Observations and experiences that don't fit into our other blogs.
This blog really should be part of My Life Story, but if
I combine them now, I would have to re-do all the photos because I have already
put numerous pictures on both of them. I wrote both of them for Tony, Scott,
and Kathy because, I hope that someday in the future, they will be interested
in reading about these things. The beginning is a recap, but I have added new
things that I found in my journals.
How We Began
One thing I loved to do was go deep sea fishing with my dad when I was 15 and
16. We would go to San Pedro harbor and go out on a boat with 20 to
30 men for two or three days. I had such fun with him. I also
enjoyed being the only female on the boat.
My first job after high school started in
February, at an accounting firm in downtown Los Angeles where my mom worked as
a CPA. I was a statistical typist. My pay was $1.80 per
hour. My mom wouldn’t let me get my learner’s permit until I turned
18 in April of 1967. I bought a beautiful, bright red 1960 Pontiac
Bonneville for $300.00.
I hated driving to downtown with my mom, and I
didn’t want to drive all that way by myself with gas being so expensive at $
.25 per gallon, so I started looking for a new job on May 1, and I was hired at
Genex, an airplane parts and tools company. I was a file clerk and
my pay was $1.50 per hour. That was raised to $1.75 one month later.
The pay was less than I had made at the other job, but I didn’t have to sit in
traffic every day for two hours.
I dated a lot from the time I was allowed to
date when I turned 16 until I met and went out with Bill. I saw lots
of movies, Jefferson Airplane, the Turtles, and I went to lots of parties, and
the Ontario 500 and the Grand Prix. In October, I was hired by
Pacific Telephone as an operator. My friends, with whom I still keep in
touch, were Ann Aseltine (Holman,) Craig Werner, Julie Clanton (Schleining,)
Kelly Callison, and, of course, Monique Chagnon (Bendzick.)
I used to go to the Texaco station Bill’s dad
owned in Granada Hills, and on November 27, Bill asked me out. I had just
heard from the boy I was dating that he couldn’t go to Disneyland night with me
because he had to work that night, so I asked Bill to go. Our first
date was November 30, and I never dated anyone else after that. We
were engaged on January 18, 1968.
On April 26, there was a strike at the phone
company, and I was out of work for several days. I had no money
saved, so Bill paid my rent, and other bills. We decided that we
should get married since he was paying for everything anyway, but also because
his brother, Mike, was going to be home from Vietnam for two weeks on leave in
June. My mother didn't approve of us getting married. Bill wasn't good
enough for me - so, my parents didn't come to our wedding. To the day he
died, my dad told me how much he regretted giving in to her on that. He
wanted so badly to be there. My good friend, Julie's parents, Hollis and
Katie, paid for a lot of our wedding expenses, and Hollis gave me away. The
wedding was fairly small, but it was perfect.
We went to Palm Springs for our honeymoon. Just
before we left the reception, Bill pulled his dad aside and asked him how to
get to Palm Springs! When we came home, we lived in my apartment on Darby in
Reseda, just a block from the phone company at Vanowen and Reseda, where I
worked as a long distance operator.
Bill’s last day at the gas station was December
31, 1968. His dad had told him that he should get a real job and pay
taxes, now that we had a baby on the way. He started work at the
phone company on January 6, 1969. We tried out to be on the show The Newlywed
Game, but during the trial game, we didn’t argue with each other, so we weren’t
picked. They said that they wanted drama, not people who actually
got along.
During the spring of 1969, we found our first
dog, Princess. She was living under the mobile home that was next door to Bill’s
parents. It looked like she had been abandoned, or tossed off a train, so I had
to help her. Bill had always been afraid of dogs, but he had no choice. She was
ours from the first moment she let me touch her. We bundled her up in a blanket
and took her to a veterinarian. He said she was in good health, except for the
scrapes and she had fleas. We took her to our apartment, where we gave her a
bath and fed her well. She was a great dog from the first. The only problem was
that we weren’t allowed to have animals. We got by for a few days by telling
the manager that we were taking care of her for my parents, but we knew we had
to find a new place to live.
My mother had decided to forgive me for marrying Bill, so they agreed to take Princess in until we could move. We found a cute little quadruplex in Van Nuys, on Haynes. We were going to have to move soon anyway, because we were expecting Tony in just a few weeks.
And Our Lives Just Got Better
We really do have the greatest kids in the world. I wish I could post all our
photos but that is impossible. Here goes... We were so excited to be
having a baby. We were only 20, so we had a lot to learn. Poor Tony
was our guinea pig. He was born May 23, 1969.
I had to work for a very short time after Tony
was born, because the maternity leave had gone over what I was due, and I would
have had to pay back three weeks of money. So, Joline took care of
Tony while I finished out my days. My last day of work was October
22, 1969. I cried every morning when I had to leave him at her house, even
though I knew he was getting the best of care. Cyndi and Terri adored him.
So, now we had Tony. He was an easy baby, and we had so much fun with him. His first step was January 8, 1970 and by March 20, he was walking all over so he kept us on our toes. On January 20, we went to the TV show, Let’s Make a Deal with Joline. She was chosen to be on the show, and she won a refrigerator.
We lived in the quadruplex on Haynes until October
of 1970, when Hollis Clanton loaned us $300.00 to buy a house. We paid
$18,000.00 for a two bedroom, one bathroom house on Garden Grove Ave, a cul de
sac, which was perfect for kids.
We had good neighbors. The McCalls across the
street, were a little older and had three boys, Sean, Tim and Kerry, who Tony
played with a lot. Bud and Dottie Briscoe were a older and had a grown daughter
with a little girl, Melanie, who was bossy, but Tony liked to play with her,
too. And, Judy and Doug Wobser, with Julie and Jenny, who became Scott’s best
buddy. A few years later, Mike and
Bridgette Green moved in next door to that house, and they had a son named
Scott, who became good friends with our Scott.
We were painting our bedroom in late October
when my dad called. My mother had died in bed of atherosclerosis. They had an
apartment in Marina Del Rey and we got there in a half hour. I hadn’t had the
best relationship with my mom, but I was sad to lose her.
Something we did often, mostly because it was
almost free, was go camping. We went to Lake Cachuma a lot. We also
went to King's Canyon, and Mount Wilson. We took the kids to as many
events and community things as possible. Even though we didn't have any
money, we wanted them to experience as much as they could.
One story that we love to tell people is about the time we
went to the Griffith Park Zoo, when Tony was little. He had a wonderful time
and he especially loved the monkeys. When we left, we found that out car had
been stolen. We found the security people and a man came with us to where the
car should have been. Tony was fascinated with the man, because he had never
seen a black person before. Tony kept pointing at him and saying, “Monkey,
Mommy. Monkey!” I covered up the embarrassing moment by saying, “No, Tony, that’s
not Mikey.” But, we were sure the man was amused rather than offended.
Tony with my mom. We lost her in November of 1970 when Tony was 1 ½.
Tony sitting in the closet with Princess and her puppies in 1971.
We had three miscarriages between Tony and Scott. All were between 5 and
6 months, so we didn't think we would be able to have another baby. But,
finally, along came Scott on July 24, 1972.
Tony loved to play with Scott.
He was such a happy baby, and now we were pros at what to expect.
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The boys liked to work in the
garden |
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This is when Tony decided he
wanted a Harley |
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Scott always had his own style |
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Initially, the event organizers and rally masters
were not concerned if many cars made it to the finish. They got their money up
front at the start registration and were more concerned with a high number of
starters. Finding the finish might be the night's last gimmick. This changed
when a few pizza parlors started paying the rallyemaster for each car ar the
finish. At first it was $.10, then $.25 and finally $.50 per car. Soon everyone
knew where the rally would finish and how to get there. This link tells
all about the rallys. Tony loved the rallys, helping us to figure out
where we needed to go, even at his age But, the best part was going to a
restaurant for pizza afterwards. Unfortunately, the price of gas put an
end to the rallys in the late 70s and we had stopped going to them before we
moved away from the valley, but they were lots of fun while they lasted.
For the details on Gimmick Ralleys to to -
http://www.ecphorizer.com/EPS/site_page.php?page=257&issue=21
In late spring of 1973, we drove to Oklahoma to
visit Uncle Mike, Aunt Charlotte, Michael and Dawn. We had a nice visit but,
one day, we went to a park for a picnic, when, all of a sudden, Uncle Mike
said, “Everyone, grab the stuff and get in the car!” There was a tornado
warning. We zipped home, and there was no tornado, but it was scary for a
little while.
On the way home, we stopped for a day at the Grand Canyon. Shortly after we got home from the trip, when I had been feeling a bit queasy for a few days, and I realized that we were going to have a surprise baby. I asked Bill what he wanted for Christmas. He looked at me and I could see the realization come over him. We hadn’t been planning any more kids, but we were very happy.
The baby was expected December 24, but it didn’t happen. On January 2, the boys and I were over at Monique’s house, playing with Jay and Michelle, when I went into labor. Monique was going to keep the boys while I was in the hospital, so it was perfect timing. She took me to the hospital and Bill got there just in time because Kathy was born on the way to the delivery room.
The baby was expected December 24, but it didn’t
happen. On January 2, the boys and I were over at Monique’s house, playing with
Jay and Michelle, when I went into labor. Monique was going to keep the boys
while I was in the hospital, so it was perfect timing. She took me to the
hospital and Bill got there just in time because Kathy was born on the way to
the delivery room.
Cyndi and Terri dressed Scott up to see what our
little girl would look like.
Along Came Kathy
And, there was finally a girl in our house.
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Learning to skate at 2 |
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Finally allowed to climb on the
Climberoo |
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Tony loved to read to Scott |
Tony’s tree house was his place to get away from the little ones.
We were able to put matching clothes on the boys for a few years.
Now that we had three kids, a two-bedroom house just wouldn’t work. We had always liked the house two doors away from us. Lee Spady lived there with her two girls, Jill and Vanessa, another bossy little thing, who Tony liked to play with. I knew, from talking with Lee, that they rented, and that the owner was thinking of selling the house. She said she didn’t want to buy it, so they would have to move. I wrote to the owner, in Florida, and asked him if he would sell us the house without putting in on the market, and he agreed. We got it for $28,000 but we kept our first house and rented it for a couple of years. When Lee found out that we had bought the house, she was beyond mad. She never spoke to us again, and she wouldn’t let Vanessa play with Tony. The day we moved in, we discovered that she had put mud and rocks in the garbage disposal, and she left tons of debris, including a decrepit chicken coop in the back yard. But, we loved that house. Now we lived next door to Judy and Doug.
Tony was in regular school when Scott started to go to preschool two days a week. From the time Kathy could understand that Scott went to a special place, she wanted to go with him. She would carry on, so we told her that she could go to preschool as soon as she turned two, as long as she was potty trained. She never asked again, and she went to school with Scott on her second birthday. They were the best of friends. Tony always teased them, being the big brother, but they all got along very well most of the time.
Going to a party in 1975
Having fun in our kitchen with Aunt Joline
We were lucky to have my sister, Joline, and her girls, Cyndi and Terri
so close. We got together for all the important days.
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Cyndi's birthday, March 1976 with
Aunt Joline and Cyndi |
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Tony's 7th birthday May 1976 with
Aunt Joline, Terri, and Cyndi |
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Scott's 4th birthday, July 1976
with Terri |
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Tony and Terri shared a birthday
party in May of 1976 |
Things we liked to do were go to parks, the mountains and the
beach.
Zuma Beach was the one we visited most often.
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Tony's treehouse - the little kids
weren't allowed to go up Summer 1976 |
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Making cookies in 1976 |
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We didn't do anything! 1976 |
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Kathy and Scott shared Kathy's bed
for nap time |
Their neighborhood
friends were Jenny and Julie Wobser, Kerry McCall, and Scott Green. Here
they were on a sleepover at Scott's house.
We were very happy in Reseda, but when Tony was in second grade, the school
system decided that they were going to bus the kids from the valley into the
inner city and the city kids would be going to our schools. That decision was
so for integration. We didn’t mind them bringing city kids to our schools, but
we weren’t about to let our 7 year old be bussed to the city, a minimum of 45
minutes each way every day.
We knew we would have to move away to get out of that school system and we decided we might as well get out of California. The closest places Bill could transfer to were Northern Nevada or Flagstaff, Arizona. We took a trip to Reno in September, and we knew right away that it was the perfect place. We stayed at South Lake Tahoe for a few days and loved that, too. Reno would be close enough to go there any time we wanted.
We went home and Bill put in a transfer. A few days later, I found a black thing sticking out of Kathy’s head. It was a bug, and I freaked. I went next door and asked Doug what it was and what to do. It was a tick. He removed it, but said we should check the whole house, because there were probably more. Boy, were there more. We had to take the baseboards of and fumigate the house. It was terrible.
Bill's transfer came through in only a few weeks, so we had to get ready to move. Bill moved to Sparks in March, and we stayed back to sell the house. He visited a couple of times, but it was such a long drive and he was working nights, so he was always tired and I didn’t want him to make that long drive very often. We missed him so much, so we wrote to him often and the kids drew pictures for him.
Luckily, the house sold pretty quickly,
for $51,000, so we made a bit of a profit. It was a good thing, because the
house in Sparks, that Bill found was $58,000. He drove down to get us and we loaded the cars with kids, dogs, plants, and the things we would
need for a few days until the moving van arrived. We moved to Sparks on March 18, 1977. We had rented a house for a
couple of months because escrow took quite a while. We lived on Gamble Drive,
just a few blocks from our new house. There we acquired Samantha, our third
dog.
Tony got settled in his class at Lena Juniper.
He had to repeat 2nd grade because the schools in Washoe County were
too far ahead of the schools in LA. He made friends quickly, Phil Houck being
the one we saw most often. They are still friends. I had to take a job, because
the only job available at the phone company was information operator, so Bill had
taken a $100 per week cut in pay in order to get his transfer. I went to work
as a bookkeeper on April 26, 1977 for Kitchen Kraft which remodeled kitchens and made cabinets.
They made us large a bookcase, which we still have. I worked there for only a
few months, and found a better paying job at Franco American Baking Company,
also as a bookkeeper, but I also sold day-old bread. I didn’t hate the work,
but I hated not being home with Kathy, and when the boys got home from school. Bill
was working nights, so he was there for them, and when I got home, we would
sometimes take him to work and then walk around downtown for a little while
before he had to start his evening. He would take a cab home on those days. We
put Scott in kindergarten at Truckee Meadows and Kathy went to day care there.
When she was sick with a sniffle, I was able to take her to work with me, and
she cold play in an area away from the customers.
The kids had a few good friends, mostly Salem and Cydney, who moved in across the street a few years after we moved there with John and Susie Holub. We met Sally and John Spinola who lived a few doors away. One day, we heard a loud alarm, and we went out front to see what was happening. It was coming from the Spinola’s house. We went over and Sally didn’t know how to stop the alarm, which was coming from John’s Mac Tool truck. Bill took care of it, and we have been great friends ever since. They had Michael, a couple of years younger than Scott, and shortly after we met them, Kristin was born.
I had to plan the Christmas party for the bakery. We held it at Nendel’s Inn, which was just off McCarran and I-80 in Sparks. It was a dinner and afterward there was dancing. I was dancing with one of the drivers, who was pretty drunk, when suddenly, he tripped, and we fell through a hugh plate glass window onto the patio. The draperies saved us from being hurt. My bosses were Jack Gant, Phil Jurach, and Frank Fraser. Phil really liked Bill, and Bill mentioned that he was unhappy at work because he was still an operator. He had been told that, due to affirmative action, the phone company would hire a woman off the street before they would transfer him back to his old job. Phil offered Bill a job as a driver/salesman. After thinking it over a few days, he decided to take the job. He had to be at the bakery by 4 AM to load his truck, and he often worked until 4 PM. He didn’t like the job and he was always tired. He stuck it out for almost two years, and then he found out that he could go back to the phone company, get the job he wanted, and after five years, they would bridge his service, so he would get back his 11 years of service. We are so glad he did that, because I was able to “retire” from that in May of 1982. I went to work at the Easter Seals Preschool as a teacher, but that was too much like full time work, so I only stayed for one season. After that, I did substitute teaching at several preschools in the area including Happy Days, Little Bear and Child Garden, all of which are still in business today. The Communications Workers of America went on strike in 1983. Bill and I got jobs at the Sparks Family Hospital in housekeeping for $5.00 per hour. We worked for three weeks during the strike, and I stayed on for a few more weeks after that to try to make up the money that we had not made during the strike. Unfortunately, I got carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. That wasn’t diagnosed until a few months later, after I had taken on day care kids. I had to have surgery on both wrists, and the kids really stepped up to help me during my recovery.
Then, I started taking care of kids shortly after that. We had so many kids over the years that I don’t even remember some of their names, but we became good friends with Sherri and Greg Shannon and Veronica and Alan Artz because of day care.
Grandma and Grandpa visited us in Sparks
several times the first couple of years we lived there, and then they decided
to move there in the summer of 1979. They lived with us for three months, until they found a house,
over on Greenbrea in Sparks. We had a big house, and they slept on the fold out
bed in the family room. We enjoyed having them with us, but Grandma always put
things away in the kitchen in the wrong place, and we had trouble finding them
later.
Aunt Joline divorced her husband, Chuck, in
about 1982 because, besides being a jerk, he was having an affair with a girl
only a few years older than Cyndi. So, AJ and the girls brought Grandpa up to
visit us a few times. We always had such fun, and I hated that we had moved so
far away from them. Grandpa had married Sally about 18 months after my mother
died, and they had a horse ranch in Norco, California. We used to drive over to
see them every couple of months, but after we moved, we didn’t see them except
when he came up to see us. We were very glad when AJ met Uncle Bill, because
she was very happy, again.
Tony read The Night Before Christmas 1977 |
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Finally, they got to open their
stockings 1977 |
This is me with Joline and our dad, who we
lost in 2003
Sickness and Health
The kids have always been healthy, and have had few accidents that needed more
than a kiss and a bandaid. Tony had his tonsils out when he was about 3
and he had to have another medical procedure, called a meatomy, done when he
was 4. He also had allergies that required allergy shots for several
years.
When Scott was about one, he pushed a bean up his nose at Grandpa's ranch and
we had to visit the emergency room in Norco to have it removed.
Shortly after Kathy was born, we all got chicken pox. That was miserable
enough, but then we got mumps, too. Bill had to move out of the house until we
were over that.
Kathy was about three months when we were shopping with her and she pushed
herself out of her infant seat and landed on the concrete floor. We
grabbed her and the boys and rushed the two blocks to the hospital. She
was fine. When we went back afterward to do our marketing, the clerks had
put our cart in the cold room, so all our groceries were waiting for us. When
she was three, just after we moved to Sparks, she got pneumonia and was hospitalized
for four days. She was the princess of the hospital, in her little
topknot and ruffled underpants.
One day, in Sparks, I was at work and the kids were playing a few houses away, when Scott fell on his head and was bleeding buckets. Kathy came running home to tell Bill. He scooped Scott up, got a neighbor to watch Kathy, and called me to meet him at the hospital. Despite all the blood, Scott was fine and went home in a couple of hours.
Dogs we have loved through the years.
My first dog was Jerry, and I think we got her when I was six.
I got Cuddles when I was about 12. Joline gave her to me when she was a
little puppy. I adored that dog.
Jerry was the white one. The other two dogs in this picture were Blondie and
Cuddles. Shortly after this, my parents separated and I went to live with
my dad in an apartment near my high school, Granada Hills High. I was
able to take one dog, so I chose Cuddles. My parents had the other two
dogs put to sleep, which I hated, but I had no control over the
situation. After several months, my parents decided to give their
marriage another try, so we moved into a different apartment nearby. They
didn't allow pets, so Cuddles was no more. I resented my parents for
doing that. I didn't have another dog until after I was married.
A dog we found, Princess and Nicci with Bill in Reseda
Princess was Bill and my first dog in February
of 1969. We found her at his parent's mobile home park in
Chatsworth. Bill was afraid of dogs, so I don't think I had any hope of
keeping her, but she had been hurt and was hiding under the neighbor's house,
so I lured her to me over the course of a few days with treats. When I
was able to get close to her, I wrapped her in a blanket and we took her to the
vet. From that time on, Bill was over his fear and she was ours.
Tony had Princess and Nicole Heiline Garrow, bought in May of 1970, a purebred
German Shepard to play with, teaching him to love dogs.
Because we had two dogs, we didn't keep any of them, but we were lucky enough to find homes for all of them. This was in 1971, when Tony was about 2 1/2.
Dutchess
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The Sams |
After we lost Nicci to Pancreatitis in 1973, we found a German Shepard mix who
filled the holes in our hearts. Dutchess was the sweetest dog, and we had
her until 1989.
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Grandpa with Princess at our house
in 1980 |
We got Samantha just after we moved to Sparks,
in 1977. She was a puppy, given to us by our next-door neighbors in our
rental house on Gamble Drive. We didn't need another dog, but she fit
into our family nicely.
After a John Holub died, in about 1982, they didn't want to keep their cocker
spaniel. We already had three dogs, which was too many, but we couldn't let
Samantha 2 go to the pound, so she became ours.
In 1987, we lost Princes and shortly after that, we moved to our new house on
Laser Court. When little Sam got sick, Kathy and her friend, Kin, took
her to the vet for me to have her put to sleep, so I wouldn't have to do it. In
September 1989, Dr. Burnette came to the house to put Dutchess to sleep.
I found Koko myself at the humane society in November 1989, just after we moved
into the Laser house. We knew Samantha wouldn't be around much longer. Driving
home with Koko, she was so afraid of being in the car, that she laid on the
floor at my feet, with her nose under the brake peddle. Another
time, I remember driving with her and discovering that she was afraid of
underpasses. Every time we would go under one, she watched it through the
windshield and she would duck. In 1991, the kids got me a wolf-hybrid for
Christmas. What an adorable dog, but she was a one person dog, and that
person was Bill. Her name was Kona.
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Kathy and Dutches cuddle with
Grandpa in 1980 |
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Koko and Kona with Bryanna in 1999 |
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Koko and Kona with Sadie |
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Koko and Kona - Kona's last day |
Of course, we have had many other dogs in our lives through the kids. Tony and Anais had Sasha and Hammer for several years. Kathy and Rommie had Sadie, then Lily, and now they have Bruno and Cowboy. Scott and Jenn have Murphy, Bella and Rosie, and for now, three of Rosie's puppies
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Sasha, Hammer, Kona and Koko |
Koko and Kona both died within a few months of each other. Kona had
cancer of the tail, which traveled and Koko was sick, so they both had to be
put down. We didn't have any dogs for the next two years because we moved
to Hawai'i, but as soon as we moved back to Sparks, we started our dog family
again.
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Bruno and Cowboy along with Lily
and Sadie and an unknown friend |
Here are our dogs today - Miele and Makena, both
poi dogs.
Our Cars - at least the ones the kids should remember
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Tony' First Car |
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Our First New Car - 1976 Plymouth
Volare and the 1969 Chevy Carryall |
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1978 Chevy Caprice Estate |
When we got married, we had my 1960 Bonneville, but it was starting to give us
a lot of trouble, so we sold it and kept Bill's 1962 Bel-Aire. In 1970,
we got a 1964 Chevy Malibu Convertible. That was stolen from the LA Zoo when
Tony was about two. We came out of the zoo to find it gone. When we
went back inside to report it, the security people were very nice, but, they
were also very black and, as there were no black people in our lives, Tony was
very excited to see them because he thought they were monkeys! He kept
saying, "Monkey, Mommy," and pointing at the two men. We were
so embarrassed and tried to explain that he didn't talk very well. The
trouble was, he talked very well, and it was clear what he was saying. They
laughed it off, and all was fine. We got the car back a few weeks later,
after finding out that some boys had taken it and there had been a fire.
It was never the same, and we sold it and bought a 1968 Chevy Suburban.
After Kathy came along, we were finally able to get a new car, a 1976 Plymouth
Volare, which turned out to be a bit of a lemon. We traded that in on a 1978
Chevy Caprice Estate which we kept for several years. Other cars we have
had were 1979 Chevy Step-side Truck, a red ford pick-up, 1981 Chevette, 1981
Ford Van, 1984 Windsor Van, 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra. Bill bought a
used teal Ford Ranger from a friend in 1989. From then on, we had Ford
Explorers for several years. In 2000 we bought a Mercury Sable, and a Mercury
Villager, which we shipped to Maui when we moved.
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Mom with our red truck in 1983 |
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1981 Ford Van |
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1984 Windsor Van |
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1989 Cutlass Cierra |
The Rest of the Story
 
Third Grade   Tony drew a lot from the time he could hold a pencil, markers and crayons. This picture was done when he was in second grade. |
Tony
wrote something in 1979 that we just came across and I have to include it here.
All of us
except Tony went to Portland in April of 1983 for my cousin, Cathy’s
wedding. It was our first trip on a train. Tony stayed home to take care of the house and run his
paper route. We saw my Uncle Larry and Aunt Betty (Leonardi.)
Tony gave
me a hamster for my birthday in 1983
June 17,
1983 – Scott went to visit Grandpa and Grandma on the ranch alone for a three
weeks.
Bill had bunion surgery in the summer of 1983 and spent three weeks recovering on
the fold-out couch downstairs. The main thing I remember about that is that we
spent hours playing Scrabble. He had surgery again in 1990 for the same thing,
but it was easier on him than the first time.
This card
from Bill's Aunt Marg, mentioned an invitation to Tony to visit them. He
did visit them in the summer of 1983, and he had a wonderful time. Bill's
cousin, Joey, knew how much Tony loved Parmesan cheese, so he encouraged Tony
to take a shaker from an Italian restaurant. Tony brought it home to us,
and we used it for many years.
Scott, again, went to Norco in the summer of 1984 to visit Grandma and Grandpa on their
ranch.
Tony -
April 1984 - found a car he had to have and he and Phil used to sit
in it in our driveway, because he was too young to drive. He learned
to drive in May of 1985.
 Tony's 1966 Buick  |
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Tony's new truck |
In January of 1986, he got a job at Ernst Home Center and later at Lumberjack on Baring. His car died in March of 1986 and, in August, after he had saved $2,000.00, we co-signed so he could buy a truck 1979 Toyota pick-up. Tony also had a Geo Storm and a Volkswagon.
Scott – 1984 - Had to get Kathy a Cabbage Patch doll for Christmas because that’s what she really wanted. He and Bill waited in line at Ardan’s for several hours.
Scott – April 1985, went to Washington DC. Called us from the Smithsonian and told us that he had been there that morning, and was all finished seeing it. That was very funny, because it takes days to see the whole thing.
We went
camping at Camp Richardson with the Spinolas for the week of July in
1985. During the fireworks, our camp was ransacked but not much was
taken.
Presidents Day weekend in 1986, we went to visit the Bendzicks in Fremont. Tony stayed home to do his paper route. On the way home, there was a storm and we were diverted through Lake Tahoe and Carson City and made to put chains on the van. It took us an extra five hours to get home. Tony had thought ahead and had called all my day care parents to suggest that they make other arrangements for Tuesday because I might not be able to take care of the kids. The day after we got home the city flooded, and we were out helping to sandbag homes in the area. We saw people in rowboats on Goldy and York.
Tony got into a little bit of trouble, having beer in his car in June of 1986, but, luckily, the officer who found him was Charlie Taylor, one of my day-care dads, so he let Tony go with a warning. One week later, Tony was broadsided by a woman but, again, luckily, he wasn’t hurt
November 1, 1986 – Tony was home for lunch and saw that I was having a bad day, so he sent me a rose in a vase. Kathy found it on the front porch when she got home from school.
Scott –
December, 1986 - was responsible enough for the McGraws to hire him to house
sit for them while they were in Hawai’i for two weeks. He did that for the next
few years. In 1988, he thought someone had a key to the house because he would
get home and find lights on that he knew he hadn’t left on when he
left. He wondered if John was making an appearance.
Scott made Eagle Scout in December of 1986.
March 1987 – we drove to Disneyland over the weekend. What a fun time! Again, Tony stayed home. I wish he was able to go with us more often.
In Spring of 1987, we bought the house on Laser Court. It was so neat watching them build it, and being able to make changes along the way. We were very excited to move to a new house.
Scott – April, 1988 – saved for a long time and bought his first car, the ’67 Mustang. He replaced it in September of 1990 with a new Nissan Sentra, a decision that we all regretted, but the Mustang was costing him too much money.
Scott –
Spring of 1988 – wrote a touching poem to Tony.
This is a poem for you, Tony
For all the times that, in your nineteen years,
You’ve been so nice to me.
For when I was walking to school in the cold, and you gave me a
ride.
For when I forgot it was Mother’s Day, and you took me to the
store at the last minute.
This is for the times we’ve done things together.
For when you took me four-wheeling in your brand new truck.
And this is for when we would watch Monday night football together.
And this is for the times when I was hurt and you saw right
through me.
This is for the times when I needed help and you gave it to me.
For when I was stuck on a math problem and you helped me solve
it.
This is for your big-brown eyes that I am sure have never shed a
tear.
This is for your blond-brown hair that helps you look so tough.
This is for you, Tony.
For when you’re home long enough to say “Hi.”
This is for you.
My tough older brother
Because I hope to grow up to be just like you.
June – 1988 Tony graduated 65th in his class of 400. His graduation trip was a week in Honolulu.
1988 to
1889 They all helped so much with the yard when we moved into
the house on Laser Ct.
 |
|
April 1989 |
September
1988 – In January, Tony had decided to enlist in the Air Force, but he changed
his mind. After he graduated, he did enlist. Tony told me that he
thought we wanted him to go to jail because he had decided not to go into the
air force. That is sad and I don’t know why he would have thought
it.
On
December 13, Tony left for his Air Force training. On January 24, he graduated
with honors. Whenever he came home, the phone never stopped
ringing.
 |
|
Bill and the kids put this in the
paper - April 1989 |
Kathy – December, 1988 - So responsible at almost 15 that the Shannon’s took her to Disneyland for a week to help with the kids.
At the
end of December, we found the heater off and the house frozen at our old house,
so we turned the heater back on. The next day, Scott and Kathy went
over to the old house to check on it for us. They discovered that it
was flooded throughout.
 |
|||||||||||||
September 1989 – Scott and Andy drove to Sacramento alone for a Bon Jovi concert.
Tony went
to Panama in 1990 and to Saudi Arabia in 1991 and then he was stationed at
Vandenburg Air Force Base near Santa Maria, California. Operation Desert Storm
only lasted a little over one month, but it was a terrible time. We
were interviewed and on the news a couple of times, which embarrassed
Tony. He was so great about keeping in touch with us, calling us as
often as he could. While he was in Saudi, we joined the Operation Yellow Ribbon
group. We met lots of very nice people who were in the same
situation, with a loved one in the danger zone. The activities they
put on were fun, and helped to keep us busy.
My Activist Days
On the way to the dentist, one snowy morning, with Scott and four of my
day-care kids in the van, we were hit by a drunk driver. He slid down the
street, hit us, backed up, and hit us again. He couldn't get any speed
up, so none of us were hurt. He drove off, went around the corner near McCarran
and Pyramid Way, and hit someone else, finally stopping, We went to court
and couldn't believe that a habitual drunk, who had been in several drunk
driving accidents previous to ours, got off with such a light sentence.
I was especially pleased by this response
to my letter from the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony,
in July of 1984.
Through the years, there were things that caught my attention enough that I had
to write about them.
 |
|
April 1986 |
 |
|
June 1986 |
There were even times when I wanted to praise something.
 |
|
September 1986 |
One day, I just got fed up with doing everything around the house so refused to
do anything and wrote to the kids to tell them to step up. This was about 1987.
I worked on getting the city to implement recycling in 1990. I wrote letters to everyone I could think of who might be able to get something started. Here is my letter to Mayor Spoo.
Tony went to war.
Tony wrote to us to ask that this be put in the paper in January 1990
Tony came home from Desert Storm.
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|
September 1990 |
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|
February 1992 |
Sometime in 2009, I wrote this to the
editor, but there has never been a follow-up to this story
We would like to make
two observations. We know of a lovely lady of 30, who was asleep behind
the wheel, after drinking. She was legally over the limit, but the engine
was not running and she was parked in a designated parking spot. She was
just sleeping it off. She was arrested and it cost her several thousand
dollars for lawyers and fines. Maybe she deserved these consequences
although it was her first offense.
Why, after having a
previous conviction for doing 80 mph in a 40 mph zone, with a blood alcohol
level of .205, was Officer Jonhston let go with no consequences?
Secondly, we would like to know something which the article did not
address. Has Officer Johnston received help for his drinking
problem? Rehab, AA, anything? We’re just wondering.
Bill and Billie Garrow
Sparks
We've both written many other letters
since and I hope I find them, but, for now,
that is all the old ones. This is
the latest one.
Follow-up on victim of avalanche needed
I’ve been enjoying the
many recent historical articles in the Reno Gazette-Journal about the Truckee
Meadows and surrounding area. The latest, reprinted this morning, was about
Anna Conrad, the young lady who survived an avalanche at Alpine Meadows in 1982
]RGJ, Feb. 25]. I remember following that story, back in the dark ages,
when news reports were not instantaneous as they are today.
It would have added an interesting
element if the report today had included a follow-up about Anna, bringing us up
to date on her status. Perhaps there could have been a small paragraph
following the reprinted article. By searching the Internet, I found that, as of
2007, Anna was alive and well, raising a family with her husband and living and
working at Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
For those people who
enjoy the RGJ but may not have easy access to the Internet, such a follow-up
within the body of the article might be a welcome addition.
Billie
Garrow, Sparks
December 24, 2014
The following is a letter to the editor that
was published in the Reno Gazette Journal on December 24, 2014. Following
that is my response to her letter, which will be published in the paper
tomorrow.
Having them off school for three weeks plus
with nothing to do but sit on their phones and text and Facebook is ridiculous.
It’s ruining our kids, making them anti-social and a big pain in the butt.
This school district is failing in every
aspect. Our kids sit around on their phones — not talking — and whine to each
other how they hate their parents and wish they were dead, so that other kids
will feel sorry for them. This goes back and forth, the drama is so thick, it
is just insane. I believe if they had more options to do other things, like I
did back in the ’70s, (it would help). PE wasn’t an option it was MANDATORY.
What is up with that?
The kids are walking all over their parents
these days and all family values have gone out the window. It starts with
parents but needs to follow thru with the school district. Somebody please help
our kids!
Sharon Mohr,
Sparks
Sharon Mohr (RGJ Voices, Dec. 24) says today’s
teens do nothing but “sit on their phones and text and Facebook” and “whine to
each other how they hate their parents and wish they were dead.” I feel sorry
for Ms. Mohr, to have such a jaded outlook on today’s teens. Has she not seen
and read news reports about kids who use their time productively to help those
less fortunate; kids who hold down jobs to support a car; some even work to
help support their families? Bad teens are in the minority!
She says “this school district is failing” for
not providing kids with things to do during school breaks. Why is the school
district responsible for raising kids during school breaks? Isn’t that what
parents are for?
“Kids are walking all over their parents.” If
that is what is happening with her kids, she and her kids certainly do need
some help. But the school district is not the problem.
As a kid in the Los Angeles area in the ’60s, I
read, visited friends, volunteered in a nursing home, kept the house clean and
cooked meals while my parents worked. I kept out of trouble, without help from
the school district.
Billie Garrow,
Sparks
January 2015
Only four days into 2015, and I have been riled to the point of having to write a letter to the editor. Since I already submitted a letter in the last 60 days. Bill has, kindly, agreed to let me submit it in his name.
Idris
Elba, a black actor, is being considered as the next James Bond, a character
who was originally written by Ian Fleming as a Scottish white man.
I remember a wonderful comedy movie from the 60s. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner was the story of a white woman who intends to marry a black man. She brings him home to meet her family and the fun ensues. Imagine if Sidney Poitier’s role had been played by Robert Redford. Try casting Mathew McConnaughey instead of Denzel Washington in Malcolm X or Tom Cruise in the role of Ray instead of Jamie Foxx. A Time To Kill had Samuel L. Jackson playing a black man on trial after murdering two white men who had raped his child and left her for dead. Would Kevin Spacey have been believable in that role?
Why, then, is it racist to use a white actor for a character
who was written as a white man? If this is a racist idea, then it is also
sexist. Halle Berry could do an outstanding job in the role of James
Bond, but wouldn’t that be ridiculous? “Equal”
doesn’t always mean “the same.”
Just a silly letter from January 2015
This
morning, in the Reno Gazette Journal, page two showed a picture of a tiger
rolling around in the snow. It told people to go to rgj.com to see the
video, called Tiger Rolls Up Snowball Fun. My mommy knew that I would
love to see a tiger playing in the snow, so we got on the computer, went to the
RGJ website and started looking for the video. We searched for “Video of
the Day,” “Siberian Tiger Video,” “Tiger Rolls Up Snowball Fun,” and even
“tiger video.” We found a video about Tiger Woods and one about a tiger
airplane, but the video with the tiger having fun in the snow wasn’t
there. I was so sad. If you are going to tell people to go to your
website to see a video that you think they would like, please make sure they
can find it. At least we got to see the video of the tiger. We found
it on Youtube.
After Retirement
We lost our minds and moved to Maui in the spring of 2003. How we thought
we could leave Bryanna and Bailey for such a long time, we'll never know.
Then Scott and Jenn had Carson and we were too far away to be able to see him
often enough. We were able to fly back to the mainland to see the kids a few
times. We did have lots of wonderful times there, before we moved back to
Sparks in the fall of 2005.
The rest of this section of the blog is really about things I've written for
various reasons. There wasn't much to write about after we moved back to
Sparks. I got a job and worked for a year, and since then I've worked at
several part-time or temporary jobs. We had good times and loved being
closer to family so we could visit more often. Even from here, Michigan,
Virginia, and now, Texas, are quite a long plane trip, but at least we don't
have that five hour trip from Hawai'i just to get to Los Angeles or San
Francisco.
The next post in chronological order, aside from Maui trips with Bryanna and
Bailey, is Thoughts On 2004 and Canada, Eh?
The Refrigerator Story
On June 7, 2003, I went to Sears in Kahului,
Maui to look for a refrigerator. I found a damaged/reconditioned,
General Electric, side-by-side refrigerator with ice and water through the
door. There was a large dent at the top rear of the refrigerator
section, and a scratch on the side. It came with a full one-year
warranty. At the time of purchase, I asked the salesperson, Cheryl,
if there was more damage than what I could see. She assured me
that there was no other damage and mentioned the fact that it had a full
warranty. The refrigerator had a sale price of $479.00, about
one-half of the suggested retail price. As the refrigerator space in
my home is very narrow, the G.E was the first side-by-side I had found on this
island that would fit. I decided to buy it.
Island Movers, contracted by Sears, delivered it
at the normal cost of $50.00 on June 10, 2003. It worked perfectly
for almost two days. Then the ice started to stick together and
would not dispense. I emptied the ice tray, and lowered the
temperature, as instructed when I called Sears Service
Department. As soon as there was ice in the tray, I again
tried to dispense ice. The motor whirred, and died. I
again called Sears Service, and set up an appointment for repair.
I planned to stay home all day on June 25, but
was happy to receive a call from Sears Service, telling me that they would be
at my home between 8 AM and 11 AM. The repair person worked on the
ice maker for a few minutes, and told me that he needed to order new motor, and
would come back to install it. I had to be out of town for three
weeks, so we set up the appointment for shortly after I was going to
return. I received no phone call on the next appointment day, July
23, but I had, again, planned to stay home all day, so I did not think too much
about it. A different technician was here before 9AM, and installed
the motor. "Value" of service call - $268.62.
The ice dispenser worked for about 24 hours, at
which time, it stopped dispensing ice due to the ice being frozen
together. I again called Sears Service. They seemed
perplexed, and said that the freezer, because it is frost-free, is programmed
to thaw a little bit and refreeze every night, but that it was not supposed to
affect the ice. We made an appointment for service.
A third repair person came out and worked on the
ice maker on August 6. He discovered that the dispenser door flap was
not working properly, letting air enter the freezer and causing the ice cubes
to freeze together. He ordered the part and we set up an appointment
for installation. Value of service call - "$123.68."
When the day of the appointment arrived, I waited
for a call to let me know the approximate expected arrival of the repair
person. I was hoping that he would be early like the other times, so
I would be able to run some errands. When no call came in by 10:00AM, I called
them to see if I could get an idea of the time, and was told that nobody would
be coming because the repair person had called in sick. I asked if
one of the other repair people would be able to take care of me, and they said
that they only have one man to service this side of the island. I
told them that I had already had three different men out here. They
then said that two of them were sick.
On August 18, the dispenser door flap was
installed at a "value" of $322.68, and within 24 hours, the ice was
not dispensing. He advised me about how to set the temperature
controls. He told me to turn the temperature all the way down to
number one, which is the lowest setting. The ice still did not
dispense.
Another service person removed fused ice,
adjusted freezer temperature, and advised me to keep the temperature turned
down on August 22, but the results were not satisfactory.
"Value" of visit - $118.00.
I then went into Sears to talk to Cheryl about
the possibility of having the refrigerator replaced with a working
one. She said that I had bought a damaged product, and should not
expect replacement. I reminded her about the full warranty, and the
fact that she had assured me that the damage was only cosmetic. She
said that I should take it to the corporate offices, because she was not going
to do anything for me.
In late August, I spoke to Gabriel at Sears
National Customer Service, who was extremely understanding about my
problem. After listening to my story, she said that Sears stands
behind its products. She said she would do some checking, and call
me back. Because of the six hour time difference between Hawai’i and
the East coast, Gabriel called me the next morning. We had several
conversations over the next four weeks, and each time, Gabriel said that
something would be done to make it good, but that there was red tape in the
way, so it would take time.
My last conversation with Gabriel was in late
September. She said that she was not able to do anything more for
me, because only John Hernandez had the power to make those decisions.
On September 24, I called Sears for service,
telling them that the ice was not dispensing, and was given an appointment on
Friday, September 26, between 7:30AM to 12PM. The service man called
at 8:40AM and arrived at 8:55AM. He worked on the icemaker, and said
that it was jammed from the ice. He defrosted it, ran it, and said
it ran fine. "Value" of service - $137.00.
Due to family circumstances, including being off
the island for several weeks, and having company for the holidays, I put the
matter on hold. When we were home, we simply took the ice blocks out
of the dispenser every morning, and took out ice for our needs by hand.
On January 28, 2004, I had service on the
icemaker. The service man defrosted the motor, and said that it
worked. He said the freezer temperature was too cold, and he ordered
a new thermostat and other parts.
On February 6, the technician replaced the
board, temperature sensor, and I/M bin and advised me to keep the temperature
turned down. "Value" of service - $334.
"Value" of service to date - $1304.91
On July 24, I called Sears 1-800-4myhome and was
transferred to the refrigeration department. I spoke to Ray and told
him that the tech was out last week to replace the icemaker
unit. Now it makes hollow cubes and still does not dispense cubes
from the door. He asked what the setting was and I told him the tech
put it on two and I did not move it from there. He said, “That’s
your problem. Move it to 5 and check again in 24
hours.” I did as he said.
On July 25, at 4:14 PM I called Sears
1-800-4myhome to report that my icemaker had stopped functioning completely and
spoke to John. He was fairly rude in that he refused to take my
request for a tech to come to my home to repair my refrigerator. Instead,
he insisted on transferring me to a refrigerator tech to make the
appointment. After being on hold until 4:30, I spoke with
Dawn and she was helpful, respectful and efficient in making my appointment for
Monday the 26th.
Monday, July 26, 2004 - The Sears Tech arrived
at 12:55 PM and I explained that after I did what the person at 1-800-4myhome
had asked, the entire refrigerator began to warm up. The ice maker
would not make ice; the water in the ice tray stayed liquid and the
refrigerator side became warm as well. He proceeded to evaluate the
unit. After removing the back panel from the freezer area, he found
a very large amount of ice build-up on the evaporator coils. He
began using a hair dryer to melt the ice. After the ice had melted,
he found that the heater had burned out. He also discovered that the
heater had melted the rubber strip on the left side of the
panel. Total "value" of visit = $838.55. He
ordered the parts needed and scheduled an appointment for Friday the 30th in
the morning.
Shortly after this, we gave the refrigerator
away and bought a new one. This experience left us with a bad impression of
Sears. The total cost of all the repairs and visits, if we had been paying for
them, was $2,143.46, a little more than twice the original cost of the
refrigerator.
We made some wonderful friends while living in
Maui. Joe and Gee, George and Janet Drummey, from 6-303, and Carolee
Dennet who used to live in building 7 but moved to building 5. Those are
the people we look forward to seeing when we go to Maui. Carolee died in 2017 and George and Janet moved to assisted living after having numerous health problems. I tried to contact them there and I tried to contact George's sister, Mary, but I had no luck.
We needed a new washer and dryer, because ours were going to
be too much to repair. We did our research, and Bill found a set at JC Penny
that we liked. The advertised price was about $798 for the set. That was too
good to be true. Unfortunately, it was. We got to the store, found the set, and
proceeded to tell the associate that we wanted it for the advertised price. He
said that was an error by the newspaper and he offered to give us 10% off the
price of $1600ish. We cried fraud, and asked to speak to a manager. We got the
same story. Eventually, we bought the set, because we needed them, but in the
morning, we complained to the consumer fraud division of the FTC. Two days
later, we got a phone call from Penny’s telling us that they had removed the
charge for the dryer, and our cost was just a little over $800 for both. I
checked the advertisement, and found that it was still there. We told Bob and
Patty, who needed a new set. They went down and got the same deal. The
advertisement was changed to the correct information the next day.
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