My parents were ministers but also worked during the week at other jobs in addition to running a church in Los Angeles while I grew up from age 8 in Glendale nearby. It was only 20 minutes on the Glendale and Harbor and Ventura freeways to get to Hope STreet downtown Los Angeles where the church they were in charge of anyway. The Harbor Freeway (Pasadena freeway) is the oldest freeway in the U.S. by the way.
So, this is where the whole idea of freeways without traffic lights began between Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. All the old money in L.A. (1900 old) and before) was in Pasadena and Altadena by the way. Whereas the Hollywood money was always in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, West L.A. and Brentwood etc. etc. etc.
Glendale is nestled in between Burbank and Eagle Rock (the other side of Eagle Rock is Pasadena by the way) and to the south is Hollywood and South West is Griffith Park where the Zoo and Griffith Observatory is too. We used to ride our bicycles at 12 or 13 to Griffith park and catch crayfish in the streams coming down from Griffith park to show you just how far back the 1950s is from here. We loved to visit the (eternal?) Griffith park observatory and the planetarium as well as boys because we were all very interested in science and astronauts and all that by the early 1960s with Armstrong and John Glen and all the others going into space then.
People were different then than now. They were much more like country people are now simply because most people in the cities then had just moved from the country or had been in World War II so they discovered California at bases like Camp Pendleton marine corps base near Oceanside and San Diego or Fort Ord near Monterey, California or 29 palms Marine base for Tank command operations Opened 1957 and found they loved the temperate weather with no snow almost ever as long as you aren't living in any of the higher mountain ranges of California. So, many people came to Los Angeles from farms across the U.S. after the Great Depression and World War II. Though you might get snow once in a while at 29 palms at higher elevations and Joshua Tree National Park.
I was in Glendale and watched Watts Burn in the distance. The smoke was very black from all the buildings burning then in 1965 on August 11th. I'm writing this on August 13th in Northern California by the way. But I wasn't scared for myself. I was scared for any black people that might come into Glendale where I lived because white people were target shooting all night long then in the hills around Glendale preparing to shoot anyone black who came into Glendale. The white men target practicing all night scared me not Watts burning because I lived too far away from all that. I could only see the black smoke which meant buildings burning 10 to 20 miles away from where I lived.
I was basically shy but always very tall for my age so this was good because I didn't have to fight that much because I was so strong.
I remember being 16 in 1964 and driving into Watts delivering Cameras because I was lost. When I saw I was the ONLY white person anywhere around me I immediately turned the business delivery vehicle around and got out of there because it wasn't safe then to be somewhere like this if you were white and people didn't know you. You could easily die then if you broke down or stopped your vehicle for any reason.
When I was 12 near USC when my father and I were rewiring a nunnery (likely they were Catholic School teacher nuns) I was helping my father getting parts from his Electrical contracting truck and black kids were throwing rocks at me and my father's truck. Since I was out of my turf I didn't know the "STREET RULES" for this area to be able to stay alive there. So, I went inside and asked my father what I should do. (in my own area if people threw rocks at me I would just throw rocks back until one of us was injured or we both ran away or something). But here, I didn't know what the rules were so I asked my father and he said "just keep a watch and dodge the rocks they throw at you". He said, "IF we make a scene and call the cops someone is bound to get killed in this area." I was scared but listened to my father and kept getting the parts he needed from his utility bed Electrical Contractor's Truck. I dodged the rocks but luckily they were throwing too far for the rocks to be lethal or that big and I was hit by a few but most of them I dodged and managed not to get hit in the head by any of them which can more likely be fatal. I saw the nicks in the side of my father's truck and the nicks in the window behind the driver's seat as well and just kept working and doing my business until we finished for the day and went home. I was very relieved when we left. Somehow the kids doing this knew if they didn't cross the street we wouldn't call the police. This was their turf after all and they made the rules there. None of the rocks that hit me drew blood just made black and blue marks so I felt lucky and they hadn't broken out any of the windows in the truck either so we didn't need to replace any of the windows. And I was most grateful that no one had to die like my father said that day there.
When I was 12 to 13 I grew from 5 foot 2 to 5 foot 10 or more and my father took me aside and told me: "YOU have to be the adult in every room anywhere you go now. I know you are good natured but if someone sets you off you are going to kill them because you are stronger than anyone your own age. So, you can't let anyone get your goat ever or you are going to kill someone if they enrage you.
I listened carefully to my father and understood what he was saying. At age 13 I was adult size and could pass for an adult and often people thought I was 16 to18 years of age even at 13 because of my size and adult responsible demeanor. So, I became the adult in the room always even though I might be surrounded by assholes so I didn't have to kill anyone. But, if they hit me I just hit them back 5 times harder and usually they stopped because it when I hit it hurt. But, I wasn't one to start fights ever. I had no reason to be angry I had a good family that didn't drink or smoke and took good care of me. But, I was very aware of the suffering of boys around me. Many of them died in the Viet Nam War which by God's Grace I didn't have to fight in.
So, from my point of view God had better plans for me than to die in that war. So, I'm forever Grateful to God for the Grace he brought to my life all these years so I could raise my children to adulthood successfully and I have as well as putting all through college that I could afford to at the time they were college age or needed financial help to make it through college at some point.
At age 9 a man came to Horace Mann Grade School. His Name was Paul Gruss I believe (not sure about the spelling after all these years). he played the violin and wanted to start an orchestra at my grade school.
He played, "It's a one eyed one horned Flying purple people eater" which was a funny popular song of that time in 1957 likely when I was 9. My cousin played the violin and I had started taking private piano lessons at age 8 so I decided because of this song to play the violin too like my older cousin did. We both played the piano and had the same piano teacher, Mrs. Hall. I took piano lessons from her until I was 16 so I was pretty good on the piano by age 12. Here's the rendition that was out then:
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Besides, I was really good by then at piano, organ and other instruments and I was never going to be 1st violin like my cousin had been in the Glendale High Orchestra. Later at 18 or after I taught myself to play guitar and wooden and metal flutes as well and also by 18 I could also play a pipe organ in Santa Fe, new Mexico where I finished high school at a private church school there in May or 1966. It was a boarding school but I liked Santa Fe, New Mexico and the snow and the fact that I was the biggest and strongest person at the school and didn't have to fight anyone there ever. So, I was happy there.
Two ladies in Santa Fe and members of my church were in charge of a private Montessori school there and wanted me to baby sit two 12 year old boys they had adopted. But, these boys hadn't been treated very well by whoever raised them so when I went to babysit them they turned off the power to the house and attacked me with judo kicks and punches in the dark. But, by then I was 6 feet four inches tall and very very strong and I got them before they hurt me too much in the dark by the back of the necks both of them and pushed their faces into the carpet and told them I would break their arms if they didn't turn the power breaker back on. They knew I meant it so they did as I asked them and they didn't give me any more problems. When the ladies who owned the Montessori school came home they finally told me the boys had tied up the last female baby sitter for several hours and put her in a closet. They hired me every week to baby sit these boys and the boys knew I would hurt them if they tried anything with me ever again. So, we had a great time watching "I Spy" on the color TV that came on that night of the week and we all were happy ever after that.
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