More From Childhood

- Memory #1. One summer morning Richard and I decided to walk up to the cross on Mount Davidson. It's up behind Saint Francis Woods. Grandma was still asleep so we hurried and left before she got up and could tell us "no". I supposed we could get there by just going uphill. Dad had driven us up there once when the fog was thick as "pea soup", and I thought it was a very cool place. So we did it! We walked past some of the most beautiful homes I had ever seen and we kept going up. We got there. We spent a little time exploring and then we went back home. It took hours. We only got a little lost once, and we got home okay, but we also got in trouble for it.
- Memory #2. Our Doctor's name was Dr. Strong. He was very nice and his office was just across the street from Grandma's. The dentist was there, too. Whenever we went to the doctor or dentist and handled it well, we got to get an Ice cream from Bruno's cafe up the street. Bruno also sold hamburgers, soda, comic books and candy, but we rarely spent money for those things.
- Memory #3. Mr. Webb also had a store up the street. One day I got into a collection of my father's silver dollars (solid silver) and I took some of them up to Webb's. Webb's was the store I could get to without crossing the street and he had what I wanted to buy. Anyway, when I was found out, Grandma went up to the store to try to reason with him and exchange the silver from the collection with dollar bills. She tried and tried but to no avail. He wanted them and simply told her it was our loss. - We never went to his store again.
- Memory #4. On Monterey Boulevard, down the street from 450 (Grandma's house) about 5-6 houses, there used to be a hill where there are now apartment buildings. On that hill we used to pick blackberries, slide down the side on a piece of cardboard, play all kinds of make believe; we built a fort there, and climbed the eucalyptus trees; I'll never forget that smell.
- Memory #5. Richard and I had pieces of wood that Dad cut and sanded for us. We placed them end-to-end on the floor and made roads all through the house. We drove Richard's cars on them. Dad also made boats out of wood for us to play with in the bath tub that he had painted different colors.
- Memory #6. When the Oakland Temple was built and dedicated, my Dad got to help President McKay down the stairs and naturally, I told him he must NEVER wash his hand again because he had touched the Prophet's hand and I felt privileged to hold it after the Prophet had.
- Memory #7. Mud pie making in the back yard.
- Memory #8. I was learning to tie my shoes. We were in the back yard playing and I didn't want to take the time to try to do it myself, but when I asked my Dad he said I needed to do it. I was pretty put out about it but I worked through it myself and after that I never forgot how.
- Memory #9. About fish: Grandma had a pond in the back yard made from an old footed bath tub, and she kept koi in it. And all the way across the back fence my Dad and Grandpa hung beautiful abalone shells. We used to watch Dad and Grandpa clean fish and pound abalone after going fishing or skin-diving. But the best fishing memory I have is going to the beach and watching Dad and one of his friends or Grandpa catch fish with the one or two-man nets. They could see the fish from the shore. This was a wonder in itself! Then they would run out into the wave when it was at just the right point, and thrust the poles of the net into the sand and hold it there while the wave ran back out, filling the net with little smelt. They would pull up the net with the fish in it and flip them onto the sand where they would wiggle all over the place. It was the job of us kids to run and gather up all the flopping fish and put them into a bucket to take home for dinner!
- Memory #10. When I went to Sunnyside School I would sometimes walk home for lunch. My favorite lunch to eat with Grandma was cottage cheese and fruit or tomatoes. What I loved to take to school was tuna sandwiches - and ONLY tuna! YUM! Also, back then, girls always wore dresses to school. This was even so all the way through high school. AND, at school in San Francisco,when an adult entered the room, we all had to stand up, but in Daly City this was not the case so I felt more than a little foolish that one time, for standing.