IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER #16

I mentioned my brother came to visit us in California and our children showered him with love and attention and all three trying to get his attention at the same time. So you can imagine the noise when he got down to their level on the floor.

My brother was in the Army Air Force and had just finished his last tour of duty in Japan. He brought us a Japanese flag as a souvenir. He came to visit us before starting his civilian job for IBM because he knew he would not be able travel once he started to work. Before his trip ended he wanted to see the “sites” in California and came with us on our trip to Disney Land.

We rented a stroller for our youngest because it would have been too much walking and she was too big to be carrying all day. The park had many strollers available so it wasn’t unusual and they encouraged it because the rental was free. Many rides were not for children her size so it was good she was able to snooze once in a while when the other two were on the rides. When my children saw these pictures they remarked at how I was dressed and said “You went to Disney Land in Sunday clothes”. I told them it was the custom to wear dress up clothes to go anywhere away from home.

Our children were learning to do lots of things besides swimming, like ride two wheel bicycles, roller-skating and just learning how to get along with other children in the neighborhood. We had a mixture of ages in our development that gave


kids an opportunity of learning some of these things before they were really old enough. Second child K was the first to learn how to ride an adult's two wheel bicycle and she couldn’t even reach the seat to sit. She learned on a friends’ bicycle that lived in the unit next door. I don’t know how our son learned or on whose bicycle. My brother bought our son a bicycle for his birthday and he had no trouble getting on and off without falling.


Learning to skate was something else. We doctored so many boo boos and used many band-aids, I am sure we did our share keeping up the Johnson and Johnson stock. They came in so many times booing from falls. Number three child was on athree-wheeler that was no problem. The only problem she had was the little dog next door kept knocking her down to lick her face. His name was Heinz 57 because you couldn’t tell what kind of dog it was.


C and I loved cats and dogs and always had both around for our kids. It seems as though the stray animals always migrated to our house because the kids loved animals and were always bring strays home. We had a black cat with four white paws that showed up at the door that we named mittens and she was pregnant. We tried to find out who owned it to no avail. In the housing project military moved out so fast that pets were often left behind because they knew the neighbors would take them in. After we took her in and one morning she had four kittens not in the box we had fixed for her, but on third Childs’ bed.

We were able to find homes for them because they were adorable and playful. One day I had knocked over one of the lamps I saved during the small earthquake and it broke putting a large hole in it. I patiently glued the pieces having to wait in between pieces for it to dry thoroughly. The hole was getting smaller by degrees because it took some time to glue all the pieces.

One day we were to deliver one of the kittens to its new home and we couldn’t find it. We search all over the house and the time came to leave and still no kitty. We called the people and said we couldn’t find the kitten they picked out and when we do we would set up another delivery time. That evening as we were sitting down to read the paper, and the kids were playing on the floor and long and behold after an all day nap the kitty appeared sticking its head out of the hole in the lamp that wasn’t completely closed, yawning and stretching. We had a good laugh because we looked everywhere but there. I guess it felt it was a safe place to hide and sleep from the kids. (Pun intended.) It did not take too long after that to get the lamp finished and painted. I was pleased with myself because the break in the lamp wasn’t obvious because I used some plaster. We have many stories about the family pets I would like to share some as humorous. Until then, I am Immigrant Daughter