Our trip from Illinois to California took place in February! Now, all of you know that that is smack-dab in the middle of Winter! Right? Yep! Winter driving! We thought we would be smart and take a southern route to L.A., to avoid a lot of weather, but Old Mother Nature keeps her appointment with winter weather everywhere. We drove through the Ozarks and saw overturned semi's on the highway because the roads were so icy; Albuquerque was OK -- just a little slush here and there -- but by the time we reached Flagstaff, we were in a full-blown blizzard and had to pull off of the Interstate and get a motel for the night. I was finding out that my little Mustang was not a winter driving car, and Gerry was having trouble keeping the trailer from zig-zagging behind him. It was a welcome rest from the storm!
By morning, the storm had passed, but we could not see our cars or the trailer in the parking lot! They were burried with 6 feet (an exaggeration, I know) of snow or better! Now, that made for a fun day shoveling the cars out of that stuff and getting back on freshly plowed roads. Oh, what I would have given for a nice digital camera to take some of the pictures for posterity -- but, alas, they hadn't been invented yet! Just take my word for it -- it was awesome!
Once we escaped the mountain, and headed west on the downward side into the desert, the snow was left far behind. The rest of the trip was a breeze!
We settled in Santa Monica for a brief time, got the kids registered in Grant Elementary School (where I went to Elementary School!) and Gerry went to work at Cal-State L.A. (way across town) for one semester. I went to work for my dad in his restaurant. When school was out for the summer, Gerry got a new job at Cal-Poly University in Pomona. He had a long commute. We had a little rental in Westwood by that time and the kids went to a new Elementary School, just 3 blocks away. JerriAnne started Kindergarten there. We stayed in our Westwood rental house for a year, and poor Gerry had the commute back and forth to Pomona every day. It was rough.
In the summer of 1970, we went "east" and started looking for a house to buy. We found our second home (last for us) in Rowland Heights. It was in a fairly new subdivision near City of Industry. And, it was much, much closer to Pomona! We bought the house (4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms) for $38,000. Another scary purchase! I guess everything is relative. When you are only making $1100.00 a month, a $348.00house payment can really be scary. We settled into our new home, and that was the end of the Henderson Clan's move history! We put in deep roots in Rowland Heights. Our total moves since we first became a couple (way back in 1958) equaled 16! That's a lot of packing and unpacking.
Come back next time and the education journey that we all undertook in Rowland Heights will continue...
1 comment:
I would give my right arm for a house payment of only $348!! That's less than 1 car payment anymore - it's only been 38 years, how does that happen so fast? I'm no mathematician, but I'd love to know what the percentage of increase is there! Wow! it's absolutely amazing!
I loved that house in Rowland Heights - I still remember every little detail about it - the address, the phone number - when you guys built the additions on the back - the ivy hill I used to make Hot Wheels tracks through - the loose brick on the chimney that fell on Mark's toe one time, the little strawberry patch daddy loved. I even remember the spooky rafters in the garage that Mark and his friends used to hide in and tell me "Joey" waited up there for me! What great childhood memories! Thanks mom - for a great childhood to look back on fondly. Even if we did have the worlds ugliest shag carpet and an orange kitchen! (gotta love the 70's)
Love you much!
Post a Comment