Memories - The Runaway

This is the story of one very little boy (about the age of the cutie in this picture)...who decided one day he just had to run away from home because - well who even remembers!?   He diligently packed his bag, and a little food from the kitchen, found a sleeping bag and sauntered out of the back door.  I can't remember what he was upset enough about to decide to 'run away' but we decided to call his bluff and let him go.  We lived in a safe neighborhood and knew he wouldn't go far.  (Today we would NEVER let him go out by himself).

About 15 minutes later the hubs went out to check on him...nope, not in back and not in front either.  But after a short search we found him all set up under the pool table in the garage.  When we asked him why he chose this spot to 'run away' to, he replied "well, you told me I couldn't go across the street by myself and there was no where else to go!' .....gotta love those memories!

The sweety next to him in this picture is his older sister...doesn't she just look tickled pink!

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2011, all rights reserved, Mary Post Warren

Memory Monday: Extreme Weather

Yesterday I was challenged by a fellow genealogist at Olive Tree Genealogy on 'Sharing Memories: Extreme Weather'.   I don't have a lot of memories from my early childhood...it's frustrating sometimes to 'not remember'.  But since this is one of my few childhood memories I couldn't help but take her up on her challenge.  It was January or February 1949 in Los Angeles California - my brother was in 1st grade and I was in kindergarten.

It seldom does anything more than rain for a few days in southern California but my brothers and sister and I woke up to SNOW.  I'm not sure I had ever seen snow before.  The schools were closed....and Jimmy and I were allowed to bundle up and go play outside with the other kids.  I'm sure there were snowball fights and snowman building but I remember specifically someone with a sled.  I find it hard to believe that there was enough snow on the ground long enough for anyone to go sledding, and I KNOW there was no hill to sled down.  Kids seems to make the best of what they get....and we all had fun while it lasted.  Wish I had a picture!

Memories are a legacy we can leave for our children and descendants.  We are their ancestors.  Don't let the memories get lost.  If your memories are few, like mine, it's even more important to write down the ones you do remember.




Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved

Memory Monday - Vacation in Lake Tahoe

In the mid-80's we spent our vacation traveling from southern California up the coast to beautiful, awesome Lake Tahoe.  The kids had never been there and we thought it would be a great place to 'bond'...but, alas, the kids had gotten older and had either moved out or were busy doing their own thing - Kim had taken off, like she had several summers during her high school days, to visit her Aunt Martha, Uncle Gerry and kids in either Houston TX or Sliddell LA.  I believe my baby boy, Billy, had joined the army and was off at boot camp.  Jack had his own 'digs' and life....so that left Robert.  Although he was a junior in high school he was game to go with us....and not wanting him to be alone...we invited his younger cousin Danny to go with us.  He was thrilled because vacations were few and far between in his family.

Sooooooo we packed all our stuff in the back of the enclosed pick-up truck and headed off down the road. Life was good, we were all on a 'free-spirited' vacation and were going to just have fun....fun...and more fun.  We pulled into Lake Tahoe later that night and get out of the truck wanting something to eat.  But as the boys climbed out of the back of the truck we knew something was wrong - Bobby had turned a deep-sick shade of green.  Danny told us they tried to let us know but could not catch our attention.  Soooooo, they finally opened the side and back windows of the truck and stuck their heads out and...................well I think you get the gest!  There was a car full of girls driving right behind us about the boys ages - and they were laughing so hard it's a wonder there was not an accident. The poor boys were sooooooooo embarrassed!

After settling into our camp the boys went up and took showers and cleaned up.  We had hot soup and seven-up for dinner that night.

The next morning we discovered there was a McDonald's right across the street from our campground.  The three guys were in 'hog heaven'....off to get sausage McMuffins, pancakes, and all the stuff that goes with it.  And mama didn't have to cook :)  YEAH!

Cousin Danny been bugging us for a new pair of shoes ever since we left home - we told him his shoes were in great condition and he'd have to deal with them (absolutely nothing wrong with them).....but when we drove up to Carson City NV for the day and went through the Ponderosa Ranch he managed to dinky with his shoes until the velcro strap (that replaced the old shoe laces) broke off the shoe....done on purpose?  Me things so!  About 5 minutes later he looks down on the grown and finds $25 CASH.....he'd hit the gold mind in his eyes....I immediately took the money away from him and said on our way back to camp we would stop and buy that new pair he wanted - well now he says "these shoes are ok, I'll make them work!"  We would not go with it....he broke those shoes on purpose....he can now buy some new shoes with his new found $$$.  Poor Danny was not happy!  We stopped on the way back to the campground at a shoe store and HE bought them ....gripping the entire time!

The next day we went river rafting on the Truckee River - what a kick that was!  Danny wouldn't wear his new shoes and take a chance on getting them ruined (smart kid)....so he wore the old ones which worked perfect for the situation.

River rafting on the Truckee River was just what it's cut out to be.  Robert fell out of the raft once and injured his foot a little....but other than that no catastrophes.  Couple times we thought the waves would flip us over and we had a little bit of a hard time rolling to shore but over all it was a BLAST for all.



Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved





Memory Monday - Our Trip to Texas



Most of our vacations were limited to the state of California because with 3-4 kids and sometimes some of their friends or cousins it was just easier. But in 1975 we packed up Kim, Billy, Bobby and cousin Wendy for a long trip to visit my sister and family in Houston Texas.  I kept a diary of the trip but can't find it...I remember rereading it 10 or 20 years ago and maybe I threw it out.  There were comments such as we stopped at McDonald's for lunch and it cost us $10 (this is for six of us mind you!). We stopped for gas and it would cost less than $10 to fill up (back when gas was less than $1 a gallon).  Then there was the hotel we stayed at in El Paso where we paid $15 for the room and got a free breakfast for all plus we could all sleep in one room! (I'm not sure with 6 of us in a room we got much sleep)!   What a gold mine that was....we had driven from Tucson to El Paso and the kids were hot and tired.  There was a pool at the hotel and the first thing most of them did was jump in it.



The Alamo



We then drove from El Paso to San Antonio where we had dinner and visited the Alamo....and it still being about 8pm and only a couple more hours to Houston (or so we thought) we packed up and made the trip, arriving in the middle of the night (somewhere around 3am).  In hindsight we should have spent the night in San Antonio - but then that's what memories are made of!  



 Bobby was only 5 years old when we took the trip - the only things he says he remembers are the nights stay with Uncle Jim (my brother) and family in Tucson, Uncle Jim taking all of them to the air museum at Davis Monthan Air Force Base (where Jim was stationed), and a visit to the Astro-Dome in Houston.  

Kim and Wendy were 6 1/2 and Wendy remembers a LOT.  I'm impressed since she was so young.  I'm sure Bill remembers a lot too as he was 8 when we took the trip.



Busch Gardens

 Wendy says:  "I do remember the trip to Texas! It was lots of fun and pretty stressful, too. It was the first time I'd been anywhere really hot. When we got there we were in air conditioning but the heat in the car on the way was something else.

"I remember: 

-stopping in Palm Springs at a friend of yours house (they had a pool  and we needed to nap)

-eating cheese cubes and sitting in the back of the station wagon

-low level bickering with the boys to pass the time

-passing funny roadside attractions (was there a giant tepee?). Bill had quite a bit of money he'd been saving up for souvenirs so in the run up to each place there was much pleading and fast talking to get you guys to pull over

-waking up in the night to you and Uncle Howard having a small fight (because that is what couples do when it is 3 am and they have been driving all night and I think there was some fear we had missed a turn)

-finally getting to stop at a hotel in the middle of the day. It was very nice - a Holiday Inn I think. Everyone else was so excited for the pool but all I could think about was napping in the air conditioning:)

"And that was just the trip there! Then there was AstroWorld, the Alamo, and the Air and Space Museum. Pretty cool stuff!"

Mark's Birthday Party



Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved

p.s. the 'giant tepee' was somewhere between Phoenix and Tucson (or so I'm told by son Robert)

Memory Monday - The Orange Tree

When our kids were growing up we had this beautiful orange tree in our backyard.  This tree literally bloomed almost year round (I tried to find a picture with it in full bloom but nooooooo there was not one to be found).  Our kids joke now about how they were 'forced' to eat these oranges....they'd come home from school and say "I'm hungry" and we would tell them to go pick an orange from the tree.  Fresh squeezed orange juice was our drink of choice. The oranges tended to be a little sour at certain times of the year so I'd squeeze when they were sweeter and freeze the juice to have later.  I spent hours on end squeezing and freezing it.

My parents had a plum tree in their yard - we had a ton of plums at our disposal during the spring and summer months.  Rather than freezing these (wasn't sure how well they'd do) I would make plum jam by the gallons...we'd seldom have to buy jam for our peanut butter and jam sandwiches or toast.

After several years we thought we'd give the kids a break from oranges and we planted a peach tree but alas the tree only gave us a couple peaches a couple years after planting....and then we moved before it had a chance to bloom again.

Now we live in Phoenix where the fruit trees abound...grapefruit, orange, and lemon trees are in most peoples' backyards.  We live in a condo and have no tree and no where to plant one.  I have to go to the grocery store and pay an arm and a leg for fresh fruit!  Oh to get my fruit tree back............

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2011, all rights reserved



Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.