Flashback California

I didn't know what to write about this week, so I thought that I would just talk about the years that I lived in California. My dad is from the Los Angeles area in Pasadena. My grandparents still live in Thousand Oaks. When I was born, we lived in Van Nuys. It is just a little north of LA.

The first memory that I can think of is the apartment that we lived in. My mom worked at a hardware store at the time, and my dad worked for my grandpa as his upholstery shop. I think that is what inspired my dad to have his own upholstery shop now. It is called Lefty's in Hutchinson, Ks. He can fix just about anything (that I know of at least).

The apartment that we lived in was two bedrooms and my brother and I shared a room with bunk beds. Since my brother would sleep walk, I got to sleep on the top bunk. In the middle of our apartment complex there was a what I thought was a HUGE pool. Now I think that it is just regular, but to a 3 year old, is was enormous. Everyday we swam in the pool. I even have a picture somewhere, showing my mom holding me when I was only a year old in that pool.

A lot of the kids that lived near us were mostly boys. So I became very familiar with playing all kinds of sports. I remember that a group of us kids in elementary school played kickball after school most days. I also remember walking to school and going past a 7 - Eleven and wanting a slurpee every afternoon when I got home.

We did a lot of walking back then. We walked to the grocery store, the park, 7-Eleven, & school. My brother and I didn't always get along only being a year apart, we were completely opposite in personalities. One time my mom had to pick us both up from the grocery store floor, b/c we were crying b/c she wouldn't buy us a candy bar (such torture for a 6 year old ha ha!!). My brother cried all the way out of the store, and we went home without anything.

Well, some of those times in California are sometimes hard to remember, but the memories that I do have let me know that things were just so different when I was a kid. It seemed like the biggest problem I had was who I was going to play with that day. Life was just so easy then.

I encourage all who read this to hold onto those memories and treasure the good times had. Every time I think back to some of those times, I laugh, really laugh and that is quite an accomplishment for me after all I went through last year.

See ya again.

Mira