Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 36

3.15 Beach Camping

1959 • Salton Sea, California ~ My least fond memory of that summer is water skiing at the Salton Sea, a huge inland lake in the desolate California Sonoran Desert. The place is a forsaken moonscape: saltier than the Pacific Ocean, hotter than blazing cinders, and smellier than rotting catfish. No benches, tables, trees, or […]

3.14 Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

1959 • La Habra ~ That summer Chuck bought a boat, bringing an end to our Sunday drives. It was a fifteen-foot, white wood-hulled, mahogany-decked Trojan Chris Craft powered by a 50-horsepower Evinrude outboard motor with a 75 lower end. We didn’t visit missions anymore, now we went on camping and ski trips to the […]

3.13 Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

1959 • La Habra ~ Chuck wasn’t prejudiced; he hated equally all those he believed were inferior to him. His spewing slurs insulted every race, color, nationality, and ethnic origin, his left middle finger constantly raised in salute as he angrily cursed the wops, cut off the chinks, and careened past the beaners. The darker their […]

3.12 Chutes and Ladders

1959/60 • La Habra ~ Carleen always called Randy a schnook, but he wasn’t, he was just innocent. On the opening day of the Pomona Fair, we were in line at the cotton candy stand when three brass-buttoned uniformed women in garrison caps smartly walked by. “Mom, what are they?” Randy asked. Carleen answered, “They’re […]

3.11 Sunday Drives

1959 • La Habra ~ My brother-in-law’s idea of a family outing was a Sunday drive in his 1956 two-door Mercury Monterey, a two-toned gray and salmon (“titty-pink,” my sister called it) hardtop with a 312 engine, white-walled tires, and big chrome bumpers. He didn’t take us to the local fair or Disneyland or Knott’s Berry […]

3.10 Tie Pin and Cufflinks

1959 • San Francisco ~ In the late afternoon on August 7, 1959, my step-mother, while stepping off a downtown bus in San Francisco, fell, had a heart attack, and died shortly after. She was 73. Carleen flew to San Francisco to be with Dad for the funeral; she was more broken up than everyone there put […]

3.09 The Amana

1959 • La Habra ~ Carleen had this thing about never running out of food. Her cupboards were loaded with bags of pasta, rice, and beans. Boxes of Cheerios, Wheaties, Trix, and Kix were lined up next to loaves of Wonder Bread, rolls, and buns. There were Twinkies, Oreos, HoHos, and Snowballs. There were rows […]

3.08 KRLA and KHJ

1959 • La Habra ~ Cruising Whittier Boulevard, we took a spin to the A&W for frosted mugs of root beer or to Tastee Freeze for fried taquitos and banana splits with extra chocolate and whipped cream, Debbie and Randy in the back, Carleen and me in the front, riding low in the seat with the […]

3.07 Saving Grace

1959 • La Habra ~ Along the rear side fence I planted three huge sunflowers, a patch of blue lupines, and vines of sweet peas. I loved the sweet peas; they were Dad’s favorite flower. And that’s what Carleen called me, “Sweet Pea.” My sister was my sun and my saving grace, and along with my […]

3.06 My 1954 plain

1958 • La Habra ~ I had the two coin collections Larry gave me when I lived in San Jose with Mom. The Album for 20th Century COINS of the WORLD was a large, green, four-paneled book with plastic strips sliding over 144 holes which held the coins in place. I had forty-seven holes filled […]