ALEXIA PLACE

  

The MATS flight from Guam stopped ended up at Travis AFB, where we transferred to a C-47 and flew to North Island.  I spent two weeks at Navy Hospital, then ended up in the old Children's Hospital at 850 South 36th Street, where these photos were taken.  My full head of hair is visible left of center.  I'm getting it trimmed in the photo on the right. 

At some point during my stay, and I think I got out in April 1952, the hospital was all abuzz with news
that June Haver would be visiting.  I didn't know who she was, but I got an autographed photo. 

3614 Alexia Place in May 2019

While I was in the hospital Mom and Dad purchased the home in Normal Heights that remains in our family to this day.  My sister bought out my half after Mom died in 2014.  The photo above shows Vicki and I on the original little bitty porch.  Vicki and Mom relax on the front lawn.  I'm not sure who the fellow is in the other photo, but I think he's brought the material my Dad would use to build small steps and a hand rail so I could get in and out of the house.

     

    

Me in the backyard before the Longs replaced the Eugenia hedge with a block wall.  Vicki is standing on the original little square front porch.  Vicki and I are standing on the sidewalk below and Dad is getting in a car I don't recognize.

  

  

An early shot of the living room with the original wallpaper.




Mom made the BEST Fried Chicken!!  Check out the '50s drainboard and sink.


  

Mom and two friends are enjoying sandwiches made with Donald Duck bread washed down with Arden Farms milk.  Of course, there is a pack of cigarettes, lighter and ash tray within easy reach.

  

A birthday party for Vicki in the back yard.  She looks about 7, so that would be August 2, 1953.  That's Mike and Ann Holt on the left, and Bernard Holt behind Vicki.  I can't recall the name of the other kid.

  

The fake snow in the windows must mean this was Christmas time, perhaps 1955.  That's Uncle Tom Schaeffer in the straw hat. In the top row are Jim Benes and his sister Grandma Marie.  One row down is Tom's wife Johnnie, Mom, Jim's wife Aunt Liddie, Grandpa Frank Lomicka and Vicki.  Front row is me, and cousins Thomas and Kim Schaeffer.  Below left is Kim, Vicki, me and  Frank.  Below right is me, my Uncle Tom Schaeffer, and his Uncle Jim Benes.  Note the expanded front porch.

  

In the Spring of 1952 my father ruptured a lung while serving as a Company Commander at the Naval Training Center.  For a while my Mom was visiting him at Navy Hospital and me at Children's Hospital.  Dad received a medical discharge from the Navy and somehow ended up driving the BB II, the boat Balloon Cleaners used to pick up dry cleaning from ships in the harbor.  On an occasional Saturday I got to go with him.  That's Walt Johnson with the cigarette in his mouth.  He was married to my dad's sister Mollie.  I think the BB II was named after Bob Breitbard, owner of Balloon Cleaners & Laundry.

     

Thanks to the newspaper article below I know that it was October 21, 1953 when I got to ride in the Captain's Launch to visit the USS Princeton, aboard which they were filming the crash scene for Panther Squadron Eight, the working title for the film that became Men of the Fighting Lady.  It wasn't quite as dramatic as the scene in the movie poster, but they had the front gear down on an F9F Panther jet and ketchup on Van Johnson's face so I was impressed.  That's me next to the kid in the Sailor Hat waving from the Captain's Captain of the launch.  My dad is standing between cabins.

    

Another special treat for kids from Sunshine School was a fishing trip to El Capitan Reservoir -- on the day BEFORE fishing season opened.  I came back with 16 catfish.  I think my Mom had to clean them. She wasn't happy.

  

I think this is two different air shows.  On the left, Vicki and I are with the Spirit of St. Louis replica that later burned in the San Diego Aerospace Museum fire.  I think the location was Lindbergh Field.  An F7U Cutlass forms the background for me and my cousin Leland Fry at NAS Miramar.  I believe that's Leland's grandmother.

  

Tom Ford, our neighbor to the west, looks on while Byron Long and his dad Ray dig a trench where a hedge used to be, in preparation for putting in a block wall.  They got the blocks from "Pappy" Hazard in Mission Valley.  That's wife Ida Long observing.

From the 1958 City Directory



  

Vicki, Grandpa Frank and me around 1957.  Looks like Frank is still
wearing the Pendleton jacket seen in the photos earlier on this page.

Jeff and Jimmie Harper at the Harper home at 4720 Elm Street.   Jimmie was the husband of Jeff's
sister Frankie, and father of my cousin Jimmie Jr.  Jeff's behind the wheel of our Pea-Green '47 Ford 2-Door

 

A grown-up Vicki holds the family Christmas Tree up for inspection.  That's the family's '52 Ford
4-door Fairlane, successor to the '47 Ford above, behind her.  It was later passed down to me.


  

Jeff, Vicki, Grandma and Frank, January 1959 • Jeff with fresh-caught trout,  February 1962


  

Frank watching Jeff hook up our TV antenna, August 1962 • "My" '52 Ford circa 1962




Vicki's ready to twirl her baton in the May Time Band Review.
Or maybe it was the Toyland Parade in North Park.




My 9th Grade school photo -- in 1959





Dad at his drafting table when he worked for H. L. Yoh Engineering at 32nd Street Naval Base. 
As the letter below attests, he died on the job at this location on September 17, 1964.

Jeff was one of three brothers.  He did not HAVE three brothers.



  

Dressed for the funeral.  Me, Vicki, Mom, Uncle Tom in the front. 
Frank, Grandma, Aunt Johnnie in the back.


  

Vicki and me and Vicki and Mom in the front yard

  
  

Vicki and Tom the Cat in the back yard.  Me in the patio.  I'm not sure why I'm behind the Bird of Paradise.


  

Me and Bernard Holt and his '54 Chevy circa 1960.  Me and my '56 Chevy circa 1965.


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