Today was another day on the upstairs remodel.
It was exciting for us to see the start of how big this room will be. Arney will measure it and I will share how large the space will be.
I still haven’t decided where the closet will be. “I will think about that tomorrow.”
I hope you are all having a great weekend. Arney and I will be looking at light fixtures tomorrow.
Also, Monday I will have page # 3 of my 1965 chapter story.
Stay Cool, Mary
Writing my Mother is so hard, and her letters back to me give me hope. It is strange how you can feel all grown up one minute and the next you want your Mama. Arney is wonderful, but I need her also, to many miles are between us. This is the first grandchild and great grandchild for my side of the family. I am going to LA General
Hospital because they have the best doctors. My regular doctor has sent me there. But this is not a good time to be going in that direction. Roads are blocked at different places along the freeway; I didn’t go to my last appointment because of the riot, we are told to stay away from different areas…… Since there were no monitoring systems for babies in 1965, there was no way to tell how our baby was doing. The blood testing was to see if I had become toxic. If my blood was becoming bad they could take our baby because there was a threat to my life. Listening each visit for the sound I prayed for, a heartbeat. I must have seen at least 5 different Doctors, sometimes two or three would check me during one visit. Abortions were not legal unless the mother was in danger. I certainly did not want them to take my baby Everyone was on alert as the hours past. All we had to do was look out our window; we could tell that things were getting worse. The news was constant. We were all in shock; this was not in any way normal in this part of the country. We knew that in the south things were bad sometimes, but never did it dawn on us that someday we would know this kind of anger, this rage, even death on the streets.
Strange what comes to mind while I write….We had a black and white TV, I think it was a 19 inch. While so much was going on that was changing our lives in a dramatic way. This was some of the programs we watched.
Arney is a good man, and as my friend would say, a real tall drink of water. Blond, blue eyed, a young man that grew up fast. His childhood was hard; he needed life to get easier. We were strong in who we were but it was not an easy time for us; work is hard to come by. Arney is a Journeyman Cement Mason, and work is slow. It was hard for a lot of people, a generation fighting for rights, and nothing comes easy. Marching for civil rights, gatherings of all kinds for woman’s rights, drugs were flowing like water, and even our music had changed. The love songs, the fun music was changing one song at a time. We were growing up and it was no longer the life we pictured. We needed good leadership, the government was upside down. Our beloved President Kennedy had been killed.
We are restless about the war in Vietnam. The draft was ever present on our minds. “Things they are changing.” So many boys and men killed in this war. The body bags were starting to be shown on the TV, and a daily count of deaths became almost too normal. In 1965 some of us were just starting to really understand, there is a war going on; we were asking questions and getting vague answers. This is not the country of my birth. Even long term friends were into drugs, Arney and I wanted no part of this drug seen, not to say that we didn’t drink because we did. As the music play songs of unrest, and the war, “when would the music stop?”
You maybe asking yourself, why would she write this for her blog? History will never tell my story of this time. It would never make the 6:00 news. You can read about how many died, why the riot started. And you may find a few names of leadership but it is not personal. There are thousands of stories that could be told about 1965 during a very hot summer in LA. I hope that after you read this it will give you a deeper understanding of me, or maybe how in the blink of an eye, your life can change and I was changed….sometimes we just need to share.
To be continued…….
1965
It was a hot summer in southern California; the air was heavy from the humidity. I wish it would rain. Our apartment is a one bedroom, furnished. We really liked living in Bellflower, California.
It is like a small town. We could walk downtown without a care in the world. It is also the best place for showing off your cars on Friday and Saturday night. We drove our 55 Chevy all shinny through town more than ones. We would go to Helen and Grace for ice cream.
I loved all the pink, black and torques green. When you opened the door the smell was sweet with chocolate and vanilla. Arney and I were married in August, 1963. We had no idea what the future would bring, only that we loved each other and wanted the life we longed for. But it was not easy, we were so young, and the good stuff didn’t come easy for us. This night had been long for me, it is hot and I am pregnant. Arney must have had the TV on all night keeping up with the news. I could hear a soft sound coming from the living room, and Arney did not come to bed. Watts and the towns around it are on fire, I can see the smoke from our apartment on the second floor. The regular smog we are used to is now mixed with the smoke. It is hard to breath very deep. Sometime during the night I fell asleep. I wake feeling sick to my stomach; I did not want to look at what was happening in Los Angeles.
Why would you destroy your own town and each other? Compton & Watts had always been a mix of Negros and whites. When I was growing up it was mostly white, but as people spread out into Orange County, tracks of homes were being built. The homes being built are expensive, and only those making a really good wage could move into most of the areas. Seems that the Negros more or less had some parts of LA all to themselves as time went by. But it had been a mixed race state. We know there are gangs of all colors living in LA, Compton and Watts. No one wanted any problems, at least no one I knew. I get myself a drink of water, it teats like chlorine, I do not like Bellflower water, a bottle of Coca Cola would be nice. Arney is lying on the floor and the front door is open because it is already so hot. No air conditioning, not even a fan. Arney is worried about me and the riots, so we are saying very little to each other. I felt restless. We talked about going to Arney’s Grandma Neely’s in Acton near Palmdale, California but it would be a long drive to the hospital. blood to be checked. Our baby would be born soon, but I had not felt any kicking or movement for almost a month. I stayed in the state of crying……..to be continues.
