Los Angeles-Part 2 of My Life

We never had any contact with any family members.  I knew my mother had a sister, Aunt Lil, and she had two boys, cousins Jimmy and David.  I knew her mother, my grandmother Lillian, had died, and she blamed her father Harry.  I also knew that other families had lots of members, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, but there was just two of us.

The summer of 1952 I met my grandfather, Harry W. Sheerin, for the first and only time.  My mother took me to his apartment in L.A., and he served me lime jello with bananas.  He and my mother talked.  She ended up crying, and we left. He died in September 1952.  I remember his funeral was at Pierce Brothers in Los Angeles.  His funeral was the first time I remember meeting my Aunt Lil, and cousins Jimmy and David.

In early 1953 we moved to Los Angeles, but between Long Beach and Los Angeles there were a couple of months in Torrance. Not sure about the location, but I remember a few things from that time. I had a picture taken in a coat that I LOVED! It was wool and reversible. It was red on one side and red and green plaid on the other.

My favorite plaid coat, reversible to red.

The other thing I remember is walking to the store with mom. There was a big black shaggy dog outside the store. Mom always said to let the dog smell the back side of your hand before you pet them. I put my hand out, palm down, for the dog to smell, and he bit me! That started my fear of dogs. In fact, I never had a dog until about 1975 or 1976.

Shortly thereafter we moved to Los Angeles.  One of the first places we lived was in an old wooden court on Slauson next to a butcher shop where they raised, killed and sold chickens and turkeys.  I was fascinated with the way they prepped the birds.  I never saw them kill the birds, but they would dip them in hot water, run them through a machine with brushes that would pluck off the feathers.

This was also the place we lived when I had my hair cut the first time.  My hair was so long I could sit on it.  The hair dresser put a rubber band around my hair at the base of my neck, braided it, and put another rubber band at the bottom.  Then she chopped it off.  I'm sure it was cute, but mom and I cried for days.  I still have the braid.  Mom's friend Ed got me a doll for being so brave.

We moved to a court in the 100 block of West 39th St. It was on the even side of the street a few doors down from the corner of 39th and Main. Mom was with a man named Chester Pate. I'm not sure how they got together, but they were together off and on for a couple of years. He had a business where he supplied restaurants with records for their juke boxes.  When they were together, I would sleep on the couch.  When it was just mom and me, we would sleep together.  This was always the arrangement until I married in 1965 at 17.  We never had an apartment where I had my own room.

My mother was very protective.  She often told me that if anyone ever put a hand on me she would kill them.    She always tried to make sure none of her boyfriends was getting too close to me.

The 100 block of W. 39th St. was a very short block between Broadway and Main. The next street was Santa Barbara, now Martin Luther King Blvd. On the north west corner of Main at 39th was a little corner grocery store. Mom would send me with a note to buy cigarettes for her. It was summer, and I was about 5.  You could do that at that time.  The street was very ethnically diverse.  Irish, Greek, Mexican, Japanese, black, white, and every color in between lived on that short block.

This is where I met the Christ family. They were a large Greek family with 5 kids, most were almost grown except Kathleen. Kathleen was about a year and a half older than me. She had one brother, George Jr., and three sisters. Helen, her oldest sister, had already graduated from high school. George Sr. had a vegetable truck. It was open with an awning over the top of the truck bed area to protect the fruits and vegetables. He would drive up and down the neighborhood streets calling out that he had fresh fruits and vegetables for sale.

Their house was wonderful. Mrs. Christ (Mary) was always cooking or washing clothes or cleaning house. The house was a very big two story clapboard with a big front porch and a half basement. When you walked in the front door, there was a stairway on the right that curved around to the second floor. The foyer had the stairway on the right, a double door to the living room on the left, a door straight ahead to enter the kitchen, and a bench that fit in the curve of the stairway with a coat closet next to it.

The front door was 3/4 glass so you could see who was knocking. Mom had a friend named Johnny who came to the door one day.  Steven, the grandson of the Christ's came running upstairs shouting, "Betty, Johnny is here to see you!"  Mom told him to tell Johnny she wasn't home.  He ran downstairs and shouted, "Betty said to tell you she wasn't home!"

There was always a lot of noise and smells of good food cooking. The oldest daughter, Helen, had a baby, Steven Green, so there were also a lot of baby things going on. The family was Jehovah Witness, and attended lots of meetings. In 1954 mom and I rented one of the upstairs bedrooms.

I was almost 7 when we lived with the Christ family on W. 39th St., I went to meetings at the Jehovah Witness hall. I would go door to door with the family with the Watchtower and Awake magazines. I felt guilty about doing the Pledge of Allegiance in school. This was during 2nd grade.

It was during this time my mother checked herself into Camarillo State Hospital to rehab for alcoholism.  She was there for just under 4 months.  I can remember the panic, crying, and devastation I felt.  The wave of that feeling still comes over me when I think about that time.

We rented the upstairs bedroom on the southeast side of the house. We shared a bathroom with all of the family except Mr. and Mrs. Christ. There was a large sun room at the back of the house next to our room. The grandfather had that room. Helen, the oldest daughter with her son, had the front room facing northwest. AND she had a wonderful ROUND bed! She also had a new Ford Fairlane convertible!

Remember, this was the early 1950's and things were different then. Kathleen and I would play dress up with her sister's crinoline petticoats. They had them in all colors. There was an old swing set out back, and in the summer there was a small square pool for us. The wringer washer was in the basement, and we got to play down there when it got really hot in LA.

Grandpa had a candy vending machine business. Kathleen and I would sneak into the garage and pilfer a couple of Hershey's or Mr. Goodbar's.  We each had a cat.  Mine was named Blackie, and I can't remember her cat's name.

Kathleen Christ and me in her backyard.

Kathleen Christ and me in her backyard with our cats.

Kathleen Christ and me at her back door.

Kathleen Christ and me 56 years later

About this time Mr. Christ decided to switch careers. Electrolux vacuums were being sold door to door, and he was a pretty good salesman. In addition to his pay, the company gave out lots of prizes. He got 2 big sets of Melmac dishes almost immediately.

They also got a TV. This was a very big deal. It was black and white and sat in the corner of the living room. Kathleen and I would sit on the floor in the afternoon watching American Bandstand and The Mickey Mouse Club. Oh how I loved Annette Funicello! We would also watch Lawrence Welk. Janet, the youngest Lennon Sister, was also one of my idols. I wanted to be just like both of them. They could sing and dance, and they seemed like such nice people.

We went to West Vernon St. School. Kathleen and I would walk to Broadway, turn left then walk down Santa Barbara St. (now Martin Luther King Blvd.), and go through the walking tunnel under the newly constructed Harbor Freeway. I was in 2nd grade, and Kathleen was in 3rd. Sometimes other kids would join us, Billy Campbell, Buddy Levins, Gloria. Once the school wanted us to experience farm life, and they brought in a cow and let us take a couple of turns milking.

My teacher at West Vernon St. School selected me to be part of a program sponsored by the Shriners. It was close to Christmas, and a bus took us to the Shrine Auditorium in downtown LA. There was a short play, lots of Christmas carol singing, and then we walked on stage to see Santa. We were each given a brown paper bag with handles with toys and books. Mine had a Mr. Potatohead game, a Betsy Wetsy doll, jacks, and the most wonderful dictionary ever. The dictionary had colored pictures, and lots of them. I would sit and read everything I could.

From 1953 to 1955 we moved frequently. It would appear we were one step ahead of the bill collectors, but that is just a guess. We lived on W. 39th St., Magnolia St., Estrella St., Hoover St., Oak St., 101st St., 102nd St., Slauson, Main St., and probably some I can't remember.

Sometimes it was just mom and me, sometimes Chester was with us.  Mom and Chester ran a small cafe and gas station called the Chief Cafe. I am pretty sure it was on Central in LA.  There was always lots of smoking and drinking going on.  Mom smoked Pall Malls and drank Seagrams 7, her drink of choice for years.

At some point mom met a man named George Neff. He was a cement finisher, and an Indian. He lived in an apartment on Main St., next door to Arden's milk/ice cream distributors. They became friends for years. He had an ex-wife who was very jealous. Her name was Hannah Broken Leg. When we moved into the apartment building on Estrella, guess who we found out lived on the floor below us? Yeap, Hannah Broken Leg. We had to peak around the corners every time we entered or left the building to make sure we didn't run into her. One day we were out back hanging clothes on the clothes line, and guess who showed up to hang clothes! Mom was ducking behind clothes to hide, and held up the basket to hide her face as we almost ran back to the building.

We lived in a boarding house on Oak St. where one of the boarders was diagnosed with TB. We all had to go for TB tests, and we were quarantined for several weeks. From that time on I always tested positive for the TB skin test, but negative in the xray. During our time here several of the women reported they were missing underwear. It was reported to the police, and one of the boarders was arrested with a mountain of women's underwear in his room.

Also, while we lived there I played behind an old wooden church with a tall steeple. There was a huge vacant field in back. It must have been spring time because there was lots of moist, tall, very green, and wonderful smelling grass. There was also a small wooden house/shack in the field. The windows were mostly gone, but it made a great playhouse for the neighborhood kids.

I remember coming home for lunch, watching Sheriff John and Engineer Bill. Cecil and Beany was my favorite cartoon. There was a community room in the boarding house that had a TV. I remember watching Sheriff John on my birthday, and crying because he didn't call my name. Mom used to fix me chocolate milk with Ovaltine, and I would do the "red light/green light" game with Engineer Bill.

When we moved to all these places, I went to the schools whose names usually matched the name of the street where we lived, Oak St. School, Magnolia St. School, etc. Mom never walked me to school. We usually lived pretty close to the schools. She would take me out to the sidewalk and point me in the direction of the school. We talked about that later on, and she said she wanted me to be independent. She said she was such a momma's girl, that it caused a lot of problems when her mom died. We will talk about that in a blog devoted just to mom.

The other thing was church. Mom insisted I go to church. As it turned out it was just like the schools, whatever church was in the neighborhood was where I went. I went to Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Jehovah Witness, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Synagogue, Church of Christ, and some I can't remember the specifics. One of mom's friends, I can't remember her name but she was very short, maybe 4'8" or 4'9", took me to St. Vincent's in LA. It is a beautiful, big  Catholic church. I loved the sounds and the smells. She gave me a St. Christopher I had for years. When my first husband, Garry, and I divorced, I left a little pink jewelry box up in the attic of our house on San Francisco Ave. in Long Beach, and that St. Christopher was lost forever.



There were a lot of things going on at this time, but I'm going to put them into another chapter.

My Life-In the beginning

This will start at the beginning as I remember it. I can remember back to when I was about 2 1/2. We lived in a clapboard duplex on the corner of 14th and Ohio in Long Beach. Just me and mom, Betty Kendall at that time. Here is what I remember:

I remember sitting in my highchair with the teddy bear painted on the back. I liked oatmeal, Wheatena, tuna sandwiches, and spaghetti. I hated anything with mayonnaise, lettuce or corn.

A big heavy legged walnut table was right inside the front door with a lacy crocheted tablecloth and an arched light brown radio on top. There were lacy white curtains in the living room. Next to the table was a dark wooden slat back rocking chair. Mom used to rock me and sing "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess. She would also sing along to whatever was playing on the radio. She sounded very good to me. We would listen to Our Gal Sunday, Amos and Andy, The Night Gallery, The Lone Ranger, and whatever else was on.

You had to walk through the bedroom to get to the kitchen on the left and bath on the right. The bed was a hollowed metal frame, I think it was light green, with a chenille bedspread.

The back yard was long and narrow along the back of the duplex. There were the kind of flowers in the grass that looked like clover with long stems and pink and yellow flowers. You could eat the stems, yum! I can remember making mud pies. There was a gate at the end of the yard that opened out to Ohio St. One day it was open and I went for a walk. Mom found me almost to Anaheim St. I liked to go for walks, but usually mom had me in the blue metal stroller with the wooden handle.

Across the street on 14th lived the Berseth family. Mrs. Berseth was my babysitter. Mom worked at a parts manufacturing plant owned by Charles Berseth. Mrs. Berseth would bake pies all the time. She would make me my very own little apple pie in a tart pan. The smell of apple pies baking still makes me feel good. I would take a nap on the couch every day with a bright multi-colored crocheted blanket as a cover.

The first birthday cake I remember, I turned 3 and got a wonderful chocolate birthday cake. My mom made me a chocolate cake from that same recipe for most of my childhood, and some adult birthdays. It is the old Hershey's recipe with the butter cream frosting. Licking the bowl was the best!

For a short time I went to a preschool. It was a big two story house with a small back yard and side yard on the west side of the house. I think it was on the north west corner of Spaulding and Orizaba. There were lots of dark green trim pieces on the outside and inside of the house. I remember oatmeal for breakfast.

After mom caught a neighbor peeping in our bathroom window at our place on 14th St., we moved to a housing project called Carmelitos in North Long Beach  Our apartment was upstairs with an interior stairway. I would play with my dolls at the bottom of the stairway. There was a closet at the bottom, and most of my few toys were in there. I can remember one cold winter day putting on my favorite sunsuit, and trying to sneak outside. Mom caught me, and paddled my butt for trying to go outside without asking, especially in that outfit. The back of that hairbrush saw a lot of action in my growing up years.

When you got to the top of the stairs and turned right, there was a large yellow kitchen. Mom had been collecting the Jewel Tea dishes with the brown and orange pattern. There was a wooden spindle table and chairs, and the highchair was gone.

I had my tonsils out when I was 3 because I had so many colds and it was the thing to do. It was done at Seaside Hospital at 14th and Magnolia in LB. Mom spent the night next to my bed. I got a milk shake for breakfast, and mom got me what I really, really wanted...a kite.

We lived there for about 2 years. On Mother's day of 1952 I gave mom a beautiful blue jaw breaker. I wasn't allowed to eat jaw breakers because you could choke. Mom let me go to the corner store with some of the older kids. Mom HAD to have that wonderful jaw breaker, it was the perfect gift. By the time we got home from the store I had licked most of the blue from the outside. Mom laughed so hard, AND she let me eat the jawbreaker!

The lady who lived across from us had lots of kids, including 2 sets of twins. The twins were just fascinating to me. After that I always wanted to be a twin. Their house was a disaster all the time. On the other hand, our house was always immaculate. Mom wanted a clean house all the time, and I wanted lots of brothers and sisters.

I can remember taking the bus from North Long Beach to downtown. The bus went down Atlantic, and the fountain in front of the drugstore at Atlantic and Carson (I think it was Carson) was always a high point. Occasionally, the fountain would be filled with bubbles, pranks by the local kids.  We would be going to visit Nita Blood. She was my mom's neighbor when I was born.

She lived above the showroom that sold Autoette's, golf carts people would drive in the streets until they were declared not street legal. There were two apartments over the showroom at 537 W. Anaheim in LB. It was later the International Harvester showroom. Across the street was the Blue Door bar. Nita would babysit me, and mom would go over there. My sister-in-law DeAnn's mother, Dean, and mom talked about hanging out there at about the same time.

Nita had white lace curtains, Mexican style couch and chair with multi-colored cloth and wide wooden arms. She had a walnut vanity in her bedroom, and would let me put on lipstick and perfume. She could put me to sleep faster than anyone. I would lay on the couch, and she would rub my feet and legs. Oh my, that was real pleasure, and still is to this day. Keith has mastered this technique to calm me down :)

Her "backyard" was the rooftop of the showroom. Now that was really an adventure for little kid. She had potted plants, and would let me help her water them.

Mom and I would take the bus downtown to go to the beach or to the Plunge at the Pike. Mom loved to swim in the ocean. She taught me to swim when I was less than a year old. I can still remember the smell of the Plunge. Afterward I would get a hotdog on a stick or shrimp at the Pike.

Another adventure was going to Aunt Lou (Louise) and Uncle Tony's in San Pedro. They weren't really related by blood, but mom lived with them when she was a teenager and had run away from home. Hence, my middle name, Louise.

Uncle Tony, Tony Falsetta, was one of 6 sons and 6 daughters. None of the boys had any sons to carry on the family name. Most of the family lived within a few block radius in San Pedro. Aunt Lou and Uncle Tony never had any kids, so mom and I were their family. They lived in a 4 plex at 216 W. 14th St., east of Pacific. I loved going to their house. It was always so alive, and Aunt Lou was wonderful.

In 1953 we moved to Los Angeles. This was also about the time I started wondering about my dad. Mom said his name was Charles Kendall, and he had choked to death.