It was a rare week that did not see a gathering of our extended family. We had dinner with Grandma, Grandad, and Aunt almost every Sunday evening. In the summers we usually went to the park on Sunday afternoon, and I’d play catch with my dad.
Sometimes we’d go down to Costa Mesa – about an hour’s drive – to see Annie and Grandpa, and sometimes they’d come up to Whittier to be with us. (Mom always liked it when they came, because Grandpa would bring his tool box and fix whatever needed fixing in the house. He was about the only “handy” person in the family.) On rare occasions, we’d be with both sets of grandparents, and Aunt – but that only happened once or twice a year – usually at Thanksgiving.
Birthdays were a big deal, especially for us kids. We could count on at least two parties, one with each set of grandparents, and sometimes a party with our friends as well. We celebrated every holiday, and we loved to go out to eat.
For Thanksgiving 1960 we took an all-family photo in front of our house. Dad took the photo, so he’s not in it. Everyone is dressed up for the holiday event!
In 1961 our church, First Friends Church in Whittier, was the leading church in our denomination in terms of size and influence. The denomination, called “California Yearly Meeting of Friends”, needed new office space and decided to partner with our church on a new building. Our church was growing and had a lot of kids; our Sunday School space was inadequate. So the church built a new classroom and office building on the north side of our property.
This photo was taken on the day that the new building was dedicated. You can see that we are about as dressed up as we could get.
Here are our wishes from New Year’s Night, 1960. Click the image to enlarge it. Down the left column are wishes from Dad, Mom, and Aunt; on the right are wishes from Grandma, David, Peggy (with help from Mom) and Grandad.
What do we learn from these wishes? I think we learn to be careful what we wish for!
Christmas at Grandma and Grandad’s house in 1961.
In 1962 we took a family vacation out to Joshua Tree National Park with Annie and Grandpa. Grandpa posed us on this stack of rocks for the upper photo. For some reason, I wanted to be on the top.
Below is a photo of our family out at Joshua Tree.
The quality of the above picture is poor, but it’s still enjoyable. This was Mother’s Day in the park with both sets of grandparents, and Aunt (who is in the lower left corner with Sue). The year is 1961. The picture at the top of the page was probably taken on the same day. Grandad and Grandma are at the upper left, and Mom is seated next to Annie across the table from them. I’m next on the right – you can just see the back of my crew-cut head – and Dad is in the lower right. Peggy is next to Grandma, and Grandpa took the picture.
Thanksgiving Dinner in our Whittier home, 1960. This was before the remodel, when we had the large living room with a fireplace (which was never used). The door behind Dad leads to my room, in the NW corner of the house, and the curtains behind Grandad cover the sliding glass door that led to our back yard. Sue looks tired – when she was little she could never stay up for our family parties. She once decided to go to bed in the middle of her own birthday party, leaving presents still wrapped!
New Year’s Night, 1960. We did our candle/wish tradition at Grandma and Grandad’s house. You can see the candles by each plate. The wishes we wrote that night are on this page.
One of our favorite places to eat out for family birthdays was the Farmhouse restaurant. I don’t know whose birthday this is – but there are not very many candles on the cake, so it must be one of us kids. This photo was taken in 1961. Grandad took both this and the below photo.
Grandad’s birthday in 1961 was celebrated at Aunt’s house. This is her dining room.
Another of our family favorites was My Old Kentucky Home restaurant. (Note the “log cabin” style of the wall.) I’m sure that one reason we liked restaurants like this one and the Farmhouse was the midwestern-style cooking. I remember that you could order a corn fritter. This photo is from 1961.
Here’s our family portrait from Mother’s Day, 1963. John was about 1 year old. I remember trying to get everyone together in the front yard of our house on Davista, facing into the sun so that Grandpa could take a good picture. Getting four kids to smile into a camera at the same time is impossible, especially when one of them is a baby.
John was born on Mom’s 31st birthday (April 17) in 1962, so this 1963 photo records their first birthday celebration together. The location is the living room of our house on Davista Dr. in Whittier. Mom is wearing a birthday crown, Peggy is in her Brownie uniform and I appear to be mostly interested in the cake.
Grandad’s birthday was June 25, so we celebrated it outside on our screened porch. This photo was taken at his 60th birthday, in 1963. This party was his last; he passed away later that year. He was already pretty sick at the time of the party and I think all of the adults present knew it would be his last. We kids had no idea, of course.
This is Thanksgiving Day 1964. John is 2 1/2 years old, and I am 12, still with a crew cut like my dad. The table is decorated with paper turkeys. Behind Grandma on her left and Annie on her right is a new wall that was put in as part of our house remodel. I am not sure why we did the remodel but there must have been a good reason. Less than two years after this photo, we moved to a different house.
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