First vacation

First, I want to thank Carrie for setting up this blog for me. It was all her idea and her encouragement to get me started. To make it easier for me to know where to start, she suggested that I relate the story behind the picture of me standing in the ocean on the "cover"(I'm sure that's not what you call it in computer language, but I hope you know what I mean) of the blog.

Actually, this was the first vacation I ever had. While growing up we never had a family vacation for several reasons. First, Mother's health made it impossible for her to travel. Second, there was no such thing as a paid vacation for my dad since he worked for his father, and he would never even have thought of taking time off from work even if there had been paid time off. And third, there woudn't have been the money to go. Mom's medical bills were pretty high and there was no such thing as health insurance. So how did this vacation come about? It was thanks to my Uncle LeGrande (Dad's younger brother) and his wife Aunt Myrtle
(awful name, but great lady).

Uncle LeGrande, who also had worked for his father) got tired of the poor pay and no benefits and working for his dad just because it was expected of him. So he quit and moved to California. I was about sixteen years old, and my sister, Georgia had just graduated from high school. It didn't take much encouragement for us to hop on a bus and head for California when Aunt Myrt and Uncle LeGrande invited us to come and promised us to show us the town (Los Angeles.) And that they did! I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time, went to Hollywood, Marineland (it no longer exists), and Capistrano (where the swallows return every year on the same day; we weren't there for the "return" but we surely saw a lot of too-friendly pigeons). I think they took us to every tourist attraction in the LA area. But one of the places that I remember the most was a cafeteria type restaurant the began with a "C". I can't remember the name. It was one of several in the LA area at the time, but I haven't seen any around since. What made it so special was that anyone who was hungry and couldn't afford to pay was given a free meal. Anyone could eat there, but the poor were given special privilege. I couldn't believe that there was anyone in a business that needed to make a profit would do that. Maybe that is why they no longer exist. But I have always thought to this day what a wonderful thing that was.

Uncle LeGrande and Aunt Myrtle always looked out for us, and did many other things for us. We were always welcome to come and stay with them, and they always came to our special events when Mom passed away. But this trip will always be remembered when I think of them.