My father, John was born, March 10, 1928, in San Francisco, California (he would have been 81yrs old this year) . His parents rented a house in Daly City for 8 years. When he was 8 years old the bought a house for $2,000, which needed some fixing up. He was worried if the Easter Bunny wouldn’t find his new house. John lived there until he was 18 years old.
He was 9 when the depression started. Times were hard but they were able to make ends meet. His mother did go to bed many nights hungry to feed the children. Their home was always open to many children, Oma Jean did foster about 5 children who needed care.
They had the corner grocery store back then, and the owner would allow them to purchase food, and put it on the tab to be paid later. He remembers getting a new pair of shoes, but they were not new they were used.
Friends of his Dad’s would gamble to make money to buy food. Then they would give it to his mom to cook a big pot of meat and potatoes that they would all enjoy together. What ever was leftover they ate the rest of the week.
They would gather on Saturdays to play cards with their friends for entertainment as a common affair.
John was the youngest in the neighborhood, they called him ‘Baby John’. The children often gathered to play hockey with their roller skates. Wearing metal wheel skates, the street would turn white from the metal wheels wearing down the street. Sometimes their Dad would take them to Coyote Point to skate at the roller rink. [ Note: I remember playing with the same metal skates that strapped over a shoe when I was a kid]
His brother, Bernard included him with whatever they were doing, he’d always be following his brother around. John even got to go to dances when he was in grammar school, he learned how to dance at a young age.
His Dad purchased a Model A, which he would use for transportation to and from work. He bought a Chevy for $400 right before the war. His Mom, Jean never learned to drive, the only time she tried she ran into a pole. Her dream was always to ride on a bike too.
Jean was a good cook, and she was famous for her butter almond cookies and Botoletter ( a Holland pastry filled with almond paste).
As a family the would often take a drive to fly kites at the beach or in the hills of Daly City. His Dad would make the kites out of silk or newspaper. And it was glued, with a flour and potato mixture.
Going camping was something the family enjoyed. There mother would send the boys off fishing with a safety pin and stick, and they would catch fish.
He did some archery in grade school, and had always wanted to play football but he didn’t think he was big enough. Until one summer when he went off to a ranch in Lakeview, Oregon, and worked for the summer weighing only 130lbs and when he came back he weighed about 185lbs, and nobody recognized him. He did play football and received his varsity sweater, he was also on the swim team, and played the drums in the school band.
In 1941, his brother Bernard was over seas in the war so just him and his parents were home. John courted a girl all through high school, but it didn’t work out. He did go to the Senior Ball with a girl, double dating with a friend – Bob. Bob has always been a good friend since kindergarten and still is a special friend of the family.
He remembers when his brother was busy with a paper route and he couldn’t go to camp so he got to go in his place. They had horse back ridding and baseball. And one time he was playing baseball a guy said ” let’s go snipe hunting, have you ever been snipe hunting?”. John said “no”, so they gave him a gunny sack and sent him up to the mountains with a flash light and he sat there and sat and sat…they had tricked him.
In 1937 the family walked over the Golden Gate Bridge on opening day.
John’s brother got out of the service after serving for 4 years. About the same time John graduated from high school. John almost didn’t get to participate in the graduation ceremony because he was sick in bed for 3 months before graduation.
John and Bernard’s folks were very strict, but they learned to respect them the way they were. It’s been said that they were never spoiled.
John had bought a 49 Chevy and after graduation he and his parents took a trip back east, through Denver and Los Angeles. Putting 50k miles on his car in one year.
To be continued….
Taken from my nephews Josh’’s School Project.
