I want to include my mother in my history because she and I were very close and she influenced me throughout my whole life. My parents divorced when I was very young. I don’t remember my dad ever living in our home, but of course, he did. Even though they divorced, I always felt safe and loved.
My mother worked most of my life at the Broadway department store in Westchester, California. When she would get home from work in the afternoon, she would help my brother Kenneth and I with our homework. We would sit at the kitchen table and talk and get our work done. Later, we would sit at the dining room table and play board games. My favorite was a game called Aggravation. It was similar to the game Sorry where you had to move your marbles around the board till you got to your home space. I loved that game! We also had some card games we would play.
When I got a little bit older, I would take the bus to Westchester and meet her at the Woolworths lunch counter and we would have lunch together. My favorite dinners at home were chili mac and meatloaf. The very first time I went out to a sit down restaurant was when I was 15 years old. My mother and I went to a Sizzler and I thought it was wonderful!
Family was important to my mom. She was very close to her siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. I saw this from an early age and knew that this was how I wanted to raise my family. A fun memory I had was when I was about 17 years old. My mom and I took the train to Denver, Colorado where her sister Virginia and her husband lived. While there, we drove to Sarban, Nebraska to visit her brother Jimmy and his wife Jessie. They lived on a farm and I got to go horseback riding! I so enjoyed that trip!
When I was a teenager, my brother Jerry helped my mom apply for a job with the Los Angeles County Social Services Department. She got the job and was able to sit down while doing her job! Her last years at the Broadway really hurt her feet. 🙁 Her position required her to help people fill out the intake forms. Then she would call them when it was their appointment time. She did enjoy this job and stayed there till she retired at age 65.
After I graduated high school, she sold our house and we moved to an apartment on Sepulveda Blvd. As I look back now, I realize it was old, but at the time, I didn’t mind. It was one bedroom, so my mom and I shared the room with twin beds. I didn’t mind this at all, and in fact, quite enjoyed it. When my brother Ken came home on leave from the Navy, we had a chair that opened up to a twin bed for him. We moved a couple of times after this, and most times my mom and I shared a room. We did this till I moved out with friends to go to college.
Later, after Kelly and I were married and bought our first house in Chatsworth, my mom moved in with us. She was retired then and paid us a little bit of rent. It helped her and it helped us. And, I loved having her with us! She lived with us till Morgan was born and we moved to Newbury Park. At this time she moved to Culver City but then moved to Thousand Oaks so she could be closer to us. She was able to get into a Senior Housing apartment that was brand new and she so loved it! She loved her Ward and made new friends at her apartment.
On Thursday’s the apartment would get donuts dropped off from shops that had extra. My mom would bring some over to our house for the kids (and me!). The kids loved this and we called it “Donut Thursdays”.
We enjoyed our time together and talked almost every day on the phone, if we didn’t get together. It was a very sad day for me when she died. I explain this in an upcoming chapter.
