My Mother Has Been After Me To Write My Memoirs Chapter Two

April 30, 2020

#2

Gentle reader,

If you are new to this blog/memoir, here is a link to the first chapter:

My Mother Has Been After Me To Write My Memoirs Chapter One

I left off with Mom and I in the doctor's office after two bullies pulled me off a chain link fence I had climbed to escape them. Resulting in my left arm's inner elbow being torn open to the bone. Literally.

These days, such an act would have had those two boys being expelled and their parents likely sued. But this was the 1960's. We attended the single elementary school in one of THE most wealthy towns in California. We went there only because we lived on that side of the street which is the border between that town and the one next to it where my dad was earning his Doctorate in Theology at a seminary. We lived in campus housing. 

I told you about this house and other things in the first chapter, so I won't rehash it.

None of the five of us siblings ever rode a school bus. Everyone walked or rode their bicycle to school and back. This school was a pleasant walk down a shaded lane. The local Rexall drug store was on the way. 

I spent many a pleasant hour in that store. I liked to build model cars, planes and ships. The Rexall had a good supply. Once I was old enough to earn an allowance, I visited the store often trying to decide which one to buy and build next. 1:25th scale cars were $2.00 of $2.50 which meant saving four of five weeks (no sales tax then) to buy one.

Back then, people still had televisions and radios that used vacuum tubes instead of transistors. I won't explain the difference, but below is an image of a tube piece of stereo equipment.

This is a Dynaco brand stereo amplifier made in the 1990's but it uses tubes. Those eight (four tall, four smaller) glass cylinders are vacuum tubes. I won't bore you with how they work.

You see, Dad would take me with him to the local store which had a tube testing machine. He'd show me which socket on the testing machine, and let me plug the tube into it. He then turned on the machine, and used it to see which tubes were bad. They sold replacement tubes. The Rexall had such a machine as most stores did for many decades.

I, like countless kids (boys especially) spent hours reading the latest comic books those stores displayed for sale. Much to the chagrin of the salespeople. 

I was and still am fascinated by World War II. Long before the silly television show McHale's Navy aired, I was especially fascinated by PT boats. Look those up if you're curious. So, Sgt. Rock which took place in WWII was one of my favorite comics.

I knew well the story of President Kennedy and the PT 109 boat he commanded in WWII. I found the address, at the library, of the PT Boat Association and wrote to them. They didn't realized I was just a kid and wrote back, asking me what boat I'd served on.

Reincarnation. Not that I believe in it, but IF it is real, perhaps I was in the war in a former life and had been killed. Then years later, I was born into my present life. Don't laugh. Anything is possible. let me add some evidence.

I LOVE Big Band music, which, wait for it, is from the 1940's and earlier. My wife and I have been learning to Swing dance, which originated in that era and Big Band music was danced to it. And still is.

And here, is my 1941 Plymouth Coupe which I bought in pieces as a teenager. I was making into a hot rod. OK, that doesn't prove anything, but it too, is from that era.

Anyway, back to the 1960's in the idyllic area of Marin County California where we were very fortunate to reside.

For thousands of years, the Pacific states and Canada, received a LOT of rain every winter. For California, this was the ONLY time it rained. Literally. 

Until very recently, a seemingly permanent high pressure area off of the Pacific northwest had prevented any winter rains and snows. This caused a multi-years long drought with the attendant destructive wildfires. Fortunately, the cycle has been broken and they had a LOT of rain, some places too much.

It snowed in the Sierra Nevada and other chains of mountains out there created over millions of years by the Pacific tectonic plate pushing up under the North American plate. It snowed a LOT, like thirty or more feet in the mountains. 

There was one problem the rains back then created in certain areas, including the street we lived on. When the tide was in, the rain water had no where to go. So the streets would fill with water. 

Great fun for us. We sailed boats we made on the water. We rode our bikes in it, creating wakes behind us. One problem was the driveway of this house:

That's right, the water ran right down it. Flooding the garage/summer house and flowing into the tiny already flooded creek that flowed across the back of the yard. 

There were lots of blackberry bushes in the back of the yard. I still don't like the taste of blackberries. We called their thorns "prickers" because they pricked us. Kid logic. 

That backyard also had fig trees, two varieties. And plum trees. Do you have any idea what a nasty mess figs make when they hit the ground? They rot, grow mold and stink. I don't like figs or plums or prunes. Which if you did not know it are huge raisins made from plums. 

Onetime I found a double plum. It was kind of heart shaped. I climbed to the top of the garage roof, carefully laid that plum across the peak of the roof and checked on it routinely to see if it became a double plum. It never did wrinkle up. It just sort of sat there and finally fell apart. Each half sliding down opposite sides of the roof.

Speaking of roofs, remember my telling you about Davy's summer house having a flat roof?

Well, I had planted potatoes one year in our back yard. I know, what was I thinking? Anyway, I was digging them up and I heard a strangely loud buzzing noise. "What the heck?"

I looked around and then up. A strange dark cloud was approaching. I looked and wondered and watched this odd thing float over the fence to Davy's back yard. 

It headed to a tree next to their summer house. Then it settled on the tree. Being curious, I went over there, got Davy and we went to see what it was.  

We walked out there and looked up the tree and here was this large black mass of something. It was buzzing, but not as loudly as before. We ran and told our folks (that's old time speak for: parents) and they came out and told it what it was. 

A bee swarm. When bees decide it's time to move, they all fly off en masse. That's French, I think, for altogether. The queen is in the middle of the group being protected. 

When they find a place to land, she lands with her guards and then the entire hive lands around them. Countless thousands of bees were then on that tree.

My folks gave me a camera just like this, or it could have been a Savoy brand. Sears sold lots of cameras in those days with their brand, TOWER on them. 

I ran home, got my camera, and Davy and I climbed on the roof and I took photos of the bees. I came across those black and white, square photos years ago and could NOT figure out what they were of. So I threw them away. Many years later, I suddenly remembered what they were of! In my defense, it was a crappy camera. But, I still have the memory. 

Here is a photo I found on the Internet. The swarm that day was larger than this one. With the way Honey Bees are in grave danger these days, it is a welcome sight to hear and see them in the Azaleas and other blooms in our yard.

I know that is not a Honey Bee, that's a miniature rose and a much smaller bee, but it works. Image captured with one of my Panasonic Lumix digital cameras.

To those who have never been to California, especially those who reside in the humid South like we do, you should go someday. Forget moving there unless you are wealthy, but visit, the state is SO beautiful, the weather is sublime and you will see why so many have for hundreds of years chosen to migrate there. It will be well worth our while.

Please take a look at my main blog, The Robb Collections, if you like. In it I write about our passions and adventures and more: The Robb Collections

Thank you so much for taking a look at my fledgling attempt at remembering my past and helping me to figure out why some people think I'm special.  

Feel free to follow the story and comment below or on Facebook.

Scott
April 30, 2020
#2