Photoessay #1533 - Glendora

Two forces directing me here....my writing group, the Inner Circle has picked a prompt "Your birth" for next time plus my family history/genealogy class has started at UW.

I love this topic, so rich!

My parents from New England moved to Southern California soon after they married as my engineer father had a job at Aerojet in Azusa.

I was born two years after their marriage. My father worked in Azusa, they rented a house in Duarte, my mother gave birth to me at St. Luke's Hospital in Pasadena, they soon purchased a house in Glendora.

All in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles in the period 1951-54.

The San Gabriel Valley transformed from an agrarian citrus growing area to residential development in the 1950s. I remember my mother saying they had 16 (not sure of the exact number) of orange trees in their backyard. I have an indistinct memory of these trees.

My birth certificate shows the Duarte address (2503 Elda St). Checking google shows a small rental looking house at the end of a street of modest homes. Looks just like a house that 20 something couple would rent when they're new in town. I'm thinking that the address of the Glendora house would be on my brother's birth certificate. Some long term memory tells me that this house was on E. Bennett Ave. Map shows that street leading from downtown in a residential area.

Sounds from poking around on the internet that this area has not changed so much in the last few decades. Some demographic sites record an aging population, high unemployment and poor air quality. Strikes me from the map that my father had quite a short commute from his homes in Duarte or Glendora. A rarity in today's Southern California.

Route 66 ran through Glendora.

Picture taken from a website on geocities website for the Glendora High School of 1962. Used without permission. This downtown shot (labeled from the 1950s) seems so old fashioned but my family (including me) lived there in the early 1950s so this could be a very accurate picture of the downtown my parents were familiar with. My mother also joked that you should not say that you don't want to live in an area because you may find yourself living there. My parents were devoted to the model of moving to the location of the husband's job. I think my mother visited the San Gabriel Valley, said she didn't want to live there but then, boom, the job came through and there they were.

I also remember my mother talking about Mount Baldy, that they could see it from their house. I believe you can see it in the right side of that shot. Those desolate hills, nope not me. Not doing sagebrush, I tell my husband.