California Trip 1968 Part 6 1/2

 I am sure we ate dinner there that first night at Lyle’s. These days are all a blur so I cannot describe each day as it came let alone in perfect detail after 50 years. I wish I would have written a diary but I was only a kid. I remember Lyle telling stories as we were trying to get to sleep in a nearby bedroom, but some of the stories he told about being punished by Grandma when he was a kid were so interesting and somewhat risqué we couldn’t get to sleep. As a matter of fact we were not far from our bedroom. The door must have been slightly cracked open as we could hear almost everything at 12 midnight trying not to laugh out loud. I distinctly remember Lyle and the adults sitting around. I am sure dad told a few of his own. And mom sharing a few things from the old days on the farm. But Lyle described how  he and his friends had some limericks of dirty nature they either learned or made them up and Lyle kept in a notebook. Eventually Grandma Allen discovered them , was outraged and punished him in some way. We couldn’t help but snicker when we heard him repeat a limerick or two by memory. Too bad I didn’t write them down hahaha.

The next day I believe Lyle took us to the San Diego Zoo. To this day I even brag about sitting on a real big giant turtle, of which I evidence Dan and I did that on home movie film. Recently my wife and I went to the Toledo Zoo among other places in Ohio in July 2018. There, kids were sitting and posing for pictures on phony metal giant turtles. I bragged to the zoo employee I had sat on a real one 50 years ago at the San Diego Zoo. Too bad I don’t remember much else anymore about the zoo, only what I saw on film. That is why it is important to take home videos and photos, to remember” or jog your memory. Don’t get an attitude, just do it and preserve your memories for later and for posterity and your children and descendents thereafter. Which is why I am typing right now, or pretending to type anyway.  (You, the descendents, should all see this BEFORE spell check lol. Me, the defendant” should be ashamed before spell check..But, I digress…).

Lyle had an in-ground pool in the back and we went swimming that same day probably. Complete with Zinc Oxide make up, esp.…on our cheeks, both zoo and swimming. And almost every day.

At one point some morning I remember watching TV, an old black and white rerun of the Outer limits lol.  “Do not adjust your TV Set, we have taken control”…..Sounds like what is going on today in real life…hahahhaha.

On another day, probably the next, we took a tour of San Diego town. 2^nd Cousin Rusty went with us.  He was about 8 years old at the time. This is the only time we met Rusty or ever spent time with him, on this 3-4 day visit. And David was only about 2 years old. I later saw him in 1981 when Allen and Gloria, Vi and David came to Michigan. We played golf with my dad, Allen, David , me and Dad.  Lyle drove us around in his car.  We saw the ocean, went down there, there were rocks to walk on where we went, and then we saw some other things I don’t even remember. Then we went to a place like a local club, with boardwalks, outdoor tables with umbrellas, and the famous spiral case stairway up to a tower lookout, which is on our home movie film. We all had something to drink, and Dan and I had Shirley Temple drinks. I was wearing a red shirt which looked pink in the home movie. The tower I had to look up a few years ago, Steve did not quite know what it was either. It may not be the same tower but the same architect in San Diego. TV shows had used it for episodes, for sure the Mod Squad and  Simon and Simon. 

We are filmed (Tom, Dan, Rusty) running up and down the steps. The Mod Squad did not catch their criminal friend running up and down those steps [I think that was “Pete” and “Linc” running there. That chicken shit Julie couldn’t take her high heels off just once and swan dive a criminal lol] and Simon and Simon did not catch anybody either. Ha-must have been the same guy they were chasing as in Mod Squad… Today, I couldn’t run up and down those steps, and could not catch anyone, let alone my breath….Linc should have played football man…

It was probably this night I first met Susan Bond, she must have been 22, very pretty, I think she had just graduated college. I had seen her in old home movies that my parents took when she was a little girl. She brought another college girlfriend and they sang a couple of folk tunes in harmony, a Simon and Garfunkel tune and one other thing. They were very good, probably had played in folk clubs around town or something. Apparently music runs in the Allen side of the family.  Another cousin I have not seen since 1968.

Stay tune for the next installments on the TV station tour, the baseball game and night time boat cruise. These are out of sequence but it’s a miracle I remember any of this anyway...hey, I missed 3 episodes of the Prisoner that summer for this trip! The sacrifices I had to make, sigh…good thing they ran it again the next summer.