Marilyn's Musings

When people ask I always tell them my growing up years were very much like the old TV show, "Happy Days". When I was teen, the boys wore their hair slicked back into duck tails, Levi's low on their hips, white shirts tucked in, and leather jackets much like Fonz. We had sock hops and slumber parties that were sometimes raided by boys (or at least attempted raids). I hung out a lot, especially during the summer with my boy cousins. One was four years older than me, the other two years older. The eldest had a car. I loved my boy cousins even though they loved to scare me when I was younger. They were quite adventurous. I went abalone fishing with them at the Palos Verdes cliffs. There were no houses there. Climbing down the cliff was scary, but I followed my cousins. I didn't dive for abalone like they did, but I swam in the surf. I doubt they followed any laws about abalone fishing. All I know is when we got home my aunt would fix the abolone and it was wonderful. A wh...

While at our family reunion, my sis and cousin, who lived a block away, were reminiscing about our childhoods. Thinking back, we had it really good, growing up in an atmosphere much like Happy Days. No, we didn't grown up in the Midwest--we lived in Los Angeles. Our neighborhood was interesting--the houses were small, mostly two bedroom and one bath, but none looked alike. Behind our house was a big hill. Stairs led to the top, 121 to be exact. Yes, we counted them. No houses were up there, it was just hills and a water reservoir. Now, in that same location is the Glendale Freeway. But when we were kids it was a good place to go hiking--though we weren't supposed to go alone because hobos camped up there. When the weeds dried out, we'd slide down the hills on cardboard. Once in awhile, there'd be a fire--and the fire engines parked in the big circle in front of our house. When my cousin and I turned ten, our mothers let us go downtown by ourselves on the streetcar to sh...