Tony
Did you know
how excited we were when we found out we were going to have a baby?
That was in
the fall of 1968, just a few months after we were married. We were living in a
one-bedroom apartment in Reseda, just off Saticoy and Reseda Blvd. I worked at
the phone company at the corner of Saticoy and Reseda, and Dad worked at
Grandpa’s Texaco station at the corner of Reseda and Plummer. We told everyone
right away, and some people said that we should have waited a couple of years
because we would be tied down. We didn’t see it that way. We wanted kids right
from the start. We were lucky, too, because, we had been concerned that Dad
would be drafted and have to go to Vietnam. With Tony on the way, he was
reclassified and didn’t have to go into the service.
Aunt Joline
and her family lived in Encino and we saw them often. You may remember that my
mother pretty much disowned me when moved out on my 18th birthday. I
had saved so many of my favorite books and toys, and all the model satellites
that had been made for me at Hughes Aircraft by Grandpa’s crews, but she threw
everything out that I left in boxes in the garage. I was devastated by that,
because I had saved all those things for my future children. My parents didn’t
come to our wedding, although Grandpa told me that he always regretted that.
After I married Dad, Grandpa used to sneak out to see me when she was at work.
After she found out that a baby were on the way, we made up and had a pretty
good relationship until she died when Tony was about 18 months old.
We started
looking for a larger apartment. The search had to be speeded up, because in the
spring of 1969, we found our first dog, Princess, living under Grandma and
Grandpa’s mobile home in Chatsworth. One day, we were over there for dinner,
and we saw this sad looking white dog by the fence between their house and the
railroad tracks. Grandpa and his neighbor had been feeding her for several
days, but she wouldn’t let them get near her. Dad wasn’t in favor of me trying
to catch her, because he was afraid of dogs, but I managed to get her to trust
me over the course of two or three visits, and one day, I tossed a blanket over
her, scooped her up, got in the car and Dad drove us right to a veterinarian.
She struggled at first but calmed down on the way, and I was able partially
unwrap her and pet her. The vet treated her for worms and a skin infection, and
said she was pretty healthy and probably under a year old. We took her to our
apartment and snuck her in for the night because our apartment didn’t allow
pets. By that time, my mother was speaking to me, and I persuaded them to keep
her at their house until we could find a place where we could keep a dog as
well as a baby.
We found a cute
little four-plex at the corner of Woodley and Haynes in Van Nuys, very near the
Sepulveda Dam and park
.
I went on maternity leave from the phone company about two
weeks before Tony was born. They gave us
six weeks un-paid leave, and I took my vacation so I had a total of seven
weeks. I didn’t intend to go back, but when Tony was a couple of weeks old, we
found out that, because I had taken one week of paid vacation, but I hadn’t
been at the phone company for a year, I either had to pay back my vacation pay,
or go back to work until I had been there for a year. We didn’t have any extra
money, so, when Tony was five weeks old, I went back to work. I hated leaving
him and I cried in the mornings for the first few days. We were so fortunate
that Aunt Joline was happy to take care of him and she did it for free. I
worked for the five weeks I had to work and then quit, never to regret staying
home with him for a second.
 |
| April 1969 |
Right from the
start, he was a happy baby. In those days, they kept new moms and babies in the
hospital for three days. We took him
home on May 27. On the way, we drove over to Van Nuys to have breakfast at Van
De Camps restaurant. We were so proud of our adorable baby. People came over to
the table to see him and to congratulate us, as if we had done something
extraordinary. Boy, did we get chastised
for that! Didn’t we know how delicate babies were? We had exposed Tony to all
kinds of germs!
Grandma and Grandpa were our first babysitters, when, on June 8, 1969, our first anniversary, we went to the Melodyland Theater in Anaheim, to see Merle Haggard in concert.
Grandma and Grandpa were our first babysitters, when, on June 8, 1969, our first anniversary, we went to the Melodyland Theater in Anaheim, to see Merle Haggard in concert.
Dad worked at
the phone company by the time Tony was born, because, when he was working at
Grandpa’s gas station, they were paying him $2.00 per hour, under the table.
Grandpa said that the IRS might wonder how he was supporting a wife without any
income, so, they were going to start paying him and taking out taxes and social
security. That would have made his pay way too low. Also, he didn’t want to
make a career out of being a gas station attendant. He got a job as a frame man
at Pacific Telephone. His starting pay was $90.00 a week, which was more than
he made at the station, but his take home pay was less because of deductions. His
office was at 1968 West Adams in downtown Los Angeles. When we had a doctor’s
appointment, or if I needed the car for some reason, we had to take him to
work. Even way back then, that was a terrible commute, over the Sepulveda pass
in the morning traffic and then back at the end of the day to pick him up. We
were so glad when he was able to transfer to Canoga Park after about a year. He
worked in the same building as Grandma, at the corner of Vanowen and Topanga
Canyon Blvd., across the street from Topanga Plaza. Grandpa Kennedy worked at
Hughes Aircraft in Culver City, and had ever since I was a little girl, and
Grandpa Garrow worked at Litton in Canoga Park. Grandma Kennedy had been an
accountant for many years, and worked at several different places. One of them
had been a place called Marble Products, which made furniture, on Ventura Blvd
in Studio City. She acquired several marble tables from there, and Grandpa
still had some of them years later.
We had Tony's christening when he was about 6 weeks old because Uncle Mike, Tony's Godfather was home from the Army. Monique was his Godmother.
We had Tony's christening when he was about 6 weeks old because Uncle Mike, Tony's Godfather was home from the Army. Monique was his Godmother.
I had been
babysitting since I was 11, so I had a pretty good idea how to take care of
babies, but we bought several books on the subject and we referred to them
quite often. The one that was especially helpful, and the bible of them all was
Dr. Spock’s, “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.” Our favorite was “How To Father,” Dr. by Fitzhugh
Dodson, that I gave Dad as a pre-baby present. We followed a lot of the book
advice, and Tony thrived. His first bath at home was in the kitchen sink, and
we used that until he could sit up on his own in a little bathtub. This was
before disposable diapers were popular, although there were a few different
brands available. But a diaper service was a lot cheaper than buying
disposables. The service would bring six dozen diapers every few days, and take
away the dirty ones. Even after rinsing out the used ones, that diaper pail
reeked after a few days. We only used the service for a few weeks before
deciding to buy diapers and launder them ourselves.
We introduced Tony
to solid food at three months, and he loved to eat.
 |
| 3 Months |
 |
| 3 Months |
keep him occupied until the
real food came. His favorite snack was hot dogs, right out of the freezer. I
don’t remember when we first gave him one, but it became a family joke. Give
Tony a frozen hot dog and a chunk of Parmesan and he will be happy. He loved
pizza right from his first taste of it.
My Grandpa, who was also William Kennedy, lived with us for a couple of years when I was in grammar school in Van Nuys, but I didn't really know him well. He wasn't a hands on kind of grandpa. He moved to Eagle Rock and got married in about 1964 or so, and Dad and I visited him and his wife, Eva, a few times. The last time I can remember seeing him before he died was in November of 1969, when Tony was about 6 months old.
 |
| November 1969 |
 |
| Christmas 1968 |
Your Garrow grandparents also adored him, and we went over to their house for dinner every Sunday, and sometimes during the week, too. Tony loved their ottoman, which swiveled. We would lay him on it, on his tummy, with one hand on him to keep him from rolling off and spin it. He would shriek with laughter. When he learned to pull himself up, he would hold on to it, and walk on his knees around and around. As he was able to stand, he would walk around it. They had a set of wooden coasters, which he liked to play with, maybe because they made a neat clacking noise when he hit them together. One day, when he were just under 10 months old, he was standing at the ottoman, and the coasters were on a table nearby. He saw them and suddenly, took a step and then another in order to get to them. It was a miracle. Tony walked! What an amazing child he was, we thought.
 |
| Monster, Monster game |
Grandma didn’t like being responsible for Tony, though, because she had epilepsy and she was very afraid she would have a seizure while she was holding him, so we didn’t leave him with them very often. But, she loved having us over so she could play with him. We went to their house every Sunday to spend the afternoon and have dinner.
Tony’s main babysitter was Aunt Joline, even after I was able to quit
work, and Cyndi and Terri loved having their baby cousin over to play. They
dressed him up and took him for walks in the stroller. It was almost like
having their own baby brother. They had a cute little house in Encino so they
lived close by. In 1971, they moved to Lancaster which was quite a bit farther
away, so we didn’t see them as often. Then, in 1972, they moved to Canyon
Country, which was a little bit closer, so we were able to get together more.
 |
| Tony's 1st Birthday |
There were a
few TV shows that Tony watched. Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers
were favorites. He watched Saturday morning cartoons like Bugs Bunny and
Superman with us when he got a little bit older. Nighttime shows that he was
allowed to watch with us were Brady Bunch, Adam 12 and Emergency. His favorite
show of all was Scooby Doo Where Are You? But, he didn’t watch a lot of TV. He
liked to play with his toys, and if there were friends home from school, he
wanted to be outside playing with them. Our street was perfect for that,
because I could sit on our front porch and see the kids no matter where they
were.
We didn’t have
a lot of money, but we had fun. We loved to go to Zuma Beach, where Tony was more than happy to sit in the water and dig. We taught him to swim very young and we would go out with him and jump the smaller waves. We often went to Reseda Park, where there was a
lake. Tony loved to feed the ducks when he got old enough to sit up in the
stroller and throw bread. There was an amusement place just south of Topanga
Plaza where we would go to jump on the trampolines. We would pay for a block of
time, 15 minutes, I think. Tony would sit in his infant seat, between two
trampolines and play with a rattle while we jumped and flipped. Another feature
they had was a huge, tall slide. We would climb up, and sit on a burlap bag and
slide our down, one of us with him on our lap. He would simply squeal with delight.
 |
| Topanga Canyon Slide |
Maybe that
contributed to his joy of adventure. We often went to Zuma Beach, Vasquez
Rocks, and there was a place in Chatsworth, called Stony Point Park, that is
still there, where we went for picnics and to climb on the rocks. I don’t
remember going there after he got older, and I don’t know why, because it was a
wonderful park. That was way before the Simi Freeway went in and the park was
huge.
On Haynes, the lady next door had a beautiful Doberman, that she
left inside while she went to work. One day, she asked us to take the dog
outside for her, because she had to work late and she left us a key. When we went in, we were totally shocked that
the place was completly chewed up and there was poop and pee everywhere. Tony
kept saying, "uckie." We didn't stay in there very long and we never
went in, again. There was another neighbor, Cloma Hicks, who lived in the
house behind our apartment. She had a huge yard and we met her over the fence
and became friends. She used to invite me to take him over for tea and to play
in her beautiful yard. When we moved away, we promised to keep in touch, but we
only talked a few times after we moved away.
We got Tony another sister when he was still a baby,
Nicole Heilein Garrow, a purebred German Shepherd.
My best friend, Ann, since
junior high, had bred her dog, and she gave us the puppy. She had papers, and
we were so excited to have a registered dog. Dad took her to training classes
and we would play in the park and watch the training. One of my favorite
pictures of Tony is standing on the sidewalk in front of our apartment with a
dog on each side of him and his arms around them.
 |
| Nikki and Princess |
I grew up
reading so it was natural to read to Tony from the start. Dr. Suess was one of
my favorites, so we joined a book club and bought all of his books, reading
them over and over. Tony learned to read before he went to school.
Tony’s friends were John
and Joy Holman - kids of Ann and John, who are still friends after 55 years; Of
course, Jay, Michelle, Steve and Patrick Bendzick, who we saw once a month or
so. His first friend, besides Jay and Michelle, who were
really more like family, and John and Joy, was Jamie Gauze. He was the son of
Nancy and Dennis Gauze, who was the son of friends of Grandma and Grandpa. Tony
and Jamie were about the same age. They used to come over to our place to play
canasta and he and Jamie loved to play together. Steven and his wife, Jamie
were a couple with a little girl, who lived in our four-plex and we became
friends. We still got together after we moved away, and we introduced them to
Nancy and Dennis, and we often went to parks for barbeques and picnics, so the
three kids could play. We dropped the friendship with all of them after a
couple of years, because Dennis and Steven became heavy pot users, and we
didn’t want you around all that smoke. Dad smoked cigarettes at that time, but
he had always smoked outside because I had always hated the smell. My parents
and Dad’s parents had smoked since were kids.
Tony was very curious,
and he loved to get into
things, like boxes,
cubbys and drawers.
But, though he loved to get into things, he was a good sleeper from the beginning, so he was out of a crib before he was 18 months old. We transitioned to a big boy bed, slowly, by putting a bed in his room, along with his crib, and letting him take naps in the bed. He wasn't a night wanderer, and he liked naps, so that worked well.
Tony was very curious,
and he loved to get into
things, like boxes,
cubbys and drawers.
But, though he loved to get into things, he was a good sleeper from the beginning, so he was out of a crib before he was 18 months old. We transitioned to a big boy bed, slowly, by putting a bed in his room, along with his crib, and letting him take naps in the bed. He wasn't a night wanderer, and he liked naps, so that worked well.
 |
| September 1970 nap time |
He had thick curls, but when his hair started getting long enough for him to be mistaken for a girl, that was the time to get his first haircut. He was 15 months old.
 |
| At Grandma and Grandpa's House |
Tony was 17
months old when our friends, Hollis and Katy Clanton, parents of a junior high
friend, Julie, loaned us $500.00, enough for a down payment a house. Our first
house was such an exciting endeavor. We looked for a very short time before
finding the perfect little two-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac. It needed some
work, but we loved it. It cost $18,500.00. We landscaped the front yard, as
much as we could afford to do. The backyard was a lost cause, because there was
a row of 20 foot tall, skinny trees all along the back fence, which kept the
yard in shade all the time, so even grass wouldn’t grow. Dad eventually cut
them down and made a huge pile of branches and logs in the middle of the yard,
which we slowly got rid of. Nicci and Princess used to run around in circles
playing. Nicci had a curious obsession. She ran in a huge circle around a tree and wore a path in the dirt. It was very strange to see her do that. We didn’t use the yard much, though, and we never fixed it up. The
kitchen was in the back of the house. It was long and narrow, with one end
being an eating area, but we turned that into a play area. We bought a wooden
chest that we used for a toy box, with a lid that lifted up and Dad fixed the
door so it wouldn’t fall on him. We kept that forever.
 |
| Princess and Nikki all grown up |
When Dad
turned 21, he received the proceeds from a trust fund fund that had been set up
for him when he was 10 and got hit by a car in Niagara Falls. The accident was
his fault, because he was riding his brother’s bike, which was a little bit too
big for him, and he couldn’t stop the bike or he would fall over. He rode down
the drive way and into the street right in front of a car. It tore up his leg,
and the man who hit him, was cited for careless driving. The amount he got was
$1,000.00 and the man had to pay his medical expenses. With that money, we paid
off the loan to Hollis and had a little bit left over to do some renovations on
our new house.
In November,
1970, we were in Tony’s bedroom, steaming and striping wallpaper off the wall.
Tony was playing and wandering in and out of the room. The phone rang. It was
Grandpa calling to tell us that my mother had gone into their room to rest
because she wasn’t feeling well after dinner. He went in to check on her and
found that she had died. Our neighbor, Betty, across the street, took Tony for
us, and we drove to their apartment in Santa Monica. I think we got there in 10
minutes. The only thing I remember about the next couple of weeks, is Aunt
Joline and me going over to clean out her closet and divide her things between
us. We donated several bags of clothes, purses and other things to a
charity.
Grandpa got on
with his life pretty well. They hadn’t had a fantastic relationship, but he was
lonely. He had never lived alone. When I was 16, they had separated for a few
months, but I had lived with him in an apartment near my high school. I don’t know how he met Sally, but a couple
of years later, he told us he was getting married. They lived in Tustin for a
short time before buying the house in Norco. He finally got his horse ranch
that he had always wanted. They also had several Austrian Shepherds and a Saint
Bernard.
Tony loved going to Travel Town, and climbing on all the train
exhibits. One day, when he was about 18 months old, we went to the Griffith
Park Zoo. We were fascinated by the primates and he was good at making monkey
noises. We got out to the parking lot and 1964 Malibu convertible was gone. We
reported the theft to security, and the officers were both black. Tony got one
look at them and started pointing and saying, "Monkey, monkey,” and
squealing like a monkey. We were so embarrassed and tried to get around it by
telling them that he was still excited about having just seen the monkeys. We
didn't think they bought it. They found our car a few days later in
Whittier. The kids who took it were racing and the fuel pump blew, so they
pulled over and started striping it. The police caught them. We had to testify
in court but because they were all minors, we never learned their names and
they were let off with a warning. We were beyond mad. Dad and Grandpa made the
car run, but it was tainted for us, so we went to Rancho Chevrolet and traded
it in on the green Chevrolet Carryall (which was later known as a Suburban.) We
kept that for quite a few years, way after we had moved to Sparks.
We had good neighbors on Garden Grove. Across
the street at 7732, were the McCalls, Kerry, Sean, and Tim - Betty and Jim were the parents.
At the end of the cul-de sac were the
Wobsers, Julie and, a couple of years later, Jenny - Doug and Judy were the
parents. Julie Wobser was a few years older than Tony and Jenny was close to
Scott’s age. Judy and Doug used to babysit for us so Tony spent a lot of time at
their house. David Masters and his mom, Tammy lived across the street, next to
the McCalls, and Tammy had a boyfriend,
named Dave, who used to spend the night at their house sometimes. Betty McCall
thought she was the scandal of the neighborhood. Melanie was the granddaughter
of Bud and Dottie, who lived between the Masters and the Wobsers. She and her
mom often came over to visit them so Tony played with her, but she was about a year
older than him and very bossy, so we didn’t like him playing with her too much.
Bob Macy was the man with the trains next door to the McCalls. You kids all
loved to go over there to watch him run his trains, and he seemed to enjoy
showing them off to the neighborhood kids. When Tony was about 5, Mike and Bridgette
Green moved in next door to us at 7727 and they had a son named Scott, who was
the same age as Scott.
When Tony was
about three, he got a tricycle and learned to ride it right away. We let him
ride around the cul-de-sac, on the sidewalk, from our house to Kerry’s house
and back. He was only allowed to cross the street if he was with an adult or one
of his friends who was old enough to cross, like Kerry or Julie. Tony was into
building with the blocks from Grandpa, so we also got Lincoln Logs, Ring A Ma
Jigs, Tinker Toys and a couple of other building sets. He was finally old
enough for Legoes at about three, and he would play with those for hours. Dad
and I sometimes played with him, but he was perfectly happy playing by himself
and he never complained that he was bored.
He played with Kerry the most. They were always at each others’
houses. Kerry’s brother, Tim, was sort
of strange. He stayed inside a lot and
he wouldn’t make eye contact when he was with people. He was probably just
Autistic, but, at the time, we wondered if he would grow up to be a serial
killer. David Miller lived on the corner of Saticoy and Etiwanda. The parents
were Carol and Bob. They had a pool and they owned several food trucks. We
often went there to play and swim. One day, we were visiting and he and David
were out in front of their house and decided to play Six Million Dollar Man.
They started throwing rocks, trying to get them to the other side of the
street. They weren’t trying to hit the cars (we hoped) but somebody called the
police and they arrived to talk to us. David and Tony so afraid they were going
to go to jail.
Life was good. I loved being a stay-at-home mom. Monique and I
joined a group at the WMCA, called Y-Wives. There were about 40 women in the
group, which met once a month for a social time, visiting, doing crafts,
talking about books, and doing charitable events. That was a chance to have the
kids play and have some time engage in grown-up stuff. I became the editor of
their newsletter and I did some writing. I even won an award for my writing.
That was an honor, even though it was a pretty small group. One day, I stopped
on the way home from my W-Wives meeting, and I picked up a pizza to take home
for dinner. I had my arms full of pizza and Tony, so I set the pizza on top of
the car and put him in his car seat. I got home and Dad asked where the pizza
was. I had driven off with it still on the car. We were so mad. Money wasn’t
free flowing so we had to do without pizza that night.
One of the things we did for entertainment was Gimic ralleys. We
could take him and, eventually, Scott, with us, so we didn’t have to pay a
sitter. A group of people would meet at a designated spot and be given maps or
lists with instructions. We had to drive to checkpoints, where we would check
in and get a marker showing we had been there. It would take two to three hours
to run the course, and sometimes the instructions were really hard, so it would
take longer. The first team to get to the finish line was the winner. They
often took us to places we might never have been to, like Bel Aire and up in
the ritzy Mulholland Drive neighborhoods. If we made it through the course, we
would meet at a restaurant, usually a pizza place. The end was often at a
Pizzaria Uno on Ventura Blvd. Tony had fun on the rallys, because he knew there
would be pizza at the end and he liked to be in the car. We got lots of plaques
for participating, which we still have on the inside of Dad’s tool cabinet, and
one time we actually won a rally. There was a cash prize for the winner, which
depended on how many entrants there were. That night there were 50 entrants so
we got $100.00, so we were thrilled.
Tony loved playing with the dogs, and taking them out on their
leashes for walks around the cul-de-sac with Kerry and Julie. Julie had a male
dog, a Rottweiler/mutt or a terrier/mutt. Someone got the bright idea that it
would be fun to let Princess have puppies. Doug and Judy were going to take one
and we had a couple of other people who wanted one. Princess outdid herself.
She produced 10 adorable puppies. Tony
was about 2 and he used to sit in the closet, where we had made her a bed,
surrounded by puppies.
When they got old enough to go outside, we put an old playpen
in the front yard and he would climb in to sit with them.
We wanted to keep
some of them, but we already had two dogs, so we managed to find homes for
every one of them. It was hard to see them go.
Living in Southern California, we had our share of little earthquakes.
When we had Nancy and Dennis, and Jamie and Steven over for the evening, and we
would feel one begin, we would all jump up and grab something to keep it from
falling. We had lost a TV shortly after we moved into our new house, so the
person closest to the TV would grab that. Everyone else would hold on to
anything they could find that might break if it fell. Now that I think of it, I
wonder why we didn’t just fix everything so they wouldn’t be able to fall. We must have looked so funny, scrambling around holding on to things. Then
came the big one. February 9, 1971, at 6:00 am, we were jolted out of bed. One
of us ran to Tony’s room, grabbed him out of his crib and went to stand in a
doorway for safety. We lost a lot of special things, including a small
collection of Hummel Figurines, several of our wedding wine glasses, and some
ceramic elves. Our house was fine. There
$500 million in property damage throughout the area. 65 people were killed and
some of the newly constructed overpasses on I-5, on the way up to Canyon
Country were destroyed. The quake’s epicenter was in Sylmar, and my Aunt Clara,
Grandmother and cousin, Linda lived in Sylmar. We tried to call them, and
couldn’t get through. We drove over to their house, and were shocked by the
devastation along the way. There were caved in buildings, fallen trees and
power lines and broken roads. All the electricity was out so there were no
street lights. When we got there, we found their house, on Glenoaks Blvd. near
Roxford St. still standing. Inside was a
complete mess. The refrigerator had fallen forward and the freezer door at the
top had brought it to a stop against the counter, but the refrigerator door had
opened so all the food had spilled out. Food and broken glass was all over the
kitchen floor. Windows were broken throughout the house and the chimney had
fallen away from the house, leaving a gaping hole. The block wall fence was
gone and they had no running water. We helped to clean up a little bit and went
over to Olive View Hospital, a few blocks away and waited in line for free
water to take back to them. They stayed in the house rather than finding
someplace to stay, because they were afraid that looters would take their
things. We went over every day for several days to take them water until the
power and water came back on.
We didn’t escape completely, though. Our house was southwest of the Van Norman Lake, which was just above Granada Hills. The lake was much larger then than it is now. They predicted that the dam was going to break and said that, if it did, the water would be several inches deep in our area, even though we were several miles away. We were on evacuation alert for several days, until they were able to drain enough water out of the lake to make it less of a danger. Grandma and Grandpa said we could stay with them, but we wanted to stay home as long as we could. Dad only stayed away from work for that one day, so when I went to my Grandma’s house, I left Tony with neighbors, because I thought it was too dangerous to take him there. Of course, there were quite a few aftershocks for several days and those were a threat, as well.
Dad and I had bought bikes and we put a seat on the back of both of them so we could take Tony for rides. We often went riding with some of the neighbors, but more often we went alone. One day, we were riding north on Reseda Blvd. at Nordhoff St. about 4 miles from our house.
We didn’t escape completely, though. Our house was southwest of the Van Norman Lake, which was just above Granada Hills. The lake was much larger then than it is now. They predicted that the dam was going to break and said that, if it did, the water would be several inches deep in our area, even though we were several miles away. We were on evacuation alert for several days, until they were able to drain enough water out of the lake to make it less of a danger. Grandma and Grandpa said we could stay with them, but we wanted to stay home as long as we could. Dad only stayed away from work for that one day, so when I went to my Grandma’s house, I left Tony with neighbors, because I thought it was too dangerous to take him there. Of course, there were quite a few aftershocks for several days and those were a threat, as well.
 |
| Two Years Old |
 |
| This is where we fell |
 |
| Tony is Three |
We wanted more children and I found out another one was on the way
shortly after his first birthday. We lost the baby, a boy, at Thanksgiving. We
lost two more in the next year and were thinking it wasn’t meant to be when along
came Scott. Tony was so sweet with him. He loved to hold Scott on his lap and
bring him his toys. We had to explain, more than once, that he couldn’t play
with Legoes and Matchbox cars, yet.
But, even though Tony loved him, he started to act out in a strange way. We kept finding that food was missing from the refrigerator and pantry.
We couldn’t
figure out what was going on. One day, I found a block of Parmesan cheese,
inside one of his panel trucks, inside the toy box, which we kept in a little area off the kitchen. I found a can of Kraft Parmesan cheese in his
closet under a truck. Even after we talked to him and punished him for hiding
food, he kept doing it, so we went to the doctor to find out what to do. He
said that Tony was manifesting his insecurities about being displaced by the
baby. He was afraid there wouldn’t be enough food. We bought him his own block
of cheese, and a can of Kraft Parmesan, and wrote TONY on them. He was allowed
to ask for a piece of cheese whenever he wanted one and nobody else used his
can of cheese. That did the trick. But, looking back, it was pretty funny
finding blocks and cans of cheese hidden by our little boy.
But, even though Tony loved him, he started to act out in a strange way. We kept finding that food was missing from the refrigerator and pantry.
 |
| Tony's fortress of solitude |
Scott
From the beginning, Scott was such a happy baby. But, I had
trouble nursing him so we put him on formula at a couple weeks old. He started
throwing up after every meal. He was diagnosed as being allergic to milk so we
put him on soy formula, which smelled disgusting. He didn’t do well on that either.
The vomiting got worse. He started losing weight and refused to eat anything
and he started vomiting blood. At that point we were desperate. He was 10 +
pounds when he was born and he was down to less than seven pounds at six weeks.
I had a friend in La Leche League, and
she said that I should try to put him back on my milk.
By then, my milk had dried up. The league gave us donated milk and helped me to bring my milk back in. After a week of trying, and giving him donated milk he had started to gain weight and my milk came back in. At five months, we started him on solid foods. By the time he was one, we were able to give him milk products, again, and he didn’t have any problems after that. He loved to eat, and he wasn’t at all picky. We had learned from Tony, to give him vegetables first so he didn’t learn to like sweet things. Scott didn’t really have any favorites. He ate whatever we gave him. He was the one, of all the kids, who was willing to try new things and he usually liked them.
By then, my milk had dried up. The league gave us donated milk and helped me to bring my milk back in. After a week of trying, and giving him donated milk he had started to gain weight and my milk came back in. At five months, we started him on solid foods. By the time he was one, we were able to give him milk products, again, and he didn’t have any problems after that. He loved to eat, and he wasn’t at all picky. We had learned from Tony, to give him vegetables first so he didn’t learn to like sweet things. Scott didn’t really have any favorites. He ate whatever we gave him. He was the one, of all the kids, who was willing to try new things and he usually liked them.
 |
| Scott's Christening with Monique and Brian |
Scott loved to play near Tony, even if he was in the playpen.
After he could sit up, he would pull himself up on the side of the playpen, and
watch Tony play with Legoes and cars, and build roads with blocks and he would babble
and squeal to get out. While we were so careful to give Tony only safe toys,
Scott started playing with Legoes and Matchbox cars before he was one. He had
gotten over putting everything in his mouth, so, although we kept track of him,
we didn’t worry about him choking on things. He mostly wanted to play with
Tony, but, when he was too young to understand how to play with things without
destroying them, such as towers of blocks, or roads made in the dirt, Tony
would get really mad at him for messing up his games. When Scott was old
enough, they were always playing together whenever possible, except when Tony
had a friend over. Then Scott would stand at the baby gate, with Tony and his
friend on one side, making elaborate things, and Scott would watch them with
his sad eyes. He walked at about 10 months. I have the date in one of the baby
books, but they are in a box in the garage so you’ll all have to take my word
for it.
 |
| October 1972 |
Scott’s best, and pretty much only, friend was Jenny Wobser,
Julie’s little sister.
We traded babysitting duties, so the kids were often at
their house, and she was often at our house. We used to put the little doughboy
pool in the front yard, under the tree, and all of them would play with the hose
and climb in and out of the pool.
We went on a family trip, our first, in April of 1973, when Scott
was eleven months old and Tony was almost four. We drove, in our green Chevy Carryall,
to Lawton, Oklahoma to visit Uncle Mike and Aunt Charlotte. They had two kids,
Dawn, who was a little bit older than Tony, and Michael, who was close to
Scott’s age. We set up a wooden port-a-crib in the back of the van, with one of
the seats pushed forward, so Scott could ride next to Tony, because we thought
it was safer than a car seat, and he had room to move around and play. Car
seats weren’t as good as the ones they have now and it was a long drive, so we
didn’t want him to be cooped up in a car seat the entire time. Tony entertained
him by ”reading” to him and playing with him through the sides of the crib.
When we were in Oklahoma, we went on a picnic at a big park and the day started getting cloudy. Uncle Mike and Aunt Charlotte said we had to go after we had only been there for an hour or so and all the kids were having so much fun. They said there were tornadoes on the way. By the time we got packed up, the sirens had begun, to warn everyone to go home. It was exciting for us, who only had earthquakes to contend with, to think that we might go through a tornado. We got home safely, and the warning continued for a while, but no tornadoes appeared where we were.
The trip was about 2 weeks long, and, because it was such a long drive, we made sure to stop often so Tony and Scott could get out to play. One of the more memorable stops on the way home was at the Grand Canyon. We didn’t stay overnight, but we explored a bit. We got this pic of the boys, and my head, because I was ready to grab them as soon as Dad took the shot.
It was very brave of Dad to stand there
because he has always had a fear of heights. But he would do just about
anything for a good picture.
When we were in Oklahoma, we went on a picnic at a big park and the day started getting cloudy. Uncle Mike and Aunt Charlotte said we had to go after we had only been there for an hour or so and all the kids were having so much fun. They said there were tornadoes on the way. By the time we got packed up, the sirens had begun, to warn everyone to go home. It was exciting for us, who only had earthquakes to contend with, to think that we might go through a tornado. We got home safely, and the warning continued for a while, but no tornadoes appeared where we were.
The trip was about 2 weeks long, and, because it was such a long drive, we made sure to stop often so Tony and Scott could get out to play. One of the more memorable stops on the way home was at the Grand Canyon. We didn’t stay overnight, but we explored a bit. We got this pic of the boys, and my head, because I was ready to grab them as soon as Dad took the shot.
After we got home from the trip, we settled into our routine.
Spring had arrived and we worked in the front yard to make it pretty. But, a
couple of weeks after we got home, I started to suspect that something was
wrong. I thought I was coming down with the flu, but pretty soon I realized
that another baby was on the way. The way I told Dad was to ask him what he
wanted for Christmas. May was a funny time to ask that question. He looked
rather horrified as he asked, “Are you sure?” I was. We had decided that two
children was going to be enough, but we were still happy to be able to plan for
another baby, and I was determined that this one would be a girl. Christmas that year was so much fun, with two little boys. Lots
of Legoes, trucks and cars, Fisher Price play sets, and learning toys, like the
Speak and Spell, which was a favorite for a long time.
Scott got a Weebles
Haunted House which both boys loved to play with. Tony got a real bike and only
used training wheels for a short time. He was now able to go along on his own
bike when we went riding through the neighborhood. Over the years, the kids had almost every Fisher Price set that was made. One of the favorites was the multi level garage with a ramp and an elevator
.
Tony made a friend when he started kindergarten at Garden Grove School, named Greg Hilditch, who lived on the next street, Wynne Ave., behind our house. One day, he was over at Greg’s house playing with cars. I think they were both lying on the ground when Greg pushed a car towards Tony and it hit him just under his eye. He had quite a black eye for a few days.
The week before Kathy was born, we took the boys to a shopping center carnival where they rode on some of the kiddie rides.
We really wanted the baby to be a girl, so, one weekend, when Aunt Joline had Scott at her house, she dressed him up so we could see what our little girl would look like.
 |
| Reading To Scott |
Tony made a friend when he started kindergarten at Garden Grove School, named Greg Hilditch, who lived on the next street, Wynne Ave., behind our house. One day, he was over at Greg’s house playing with cars. I think they were both lying on the ground when Greg pushed a car towards Tony and it hit him just under his eye. He had quite a black eye for a few days.
 |
| Scott is 1 |
The week before Kathy was born, we took the boys to a shopping center carnival where they rode on some of the kiddie rides.
We really wanted the baby to be a girl, so, one weekend, when Aunt Joline had Scott at her house, she dressed him up so we could see what our little girl would look like.
 |
| Twinkies |
Kathy
Scott was still a baby when Kathy was born, only 18 months old. Neither
boy showed any sighs of jealousy. He wanted to be with her all the time. He used
to read to her, play with her, and when she was old enough to eat food, he was
old enough to be able to handle the spoon without sticking it down her throat,
so we would let him feed her sometimes. If she was fussy, he would bring her
things to make her happy. They both took
naps, and sometimes, we let Scott sleep in her crib with her.
We had our share of mishaps. We went to Grandpa's house in Norco every few weeks, but there wasn't much for the kids to do there. One memorable trip was when Kathy was only a few weeks old. Scott stuck a dried bean up his nose and we couldn't get it out. We were afraid it would become infected so we too him to the ER to have it removed. That was no fun for any of us. One day, we were marketing. Kathy was about three months old and in an infant carrier in the seat part of the shopping cart, with Tony and Scott walking beside the cart. We had our backs turned when Kathy must have arched her back. We heard a woman scream and turned to find Kathy screaming on the floor. She had landed on her head. There was a hospital two blocks away, so we scooped her up, grabbed the boys and took her to the hospital. Amazingly, there was no damage to Kathy. We went back to the market and found that they had put our cart in the cold case in case we came back. The lady who had screamed had been so upset that she left the store without finishing her shopping or buying the things that were already in her cart.
 |
| Kathy Christening February 1974 |
We went to Reseda Park quite often, so the boys could run and play on the play structures. We would walk around the lake with Kathy in the stroller.
Tony slept on the top of the bunk beds an Scott, from the time he was 17 months old, slept on the bottom, most of the time. Sometimes they hung out together on the top.
Of course, we still went to Grandma and Grandpas to visit quite often. She was a good cook and we went for dinner at least once a week until we moved away.
Tony loved to take Kathy for walks in her stroller and Scott had to help push. By that time, we had moved into our next house.
We had always loved the house that was next door to Doug and Judy. We were friends with Lee Spady, the woman who rented it. She had two girls, Jill and Vanessa. They moved in shortly before Scott was born, and Vanessa was just a little bit older than he was, so they played together with Jenny. Vanessa was very bossy, but you all played well together. Jill was probably 12 or 13 when they first moved in. The house had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a fireplace, a large family room behind the kitchen and a gigantic backyard. With a third child, we were very cramped in our two bedroom house. We had bunk beds and a crib in the same room, and naps were difficult, because poor Tony couldn’t go into his room with two babies sleeping. Lee told us that the owner of the house, David Portillo, who lived in Florida, was thinking about putting it up for sale so she was looking for a place to move. We had never met him, but I wrote him a letter, saying that we were very interested in buying the house, and we were wondering if he would be willing to sell it to us without putting it on the market, so there would be no commission. That way, he could price it a little bit lower than it was worth. He wrote back and was interested in our proposal. We worked through a lawyer, and Hollis Clanton, the man who had loaned us the money for our first house, helped us with the legal stuff. The deal went through and we prepared to move. Unfortunately, we discovered that, although Lee had told us that she was going to find a house to rent somewhere else, she had really been planning to buy the house and she was beyond mad that we had “bought it out from under her,” and she never spoke to us again. Mr. Portillo gave her six weeks to move. When Vanessa saw you kids outside playing she would run out to play, and her mother would yell at her to stay away from those brats. One day, a moving truck came and Lee and her girls were gone. But it took a while to forget them. They had filled the garbage disposal with mud and rocks. The toilets were both plugged and there was other cosmetic damage. We got it all cleaned up, washed the walls, and polished the gorgeous hardwood floors. Moving day came. Tony adopted the fig tree in the backyard immediately and Dad made a tree house for him.
 |
| Our Door To the New Backyard |
 |
| Tony's 6th birthday party on our patio |
About that time, an older couple moved in between our old house and our new one. They were Joe and Floy Mager. He was in his 80s and she was in her late 70s. She took to the kids like she had known them forever. She would make cookies and have them over for cookies and milk and then watch them walk home to make sure they got there. Floy loved to read to them for hours. We often took them to Zuma Beach with us and Joe would set up a chair a few feet from the water and not get up from it until it was time to go home.
 |
| Sometimes we went to different beaches |
 |
| Zuma Beach |
When I
was in the hospital after having Kathy, Monique was taking care of Tony and
Scott. Tony stepped on a belt and the sharp part went into his foot. I believe
he still retains a bit of that memory. When Kathy was just a couple of months
old, Tony came down with Chicken Pox. All of us except Dad got it and so we
were miserable for a couple of weeks.Tony had just gotten better and gone back
to school, when Scott came down with mumps. All of us got it except Dad. He
moved out for a few days to stay with Grandma and Grandpa because he had never
had mumps and it was supposed to be dangerous for men to get it. We all survived
but it was several more miserable days. Tony had allergies which led us to an
allergy doctor for testing. Dad and I don’t remember what they decided was
triggering his allergies, but he had to have allergy shots for a few years, even
after we moved to Sparks.
In 1976, a late winter outbreak of swine flu at Fort Dix in New Jersey led to fears of a devastating pandemic. President Ford announced a plan to vaccinate everyone in the country. By the end of the year, 40 million out of 200 million Americans were vaccinated for the new strain, but no pandemic appeared. The $137-million program began in early October, but within days reports emerged that the vaccine appeared to increase the risk for Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological condition that causes temporary paralysis but can be fatal. We went to a church on Reseda Blvd. in a record-breaking heat wave, with Joe and Floy, and waited in line outside for three hours with other people who were afraid of getting swine flu. People were passing out from the heat, but we had to get those shots. Almost 25% of the population received the swine flu vaccine before the program was halted in December after 10 weeks.
Kathy and Scott were so close in age that they got along really well most of the time. Tony loved to antagonize them sometimes, but they were all pretty good most of the time. His favorite thing to do, though, was go up in his treehouse in the big fig tree in our new backyard. The little ones weren't allowed to go up there unless we were right there, and they had to get permission from Tony, as well.
In 1976, a late winter outbreak of swine flu at Fort Dix in New Jersey led to fears of a devastating pandemic. President Ford announced a plan to vaccinate everyone in the country. By the end of the year, 40 million out of 200 million Americans were vaccinated for the new strain, but no pandemic appeared. The $137-million program began in early October, but within days reports emerged that the vaccine appeared to increase the risk for Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological condition that causes temporary paralysis but can be fatal. We went to a church on Reseda Blvd. in a record-breaking heat wave, with Joe and Floy, and waited in line outside for three hours with other people who were afraid of getting swine flu. People were passing out from the heat, but we had to get those shots. Almost 25% of the population received the swine flu vaccine before the program was halted in December after 10 weeks.
When
Tony was five, Dad acquired a go-cart from someone at work. Tony was in heaven.
Dad let him drive it in circles in the street, and Dad and I would put drive
around with Scott or Kathy on our lap. All of them loved it. We let Kerry drive
it and all the other kids on the block were so envious. A family moved in around the corner, on
Keswick. We met them on one of our walks. They had three little boys, and we
used to play with them sometimes. They had a ping pong table they didn’t want,
and they gave it to us for our family room. The kids were all too young to
play, but we enjoyed it
Grandpa
gave us a Honda scooter, so Dad drove it to work quite often, and I was able to have a
car. So, we enrolled Scott in the Canby School. Kids had to be at least two and
fully potty trained to go there. Kathy wanted to go with him so badly from the
beginning, and she understood the requirements. She went to school on her
second birthday. They both attended that school two days a week until we moved
away.
One day,
I was riding my bike just a couple of blocks from our house, when I found a
cabinet large enough to fit our TV. It had been put out for the trash men to
take. I immediately loved it so I dragged it behind some bushes and when Dad
got home that day, we drove over to get it. We loaded it into our car. It
needed a lot of cosmetic repairs. It had louvered doors in front which we fixed
and we replaced the knobs. Then we refinished it in a beautiful honey oak
color. When we moved to Sparks we brought it with us in the moving van. We had
put strawberry plants inside it for the move and we remember that when the van
finally got here, after 7 days, the plants had sent out shoots that were
sticking out of the louvers trying to reach the sun. The first week in our rental on Gamble Drive, we slept on
the floor and only had the clothes and toys that we had been able to fit in the car.
.
Christmas 1975
.
Christmas 1975
 |
| Kathy Turns 2 |
We used
to go camping a lot. Grandma and Grandpa
had a camper then and they often took Tony camping at the beach after he was
three. Goleta and the Santa Barbara area were their usual spots. We went to Lake Cachuma near Santa Barbara a
lot. One time, when we went to Kings Canyon National Park Doug and Judy and
their girls went with us. We set up a mesh sided playpen for Scott and Jenny to
be in when we didn’t want to have to keep track of them, and Tony and Julie
were allowed to wander nearby playing in the woods and in the stream. One icky vivid
memory is finding the little kids eating bugs that had fallen into the playpen.
We had a “pet” spider at home, which
Tony named Spidey. We had been watching her in her web for a couple of week
when we found that she had an egg sac in the web. We were going on a camping trip to Kings
Canyon and we had decided that she would love to live in the forest. The day
before the trip, we put her and her egg sac in a large jar and poked holes in
the lid. Tony and Dad caught some bugs and put them in the jar for her to eat
on the way, because it was about a four hour trip, and Tony was afraid she
would get hungry. Just before we left we
discovered that hundreds of babies had hatched. We had put mesh under the lid,
so we weren’t worried about the babies getting out. We left on our trip and
stopped on the way for a snack so the trip took about five hours. When we got
there we took Spidey and her family out and found them all dead because it had been too hot in the back of the car. We
were so sad!
We
always had big July 4th parties with the neighbors. We would bring
barbeques out front and the men would cook while the women would all contribute
to a pot luck. A few days before the party, some of us would drive to San
Fernando, which was still allowed to sell fireworks, and we would pool our
money and buy lots of fireworks. When it got dark, we would all line our chairs
up at the end of the cul de sac, and the men, who had already lined up the
fireworks water buckets and a hose, just in case, would start the show. People
came from other neighborhoods to watch. The police didn’t mess with people
doing it, probably because they had more serious things to attend to than
neighbors having a display. There were fireworks shows at the Sepulveda Dam
park, which we had gone to one time, but we had found the crowds to be
difficult to put up with. People would shoot off rockets right next to other
people and we just didn’t feel safe in crowds like that.
 |
| Old house in 1976 |
 |
| Aunt Joline on Meadowlands about 1976 I missed her so much after we moved away |
When Tony was in 1st grade, we began to read about the plans to try to integrate the schools very aggressively. They were going to bus kids from the LA to the SF Valley and, in turn kids from the valley would be bused to the city. We were rather horrified at the thought of Tony, and later, Scott and Kathy, sitting on buses for at least an hour each way in that terrible traffic. What if a kid got sick at school, or there was any kind of emergency? There would be no quick or easy way to get to them. We went to meetings and protested verbally but the decision was made. It probably wouldn’t have started for a year or more, but we weren’t going to let it happen, at all. We looked at the map, and pinpointed all the places that Dad would be able to stay within the Bell system.
We thought that, as long as we had to move, we would leave California. We researched places at the library. It would have been so much easier if the Internet had been around, then. Flagstaff, Arizona and Reno were at the top of our list of places that we might like. We took a trip to Reno in the fall of 1976 and we loved the area. We stayed in a little motel in Reno, at the corner of 5th and West Streets. We drove around the area to find neighborhoods we liked. Sparks had newer homes, but was still close enough to downtown, where the main phone company was, so we got a realtor, Janice Burgarello, from Fountain Realty, and she showed us a few houses. We really liked the two story Barker house, in the neighborhood off McCarran and North Truckee Lane and Janice said the market was always moving so we hoped we would be able to get one when the time came.
We only had a few days for the trip, and we wanted to visit Lake Tahoe, so we drove up there and found a motel on Pioneer Trail, between Lake Tahoe Blvd. and Ski Run Blvd. Because it was away from the casino area and not right next to the lake, it was reasonably priced. We stayed there for a couple of days and did the tourist thing. The motel had a pool, so the kids were happy. We drove up to Incline to explore, and we found Sand Harbor. We hadn’t taken our swimsuits with us on the drive, but the kids played in the water and we rolled our pants legs up as far and we rolled our pants legs up as far as we could so we could walk in the water.
The one good thing about Southern California was the weather. We could play outside year round. All the kids loved to play out front with the neighborhood kids, and to ride bikes and big wheels. They helped with yardwork, too. In our huge backyard, besides Tony's treehouse,
we had a big swing set and a climberoo. So, they spent a lot of time outside. We went to Vasquez Rocks, the beach and whenever we found little carnivals at parking lots, we would stop so they could go on the rides. We all loved Griffith Park Zoo and Traveltown. Just about every weekend, we took them somewhere fun. The kids liked to have sleepovers with Scott Green and Jenny, so just about once a week, we had kids camping at each other's houses.
we had a big swing set and a climberoo. So, they spent a lot of time outside. We went to Vasquez Rocks, the beach and whenever we found little carnivals at parking lots, we would stop so they could go on the rides. We all loved Griffith Park Zoo and Traveltown. Just about every weekend, we took them somewhere fun. The kids liked to have sleepovers with Scott Green and Jenny, so just about once a week, we had kids camping at each other's houses.
Christmas 1975
Kathy Turns 3
We had
no idea that our plans would go so fast. Dad got his transfer papers just after
Christmas and they wanted him to start work in 60 days. The only problem was that he couldn’t transfer
into the same job. He had to downgrade to directory assistance. That meant a
$100.00 a week cut in pay. We decided we needed to get out of the area badly
enough and we would just have to economize. We put the house on the market and Dad moved
to Reno in early March of 1977. The kids were so sad when he moved.
 |
| Night before Bill moved to Sparks |
We started Tony in Lena Juniper. We found out that the schools here were so far ahead of the LA schools, that Tony couldn't catch up in only 2 months. At the end of the school year, they said he would have to repeat 2nd grade. We didn't like that, but he did very well in school, so it really was a good thing.
I had to get a job, though, because of Dad having to take a pay cut. That was way too much for us to be able to live on. We hadn't made a killing on the sale of the house. My first job was as a bookkeeper at a Kitchen Craft on Cal Lane in Sparks. It wasn't a bad job, because I was the only one in the office of a place that constructed and installed custom cabinets. My boss was nice, and he often took me to lunch at the Nugget. We would be gone for a couple of hours, because he liked to gamble, so he would play keno during lunch. I didn't mind, at all, and I guess the owners didn't either, since they knew we were gone for way more than the time it took to eat lunch. One time we had the crew build us a large bookcase, which we still have in our garage. We paid $50, which probably barely covered the materials.
Kathy got pneumonia just a few months after we moved to Sparks and was in Washoe Med, as it was called then, for three nights. We don't remember her being all that sick, but she had to have IV fluids, so she was able to sit up in her crib and play with dolls and read her books. She was very indignant at having to be in a crib, as she had been sleeping in a bed since before she was 2. The nurses were so impressed by how good she was. She wore her lacy bottomed panties and nothing else because she was always too hot in jammies.
My next job, that you all might remember, was at Franco American Bakery. They used to let me take home bags of rolls and bread that were extra for the day and we all loved that. I was the bookkeeper and office manager and, again, the only one in the office, except for Jack Gant, Phil Jurach and Frank Frasier, the co-owners. They were all "good old boy" types, but they were okay as bosses.
Dad worked evenings so he was home with Kathy and Scott during the day. He often took them to Sierra Sid's for lunch. When I got home from work, we would usually have a quick dinner and then he would go to work. Sometimes we drove him to work early and walked around downtown for a little while with him before he had to start. He would take a cab home, which the phone company paid for.
One day, Kathy and Scott were walking over to play at Brett and Erin's house when Scott fell and cut his head on the asphalt. Kathy ran home to get Dad, and he ran out, picked up Scott, and asked Heather to keep Kathy. He called me to have me meet him at Washoe Med and he drove Scott there with towels wrapped around his head. Head wounds bleed a lot, but it turned out to be fairly minor. Scott didn't have to stay in the hospital.
Over the years, we made had several friends in the neighborhood. Bret and Erin McGraw, Salem and Sydney Holub, Gary Roundtree, Phil Houck, and Steve Squire just to name the ones we can remember.
One day in early 1977, a man named Doug King, came to our front door, and told us about the church on Richard's Way. We had been thinking about finding a church so the kids could attend Sunday School, so we decided to go there. They had a big white bus that picked kids up for Sunday School and church services started about an hour after that, we got some quiet time before church started.
 |
| Meadowlands Summer 1978 |
After a few weeks of us being here, Grandma and Grandpa visited us and they loved it here. They had missed us a lot when we moved.
 |
| Grandma In Front of Our House with Dad's Truck |
Grandpa got a job at the MGM Grand as head of housekeeping and Grandma got a job at a place on Keitzke for a while before being hired by Fitzgerald's as a switchboard operator. She had epilepsy, so she couldn't drive, so she either got a ride with a co-worker or Grandpa would take her to work and pick her up. They went out on weekends, house hunting and finally found the house on Greenbrea. Even though we hadn't minded having them with us, it was nice to have our house back all to ourselves.
Dad was very dissatisfied with his job at the phone company, because he wanted to get back to doing what he was doing in Canoga Park. He had gone to Human Resources to ask about transferring after a year or so, and he was told that they would hire a woman or a minority before transferring him because of affirmative action. The bakery always had a Christmas party at a local venue. In 1979, we went to the party, and Phil met Dad. They talked about the work he was doing and he told Phil about his chances of getting transferred. Phil offered Dad a job as a salesman for the bakery. He made the job sound fantastic, and from my point of view, all the salesmen seemed happy in their jobs, and they made really good money. A funny thing happened at that party, that could have been tragic. One of the salesmen, Lee Johnson, asked me to dance. He had been drinking, but seemed okay. We were dancing when he lost his balance and started to fall, taking me with him. We fell into the closed draperies, and right through the plate glass windows. The drapes were heavy, so neither of us were cut, but there were shards of glass under us and on top of us. The other people unwrapped us and the party was officially over. That was an interesting way to end a party.
 |
| MGM Grand 1979 |
Dad and I talked it over and he decided that it was better to try something new than to be unhappy where he was, so in January of 1980, he quit and started working for Franco. He had to get up at 3 am in order to get his truck loaded with bread. He had a set route in downtown Reno and part of Sparks and he liked the freedom of it. His day was usually over by 2, when he would go back to the office and do his accounting for the day. That let him be home in time for the kids to get home from school. Kathy had to go into private school at Truckee Meadows School, at the corner of Prater and Howard. Sometimes, if she had a cold and was too sick to go to school, they let me take her in to work with me. The office was very big, so there was an area where she could sit on blankets on the floor and play with dolls or Legos or color and draw. Pretty quickly, Dad decided that he was not cut out to be a salesman. They have to be very pushy and Dad was not. Also, they other guys got together all the time to get drunk and Dad didn't join them, so they ribbed him unmercifully.
 |
| Christmas 1976 |
 |
| Christmas 1977 |
 |
| April 1981 in skirts I made |
While I was still working at the hospital, I started having severe pain in both arms. The pains continued, and I went to a neurologist, who diagnosed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I tried using braces on my arms at night, but that didn't help. So, I had surgery at Sparks Family Hospital. I had one wrist done and two weeks later they did the other. I was in casts for several weeks, and still taking care of kids. Scott and Kathy were terrific helpers during that time.
One day, Dan Huckabee showed up unexpectedly to pick up the kids. The car seats were in Gretchen's car and I strongly protested him taking the kids because he was going to let them sit loose on the back seat. They were only 4 and 2. He got mad, saying that I couldn't keep him from taking his kids. I was fired. I never saw any of them again.
Sherri was always so friendly, but it was several weeks before we met Greg. He used to sit in the car when they dropped Heather off and picked her up. But one day, Sherri had to take a trip, so Greg brought Heather alone for several days. He always acted so shy which seemed strange for a lawyer. Finally, he warmed up to us and they became good friends. They lived on Grose Lane, just a few blocks the other side of McCarran from our house, and when they moved to their house on Bluehaven, we helped them move. Jennifer was born just a couple of weeks after that and we got her when she was just 6 weeks old. Sherri and Greg introduced us to Alan and Veronica and we started watching Kathryn and later, Analise. We had lots of kids over the years - Tamsen Douglas, Kristin Spinola, Jenny Knutsen, Laurie and Leslie Klein, and Drew Champaigne were just a few of them that we remember.
I had a few jobs during that time, but neither Dad nor I can figure out exact timing. I worked as a substitute day care teacher because sometimes, I only had a couple of kids that I took care of, and I could take them with me, where they were in class with their age group. I worked at Easter Seals, Happy Days, Child Garden and Little Bear. At Child Garden, I worked for a whole summer while one teacher was on maternity leave. And I drove the bus at Happy Days to take the kids to and from swim lessons.
I had always hated to be around people who smoked, because I hated the smell, so it was strange that I agreed to go out with Dad when he first asked, because I knew he was a smoker. But, because I hated it, he never smoked in the car or in the house. But, there was still that smell. In 1983, he got pneumonia, and was in Washoe Med for almost a week on oxygen. He wasn't able to smoke, there. The first thing he did when he got home was go out in the backyard and light up a cigarette. By some miracle, he didn't like the taste, and he never smoked, again.
 |
| Bill Turns 37 1986 |
When we moved to Laser in 1987, we met Liz and Dave and got Colin, and Susie and Dave became good friends and we got Nick and Chris. We also had Jake, who lived a few doors away. He and Chris were such good friends until Jim and Renee moved to Fremont. We visited them there once, but we soon lost touch.
Grandpa came up to visit us a couple of times with Joline and Cyndi and Terri.
 |
| Terri and Cyndi Brought Grandpa For a Visit |
 |
| New Car 1979 |
 |
| Tahoe Meadows 1979 |
 |
| In the Bendzick's Hot Tub |
We let Tony fly alone, to Ontario to visit Grandpa Bill and Sally for a couple of weeks. He got to ride horses, but we seem to remember that he also got to clean the horse stalls, so we don't know how much fun he really had.
We went to Disneyland a couple of times but we really didn't like driving on the LA roads, so we didn't go after about 1982 or so.
In 1984, we went to San Francisco, but it was not a great trip because we forgot the checkbook and Security 1st National Bank would only let us withdraw $100 per day from our account. That was not enough to pay for motel rooms, food and things to do for five people, so we had to budget very carefully for the entire time we were there.
In 1983, we went to Tacoma, Washington along with Aunt Joline for my cousin Cathy's wedding.
 |
| Santa Cruz with Michelle and Kathy 1986 |
The last trip we were able to take together, was after we bought the Windsor van conversion. In April of 1984, we drove across Nevada, to tour Lehman Caves, then down to Bryce and Zion National Parks in southern Utah. We stayed there a couple of days with the boys in a tent and Kathy and us sleeping in the van. We had planned to go to the Grand Canyon, but the rode to the North Rim was still closed due to snow, so we couldn't. We went to Las Vegas, instead. The first night, we got in late, so we wet to the campground at Circus Circus, but they were over booked so we didn't really have a camping spot. They said we could park overnight on the street near near the showers for a reduced rate but we couldn't pitch the tent. We figured we would get some sleep and find a place to stay the next morning. We fit Scott inside the van and Tony volunteered to sleep on the top. There were rails that we figured would keep him from rolling off and we made a pretty comfortable bed for him. We got to sleep only to be awakened by yelling and pounding on the top of the van. Tony was having one of his night terrors, which happened maybe four times a year. By that time, everyone nearby was up and had come out to see who was being killed. We were very embarrassed, but it appeared to us that Tony was just fine with all the attention.
We have had a lot of dogs. When we moved to Sparks, we brought Princess and Dutchess with us. We acquired a new puppy when we were still in the house we rented on Gamble Drive before we were able to move into our house on Meadowlands. We named her Samantha.
After Sydney and Salem's dad, John, died of cancer, they gave us their dog, a Cocker Spaniel because Susie didn't want her, any more. Her name was Samantha, too, so we called her Samatha. After we moved to Laser, we lost Dutchess, which was heart breaking for all of us, and shortly after that, we lost Princess and both Samanthas. When we had to euthanise a dog, it was always heartbreaking. Tony and Kathy took Princess and Dutchess in for us when it was their time. We couldn't be dogless. I remember going to the shelter by myself and finding Kokomo. She was our dog the moment I saw her. Driving her home for the first time was difficult, because she was so afraid that she insisted on cowering between the front seat and the gas and brake peddles, leaning on my legs. I took side streets and drove very slowly. She was also afraid of overpasses, so whenever we took her out in the car, as we approached an overpass, she would duck. That was very amusing. In about 1989, the kids got us a wolf hybrid puppy, who we named Kona. She was the sweetest dog. She almost never barked and she was totally a daddy's dog. Koko died in 2002, so we only had Kona for a short time. Kona had cancer and had her tail removed, but it came back and she died in early 2003. That is when we decided to move to Maui, so we were a dogless family for two years, when we moved back and got Miele and Makena.
The kids were in lots of activities, but we wanted them to have time to be kids, so we never insisted that they join anything. Scott and Kathy took a gymnastics class just after we moved to Sparks. Scott loved it, but Kathy wouldn't do anything when she was there, except watch the other kids. Tony was in Boy Scouts for a couple of years, and he played soccer. Tony had a paper route for a long time, and then, Scott did it, too.
Tony's first vehicle was a blue 1966 Buick, and then he got a brown early 70s Chevy. Neither of them ever ran. The idea was that he and his friends could learn from it. It lived in our driveway on Meadowlands for a year or so. His first vehicle that ran was a yellow 1979 Toyota Pickup that he got painted white. 
Scott's first car was a 1965 green Mustang, that he loved. He fixed it up, got accessories for the interior, and drove it so proudly, but it needed work to keep it going, so in about 1990 he got a brand new Nissan Centra.
Kathy's first car came from the Enterprise Rental lot, so it was in very good condition and only a couple of years old. They all took very good care of their cars, and only had minor accidents, like most kids do.
Jobs - Tony's first real job was at Lumberjack. Scott's was at Burger King. Kathy's was at Wild Waters. They all supported their cars and their insurance, so that made it nice for us.
Some other memorable things.
In 1984, Cabbage Patch Kids were the most popular toy and they were hard to come by. We found out that Ardan's, a store downtown, just off Virginia at the Truckee River, was getting a shipment of them. Scott desperately wanted to get one for Kathy for Christmas, so he and Bill went to Ardan's the first thing in the morning, on a Saturday, and waited in line for hours to buy one. Kathy was thrilled to get her new doll. The kids always had really good Christmases and we always tried to get them things they really wanted. In 1979, we had a Santa come to the house - I think it was our neighbor Terry Baker.
Terry and his wife, Betsy, and their son, Clark, lived at the corner of Meadowlands and Shari Way. Terry was one of those, get rich quick kind of guys, and he got involved with a gas additive called Mix-I-Go, that was supposed to make your mileage go way up. We bought several bottles of the stuff from him. Dad carried it around in the Chevette for a couple of years. We used it, but we never saw any improvement in our mileage.
We have always referred to Scott as, the "Other One," with Aunt Joline. The reason for that is that one time, when I was talking on the phone with my dad, he was asking about the kids and he momentarily forgot Scott's name. We teased Grandpa about that for years. So, it wasn't that he couldn't remember Scott's name, it only happened one time.
We had a reel to reel tape recorder when the kids were young, and we recorded Tony's babbles and first words One of our favorites was him saying "Don't talk to me!" and "I'm not Tony, I'm Mike." He was about 2. We still have the tape, but we don't have anything to play it on. We did record it onto VJS tape and we have that, too, but, again, no VHS player We also have a little bit of Scott and Kathy talking with Salem and Cydney with Tony in the background teasing them. We have Scott singing, "Take me home country roads," too.
Being parents was the most rewarding thing we ever did, and we wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Tony, Scott, and Kathy grew up to be responsible, happy, and loveable. We couldn't have asked for anything better.
