Noel & Penny Nichols:
CLASS OF 1962
Los Altos High SchoolClass of 1962
Hacienda heights, CA
Emerson Junior High SchoolClass of 1959
West los angeles, CA
Hudson Elementary SchoolClass of 1958
La puente, CA
WestWood Elementary SchoolClass of 1956
Los angeles, CA
Redeemer Baptist SchoolClass of 1954
Los angeles, CA
Noel & Penny's Story
I am so amused at my naivety; my father was a real bigot, as was common and acceptable for some in the day. But, here we bought this house and lived 4 houses from the Glaser Family - Father a Holocaust survivir. Their second child Frankie and I were inseparable. He stayed at my house and me at his for short periods while parents took time off. We went to the beach every day in the summer riding the Blue Santa Monica buses down Santa Monica Blvd. We Tricker-Treated together in the neighborhood bounded by Pico, Sepulveda, and Overland Ave mostly; there were some "big bike trips" to Will Rogers State Beach, Palisades and Beverly Hills. Write me if you will spamtrash at yahoo.
We fished off the Santa Monica Pier for Perch, mackerel and barracuda. Usually we got crabs, sand dabs and shark. Long days of looking down a long string, drop line, fishing rig waiting for a strike. The pollution as very mild then and the fish abounded in Santa Monica Bay. Often we had to walk across the far too wide sand beach at the Deauville Club to get to the water. The sun and sand would be so hot it would burn your feet without the flipflops beach walks, one could only try to put ones toes in first, dig deep under the hot sand for some cool sand below the sun baked surface. Another strategy was to shower with Levis on and walk wet footed over the hot sand. At the end of the day one had to make that fateful decision; whether to ride the bus home or buy an ice cream and walk the eight miles home. Manageable and interesting for 10-year-old boys in 1954, full of cool pop-cycles.
We would ride our bike over overland to the Culver City Pool and swim and ogle the girls. When Rancho Park opened we swam over there the, obsessed over girls there as well. For one summer we occupied our time together with electric boats driven by D cell batteries. We kept adding batteries to make them faster but they got heavier and we were not adept with physics to see the flaw in our technique. Of course there were men, with money, who had gas airplane powered boats, who made us jealous and envious. We were just on the edge of getting newspaper routes so money was hard to come buy. At the right time of the summer we could harvest the humungous Haas avocados in my back yard a...Expand for more
nd sell them door to door for pocket change.
When hard up for money we would sneak behind the business along Westwood Blvd and look for cases of empty coke bottles. Some times we had to climb over a fence, but often we could just reach through a hole or gap in the links, guide the bottle up, round, and over the barrier to get it out, then walk round the building to redeem the bottles a second time...
We would go to Glatz's Drug store and sit and read comic books, like we were in a library. Much to the frustrations of the druggist, we bought a few, so they never could decide whether to run us off or tolerate the sampling. If you drive up Overland Ave, cross Palms, and up the hill to Palms Park, there may still be the pool and swim club where I learned to swim. My Father had a Fraternity Brother who was the coach. We also rode our bikes over and down this hill at breakneck speeds...
Frankie had an old Soap Box derby car he bought. We drove it everywhere. When that was not stimulating enough, we too it up to the YMCA on Santa Monica Blvd and up an alleyway behind the stores on Westwood Blvd. There we were able to run the soapbox car down the hill, cross another alley and into the basketball courts of the Y at great speed and turn brodies till the rubber peeled off the wheel. We were fortunate to never encounter a car coming across our path.
When Frankie was ready for Bar Mitzvah, there was a question of weather I should go. My older brother had gone to his older brother's bar mitzvah. But Frankie had to think about it. He held back but his Mom prevailed. Years later, when I lived on the east side of LA County, in Hacienda Heights, I learned the word Goy.
Shy, yes we were. I think I recognize some classmates names. They must of been some of the "good" students; PR? In looking back I see that was a terrible decision on the park of the school board. I was told in History class, Mr Nelson I believe, that we could not get "A" because we were not the PR students no matter how hard we studied.
I was mostly with Jay Sherman and Tony Hewitson (deceased) at Los Altos HS. Jay has not changed a bit. Looks for LA classmates trying to find his "true love". He divorced and lives in Fullerton. Remember the dances at Roland Jr. High?
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