Photoessay #2863 - Artifacts

When I was in Glendora, I bought a 'Postcard History Series' book at the Glendora Historical Society.  A chapter described Judge Silent, a jurist and entrepreneur and the Glendora property that he developed into a personal estate with an especial interest in horticulture.  Love to have seen it.  It fell out of the family's hands after his death and the developers bought the property doing their Southern California thing.  But the palm lined drive remains or Kregmont Drive; I think it was the road up to the estate.

So the palms there have their own majesty in a nondescript development.

Artifacts.  Southern California style

Photoessay #2861 - Glendora in the hills

The last day of our trip we went driving in the hills right in back of Glendora.  The houses abut right into the hills.  The view of the hills (the foothills, the San Gabriel mountains) are visible everywhere.

Just as in my parent's day, they become wild right away.  We went above Glendor and also above Azusa.  I was a little concerned because I had read that people drive fast and crazy up there.

But generally it was quiet.  Really we are only a few miles from civilization in these shots.

A city sign, a view of Dennis walking along the road, the view into the valley.

Photoessay #2857 - Search for an orange grove

One thing I really want to do on our upcoming trip to the San Gabriel Valley is to walk in an orange grove.  I know they're 'all gone'.  Even looking at that recent picture of my parent's back yard shows an orange tree that already looks very old.

Likely the historical society people can tell us.

So far, from afar, the only promising orange grove I've found is on the grounds of Mission San Gabriel, maybe five miles or so from our weekend headquarters.  Apparently a tree expert discovered an old orange tree nearby and determined that it was related genetically to the original orange trees at the mission.  So they have established some new trees which are part of the gardens.

But I don't know how many trees.  Trying to find out.  This actually looks like our best bet.

Our theme is gardens and maybe get a bit warmed up.  Temps here in the 30s for this week.

Photoessay #2450 - Young family

Sometimes it's tempting to fall into the trap of thinking that things were simpler and happier in the past.

But this is a pleasant picture nonetheless. September 1954 in Glendora CA.  That's the two year old me on the tricycle, my young father, aged 28, holding my infant brother.  In the backyard of the first home my parents purchased.  My mother used to say "We had 13 orange trees in our backyard!"

I don't really remember the number of orange trees; a bunch anyway.

I'm in touch with the current owner of that house.  Maybe I will meet with him when we go down there in a few weeks.  I would like to walk in some orange groves.  I don't think there are any left in Glendora.  Though apparently orange trees can live a long time, any trees left around there would be 60 years older.  Those trees in the background look pretty mature already in 1954.

Maybe I will need to find OTHER orange groves to walk in.

My father, so moody and withdrawn later in life, looks pretty happy with the baby son in his lap.  Maybe I could already pedal that tricycle.

My writing friends criticize me that I always stay at some distance from myself, that I guard against expressing what I really think and feel.  My two year old self smiles broadly and clearly.  Maybe I'm happy that my father is home as I didn't see him very much.  In many pictures, I'm trying to take care of my younger brother as he learns to walk.  My hair looks thin already but certainly better than my hair as an adult.

The young family, living the good life in California...

Photoessay #2848 - 1954 Glendora landscape

I'm now in touch with the owner of the home that my parents owned 1954-1956.  Often when you try to contact people through email that don't know you, they're wary.  Sometimes you have to dangle something compelling to give you some credibility.  I wrote him again, this time sending a picture of his house in 1954.  So now we have some correspondence going.

This picture, from my mother's photo album gives an idea of the landscape around the house.  I'm sure my father took this picture; it almost looks like he's a bit elevated.  The horizontal elements in the foreground?  Maybe sprinkler hoses?  My mother looks pregnant, so the picture was taken between April 1954 when they moved in and July 1954 when my brother was born.  My father has already put in a new front lawn and likely some landscaping.  I'm the toddler shown with my mother.

One thing that my mother told me after my father died was that when he threw himself into these weekend projects, he was not to be bothered with children.  He was busy.  So my mother never had any break, she took care of three children 24/7.  As a parent of four children myself, I can understand that frustration.

I love to see the house in regards to the neighborhood.  The San Gabriel mountains in the background.  Some lots are vacant with those knee-high prickly brushy plants that grow on California open spaces.  The houses with the promotional sign.  A glance of the era cars.

My parents truly pursuing that California dream; that truly motivated them.

That street doesn't look that different now.

Photoessay #2820 - That Glendora trip

I'm going to start planning it.  It seems to be in a pocket of the greater Los Angeles area with no bed and breakfasts at all.  The only hotels seem to be on (the former) Route 66.  I might write the owners of the house.  I don't really want to do anything other than drive by.  I have no memories of being there.  But I do have some 1954 pictures of the house that they might enjoy.

From Google Earth, it looks sleepy and somewhat affluent.  Not many tourist activities.  Which might just suit us just fine.  One of my obscure trips.

I would like to go by the aeroject site.  Go by St. Lukes Hospital.  Drive up into the mountains.  Maybe go to Huntington Library in Pasadena.

Weather site says it's 66 degrees there now.  Good deal warmer than our current 45 degrees.

View that I took from the City of Glendora website.

Photoessay #2816 - Trip to Glendora?

I was born at a hospital in Pasadena in 1952; my parents bought their first house in Glendora (a community in the San Gabriel Valley) in 1954.  Previously they lived in Duarte or Monrovia (might be the same place).  They only lived there a few years before selling it and moving north to Sacramento where I grew up.

Interesting note - My perception of my childhood as geographically stable is somewhat misleading.  My brother, sister and I graduated from different high schools in different cities.  Me in Sacramento; my brother in Santa Ana (North Tustin) and my sister in Rockford, IL.

So I don't have too many clear memories as I was so young though my mother told stories.  But she didn't live there too long herself.  So is it important?  I've been pondering that question.

Looking on Google Earth, I'm surprised at how quiet and sleepy the neighborhood looks.  How the views of the mountains are unobscured.  This picture, taken from Google Earth, shows the Glendora Historical Society just a few blocks from my family's old house.

OK, you've heard this all before.

We have some credit on Southwest Airlines.  Not a lot, a few hundred dollars.  Expires end of February.  I'm thinking of a weekend trip to the San Gabriel Valley; to Glendora, the Historical Society, look for some orange groves.  Maybe warm up a little.  Maybe even meetup with my third cousin Jon T. if it's convenient.  You know, the guy from the movies. 

A Friday through Monday long weekend?

I pitched Dennis.  He was not too thrilled about it.  Busy at work, socal sucks, he doesn't care about warm. But he got used to it.  He knew resistance was futile. The San Gabriel Valley?  Why not the San Gabriel Valley?  We could go on a little trip, usually he enjoys my crazy trips.

We could do it.

Photoessay #2783 Guided Missiles

This post is about the correct address for my parent's Glendora house which they bought in 1954 slightly before my brother's birth and sold in 1956/1957,  As I thought the correct address was on my brother's birth certificate:

844 E, Bennett Avenue, Glendora CA

Through Google Earth, I had picked out a few addresses as possibilities but not this one.  But the street location of this house matches one of my images.  So this is it ... as it looks now or whenever Google took the picture:

This is how it looked in 1954 when they moved in.  The room with the gable on the left is here just not from this shot:

So the berm in front is gone and a circular driveway has been added.  The tree on the right might be the same tree.  But this address really fits in with this picture:

  My mother is facing the house in front of the little berm near the street andit looks like there's an intersecting street behind her.  That works out perfect; N. Elwood Avenue is right there.  Look how slim my mother was just having a baby.  I'm the little girl.

The funny thing; the father's occupation and industry is listed on the Los Angeles County birth certificate.  For me, he says he's an Engineer and the industry is Engineering.  On my brother's birth certificate, he says he's and Engineer and the industry is Guided Missiles.

What?  There's an industry for that?  Oh well, it's the 1950s.

Photoessay #2572 - Aerojet again

All the time I was growing up, my father worked for Aerojet.  His hire (around 1950) caused my newlywed parents to move to Southern California.  They moved to Sacramento around 1956 when he was transferred to their Nimbus plant (my father always called it 'the plant').  He was transferred to Fullerton in Orange County in 1970 during my freshman year in college.  He was laid off in 1974 at the age of 48.  So he worked for them for only 24 years.  He did a job search (his job was always the most important part of our family) and went to Rockford Illinois to work for Sundstrand during my senior year in college.  He retired (he was not too pleased with the timing) when he was 65 in 1991.  So he worked for Sundstrand for 17 years.  Or similar.

I found this picture from somewhere showing the managers at Aerojet during the 1950s.  My father would not be in this picture as he was not yet in 'management'.  He would have been a tall kind of string bean looking man with the same funny haircut he had his entire life.  I should talk as I inherited his hair type (thin and fine).  White men, a few maybe of color.  In their business suits proudly standing in front of their building.  My father likely knew or knew of the men in this picture.  To my young parents, this would symbolize stability and a bright future.

My father never talked about work with his children.  Ever.  That was not an appropriate subject for children.  Period.  Besides it was top secret (maybe).

Top secret --- see these words just come out of your long term memory.  Is that phrase still used?

Happened to me the other day.  I was writing one of my dreaded 'discussion topics' for my archaeology class and the word 'coefficient' just rolled out.  When was the last time I used that word?

Photoessay #2571 - Sleepy So Cal

Back to birthplace.  I wish I had the address for the Glendora house.  I'll ask my brother, it might be on his birth certificate.  I really think it's on E Bennett Ave.  I have some pictures of the house.  So I took a little Google Map stroll down E. Bennett Ave.  I was stunned to see a quiet sleepy looking neighborhood with the bare Southern California hills in the background.  Some of the houses are very reminiscent of the house my parents bought in 1954.   I don't know if this is the house but it really looks like the floor plan in the older pictures.  On the same street.  That power pole in the back is really creepy, it looks like it's in the right place.

The older pictures show my parent's house that my parents moved into almost exactly on my second birthday.  I remember my mother saying there were 15 (or some number) of orange trees in their backyard.  In the more landscape pictures, you can see the trees over the roofline with two big trees in the frontyard.  I think my father built some kind raised flowerbed near the street.  Maybe I will address that later. 

I took this Google picture on an angle because I wanted to show some of the hills in the background. 

The old picture looks like it's the only house in the neighborhood but I think that changed very quickly.  I have some pictures looking out from the frontyard.

Maybe this goes in the category of "the more things change, the more they stay the same"

Photoessay #2568 - Glendora

Back to thinking about Glendora and how it looked to my parents when they arrived around 1951.  A picture of the downtown from a high school reunion website that I used several years ago.  A picture of the Pacific Electric station in Glendora circa 1951.

And a picture of me age 2 and my brother age six months on the front lawn of our Glendora house December 1954.  For a few years, my parents cut out big cardboard numbers and made holiday cards.  One shows me in a rocking chair "On to 54."  You can see the cardboard numbers for On to 55 or similar.  Notice the sun and the lawn even though it's late in the year.

My mother told a story in this house that, as geraniums were perennials, she wanted to make a sharp flower garden alternating red and white geraniums.  "The next year," she said with a laugh, "they all came up pink!"