This is yours truly ready to do the Mexican Hat Dance in 6th grade at the one room school...mentioned in previous post.
Bottom left is the end of 5th grade. And then on the right is 8th grade. Notice that the "silver fang" is showing in this picture!!!
And off we go again!!!! I really think my brother and I could qualify as professional movers!!! It was always our Daddy and us two loading up the home built trailer!!!! Such fun with a huge Amana upright freezer, beautiful console piano and an awkward king size bed!
This time we temporarily moved into my paternal grandparents home as my father once again went to work for his father. Now, this house was really a mansion in my 11 year old eyes!! Located in Arcadia, California in a well-to-do neighborhood, it sat on two lots that included a small pond, detached garage with a bathroom and laundry room, tennis court, barn and horses.
As for the house itself, it was set back from the road with a sweeping, huge, green lawn. We desert rats loved the soft, green grass to run and play on! Any time we visited, I beat it to the side of the house where rhubarb grew. I would pull up one, cut off the ends and eat it with salt. In those days, bread was delivered to the door (if you could afford this convenience!) as well as milk. I loved watching the bread man open up the back of his wood paneled truck and pull open the drawers to show Grandma all the choices of bread.
Inside the two story house were large rooms, complete with a small music room with my Grandfather's organ. We 3 kids occupied one of the two bedrooms upstairs. I will never forget the other bedroom that had wallpaper with these huge green leaves. Downstairs was an office that displayed all the trophies the matching Palamino horses had won at shows...one of my grandfather's hobbies for awhile.
A couple stories from the past when we visited this estate...
My mother related to me an occurrence when I was two years old. My grandparents hosted a Halloween party in their big barn for all their friends and family. I was only two years old and still sucking my thumb, despite all my mother's efforts to bring an end to this habit. Attending the party was someone dressed up as a witch. My mother, using all her parenting skills available in that decade, pointed out the witch to me and said, "If you don't stop sucking your thumb, that witch is going to get you!" Boy, how that must have damaged my psyche!!! Ha!! Ha!! I have no recollection of this nor did I develop an aversion to witches! But I did stop sucking my thumb!!
Also at this age on a visit to these grandparents, Daddy was tasked to watch me while we were outside by the pond. Guess what? I fell head first into the pond and both Daddy and Grandpa did not think it was a big deal! But my mother sure did!!! They laughed and she scolded them..."She could have drowned", etc., etc.!!!
Fast forward to my 7th grade year as we began a brief sojourn with these grandparents while my parents searched for a house to rent. Unfortunately, I had to begin school...junior high school!!!! What a traumatic experience for this country girl!!!! Those first few weeks, I was trying so hard a lot of mornings to be sick with something and not go to school! This was a school with mostly upper class families and the kids knew each other. Changing classrooms for every class was a brand new idea to me! And dressing for PE!!! Oh, my!!! So many changes!
I did enjoy PE as we learned to play Speedball. Such great exercise, spending the entire period just running like crazy up and down the field after the ball!! But then there was a different kind of PE...teaching us ballroom dancing!!! Our family did not dance (except the brief time in 5th grade we did square dancing in class!). By the time my mother got around to considering putting a stop to it, we had finished that section of PE! Of course, I would be partnered with the class clown...he was cute but not my favorite person because he sat beside me in Art class and pulled the chair out from under me one day!!! So embarrassing as the new kid!!!
We soon moved into our own house with my two brothers and another baby on the way. I had my own room for the first time. But I hated it!!! It was separated from the other bedrooms at the back of the house that was right by a canal and an outside door. I never felt safe there.
But no worries! For whatever reason, we moved again in a month or so!!!! Still in the same city so I didn't have to change schools! This house was an old, cozy house and I was back to sharing a bedroom with my brother.
For Christmas that year, my maternal grandmother made me a darling outfit and took me to the famous Grauman Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to see "The Seven Wonders of the World." Wow! This was a very special time for me, not only to go to the theatre but to be with my Granny.
Shortly after Christmas, in February, I finally got a baby sister!! Yea for us girls!!! I now was tasked to help with the dishes since there were more to take care of in our household. At least I had 12 years before dish washing entered my life!! :)
September to April...life in Arcadia...then pack up and off to Hinckley, California to another ranch! With only a couple months of school left!
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