I saw Curt this last week end!!! He is living in a houseboat just down the road from brother. Curt would love a visit from brother. I figured he and his wife might take a ride on their motorcycle to see Curt. The road is great for a ride.Very open and paved. He is docked off a lovely resort. It reminded me so much of the area we summered at each year. Curt indicated it reminded him of our old camping grounds. Curt explained how he drove his speed boat to shop about once a month in one of the big towns near by. Curt can drive his speed boat almost to dad's place.
Curt looked well. Slim as always, fit and active. His manner was jovial and charming as always. He spoke alot about family and how he wished we could all come visit soon. I was thinking it might be fun to have a family outing there in the fall. With Chris and family in that area, Ken not far away, a group could come from San Jose and we could have a great picnic. The resort was very well kept, just down the way there were cottages to rent, people were fishing all over the place. The fact that children were fishing off the road, and kids playing in camp grounds was very alarming to Jim and Maria. Boating, water skiing, campfires, It did not help that I kept repeating, "this reminds me of my childhood", "we went to a place just like this each summer".
We arrived just about sunset. Jim, Maria, their 4 kids and myself boarded Curt's three story houseboat. The kids were making us nervous because they were enjoying it almost too much!! Bryan thought it was great that he could make the entire boat rock.
Well as far as I can remember it was the summer of 1994 when I last heard from Curtis. Evidently, his wife had a long and painful death. He mentioned a number of illnesses that she suffered. It is very strange that after all he has been through, all the places, all over the world he has lived, he ended up where we all had such fond memories.
Jim explained to Curt the pilgrimages that we took sometimes to look him up, explaining we found land deeds with his name, and county records and tried to trace him. Curt's reply was "You can not find me, if I do not want to be found." When we went out this time to see Curt, 9 year old Bryan said oh no grandma we have looked for him before for days and could not find him. Bryan thought this was going to be another failed trip.
But Curt is found, and I encourage everyone to go see him. Please pass the blog along and let's see if we can not get a day planned soon!
Did I mention my grandkids were here a couple of days? When I get my scanner working again I will add a picture of Curt.
Showing posts with label Remembering Summers as a Child. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Remembering Summers as a Child. Show all posts
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Trophy Girl
1950's San Jose California but actually I think this picture was taken at the Alviso Speedway. The camera is pointed east and the hills in the background are the Milpitas hills.
What I remember of this day. I was allowed to wear my tap shoes to the track. I was allowed to sit in the front seat of the brand new car (seen in background). My dad drove me out to the field after the heat. This gentleman is not my dad, he is the winner of the heats. Before the actual races begun. The heats were to set order of the hard top cars before the "main event". I was prompted to give the man a kiss (?!?) He was not my dad nor any of the drivers I knew. He was sweaty and I did not want to kiss him. I actually have other pictures of me as trophy girl. I even think Aunt Helen was trophy girl a couple of times. I should try to find those photos!!!
I bet her kids would get a kick out of that!
Aunt Doris, my mom, Aunt Helen and myself had our turns as Trophy Girls. We went to the field (pit)and presented the trophy, gave the winner a kiss, and had our pictures taken by the speedway professional photographer!
The photographer would take pictures all night long and sell them after the races. The next week we kids would go down and see if there were any pictures left over for the previous week and he would give us his throw aways.
Another thing I remembered about the races. If my grandmother was not available my parents took all four children to the races. The races were loud and always very long into the night. So I would make myself a bed on the bench of the grandstands. The grandstands were open and did not have sides. I remember getting very sleepy. I would lie down and wrap my arms around the bench and pray I did not fall through the benches if I was to roll in my sleep. I never did roll off. For which I am very grateful.
One thing that did happen often was women would drop their sweaters or purses under the grandstands. They would call to my brothers to go under the stands to fetch whatever they had dropped.
As I locate more pictures of the speedway, I have many stories to share about the speedway. I am positive my brother has even more stories to share. I will try to encourage him to share them with me so I can add them to OUR FAMILY HISTORY.
Until next time, Aunt Ruth
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Summer Vacation when I was 12 years old..... SNGF
Here is the Genealogy game created by Randy Seaver.....
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Remember When?
Hey there, it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music!), is:1) Remember when you were 12 years old? On a summer day out of school? What memory do you have of fun activities?2) Tell us about that memory (just one - you can do more later if you want to) in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook. Here's mine:
Water skiing --- My dad and many of his friends had speed boats and teen agers. I was one of the youngest of the water skiers. At night when the group of teens went to the movies or joy riding, I had to go to bed early. I was 12, they were teen agers. Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day week ends ---we would make a huge circle with our 20 or so tents in a resort along the Sacramento delta near Antioch----- the delta was unbelievable to ski on, there were sloughs as flat as ice and just you and the boat --- you needed to be careful because cattails grew on both sides of the slough--- so you needed to stay in the middle of the smooth corridor.
The men bragged a lot about speed, and torque and boat performance. So one of the things we use to try to do ---- is see which boat had the best torque to pull the most skiers. I was small so I always was included. Because the others did not want to get stuck in the wake (a more boring ride) ---I also was the skier in the middle. So we would ski 5 to 8 behind a boat ----
My dad laughed so hard when he noticed I started directing the others to lean to the left, or to the right and the guys would lift their ropes for me to ski under. We would go back to camp and the women would be cooking --- yes the women did all the cooking and the men did all the driving of the boats----no one drove while I was skiing except my dad. they would set us younger ones down first and feed us. Because soon it would be dark--- we washed up, took a lantern into the tent and played PIT or some other rowdy card game. Later after all the men had gassed up the boats for the next days activities and secured all the boats, The adults would come in and put us younger children (probably those children less than 14 years of age) down in our sleeping bags to go to sleep. With the sun, the water, and no stop water fun, I would fall asleep very quickly. The adults then enjoyed a dinner, a campfire, a sky full of stars and the relaxing out of doors. The teen agers would drive their cars around in the hills, or go into a small town nearby for a movie show.
Sometimes some of the men woke up early and, if we, children asked, we could go fishing with them. It was always a quiet special time on the lake, No talking, no pressure, just watching your line, broken up with small excitements when we got a nibble or caught a fish. There would be the quiet comparing sizes of fish, and always the anticipation to wait to see if someone would measure your fish and declare your fish was long enough to qualify as "a keeper". We would string the fish on a single rope and carry the fish into the camp. The women would prepare the fish for breakfast. Usually it was catfish , the big mouth catfish with the meaty thick jaws. Someone would always say "tastes like chicken".
I was too young to understand when the older teen ager girls would say they did not want to eat the fish, or go skiing, or spent half the mornings in the restrooms. The teen age girls would come out of the public restrooms with bee hive updos kept in place with lots of hairspray, bathing suits, terrycloth wraps, cute sandals, huge straw purses and sunglasses. I would look down at my bathing suit with some stupid skirt attached, stringy hair, dirty canvas sneakers and go the opposite direction.
I was just happy when I was able to ski, or fish, but I knew the middle of the day, I would be down at the roped off swimming area playing in the water until it was my turn to ski again. The boys had rigged up a swinging rope with a big knot on the end on the far side of the water hole. And if you could swim across the boat ramps--- you could climb the hill and have a turn at the rope. You would swing far out on the rope and drop into the water.
There was also a huge floating sun deck out further in this water hole. The sun deck had very high sides that was not easy for me at the age of 12 to climb. It was pretty well known that the sun deck was for the teen agers and if you could not swim to and board the raft yourself --- you were not welcome.....no one was going to help a 12 year old on to the raft.......and if you ever did make it up there, as soon as the older kids came around ----they would throw you off_____.
These were wonderful times I remember with my father and mother, my two older brothers (teen agers), my younger sister and myself. My parents were enjoying friends, getting away from daily pressures, sharing interest with other adults with similar interest in boats, family, kids, and camping.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Remember When?
Hey there, it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music!), is:1) Remember when you were 12 years old? On a summer day out of school? What memory do you have of fun activities?2) Tell us about that memory (just one - you can do more later if you want to) in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook. Here's mine:
Water skiing --- My dad and many of his friends had speed boats and teen agers. I was one of the youngest of the water skiers. At night when the group of teens went to the movies or joy riding, I had to go to bed early. I was 12, they were teen agers. Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day week ends ---we would make a huge circle with our 20 or so tents in a resort along the Sacramento delta near Antioch----- the delta was unbelievable to ski on, there were sloughs as flat as ice and just you and the boat --- you needed to be careful because cattails grew on both sides of the slough--- so you needed to stay in the middle of the smooth corridor.
The men bragged a lot about speed, and torque and boat performance. So one of the things we use to try to do ---- is see which boat had the best torque to pull the most skiers. I was small so I always was included. Because the others did not want to get stuck in the wake (a more boring ride) ---I also was the skier in the middle. So we would ski 5 to 8 behind a boat ----
My dad laughed so hard when he noticed I started directing the others to lean to the left, or to the right and the guys would lift their ropes for me to ski under. We would go back to camp and the women would be cooking --- yes the women did all the cooking and the men did all the driving of the boats----no one drove while I was skiing except my dad. they would set us younger ones down first and feed us. Because soon it would be dark--- we washed up, took a lantern into the tent and played PIT or some other rowdy card game. Later after all the men had gassed up the boats for the next days activities and secured all the boats, The adults would come in and put us younger children (probably those children less than 14 years of age) down in our sleeping bags to go to sleep. With the sun, the water, and no stop water fun, I would fall asleep very quickly. The adults then enjoyed a dinner, a campfire, a sky full of stars and the relaxing out of doors. The teen agers would drive their cars around in the hills, or go into a small town nearby for a movie show.
Sometimes some of the men woke up early and, if we, children asked, we could go fishing with them. It was always a quiet special time on the lake, No talking, no pressure, just watching your line, broken up with small excitements when we got a nibble or caught a fish. There would be the quiet comparing sizes of fish, and always the anticipation to wait to see if someone would measure your fish and declare your fish was long enough to qualify as "a keeper". We would string the fish on a single rope and carry the fish into the camp. The women would prepare the fish for breakfast. Usually it was catfish , the big mouth catfish with the meaty thick jaws. Someone would always say "tastes like chicken".
I was too young to understand when the older teen ager girls would say they did not want to eat the fish, or go skiing, or spent half the mornings in the restrooms. The teen age girls would come out of the public restrooms with bee hive updos kept in place with lots of hairspray, bathing suits, terrycloth wraps, cute sandals, huge straw purses and sunglasses. I would look down at my bathing suit with some stupid skirt attached, stringy hair, dirty canvas sneakers and go the opposite direction.
I was just happy when I was able to ski, or fish, but I knew the middle of the day, I would be down at the roped off swimming area playing in the water until it was my turn to ski again. The boys had rigged up a swinging rope with a big knot on the end on the far side of the water hole. And if you could swim across the boat ramps--- you could climb the hill and have a turn at the rope. You would swing far out on the rope and drop into the water.
There was also a huge floating sun deck out further in this water hole. The sun deck had very high sides that was not easy for me at the age of 12 to climb. It was pretty well known that the sun deck was for the teen agers and if you could not swim to and board the raft yourself --- you were not welcome.....no one was going to help a 12 year old on to the raft.......and if you ever did make it up there, as soon as the older kids came around ----they would throw you off_____.
These were wonderful times I remember with my father and mother, my two older brothers (teen agers), my younger sister and myself. My parents were enjoying friends, getting away from daily pressures, sharing interest with other adults with similar interest in boats, family, kids, and camping.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Where's Ruth?
It was not that I meant to be so self absorbed. In fact if you asked me I would have told you I was a very thoughtful caring person. But the truth I thought summers were to get everything done, go everywhere and try to not miss anything. Actually my summers started about Easter Time. I tried to buy "my bathing suit" just before Easter Vacation. My bathing suit was always a big deal to me. Long before 2 pieces, and high cuts, low cuts, I wanted my suit to be of beautiful color, and durable because it was going to get a lot of use. It was always a big joke because the first day I would wear my suit all day and even sleep in my suit. Easter vacation was to start your tan. My best friend, Eva and I, would walk down to San Jose City College each day of vacation, dip in the pool, slather on baby oil and lay out working on our tan. Every summer was the same......the Friday before Easter Sunday I went to Girl Scouts camp and cleaned the cabins. (The name of the camp is on the tip of my brain). We swept out cob webs and wooden floors of the cabins, disinfected outhouses, scrubbed kitchens. And we thought this was fun.
Memorial week end as the 4th of July and Labor week end was spent with my family.
About 15 families, 20 ski boats gathered at the same campground for a weekend of water skiing. We made a big circle with our tents, the out door kitchen would reside in the middle of the camp. We had people of all ages, babies, small children, pre teens, teens, young single men, parents, grandparents. It was the best!!
My father did all the boat driving when his kids water-skied. I had two older brothers. I remember while my brothers slept in I would have to wait patiently while my dad ate breakfast because my turn to ski was before the boys woke up. Mom would try to get dad fed his breakfast and off on his way. I would catch them looking at each other with smiles in their eyes. They were enjoying my efforts to stay calm and wait for dad to start up the boat engine and call for me.
Just after Memorial week end, I had Girl Scout Camp to attend for a week, then church camp for a week, When I became a teen I also went to Church Family Camp as a worker in the ice cream parlor and to sing in the choir.
When I was not gone from home --- I was across the street at the recreation program. There were always planned activities. A new theme each week, and lots of things to keep kids busy. A typical week end would be Indian Week, or Circus Week, Monday we would start making crafts for the week. Macaroni beads for Indian week, Animal masks for Circus week. We would learn a new game each week ---same game just theme oriented----Indian tag, Circus tag, Indian bingo, Circus bingo....lol Wednesday we would work on costumes, Thursday we had a themed party complete with theme art, theme costumes, playing theme games and the greatest of all a 5 cent snow cone. Fridays we cleaned up, put things away, took art and stuff home, had chess, checker, tournaments and start again the next week.
Sometimes I would go out to the field to hang around the Mc Donald boys, They were named Hughie, Louie, Dewey and Donald (no lie) and those boys were baseball crazy --everyday they played in the field. Sometimes I would go up and ask to play and they would say ok but my position was always out out field. Meaning if the ball was an automatic double or homerun it was my job to go find the ball. They would continue to play with a spare ball. Sometimes they remembered to say thank you when I would retrieve the out out ball!!
I seldom wore shoes all summer. It was not uncommon for me to have blood blisters (from walking barefoot on the asphalt), callouses on my feet, and basically rather disgusting darkened gross feet. For that reason, when it was time for school, it was always an ordeal and sure to produce heel blisters when I had to wear new shoes for school.
Memorial week end as the 4th of July and Labor week end was spent with my family.
About 15 families, 20 ski boats gathered at the same campground for a weekend of water skiing. We made a big circle with our tents, the out door kitchen would reside in the middle of the camp. We had people of all ages, babies, small children, pre teens, teens, young single men, parents, grandparents. It was the best!!
My father did all the boat driving when his kids water-skied. I had two older brothers. I remember while my brothers slept in I would have to wait patiently while my dad ate breakfast because my turn to ski was before the boys woke up. Mom would try to get dad fed his breakfast and off on his way. I would catch them looking at each other with smiles in their eyes. They were enjoying my efforts to stay calm and wait for dad to start up the boat engine and call for me.
Just after Memorial week end, I had Girl Scout Camp to attend for a week, then church camp for a week, When I became a teen I also went to Church Family Camp as a worker in the ice cream parlor and to sing in the choir.
When I was not gone from home --- I was across the street at the recreation program. There were always planned activities. A new theme each week, and lots of things to keep kids busy. A typical week end would be Indian Week, or Circus Week, Monday we would start making crafts for the week. Macaroni beads for Indian week, Animal masks for Circus week. We would learn a new game each week ---same game just theme oriented----Indian tag, Circus tag, Indian bingo, Circus bingo....lol Wednesday we would work on costumes, Thursday we had a themed party complete with theme art, theme costumes, playing theme games and the greatest of all a 5 cent snow cone. Fridays we cleaned up, put things away, took art and stuff home, had chess, checker, tournaments and start again the next week.
Sometimes I would go out to the field to hang around the Mc Donald boys, They were named Hughie, Louie, Dewey and Donald (no lie) and those boys were baseball crazy --everyday they played in the field. Sometimes I would go up and ask to play and they would say ok but my position was always out out field. Meaning if the ball was an automatic double or homerun it was my job to go find the ball. They would continue to play with a spare ball. Sometimes they remembered to say thank you when I would retrieve the out out ball!!
I seldom wore shoes all summer. It was not uncommon for me to have blood blisters (from walking barefoot on the asphalt), callouses on my feet, and basically rather disgusting darkened gross feet. For that reason, when it was time for school, it was always an ordeal and sure to produce heel blisters when I had to wear new shoes for school.
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