After I graduated high school, my friend Bonnie Bentley and I decided to take a couple of classes at Santa Monica City College (now Santa Monica College.) As I remember, I was most excited about being able to wear pants! I didn’t do too well that first semester, but then got serious and graduated with an Associates degree in Early Childhood Education. I really enjoyed working with kids.
After I completed my AA degree, I decided I might as well transfer to San Fernando State College, now California State University at Northridge, or CSUN. My major was Childhood Education. My friend Beryl was going to school there, so it was nice to have a friend there. CSUN was considered a “commuter” school because most people lived off campus and drove to school. After my first semester, Beryl and I and her friend Debbie Nessett, got an apartment together in Northridge. My first time living away from my mom. It was a good way to learn to take care of myself and manage my money! I paid for all my expenses myself!
After I graduated high school, I got a job at Blue Chip Stamps in Westchester. Grocery stores, gas stations, and some other stores would give you “Blue stamps” that you could take home and glue in a small book. The more you spent the more stamps you got. Then when you got enough books you could take them to the Blue Chip Stamp store and redeem them for a variety of things, like a lamp, towels, sheets, clock, toaster, mixer, etc. So my job was to show the customers the products or to work at the counter counting and collecting the “books of stamps” and then giving the item to the customer. I really liked the job and worked there most of my college years. I worked part time and went to school part time. It took me 6 years to graduate college because I had to work to pay my way. No help from my mom or dad. But I didn’t think anything of it. Most of my friends were doing the same and we all managed and had a good time together!
When I was in high school, I had no plans to go to college; it just sort of happened. I worked very hard to graduate; it was not that easy for me. I was the first, and only, one in my family to graduate college! My mom was very proud of me!
During these college years, I took a lot of trips with my friend Beryl. Our first trip was to Hawaii. I always dreamed of going to Hawaii. I wanted to live on the beach and swim every day! So this was a dream trip for me. And my first plane ride. Debbie, Beryl and I went. We went with backpacks and stayed for a month! And if I remember correctly, the whole trip only cost me $300! Most of the time we were able to camp on beaches. However, when we first arrived we stayed in a small, one room “apartment” a couple of blocks from Waikiki beach. We loved going to the beach every day! We found small, local “cafes” or sometimes food trucks to buy food from. Delicious! Occasionally, we picked pineapples from the field. Not legal, but oh so good!
After a week or so, we flew to Maui. It was against the law to “hitchhike” but if you stood on the side of the road, people would know you wanted a ride and would stop and pick you up. One time a doctor vacationing in Maui picked us up and let us use his hotel room shower. Luxury! (I know this is not safe, so if you are reading this, DO NOT HITCHHIKE!). But remember, this was in the 1970’s. In fact, 1971. I was 21 years old. We visited all the sites on Oahu and at that time they were all free!
Our next trip was to Mexico! We took the bus, yes, bus, from Tijuana to Mexico City. The bus was nothing special. People with chickens and other animals would get on and off. There were two drivers; one would drive while the other slept in the luggage compartment on the side of the bus. We stopped in small, out of the way towns to eat and use the bathroom. Not a fun experience. It took two days to get to Mexico City. We stayed in a hotel and explored the city and some of the ruins. We even picked up some Spanish while we were there! After about a week, we took a bus to Acapulco. We stayed in a hotel there and had fun in the sun. One day we decided to swim from the beach to a little island that wasn’t too far off, or so it seemed. As we were swimming a boat passed us. The men on the boat were yelling at us, “Tiburon” which means “Shark”. Of course we didn’t understand, so we kept swimming. We made it to the island, but we were exhausted! Fortunately, a man with a small boat offered us a ride back to our beach.
When it was time to go home, we decided to take the train as the bus had been such a bad experience. The train was a bit better; cleaner, but still stopped for people with chickens! Another fun trip!
I also took a trip to Canada with my friend Nancy Blankman ( Lemire). She had relatives in Seattle so we stayed with them a few days. We drove my VW (at this time I had a 1969 VW; powder blue, that I bought new!) and I had a nice tent so we camped along the way. While staying with her relatives we got to ride their horses. We got to a corral and decided to get off. When it was time to get back on, the horses wouldn’t stand still for us! We finally got on them and rode back to the farm.
Our next stop was Canada. We drove to Vancouver Island and found a nice little campground near a small lake. In the site next to us were two guys from Quebec, Canada. They spoke French and English and were there for the summer working in the city of Victoria doing construction. In the afternoon, they would go spear fishing and catch fish for dinner. We stayed there about a week and ended up sharing meals with them! At one point, it rained for 3 days and 3 nights, but my tent kept us dry! We would drive into Victoria during the day and shop and just hang around waiting for the rain to stop.
These years were a time of growth for me. I learned how to budget my money, how to take care of my car, how to maneuver through the college system, and how to improve my social skills. I had a couple of serious boyfriends, but none that ended in marriage. This also was a learning time; I began to realize what was important to me in a future mate. As you can see, these young adult years are a very important time in ones life. As I look back, I think I did OK, but understand how my life could have been different had I been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ at the time.
