In this picture my sister Peggy and I are standing with our dad on Newport Island, which is in the city of Newport Beach, California. The year is 1962, which means that I’m approaching my 10^th birthday and Peggy is 7. Dad is 34 and still sporting his crew cut. (I kept mine until high school.)

My grandparents would rent this house every year, for the whole summer. I’m sure it cost them a small fortune, but we kids loved it. We’d spend the whole summer outdoors: in the water of the bay and the ocean, fishing from the pier, going down to the Balboa Fun Zone. See how tan we were? Peggy and I would spend hours on our paddleboards paddling through the various marinas, looking at all of the fancy ships.

We took most of our family meals outside, in the yard between the house and the dock. There was a large brick outdoor grill and we’d cook fresh fish on it. Our favorite was swordfish, which could be bought fresh from a local fish market. We always had visitors – friends and relatives from all over Southern California would come and visit, and eat swordfish with us.

On Sundays we did “church” in the living room. Grandma always had me read a little devotional from one of her many books. We’d sing and pray, just like in regular church.

In the evenings we’d play games together. One of our favorites was Bingo, because of the prizes. Grandma had an endless supply of mostly-worthless trinkets that she’d collect from all over her house, wrap up, and bring down to the beach to use as bingo prizes. Dad would call the numbers and we kids were all very excited to unwrap our prizes when we won.