Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 39

2.32 Worrisome Prayers

1957 • San Francisco ~ Letter from Aunt Elizabeth to her brother, my father: March 13, 1957 Dear Carl: Just now writing the date, I happened to remember that this is Carleen’s birthday. If it weren’t so late, I would call her. We are having Mass on Wednesday evenings during Lent and with a sermon, […]

2.31 Needs Improvement

October 1957 • Honolulu, Hawaii ~ Once again I was in a new school. There were four other haoles (mostly the white children of Navy families from the States stationed in the area) in my class and the rest of the kids were locals of mixed heritage, Chinese, or Japanese descent. The locals dressed like any […]

2.30 Manoa Valley

1957 – 1958 • Honolulu, Hawaii ~ Mom and I settled in upper Manoa Valley, a trolley ride from Honolulu. A valley with a higher elevation than sun-drenched Waikiki, it squatted at the foot of a tropical rainforest shrouded in low rain clouds. When they passed, brilliant rainbows broke through, topping the lush mountains softly […]

2.29 Off to Paradise 1957

October 1957 • San Jose to the Islands ~ A year and a month into Bobby and Claudia’s marriage, Bobby was transferred to Barbers Point, a naval air station about 20 minutes from Honolulu. My mother got the notion that she and I would move there too. Mom wanted to be near Claudia, she and Ray […]

2.28 Gaggle of Girlfriends 1957

1957 • San Jose ~ Things were bad between Betty and Mom. My sister wanted to do what she wanted to do, and Mom couldn’t control her. When Bobby was transferred from Moffett Field (the west coast’s largest Naval Air Transportation Base) to Barbers Point, a naval air station about 20 minutes from Honolulu, Betty […]

2.27 Year of Change 1956

1956 • A year of family comings and goings ~ January • My maternal grandmother, Nellie Chatfield, at the age of 82, died in Chico, California. She outlived her husband by 14 years, and two of her ten children. Gordon, her sixth child, died in 1948 (the year I was born) from injuries incurred in WWII, […]

2.26 Lovebirds

1956 • San Jose ~ Claudia was secretly relieved when Mom said she’d have Bobby shipped out. She didn’t know how to say “no” to him, even though it hurt so bad to have sex. She would marry him when she was older, after she’d finished school, when she’d gotten a job teaching junior high. […]

2.25 The Great Pretender

1956 • San Jose ~ Betty was part of the older crowd and on Saturday nights she and her girlfriends ice skated at the El Camino Skating Rink. All the cute boys were there, circling the arena, showing off to the girls and skimming across the frozen floor backward to the music of “Rock Around the […]

2.24 Hoity-Toity

1956 • San Francisco ~ When they married, Dad was renting a small place on Clayton Street in the Haight. He moved into Irene’s fancy two-story Victorian just two doors up from the flat where he first lived on Belvedere. Her place had soaring ceilings and velvet ottomans, a step up from the Formica dining […]

2.24 Hotsy-Totsy

Winter 1956 • San Francisco ~ When they married, Dad was renting on Clayton Street in the Haight. He moved into Irene’s two-story Victorian just two doors up from the flat he once lived in on Belvedere. Her place was furnished with carved antiques and Persian carpets, hung with oil paintings and gilded mirrors, and […]