BOOK OF MYSELF

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

ONE OF MOM'S TRAITS I ADMIRED WAS:

The way she could play the piano was tops.

IF I HAD ANY TROUBLE WITH MOM GROWING UP, IT WAS IN THIS AREA:

I didn't really have any problems.

ONE OF DAD'S TRAITS I ADMIRED WAS:

the fact that he could make a pig out of lard to advertize pork roast on sale - I can still see that pig in the front of the store looking at you

IF GROWING UP, I HAD ANY TROUBLE WITH DAD, IT WAS IN THIS AREA:

I don't recall any specific trouble with him but if I didn't get my way, I would kick him in the shins

I REMEMBER GETTING INTO TROUBLE WITH MY PARENTS ON THIS OCCASION:

I don't think I ever got in trouble with them. When I was around two years old and my parents ran a dairy business with one cow on the side, they left me in the crib and I got out and went outside. My mother was angry and picked up a rose bush to punish me, but my Dad said no and put me back in the crib and put a gander [goose] on me. So I was terrified of them.

THIS IS HOW WE USUALLY ATE DINNER AS A FAMILY:

We didn't eat dinner together until around 1932. My brother was a baby in the high chair and the rest of us sat around the table. Grandma Scherer stayed with us a while until my Dad kicked her out - then the landlord lived with us for a while - he was very deaf and turned up the radio very loud. In 1938 Bill Redinger came and lived with us.

A HABIT I PICKED UP DURING MY EARLY YEARS WAS:

Protect myself. I was afraid to be in the house alone at night so I would take everything I owned and put it in the clothes closet. Somehow God made me know this was Jacob's ladder and I knew I was safe even though I did not know the Bible.

MY PARENTS FELT STRONGLY ABOUT PASSING ON THESE LESSONS:

My mom taught me how to make white gravy and tomato jam. She also taught me how to play the piano. My dad taught me math - around 4 he took a big sheet of butcher paper and put a line across it with numbers at top and bottom. I would sit behind the ice cream counter at the store and work on this for hours. That's how I came up with a natural love for math. I still remember how happy I was.

THIS PERSON IN MY FAMILY WAS MORE SERIOUS THAN THE REST:

Probably my mother

THIS PERSON IN MY FAMILY WAS FUNNIER THAN THE REST:

That would be my brother, Jim. He had the ability to make your parents laugh. Before he went to the Korean War, he went around and cut a piece of hair off everyone to take with him.

THIS PRESENT I GOT FROM MY PARENTS REALLY STICKS IN MY MEMORY:

My parents gave me a doll I had seen in a window and I got it for Christmas and smashed it.

WHAT I REMEMBER ABOUT MY FIRST TRIP(S) TO THE HOSPITAL:

I never went to the hospital as a child but when we went to get my brother at the hospital, I stayed in the car and covered up with a blanket and when I got to hold him on the way home, I was delighted.

ONE OF MY MOST MEMORABLE TOYS WAS:

It has to be the fox terrier, Trixie. I guess she was a toy fox terrier because she was small.

THIS IS HOW MY FAMILY CELEBRATED CHRISTMAS OR CHANUKAH:

One Christmas we had come back from Van Nuys and we didn't have anything. My Dad went out and cut a branch and we used that as a tree and we took magazines and cut up into paper chains to make it beautiful. I thought it was the best one I had ever seen.

THIS IS WHAT WE USUALLY DID AT THANKSGIVING:

We usually went to Uncle Hubert's because Grandma Settlemire [Hubert's wife's mother] cooked the dinner and it would be her family and my family about 20 people there. I remember one boy on Grandma Settlemire's side who had fallen into a fire and was badly scarred but he had a great ability to sit and talk with you. He was a favorite of mine.

I WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS ABOUT MY GRANDMOTHER(S):

Both of them are Scotch Irish; both about 5'3". Grandma Redinger was the best cook and the most understanding of children. She showed me all around her farm house and she had running water in her kitchen, her pride and joy.

I WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS ABOUT MY GRANDFATHER(S):

Grandfathers are both German. Grandpa Scherer from Munich and Grandpa Redinger from Bavaria. They both had mustaches. They were both kind and thoughtful. Grandpa Redinger had a special horse.

IF I REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS IT IS THIS:

I didn't know them. I met my Grandpa Redinger when I was six. My cousin Margaret told me that my Grandpa Scherer had handmade all the gingerbread for the outside of his house in Afton, Iowa.

THE COUNTRY OR COUNTRIES MY ANCESTORS CAME FROM WAS:

Scherer's came from Bavaria and the Redinger's came from Germany. The Berry's came from Ireland and lived in Augusta County, Virginia.

MY HAIRSTYLE(S) AND NATURAL HAIR COLOR GROWING UP WERE:

I was a tow head blonde and until I was 10 years old it was cut in a Dutch bob just above the ear lobe.

MY FAMILY'S FIRST TV/COMPUTER WAS IN THE YEAR...ONE OF MY FAVORITE TV OR SOFTWARE PROGRAMS WAS:

Our first TV was as soon as it came out. Art insisted on a TV and wanted his children to have the first. It had a magnifier in front of the screen - it was black and white - it only came on at certain times. My favorite TV programs were the news and Bishop Sheen.

IN THE AFTERNOONS AFTER SCHOOL I USED TO:

work in the grocery store that my Mom and Dad owned in San Gabriel

GAMES I LIKED TO PLAY AS A CHILD AND YOUTH WERE:

I didn't play games when I was really small. I played with dolls and dogs and cats,

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT MY SIBLINGS WAS:

I'm twelve years older than my brother - the day I took him downtown on the bus and the ladies said I was too young to have a baby and my brother started to call me "Mama".

PEOPLE DESCRIBED ME AS A CHILD IN THIS WAY:

I guess the word would be brat.

WE HAD THESE PETS OR ACCESS TO OTHER ANIMALS GROWING UP:

I had dogs and cats.

FRIENDS AND EARLY YEARS

THIS PERSON SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCED MY FIFE GROWING UP:

Probably Grandma Settlemire - that's my cousin's [Dale] grandmother.

MY BEST FRIEND DURING CHILDHOOD WAS:

I didn't have any. On second thought, it would be the Thompson girls - Jane and Margery.

I ADMIRED THIS FRIEND BECAUSE OF THE FOLLOWING TALENTS:

I admired their parents and grandmother because they had been missionaries in China.

I WAS GENERALLY POPULAR OR UNPOPULAR BECAUSE:

I was always classified as a loner.

I HELPED A FRIEND GREATLY ON THIS OCCASION:

I helped my cousin Bill Redinger's wife, Mildred Devaro, called Darlen by her dad - her father, her aunt and her grandfather all had cancer at the same time - her dad had cancer of the liver, her aunt had double mastectomy and had one arm removed because of it and the grandfather had prostate cancer - then I decided I wanted to be a cancer specialist.

THIS WAS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS THING I DID WITH A FRIEND:

I had a dream I shouldn't go but I went to Mt. Baldy anyway with a church group. The girls stayed at the bottom to set out lunch but I followed the boys who climbed up the mountain. When the girls called up to come and eat, the boys started running downhill and I slid down the snow because I didn't weigh very much and fell down the side of the mountain and scraped the skin off my back and arms - friction burns.

I REMEMBER WELL THIS BIRTHDAY PARTY I HAD WITH MY FRIENDS:

Whenever you went to a birthday party, they gave out presents for doing something. Anyway, if you couldn't do anything right, you got a prize. So I figured out that if I played stupid I would get the prize.

I WANTED THIS PERSON TO BE MY FRIEND BUT THE FEELING WAS NOT MUTUAL:

I chose my two friends. I was in the 5th grade and I saw Evelyn and Darlen eating lunch together and I decided I would make them my friends. They had been friends since kindergarten but they decided to be my friends. Evelyn was English and married Arthur and became Catholic and I married a [different] Arthur and also became Catholic. We made our confirmation together in a cathedral in Los Angeles when my first child was 6 weeks old.

I HAD A CHILDHOOD CRUSH ON THIS PERSON:

No

A MEMORABLE ADOLESCENT SWEETHEART WAS:

No

WHAT MY FRIENDS AND I LIKE BEST TO DO TOGETHER WAS:

The only friends I had were boys and we used to go the the movies. There were three seats in the balcony over the exit and I would kiss one boy and then the other and the chaperone would chase us and we would run all over the theater and do it again. I got expelled from school because the boys' parents didn't appreciate me teaching the boys how to kiss. I was 10 years old.

IF MY PARENT HAD ONLY KNOWN! I DID THIS FORBIDDEN THING WITH MY FRIENDS:

I jumped off the bridge over the San Gabriel River to see who would come closest to the rocks. Then we would play in the river and try to get the lizards - we were careful not to get the blue bellies that were poisonous. We liked horned toads and I still do. Boys are lot more fun to play with than girls.

EDUCATION AND EARLY YEARS

I REALLY ENJOYED THIS GRADE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

I guess it would have to be the 6th grade - Miss Saunders - she had the class of misfits and treated each person as an individual and helped them at whatever level they were at and made every student feel they were a good person - high school students would come back and thank her for what she had done for them.

ONE OF MY MOST MEMORABLE TEACHERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WAS:

Miss Saunders - she could walk out of the class anytime and nobody misbehaved. I fell down the stairs going to her class and she found out and had the janitor take me home. I had torn the ligaments in both my feet. I had a cast on both legs.

I HAD A LOT OF FUN WITH THIS SUBJECT IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

Math - that's because of my Dad

I HAD SOME TROUBLE WITH THIS SUBJECT IN JUNIOR HIGH OR HIGH SCHOOL:

English - Spelling HELP!

I REALLY ENJOYED THIS JUNIOR HIGH OR HIGH SCHOOL GRADE:

7th grade because they taught me to work in the office

ONE OF MY MOST MEMORABLE TEACHERS IN JUNIOR HIGH OR HIGH SCHOOL WAS:

I had her for three years. She taught me Spanish [Mrs. Keidel] and to read it not to speak it. She would get tired and go in the cloakroom and go to sleep. She had white hair and sometimes it would be green, or blue or purple.

I LIKED THIS SUBJECT A LOT IN JUNIOR HIGH OR HIGH SCHOOL:

Math

WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG I THOUGHT I WOULD BE THIS WHEN I GREW UP:

I didn't think about what I was going to be until I was thirteen and that's when I decided to be a cancer specialist.

IF I DIDN'T GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL IT WAS BECAUSE:

I did graduate from Star Jordan High School, North Long Beach, California

THIS IS WHY I DID OR DID NOT GO TO COLLEGE:

I went to Long Beach Junior College, Lakewood, California for 2 years

IF I ATTENDED COLLEGE ONE OF MY STRONGEST MEMORIES WAS:

I guess Hippo and Red - these are two boys. Hippo was right tackle and Red was football manager. They were ahead of me in school - on Opening Day they sensed I would take a dare and would go over and kiss a man seated by himself. I did and it turned out to be my bacteriology teacher. He laughed.

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT LIFE I LEARNED IN SCHOOL:

It would be to take care of one another. Hippo got knocked out during a game and we didn't know until the next day - so Red took him to the trainer and then took him to the doctor - they put him in the hospital with a very bad concussion - his parents sent Red and me a thank you note for looking after him.

THIS IS HOW I GOT TO SCHOOL EACH MORNING IN MY EARLY YEARS:

I walked.

ONE OF MY EARLIEST MEMORIES ABOUT SCHOOL WAS:

would be kindergarten. I can't remember her name but she was a nice young lady teacher because I had to go to the bathroom and I didn't know how to ask and I ran out and when I came back she didn't scold but told me how to raise my hand next time.

THESE WERE MY FAVORITE SPORTS IN SCHOOL:

I didn't have any because they wouldn't let me play because I had a heart that goes too fast and the doctor would say I couldn't play. When I got to junior college, I signed up for archery but even then the doctor said sorry - so they put me in a special class to learn low to relax on command.