Salomon Leija:  

Both of my parents were born in Texas. I was born in Temple, Texas, where my father settled after serving in Germany during WWII. All but my oldest sister moved on with us to Eloy, Arizona when I was one. In all, I have 6 brothers and 6 sisters with some roots to Eloy. When I was 5, we moved to Florence, AZ where he worked as a prison guard. I went to school there till the end of the 6th grade. I remember a lot of childhood friends from both places and have met and stayed friends with a few here and there. One thing I can say about Florence Elementary is that they must have used the State prison for a model. I remember getting spanked with boards that had holes drilled into them for extra pain. Oh, well, I always had that "travecio" mentality that they wanted to tame. These days exploration and inquisitiveness is recognized as a good trait in a child. Too bad for the statute of limitations. In the summer after the 6th grade we moved to California where we first landed in Patterson. We all thought we were going on vacation, but ended up picking tomatoes all summer. I went to one and a quarter year of school there. Thereafter, we moved to Modesto where I continued the 8th grade at Mark Twain Jr. High. One of my first buddies there was Ricky Lewallen. We stayed fairly close untill about the 10th grade at Modesto High School. I had always hung around the So. Mo. neighborhood kids so naturally I started hanging more around them as we grew. Some of those that I have seen recently or maintained good contact with are Jesse "Chuy" Cardenas; Corando de Leon, Robert Cruz; Mike Morales, bless him, now deceased and Gilbert Bajeran, a good friend died shortly after I w...Expand for more