Kidhood. Adolescence?Best times? Favorite times? Photos?

[Roy]

The "scouting fiasco"? Now you really have our attention! Gonna share s'more?

OK, but you asked for this! I found out only the day of my first scout meeting, that my mother was my den mother. I pretty much just freaked out. I didn't realize, until this happened, that I was looking forward to getting away from my parents. This was one of those really bad surprises. I didn't handle it at all well. I ended up upsetting my mother, and making a big mess of things.

If she had only been straight with me about what she had in mind, this all could have been avoided.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

The "scouting fiasco"? Now you really have our attention! Gonna share s'more?

OK, but you asked for this! I found out only the day of my first scout meeting, that my mother was my den mother. I pretty much just freaked out. I didn't realize, until this happened, that I was looking forward to getting away from my parents. This was one of those really bad surprises. I didn't handle it at all well. I ended up upsetting my mother, and making a big mess of things.

If she had only been straight with me about what she had in mind, this all could have been avoided.

Now, that's some more interesting autobiography. How ' bout some details? (I don't want to pry; just make conversation.)

For example, on the same topic of moms and scouts, though not as intriguing as yours:

When I was a boy scout, we had our meetings at each scout's house. When it came time for the first of such meetings at our house, just after I made "Explorer", my mother pulled out all the stops, and instead of providing the usual chips-n-Kool aide, she set out a spread that made me so proud I thought I would burst or cheer out loud: chips; pretzels; cookies; donuts; ice cream; Nehi's various flavors, hotdogs, and cokes.

Afterwards, she just smiled at me with that all-knowing smile of hers, and we were proud of each other. Buddies. Among many other titles of respect and affection we had for each other.

Remembering those days still makes me smile, ear-to-ear.

[rogruth]

Murph,
You seem to have had a very different situation than Roy.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Murph,
You seem to have had a very different situation than Roy.

I've heard it said that variety is the spice of life, so maybe we'll hear some more of that variety from Roy, too. I have a feeling he has a whole book full of interesting stories to tell, Roger.

[Roy]

I remember one birthday when my mom got me a Tonka hook and ladder fire truck. So cool! The best birthday present ever! Then, my father came home, and said no, it's going back to the store. And so, it did.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I remember one birthday when my mom got me a Tonka hook and ladder fire truck. So cool! The best birthday present ever! Then, my father came home, and said no, it's going back to the store. And so, it did.

And I'll bet you can still smell the fragrance of that fresh yellow paint.
So did you make up for that loss by, as an adult, buying some happy kid his own Tonka truck?

[Roy]

And I'll bet you can still smell the fragrance of that fresh yellow paint.

This was in the 60's. I'm pretty sure the entire thing was stamped steel, no plastic parts, and made entirely in the U.S. Oh, and it was fire engine red.

So did you make up for that loss by, as an adult, buying some happy kid his own Tonka truck?

Well, if I gave something like that to a kid with a father like mine, he wouldn't get to keep it any more than I could. My father was a Depression kid. It's hard to know what was going on with him, but I remember an incident several years before the fire truck. He brought home a Jaguar XK-E he wanted to buy. After being bounced around the back of that thing, while my dad sped around the hill we lived on, I wasn't supportive of the acquisition.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

And I'll bet you can still smell the fragrance of that fresh yellow paint.

This was in the 60's. I'm pretty sure the entire thing was stamped steel, no plastic parts, and made entirely in the U.S. Oh, and it was fire engine red.

...My father was a Depression kid. It's hard to know what was going on with him, but I remember an incident several years before the fire truck. He brought home a Jaguar XK-E he wanted to buy. After being bounced around the back of that thing, while my dad sped around the hill we lived on, I wasn't supportive of the acquisition.

If he went ahead with it, that would have been a pretty bold acquisition. It might have indicated he had liberated himself, by then, from any Depression era conservative approach to buying things. I can't think of a single one of those unique automobiles anywhere in my community, not even in the overall larger metropolitan community. I guess steel mill workers were more into Fords and Chevys, and such. (We had a '51 then a '54 Mercury sedan. There were the occasional Cadillacs and Buicks, etc. though, and 2 Packards, in the neighborhood. I used to have the enjoyment of hand-washing a neighbor's '56 Cadillac Sedan Deville, 2-tone blue, sooo beautiful! My friends and I used to sit on my front porch and name and count every single car that drove by, every once in a while. So, we would have noticed a car like your dad's and jumped with admiration and cheered.)

[Roy]

He probably first saw the XK-Es while we lived in London. But, we had all kinds of cars in Southern California. Two of my friends dads were into cars. One had a Model A fixed up, that we rode around town in. The other had a gullwing Mercedes 300 we used to play Star Trek in. Someone in Whittier had a London taxi, and someone else had a London double decker bus. I even remember seeing an Aston Martin DB5, the same year and model as the 007 car.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

C'mon, Roy, tell us more! This is really getting more interesting. You sure seem to have had a different experience than my working-class, middle-America childhood. And I have NO complaints. Go figger!

[HONDO74]

Roy
Just out of curiosity, were you born in England.??
Do you have any children. ??

I was born in Kansas City Missouri but we moved to the west coast in 1950. But now I am back in Missouri.
My wife and kids were all born in California.

[Roy]

Roy
Just out of curiosity, were you born in England.??
Do you have any children. ??

I was born in London, and spent my first 2 1/2 years there. No kids; I never wanted any.

[HONDO74]

Roy
Just out of curiosity, were you born in England.??
Do you have any children. ??

I was born in London, and spent my first 2 1/2 years there. No kids; I never wanted any.

More curiosity, When your parents moved from London to the states, was it to California ?

From 3rd grade to high school I was in a different school every year. My dad was not settled and moved a lot. He worked automotive usually as a service manager for new car dealerships and could easily get another job. We first moved to Tuscon,and then to Alhambra, then back to Phoenix and then to Santa Ana, and finally to Hawthorne where I managed 4 years and graduated from Hawthorne in 1960. And yes I went to school with the guys that became the Beach Boys.

The wife and I did not have any children. We adopted 2, a girl and a boy.

[Roy]

More curiosity, When your parents moved from London to the states, was it to California ?

Yes. My father went to school at USC after WWII, and decided he wanted to live here. He was from Illinois.

That's cool, about going to high school with the Beach Boys. Were there a lot of Filipinos, as well? The closest thing for me, came when seeing Back to the Future. I went with a high school friend. We both recognized the hallway in the administration building right away. That was a nice surprise. The fact is, though, many films and TV shows used Whittier locales. Another was The Witches of Eastwick.

[HONDO74]

For me California was a great place to grow up in the 50s and early 60s, My parents were supportive. I was able to overcome the constant moving and having to make new friends every time.

I don't recall any Filipinos in Hawthorne at the time, I only knew two of the guys that became the beach boys. That was Brian Wilson and Alan Jardine. During my junior year I ran around sometimes with Alan. After High School I got a job at a restaurant and was going to El Camino JC full time.

Things started to change in California with the build up for the Vietnam was and the 65 Watts riots. Several guys I went to school with were killed in Vietnam. In the fall of 64 I got my draft notice. It was almost like a school Reunion that day. Because I had valley fever at the time I was reclassified 1Y. The day I was there was just like in the movie Alice's Restaurant.

And my last stop that day was the group W bench Just because I had a medical condition that the army didn't want to deal with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0a6iWHSWbA