Chapter 2, Starting School

I think the first school I attended was located between “U” & “V” streets, and 11th & 12th streets. It was an older building, even at the time. This is where I had my first experience with warm milk in cardboard cartons and the familiar lunchroom smells and the taste of white paste. I recall feeling very alone when I was left at that school on my first days, and completely lost and wondering what to do, how to act, where to go. I was pretty frightened by it all. This is the period I discovered that the other boys wore underwear and that they actually had two sheets on their beds, an upper and a lower. Wow! What luxury. Soon thereafter, my mom purchased my first underwear, but I did not realize the luxury of an upper sheet on my bed for many more years to come.

I remember going to “Saturday Matinees” at the Tower Theater and record shop (the birthplace of the world famous "Tower Records")on 16th and Broadway, and having to take a shortcut through one of the largest and oldest cemeteries in town. It scared me to do that but the other kids didn’t seem to be as bothered by it so I had to tag along. I think our parents gave us 50 cents each, and it only cost a quarter to get in so we had money left over for candy and soda. We would see features like “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms,” or “The Creature From The Black Lagoon,” plus a chapter from one of the many “serials” that were common then, plus two cartoons, for the princely sum of twenty five cents.

Since the “projects” were so close to the banks of the Sacramento River, it was only natural that we would all end up playing along the river. Today, it would seem a dangerous thing to allow a young child to climb the levee, cross the railroad tracks, and enter the domain of hobos and their wooden hovels built in the dense trees, but at the time it all seemed ok. There were the usual stories of evil persons who had done evil things and had lots of gold and jewels buried under their cabins, but in retrospect the denizens that lived there must have been ex military who had been recently discharged from their duties during WWII. In either case, we played along the banks of the river in what can only be described as a Huckleberry Finn type of existence without any interference from the hobos who lived there. Although, we did stay clear of their shacks.

One day, I must have gotten into a scuffle with a neighbor boy, because his dad came out and grabbed me, and only released me after my mother beat him off with a broom. I ended up in a courtroom over that event, but I never did know the outcome or, really, what all the fuss was about. I remember having to take the witness chair and the judge asking me some questions, but that is about all. I do recall that the offending neighbors lived adjacent to us and my mother would get great joy out of rolling our bags of hundreds of marbles down the stairs to irritate them.

All in all, our stay at the “projects” holds many good memories for me. It was here that I rode my first “merry-go-round,” got my first pair of roller skates, shot my first BB gun, got my first pair of underpants, and spent many wonderful days playing “Cowboys & Indians” with my brother and our playmates. He was always “Roy Rogers,” and I was “Lash LaRue.” Most of the time, the games ended up in arguments about who shot who, and when, or someone claiming they had only been wounded and, therefore, had the distinction of being the only surviving cowboy. Poor me, I only had a bullwhip! On the hot summer days, we would take a large piece of cardboard to the nearby levee of the Sacramento River, which was a full 30 feet high. We used the cardboard as a sled to slide down the levee on the dried grass that acted, and was just as good, as snow. The walk up was a task, but the trip down was exhilarating. The railroad tracks were at the top of the levee, and we placed pennies on the tracks to see if the passing trains would flatten them. Most of the times the pennies would be shaken off before the train had a chance to do its work, but we did succeed one time by using gum to stick the penny in place. The results were anticlimactic with only minor damage to the penny.

Next: Bad Memories