Skipping down a generation (or two)!

I was thumbing through a little book I put together a few years back which contains a collection of stories and found one my granddaughter wrote about growing up in our town. I am sure she won't mind if I share a few of her memories. She attended the same grammar school (Wells) and High School (good old T.H.S.) that I did and played in the same park. Just in a different time frame.

Growing up in Tehachapi was a wonderful experience. Some of my happiest childhood memories are of the time we spent in our little house on D Street, just a block or so from Wells Elementary. It had a little sun porch where we kept our toy box and where my brother and I played. I still remember waking up on cold winter mornings and hurrying to stand over the floor furnace in the living room and filling my nightgown with the warm air, like a cozy balloon.

There was honeysuckle along the side fence and a large messy tree in front that Matt, my brother, took delight in climbing. He could hide from the world while still observing all that went on. Our mother used to park her car under that tree and Matt and I would play "Parade" by sitting on top of the car with all of our stuffed animals, waving as if we were on a parade route. The neighbors probably thought we were weird little kids. Perhaps we were but we had fun and imagination is great for kids.

Matt and I shared one of the two tiny bedrooms and I'm sure we drove our mother crazy with our arguments. I remember laughter as well. I once glued Matt's sandals to the closet floor as a joke. When we moved there were still traces of the glue on the floor of the closet.

I loved walking to school on crisp, cold Tehachapi mornings. The air smelled fresh and clean and the sky was impossibly blue. Now when my garage door opens on foggy Bakersfield mornings I long for those days.

We used to walk through the city park crunching and kicking through a layer of leaves as we neared school. This is the park my grandmother played inn as a girl. In the winter the gazebo would have frosty ice on its floor and we would stop and pretend we were Olympic skaters. As a matter of fact, in the Fourth Grade I had a Dorothy Hamill haircut. I can mentally hear my grown children saying, "Who's Dorothy Hamil? Egad!

If we timed it right we could walk through the park with Mrs. Spacke, who taught Third Grade at Wells and was also my Third Grade teacher. Thanks to Lorraine Spacke and her number wheel I learned my multiplication tables perfectly. I was lucky to have many wonderful teachers at Wells. In Fourth Grade Miss Theotig read to us every day after lunch introducing us to wonderful authors such as Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary and instilling in me a love of books that I have always shared with my children. Mr. Wright's love of the outdoors made Fifth Grade fun as we learned. He plotted a compass course for us to navigate on the school playground. I got in trouble for dragging the yardstick behind me wearing down the end. (Sorry, Mr. Wright!). Also, each student brought home a tiny pine tree that year, about five inches high, to plant in our yard. We were renting our house so Grandma planted it in her yard and today it is a beautiful, tall pine tree. I'm so glad it lived.

Our grandmother took care of us after school until our mom got home from work. Grandma kept busy with volunteer work and community activities. So, where she went, we went! She once was in charge of Tehachapi Community Theatre's Junior Theatre. This was before Nancy Grecian started her famous Youth Entertainment Showcase known as YES! Since we were there we were always in her plays with many local friends. Once in a while, when we all wanted to be on stage, she would write a play for us. We could all be stars then! We had a lot of fun and learned a few rules of the theatre that have served us all well in life: 1) Be on time. 2) There is no small part. 3) It takes cooperation and respect to work well with others. 4) Stage hands are just as important as the players. Without someone to ring the phone, switch a light on or off, the players on stage look pretty silly.

On my way to a THS football game a few years back, I drove by the little house on D Street. Matt's tree has since been cut down and our former house now had a sad, neglected look about it. Maybe a lonesome look. I wish it didn't look that way. It was never the fanciest house on the block but it was a place of love and laughter and it will always be dear to my heart just as Tehachapi is.