April 6, 2001
I was born at home in Fillmore.
The house is still there but I don't know who lives there
now. At one time Ross and
Marlene lived there. I attended Patrick Henry Elementary School
and Millikan High School,
both in Long Beach, California, Long Beach City College and UC
Irvine for my teaching credentials.
My favorite subjects were
Drama and English. I have liked reading as long as I can remember
and thought I would grow
up to be a language translator for the United Nations or an actor.
I was a brownie, a Girl Scout,
4-H member and in the riding club. In church I was a member of
primary, and then mutual.
When mom had Sherill and
then Patti and then Eddie I had chores after school every day it
seemed like. I remember
folding diapers in all the different folds needed for the different
sizes and I ironed, beginning
much younger than that with handkerchiefs. At Grandma
Penney's the ironing had
to be done in the early morning and mostly in the basement because
of the heat. Learning to
iron allowed me to trade ironing for piano lessons in elementary
school with Maxine Perkins,
who lived down the street from Mom, and at home I was paid five
cents a piece for it from
Mom. Susan and I also took turns doing the dishes after dinner
and at grandma Penney's
I picked vegetables ( but not peas because I ate them all before
they got in the house)
My first job was working
at the pool in Fillmore. I got free admission for that. We also
hauled hay where I learned
to drive and collected eggs for Safeway markets. Those were done
so that my friends could
finish faster so we could go riding.
I got an allowance at home
but spent it all on doughnuts from the bakery man that came down
our street every day.
My first love was the guy
across the street (very much older) who never even looked at me
but he had his picture in
a surfing magazine. Some of my most memorable events include
being in a play with Betty
White; Daddy teaching me to drive a car at 16 (the first time
out I hit a Parked car)
and riding a horse across the desert in the rain.
Jim and I got married in
Catalina on the top of a hill overlooking the harbor. He wore a
suit and I wore a purple
hippie dress. The pastor who married us was also the lifeguard in
the arena and wore a Hawaiian
print shirt.
I had lots of jobs.
I managed a dog kennel, worked in a bar, was a beautician, cleaned fish
tanks, was a dispatcher
for a trucking company, flocked Christmas trees, made men's shirts
and stuffed and sold animals
in ports of call. The jobs I was most proud of were teaching
and representing people
as a lobbyist in California. I think I did some good things in both
of those jobs. Teaching
is self-explanatory but while lobbying, I helped ban DDT, put
protective screens on computer
screens, fought right to work legislation in New Mexico and
got elevators on cranes.
I also met so many people that either were famous at the time or
later became famous for
one reason or another, especially women, some who have definitely
changed my life.
Jim and I bought our first
house when I was teaching. I made $600 dollars a month and rent
was 125 but he already had
a good job in the harbor so we could buy a house that cost
$29,000 dollars. The first
car I bought was also when teaching but before I met Jim. It
cost $100 dollars in 1972
and was a 65 Plymouth, the one they used for Batman with the giant
fins on the back.
I was born a Mormon and never
thought of changing. My first dance was a Mutual dance at
church. My mother
made me wear a striped blouse with a plaid skirt (something just not
done then). I was
so embarrassed, I stayed in the corner until a boy finally came and
talked to me. His name was
Roy and he was blind. We danced all night. I hate to admit how
shallow I feel now about
this but at the time I thought that skirt and blouse would wreck my
whole life. When I got home
and told my mom what happened she said "see it's the person that
counts, not the clothes".