Alex on July 8, 1942. Cathy, the daughter of my sister Raenella, was raised by my parents from age 3 to age 13, when she went to stay with Russ and Julie after my father died in 1956. At age 16 she returned to my mother's care until Mother died in 1961. Eddie and I became her "parents" until she married at age 17. She has been like a part of my own family all these years, growing up with my three.
Raymond married Rita Montoya and has 3 sons, Michael Raymond 1961, Mark Edward 1964, and Douglas George 1967, and 3 grandchildren, Robert 1991 son of Michael and Joyce; Claire 1994, and Max 1995 children of Douglas and Lisa. Raymond and Rita divorced after 20 years of marriage. He has not remarried. Mark and Susan have no children.
Raymond works at the same company that he joined right out of California Tech, where he majored in Electrical Engineering . Now, 2004, he is semi-retired and enjoying his 3 grandchildren and the leisure to take them on outings.
Marla has been disabled with epilepsy all of her life. With medications she managed to get through high school, and worked as a volunteer with spastic children for 9 years, until we moved to Port Hueneme. There she received some job training and worked part time at a small hospital until her health intervened. After September 2001 she has lived in a United Cerebral Palsy home in Granada Hills, the San Fernando Valley, where she has a lot of help. For 17 years she lived independently in her own rented apartment near Eddie and I. When she fell and broke a hip she came to live with me for about 3 years. She needed more physical help than I was able to give and she asked to move to assisted living.
Alex married Elma Baerg and lived in Los Angeles until about 1974 when he took a job in Ventura County Fire Department and moved to Camarillo. Their two sons are Edward Alan born 1976 and Thomas Adam born 1978. Alex retired after 25 years with the Fire Department.
Eddie married Crystal Bates in 2000 and has two daughters, Anna Claire 2001, and Ashley Brooke born 2004. Eddie is a journeyman plumber, and Crystal is a medical biller.
Tommy graduated college in 2003 and has been working as a mapmaker for the City of Malibu Parks Department. Now, 2007, he works for the city of Camarillo.
I have been so fortunate over the years to have these children, grandchildren and great grandchildren visit frequently. What a joy to have such a family, one that I can be proud of.
…. XXX ….
Updated February 2007, July 2008.
Lamora
