While in California I had the opportunity to drive around with Grandma G and see some of the places she grew up. It was fun listening to her stories!
This is the earliest home Grandma G could remember. Or at least where it used to be. She used to live in a duplex where those cars are parked. She and her sisters got into all kinds of mischief while living in that house! They tight roped on clotheslines! There was an abandoned fire house next door that they would climb on, Great Aunt Barbara even got stuck on a second story window. Down the street one of the houses was vacant, the girls would go inside and clean it, it was their life sized play house. A church down the street had a nice little courtyard they liked to play in so there were many times they would be playing there all dusty and dirty from their adventures when people would come dressed all fancy for formal events!
One year after Christmas she and her sisters decided to collect Christmas trees. They went door to door asking if people wanted their trees. If they didn't they carried them back to their side yard which quickly filled with old, dried out Christmas trees. Great Aunt Mary was actually given a flocked tree about the same size as she was. She stepped inside the branches so she could grab the trunk with both hands and marched it across the main street. To any bystanders it looked like a Christmas tree was walking on two tiny little feet of its own accord. Fortunately for Great Grandma Clara the boy scouts later hauled them away.
During the hot summer months the fire department would come through and flush the system by opening up the fire hydrants. She and her sisters chased the water, playing with it as it flowed down the gutters down several blocks to a "major" intersection. Keep in mind these are not like the ditches of Washington. The gutters are all of a couple of inches deep but in a dry, desert like area it was probably Heaven!
This is St. Joseph's church. It was a block from their home. This is the church Grandma G attended until she went away to college. She was raised Catholic so this is where her first communion and her confirmation took place.
The priest live in this adjacent building.
Grandma G and her sisters had endless entertainment from this library. The granite by the stairs made a handy slide and the ledge around the base was a fun climbing exercise. Just across the street is where their gutter escapade took place. Down the road there is an over pass. Before it was open to traffic she and her sisters would ride their bikes there and sail down the hill! Keep in mind Bakersfield is pretty much flat....everywhere.
She grew up attending was St Joseph's kindergarten and elementary schools until it was replaced by St Lawrence Elementary school when Grandma G was in 3rd grade. One year they went to Voorhies school. It was the local public school. They attended for one year before Great Grandma Clara moved them back to St. Lawrence until they attended the public high school.
This is Jefferson pool. This is where they learned to swim and had their swim meets for the city swim team later on.
This was the next house she lived in when she was about in third grade, she started going to St. Lawrence and lived here until high school. She walked home from school past an orchard. One year someone put a deer head into one of the orchard garbage barrels. It stunk horribly for weeks so they would have to give it a wide berth every time they walked to or from school. St. Lawrence still exists but unfortunately there was no way to get a picture of it easily. All the schools in Bakersfield are completely surrounded by chain link fences with gates that they lock. You couldn't even get into it's parking lot.
In this auditorium Grandma G had her 8th grade presentation of "My Fair Lady".
This was the last house Grandma G lived in with Great Grandma Clara. Great Grandma built that fence in order to have privacy for their pool. This is the house Grandma G lived in while she dated Papa G. They built their volkswagon (his first car) in the driveway. Papa G actually lived here with Grandma's sisters and Mom while she was away at UC San Francisco Medical Center for college. She studied there to become a dental hygienist. She was very competitive and out smarted and out worked another student to graduate top of her class. The other girl often came to study groups, she would refuse to help answer homework problems but would sit there waiting for other students to share answers for the problems she didn't know. The girl was convinced she would be top of the class. Grandma didn't like her attitude so she put her in her place. There were only 24 total girls in the class so Grandma didn't see why the other girl couldn't just help participate fairly.
This is the high school that Grandma G attended. Her older sister Barbara was in the first class to go to this school all four years. While attending high school Grandma G swam on the swim team. During the time she lived in Bakersfield it was very segregated. There were the white, black and red neck parts of town. The heated out door pool that the swim team practiced at was in the black part of town and the team had to be escorted for practice by the sheriff.
It was at this school, in the cafeteria, at the Girls' choice dance that Grandma G and Papa G met officially for the first time. Grandma was friends with his date, he was friends with her date. Her date drove and picked everyone up.
They continued to run into each other at the LDS dances. Until one day Papa G left early with some friends and, while dancing with the guy she went to the Girls' choice dance with, she realized she really wanted to be with Papa G. Thus their relationship began!
This is the home that they were married at. It was a short distance from Papa G's house (which is now a store), the people that lived there were like grandparents to Papa G. The actually refinished the piano Papa grew up with and then gave it back to him. It's the piano my siblings and I learned to play on to varying degrees of success. Grandma and Papa G often walked down to visit the owners while they were dating.
This is Kern General Hospital, at least it used to be. Great Grandma Clara worked here, eventually becoming the nursing supervisor, Great Aunt Barbara worked here in the ICU and ER after becoming a nurse, and Grandma G worked here during the summers as a ward clerk. She got the necessary information to register patients, drew up lab requests, filed lab reports, etc. She worked with paperwork rather than patients. Working here during the summer is how she paid for college to become a dental hygienist. While Papa was in school they lived in Albany in the UC Berkeley married student housing, at the end of his bachelor's degree she was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day saints (1976). After Berkeley they moved to Van Nuys, then Canyon Country, after which they lived in Great Grandma Clara's motorhome while they built their Agua Dulce home before moving to Moorpark. She worked as a dental hygienist while Papa G finished school. She worked until just before she had her third child. A year and a half later Papa G transferred to Boeing and they moved to Washington.,
This is the home they chose, over an acre, fully fenced so it would be safe and park-like for their children. Their three children are Kirsten, Megan (me), and Justin. In 2012 Papa G retired and they were able to start travelling with their trailer all over the country. They've spent much of their free time down in Bakersfield to be with Great Grandma Clara. They lived there from 1990 to 2012. 2012 I think their trailer started to be more of a home, though technically they still own the house! They have now purchased a home in South Dakota and plan to gradually move their things while finally finishing their house projects on their old home. The moment they purchased their South Dakota home and arrived for the first time it became more of a home than their old home had been for years. They are looking forward to that part of their lives (and already planning to steal grandbabies away as soon as possible).
Great Aunt Barbara, Grandma G and Great Grandma Clara
Grandma G
Great Aunt Barbara, Grandma G and Great Grandma Clara
Great Grandma Clara, Great Aunt Mary, Grandma G and Great Aunt Barbara
Great Aunts Barbara, Theresa, Denise, Mary and Grandma G (Karen)
Grandma G's first communion
Grandma G is on the right, her sister Denise is in the swimsuit. Grandma G actually worked as a lifeguard, swim teacher and crafts assistant for the BARC: Bakersfield Association for Retarded Citizens. Essentially a special needs center.
Great Aunts Barbara, Theresa, Denise, and Mary. Grandma G is in the back.
Grandma G's confirmation
Married June 14, 1974
Great Aunts Barbara, Mary, Theresa, Denise, Great Grandma Clara, Grandma G, and Great Grandpa Floyd's son Eddie and Eddie's wife Laurel.
