Valerie, Martha, Cynthia and I, in Quartz Hill California. We lived in the little house at the bottom of the hill from our grandparents,
Clyde and Ednamae Ling. We called it the teepee house as the roof had quite a pitch to it. I think this may have been around 1949 or 50.
Valerie and I slept on the top floor attic, and it got blistering hot in the summer. There was a window at the front of the house on the top floor
and I use pee out the window instead of going down stairs and out to the outhouse... easier. That stopped when one night I peed on a guest
There was a restaurant about 50 yards away, Sarge's. They had an outside patio in the back and people would listen to music and dance.
'Tennesee Waltz' was a favorite. I would listen to that song as I was trying to go to sleep. Eventually I knew all the words and used to sing it
while doing mundane things not realizing I was singing it... this according to mom.
During the summer we spent all day at our
grandparents pool. At the beginning of summer we would get really bad sunburns and we would be miserable... grandma would squirt chocolate syrup
in our mouth. She said it would take away the pain... HA! By the end of summer I was almost brown. Mom said one day a woman, a friend of grandma's
stopped by the house and asked mom if she could have me audition for the role of 'Little Beaver', on the Red Ryder series. Mom said NO!
Robert Blake, who had had the role from 1944-47, was probably the most famous of the character. Jim Bannon was Little Beaver in 1949 and 1950
pictures. Oh well, life goes on.
Funny story. I had lunch with an old friend
from HS. We were taking about the past and he mentioned that his family moved to Quartz Hill in 1947. His grandfather had about 10 acres in downtown Quartz Hill.
He mentioned that they moved into a 'A' frame house with an attic. I commented we lived in what we called a tepee house, because roof had quite a pitch. He exclaimed,
"Yeah, that's what it was." He then started describing it, outhouse, outside shower, front door faced south. OMG, we both lived in the same house.Had to be
because I never saw another tepee house in the area the whole time we lived there from 48 til 55.
They moved to Lancaster shortly there after and we moved in in 48 or 49.
As Steven Wright said, "It's a small world but I wouldn't want to paint it."
