Bellflower / Lakewood
In December 1944 I joined my parents and sisters, Zoe and Joyce, in a new tract home in Bellflower (now Lakewood). I was baptized shortly after (saved from Limbo) at San Bernard Church in Bellflower. I have vague memories of my preschool years, playing in the neighborhood, welcoming soldiers back from the War, running after the ice man and Good Humor ice cream truck, watching the neighbors fix up their new tract homes, experiencing the excitement of the latest technology in the home, television. I began my schooling in first grade at St. Bernard’s in Bellflower. Catholic children weren’t supposed to attend kindergarten in public school. My parents, being devout Catholics, followed the rules. I almost failed first grade because I couldn’t hear. My tonsils had swollen badly and blocked my hearing. Once they were removed, I was a top student. In the process I learned how it felt to be treated as a not-so-bright child. Just as the second grade was starting (1951), my dad was transferred to Fresno by North American Aviation to work on the new F-86 fighter. Also motivating the move was my sister, Joyce, who had developed terrible asthma and would be better off, we were told, in dryer climate.
Jim at top; Cousin Joan and my sisters,
Zoe and Joyce, on step below circa 1946
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