Diane and Marie were fortunate to grow up with relationships
with both of their grandmothers. In
California Grandmother Ella worked as the director of lunch programs at some
Los Angeles schools. Grandfather Wilce
was disabled and did not work. In Oregon
Grandmother Marie lived on a farm outside of SE Portland with her second husband
Matt – they had milk cows and chickens.
In Los Angeles when the girls visited they took day trips on
the Red Cars and saw many different areas of the city. Society was different back then and there was
no fear that two young girls would not be safe.
Grandmother taught them a mnemonic for traveling in the city and
returning to Figueroa, the major cross street near their grandparents’ home.
In LOS ANGELES from MAIN we SPRING to BROADWAY and over the
HILL to OLIVE with a GRAND HOPE of picking FLOWERS on FIGUEROA. The capitalized words are the streets in
order.
Favorite places were Olvera Street, Chinatown, and the main
library. They also went to the beach and
Grumman’s Chinese theatre, developing a real sense of the city. Which came in handy for Diane when she moved
to Los Angeles after high school and worked downtown.
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