New Year 2011
Well it doesn't feel that much different than 2010 so far, but I will be optimistic and hope for the best. I'm back to work after the break. I enjoyed the time off but it would have been nice to go away for a while. Ending the year with the Boise trip was cool, but as far as John and I getting away it just didn't happen. Maybe we will in 2011.
Recalling my early years
I've been thinking about my childhood and recapturing some of my memories. I mentioned that I would begin to cover my youthful years age 5-10. I have great memories of time with my family. At the time my dad was a contractor and sometimes people couldn't pay for the work that was done, so he would bring home stuff. Well we were living at the Plymouth Street house in Oakland when my dad brought home our first boat. It was the boat, on a trailer, with a 35 horse Evenrude engine. To us kids it was WOW we have a boat. At that time they were made out of wood and they had to be painted. I remember later on my dad and brothers would fiberglass the bottom, but I don't remember that for our first boat. I was only about 5 or 6 then and we owned a boat.
So my dad was a great dad and then began our many years of boating, water skiing, camping and the great outdoors. Everyday one or two summers we went to the estuary, a body of water near the old Oakland Airport that connected to Downtown Oakland and then to the Bay. It was great! I must have been 6 and my dad would load us up, my brother Gary and my baby sister Princess and away we would go. I didn't know we were poor but now that I look back we had no baby sitters, just older siblings, to dock our boat from the side of road into the water, not at the loading dock, we brought all our own food and never purchased anything but gas for the tank.
Swimming and Skiing
Now these early days of boating my parents had to learn about boating and skiing. This big ole boat brought our family together big time. Before that time we would go to the Santa Cruz mountains to a cabin in Ben Loman and my brothers learned to swim there. I was to little so I hadn't learned yet. But my dad was learning about skiing and found some skis at the Good Will or Salvation Army cause that's where everything we got came from. I remember so clearly him telling me that I couldn't learn to water ski until I could swim. I learned in the dirty old estuary and loved every minute of it. During that first summer when we went everyday we met some nice people the Ray Alvarez family and they helped us. They helped us learn some trick skiing and Ray had a son little Ray and other kids that I played with but can't remember their names. My brother Gary got really good on one ski and started to learn trick skiing, you know front to back, back to front, jumping wake to wake. My claim to fame was that I was the youngest kid on skis. People were amazed that this little girl was out there skiing. Back in the 1950's boating was not as big as it is today. Not that many people were into it.
Naming the Boat
At this time my little sister Princess was only a toddler, maybe 2 or 3. She went with us everywhere. We would ride in the boat and pull a skier, mostly my brother or me and she would ride in the boat up under the bow. That boat would pound and she would just sleep. She could sleep anywhere I think. She was so cute and the people we would ski with and played with would watch her for my dad. Where was my mom? Oh she was working in Downtown Oakland and would walk from Hales Department store to Jack London square and we would pick her up in the boat, nearly everyday. So when it came time to name the boat that first boat was Princess. I was so jealous and I never have figured out why because they named the next boat Princess II. I don't remember how many boats we've had, but my dad always had a boat for us. The first was a Big Blue wood boat, then later on we got the NV, it had NV on the side and it was more sleek. In my later years my brother Gary and Dad went together and we got a Red with white trim, inboard/outboard motor, Sanger brand ski boat. My brother had that boat into the 1980's at least. I'll have to ask him if it was named Princess III or IV.
During these years we were a skiing family. My dad skied, my older brothers. Pete and Alex learned, even my older sisters Barbara and Anita learned and we had many many family vacations at Lake Shasta, weekend trips to Lake Berryessa in Napa county and continued to ski the estuary.
One Trip to Shasta
Just to recall a couple a memories from vacations and trips we took. I guess I must have been about 13 or 14 when all summer long I would teach swimming lessons at Fremont pool. In the morning I would be on the swim team, teach the public lessons then when the pool opened to the public I had a 1/2 dz private students. I was enterprising even back then. I had my first aid training and I was as fit as can be. Anyway, this one summer I was in the chlorine water so much that I got an ear infection. My ear hurt so bad that my parent had to take me to a doctor. Well we were on vacation at Lake Shasta and remember going and they gave me a penicillin shot, pills to take, stuffing my ear with cotton and ear drops. The worst part was that I could not get my head wet, NO swimming, NO skiing, nothing to do with water. Yikes that was the worst vacation I had ever had.
Making money brings another memory to mind. I did the summer private lessons for several years and earned a pretty good piece of change. I had everything I needed and I have never been much of a shopper so one summer my folks had purchased a camper to go on the back of our International truck. We thought we were so cool. Prior to that we did tent camping at Lake Berryessa, cooking on the Coleman and all that hard core camping stuff. Well we had a Camper now and my dad wanted to be sure he could get it off his truck, so I remember him coming to me with all my big bucks asking me to help pay for jacks to get it off the truck. Remember this is the 1960's and the cost was I believe over $200 and that was a lot of money. I didn't have any use for my money, I just new I wanted to make money so gladly I gave it to him. I feel good about it today that I contributed to our family.
By the 1960's
We were old hands at water skiing and summer sports, but one day I remember so well my father bringing home some old, and I mean old snow skis, boots and poles. He announced that we were going to go snow skiing. But we needed to learn how to get up cause we were going to fall down. Here was me an early teen, my brother about 16-17 and my little sister about 7 all strapping on these skis in my parents living room at the Fremont Way house. My mom never did ski, but my dad and all us younger kids did. Once in a while my older sisters and brothers would come, but they were starting their own lives and it was mostly us younger kids. We learned to snow ski, didn't do much with tobogoning, but skied at least 2 weekends or more per month. It was great and Princess got really good, I got pretty good and Gary did okay. He had the technique, but I think for Princess and I we really wanted to be good at it because Gary was so good at water skiing. Our time to out do him.
We had some great times. When I look back on it my dad was the driving force to all the things I learned and did growing up. We we're in trouble, he gave us what I guess he felt he missed out on when he was young. I am so thankful for my first 20 years as part of this family unit. He let us have our friend over, created a rock band rehearsal site and none of us played. He was into electronics, recording equipment, the first to have a Video camera, VCR, 8-track player and just a cutting edge kind of guy. I've always said if he had just invested in the stock for these companies we would be rich, cause he always new what was the best next big thing. Great memories of my dad, my father and the person I feared the most. More on that next time.
Have a great day!
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