San Lorenzo

In the summer of 1969 we moved from Hayward to San Lorenzo. It is also the year I started kindergarten at Grant School. My teacher was Mrs. Comb. We only went to school for half a day; I went to the morning session. I remember the best part of class was the "Free Time" where we got to choose a station in the classroom to play at. I know I always wanted to play with the blocks. It was a popular choice, so I did not always get to do what I wanted. The worst was getting stuck in the "House" with mostly girls.

In 1970, I started 1st grade with Mrs. Bierwith. I was only in that class for a short period of time. Sometime in the Fall of that year, Grandpa and Grandma Clara came to visit. They were not Marie's natural parents, but were foster parents of Marie for a significant amount of time. For whatever reason, I went home with them to Lynnwood, California, and stayed with them and went to school there through Christmas that year. We drove the whole way, the first road trip that I can remember. I flew back home and finished the school year at Grant.

The summer of 1971, I went back to Grandma Clara's and stayed with them for most of the summer. There was a feral cat behind her house that had kittens and grandma tried and tried to get this one cute kitten to take food from her. I think she wanted to adopt it as a pet, but it never got brave enough to come close. It was here that I was first introduced to soap operas. Grandma Clara was an avid soap opera watcher. We used to watch "All My Children" with Susan Lucci as Erica Kane and "General Hospital" everyday. It is amazing that these shows are still running today. We watched "Dialing for Dollars" and "Let's Make a Deal" with Monty Hall regularly as well.

I also remember it was a summer of football trading cards with the kids across the street. Whenever we had a dime we would buy a pack of cards from the Ice Cream Truck. The standouts that I remember were, Darryl Lemonica from the Raiders and Bubba Smith from the Colts. Those were hot cards, at least to us.

Our San Lorenzo Home:




When we lived there, the garage was detached and there was no second story. It was a small 3 bedroom 1 bath home. The detached garage was huge though, it was long, it ran the length of the house. Craig used it as a workshop mostly. The big window next to the garage did not exist. It was a fence and gate that opened to a walkway between the house and the garage. The house was also white with green trim.




Blue Circle: House
Red Circle: Grant School
Green Circle: LDS Church

Emily - How do I feel...

One thing I am not very good at is translating my feelings to words. I always seem to get close, but never seem to come up with the right words. Most of the time they are incomplete and rarely present the full picture. However, I will attempt to do so now.

Let me begin with a qoute from Elder Earl C. Tingey:

"The Fall of Adam and Eve brought about two deaths. We are subject to those deaths. Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the physical body. Because of the Fall of Adam, all mankind will suffer physical death. The second death is spiritual. It is separation from God’s presence. Adam and Eve freely conversed with God in the Garden of Eden. After their transgression, they lost that privilege. Thereafter, communication from God came only through faith and sacrifice, combined with heartfelt petitioning. Currently, we are all in the state of spiritual death. We are separated from God. He dwells in heaven; we live on earth."

While I did not learn this concept until I was much older, I believe I recognized it as a child. If we look at death in the pure sense of "separation" which includes the loss of communication, I, as a child, was subjected to several significant separations. I was separated from my natural father before I even knew him. At the age of ten, I was separated from my brothers and sisters and my mother and father. To me, each of these qualifies as a "death".

As a ten year old this was a complete implosion of my world. Everything I knew and loved was being taken from me, how would I survive. I remember sitting in the truck with my dad, Craig, in the driveway of our Castro Valley home as he explained to me that this was what was best for us kids at this time. That this was just a temporary situation. In just a short time, we could see and talk with each other again. This was the last time I spoke with Craig at that time in my life and I remember distinctly saying to him as I got out of the truck, "I will see you when I am 18." I think it was at that point that I realized, I can do this. I have no control over what is happening to me, but I can move on and make the best of what I have. When the time comes, I will have the opportunity to rebuild those relationships if I choose.

To some, it may appear that I am emotionally detached, that death doesn't affect me the way it "should". As far as death is concerned, I believe I am a battle-scarred veteran. Do I hurt, do I grieve for what is lost? YES, but I can only let it do so for a short period of time. Life keeps moving, and I must do the best with what I can control and not let things out of my control tear me down. It is how I survived and who I am.

To continue quoting Elder Tingey:

"The Atonement is an event that enables us to be reconciled to God. The word atonement, or “at-one-ment,” means to restore or to come back. In terms of family, it means to be reunited with one another and with God and His Son, Jesus Christ. It means sadness through separation will become happiness through reuniting."

It is this fact that makes so much sense to me, that this is all temporary, it allows me to accept what may come and still continue on. I know that through the atonement, all will be made whole. We will have those joyous reunions, such reunions have already occurred in my life. I have come to know and love my natural father, Fred. I have been in contact with all but two of my sisters. I am thankful for all those that are still a part of my life, for the strength and support you give.

There has always been one quote that has stayed in my heart when I think of Emily:

"The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again. … "

Hayward Continued and Carol

While we lived in Hayward my brothers attended Colonial Acres Elementary School. I believe we lived on Harvard Street. I figure this from my recollection of where the school was from our house and the "Creek" at the end of our street, see the map link below.

Use the satellite view and zoom - you can see the "Creek".

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=17115+Meekland+Ave,+Hayward,+CA+94541,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

I have several other scattered recollections from this time. One time when I was about 4, I was punished for bad behavior in a timeout under a large cardboard box; I found a bobby pin while under there and had fun playing with it. I didn't mind that timeout at all, and I remember Marie laughing about it years later that I was alway ingenious that way.

Another time, we had a babysitter one night and the three of us boys got into the cookies, a "no-no". That got us oatmeal cookies and nothing else, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a couple of days. We did get milk to drink with our cookies though.

However, the biggest event there in Hayward was the birth of my first half sister, Carol. She was born in October of 1968. I remember being told, by someone who was taking care of us, that she had been born while Craig and Marie were at the hospital, but I do not remember the time when they came home from the hospital. I think this was the event that triggered the need for us to move, because sometime before I started school, September of 1969, we moved to San Lorenzo.

I don't have many pictures of Carol, but this is the youngest one I could find.

I also found this great picture!
This is Fred and Marie in July of 1961.
Marie is pregnant with my brother Ron.

Here's a couple of good pictures

I think I was 6 years old in this picture...

Back Row: Neighborhood Boys
Front Row: Carl, Ron, Mike

I am 24 years old in this picture...

Ron, Carl, Mike

Hayward, California

More early history... After flying to California with Marie... Hayward, California is the next place I remember, although I know we lived in Oakland briefly before it. We lived in a white house with a detached garage. My mother Marie had remarried, Craig. I dont remember the wedding, but I remember being in the sealing room of the Oakland Temple when we were sealed. We lived on a dead end street that had what we called a creek. It was really a man made waterway to handle storm water. There was not often more than a small stream of water running through it and we kids would climb the fence and climb down the ladder into the creek and play down there, probably not the safest thing to do, but we are all still here. Craig had also built us a fort in the backyard. Nothing exciting really, a square box on "stilts" not in a tree. It had a small ladder underneath that went up to a trap door for entry. I learned to ride my first bike here. Craig was all about building things, a machine mechanic/electrician by trade. He would go to junkyards and get old bike parts and make bikes for us kids. They were sometimes cool and sometimes weird, but no one else ever had a bike like ours.

Wedding Day, Craig & Marie

Craig at the time had just gotten out of the Navy and was working for Continental Can Company, I remember the CCC logo. Fred, my natural father, visited us on occasion. I only remember being with him once, he had given Ron, Carl, and I some new pajamas. I dont recall seeing or hearing from Fred again until after I was 18. He was still in the Navy and had received orders to Vietnam. His thoughts at the time were that Marie was making it difficult for him to see us and that it would be in our best interest to think of Craig as our dad, so he gave up his custody and visitation rights.

We lived in Hayward until I was five. I remember my fifth birthday becuase I was sick with a fever and my birthday party got canceled. I do remember eating a piece of cake though. Even though I turned five in Hayward, I was not old enough to enter Kindergarten that year. I remember wanting to be in school like my brothers and "borrowed" one of their math books and started answering all the addition problems I could find. Maybe that is where the math skills began.

And so it begins....

I thought I would start this blog as a way to begin a sort of history as well as maintain a thread of current events. This is mainly for my family and therefore is not published or advertised, but can be accessed on the internet by anyone with the right url. I have never considered myself a very talented writer, that honor belongs to my wife. It is a struggle for me to put my thoughts into words, but I will make the attempt. As a beginning, I was born in Kentucky some 40 years ago, but did not stay there long. Short enough that I have no memories of it. My earliest memory is Marie, my natural mother, and I boarding an airplane (she called it the redeye) destined, I think, to L.A. As it turns out, my parents divorced sometime around my first year and my brothers, Ron and Carl, and I lived with Marie in California.