Before the sun peaked over the horizon, Carl would be up and crossing the road with two 2-gallon buckets. He was headed for the school house across the county road where he filled each bucket with fresh well water from the hand pump. Then carry Ing both buckets full he slowly started back to hisContinue reading “Grapes of Wrath? Not here.”
Category Archives: WorkingClass
We drove to Sears once a year.
Before we could do Easter… The Saturday before Easter we all drove to Sears in East L A. The place was the main Sears catalogue store at Soto and Olympic. A tall ten-story building just east of the concrete L A River. After arriving and parking My two sisters would go with our mom andContinue reading “We drove to Sears once a year.”
Needed good walking shoes.
Yes, indeed I’m walking. Now I am not saying this to just solicit your well-deserved sympathy but from kindergarten and all the way up to my senior year in high school I walked to school. Almost every day. I walked approximately two miles each way. Walked to elementary, junior high, and high school. Our grandkidsContinue reading “Needed good walking shoes.”
Oh give me a home where no real estate brookers roam.
Homelessness resolved. The trouble with Homelessness is the wrong people get involved. Land developers, real estate brokers, and ambitious architects. Not to mention over anxious freeway and parking lot builders. This might sound funny but it is true. The city comes up with available building space and before you know it others with dollar signsContinue reading “Oh give me a home where no real estate brookers roam.”
A family’s history has to begin somewhere.
So here is how it all began. I was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California. East Los Angeles to be precise in a working-class neighborhood. An unincorporated section of the greater Los Angeles area east of the all-concrete Los Angeles River. And in a community just east and downwind of the B FContinue reading “A family’s history has to begin somewhere.”
Don’t let her rub you the wrong way.
It was about two days away from Thanksgiving. I’m guessing it was 1958 and I was in the eighth grade. Maybe I was fourteen or fifteen. Don’t really remember. But anyway, My lot in life at that time was to walk to school and walk home. I walked every day. Ever since first grade. ToContinue reading “Don’t let her rub you the wrong way.”
It was easy money. One bottle at a time.
Los Angeles 1952: The start-up. We were partners in a recycling business. And when I say we I mean my partner Donnie Shorts. My new best friend who moved here to our neighborhood from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What we did discover early on was that we both needed money. Money is what would enable and fundContinue reading “It was easy money. One bottle at a time.”
What you have to do when your credentials fail you.
If you remember the last time we got together I mentioned to you I was a chicken whisperer. I chose this vocation because wearing cheap wire rim glasses disqualifies me to be what I really wanted to be. Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers does not wear glasses. I wear glasses. And yes, broke them three orContinue reading “What you have to do when your credentials fail you.”
A tale of two neighborhoods.
It was the best of times and the worst of times. It all started out in our little working class community in East Los Angeles. Located between the B. F. Goodrich tire factory on the west end and the Edison high tension power lines on the east. About two miles from end to end. SeeContinue reading “A tale of two neighborhoods.”
Chuck the Blogger Guy 