My Turn: The way it was in Cd'A
Thank you to our Arizona visitors who wrote to The Press about "Cd'A we used to know? Your article was about the current view of Cd'A and that it would be your last visit.
I hope you receive my side of the picture growing up in Cd'A in the '50s and '60s. Memories are all many of us have left of our growing-up years back then: Junior High on Seventh Street, walking home for lunch everyday, bookstore across the street where we bought our books; acting up in class put us in the Library after school for detention and no contact with the principal, all our work was on paper not pads.
Calling friends on a 4-party telephone line for help on assignments … if we had time to wait for an open line. No "9_1_1" access, just our neighbors or our moms whose days were spent raising all of us while the dads worked.
Riding our bikes to Cd'A Beach or Sanders Beach to meet friends, swim, eat a dry sandwich packed that morning and arriving back home burned to a crisp. SunScreen? Don't remember but we all had fun.
High school was a hoot with Drivers Ed, typewriters, correction tape and typing ribbon which had to be replaced all the time when we ran through a spool, band and orchestra, twirling a fire baton at football games, Blue Birds, Camp Fire Girls, Boy Scouts, DeMolay for the boys and Job Daughters for the girls, Eastern Star for moms and Shriners for the dads. Three movie theaters — Wilma, Dream, and Roxy, all located downtown.
As teenagers we drove down Sherman Avenue from The Boat Drive-in (for their coneys … yummm) to the other end of town to Louie's (for their milkshakes … yummm). The horn blasts from the tug boats on Cd'A Lake bringing logs from across the lake to local mills. Dingles Hardware, downtown Cd'A, was the tallest building four stories high … the top floor was burned off. I still remember the smell when entering Montgomery Ward, the taste of Hudson's Hamburgers, and loved the owners of Gridley's Clothing and Penneys where our payment was placed in a tube and sent to the upper level to be processed and our change was sent back down through the tube, Lumber Jack Days activities (worked for Bob DeArmond at DeArmond Lumber, a job I loved), Hydroplane races on the lake,
Parades, floats, Kiddies Parade, marching school bands and all ending up at Playland Pier; roller skating, the huge decorated Christmas tree placed in the middle of Fourth Street and Sherman Avenue, ice skating on Fernan Lake, in 1960 part of the ribbon cutting ceremony with Gov. Smylie in opening the 1-90 freeway.
Fondly remember my first day of student teaching with Mrs. Bombino, the typing teacher, who always carried her ruler … a 7 a.m. class of football players who all started whistling and yelling "Wow! It's the Brylcreem girl! Embarrassed here!
Memories? They can be seen, heard or smelled; an event associated with pain, happiness, sadness, anger, or love; God's way of reminding us of our experiences and choices in life; memories are a part of us which defines the different stages of our life … so much fun, so many friends, so many stories … they round us out and make us who we are.
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BERNITA (LIEN) CARLSON is a Hauser resident.