I found this picture yesterday and it brought memories of a long-ago vacation. In the summer of 1962, Mother and I set out for California - I was 19 and she was 59. We traveled in her new blue Buick LeSabre with a specially installed air-conditioner that sat under the dashboard. We were traveling first-class!
We spent several days in Colorado Springs visiting Perry who was stationed there at a military base (can't recall the name) and the Stevigs who timed their annual Colorado vacation to meet us. From there we went on to LA. I remember driving through Gunnison - which is a whole 'nother story for another time. Shortly after that, Mother was driving through the mountains (two-lane highway) on the curves and hills, when over a hill the traffic was backed up and she ran into the back of a car. Not bad - just a little dent - but I did all the driving for the rest of the month-long trip.
The picture is of her "movie-star" cousin, Herman Hack, his wife Signe, and me. We stayed at their house for about a week. They were "extras" in the movies and waited every morning for a call for an assignment - none came while we were there. He was upset because "now that the Communists and Jews were running the industry, they couldn't get jobs anymore"!!
From there we stayed with Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice. Alice and I went to a movie one day and stopped at a bar for a smoke and drink (I was underage but nobody asked). She had a martini and I had a screwdriver. Another day Frank and I went to the beach - laid in the sun and got VERY sunburned - peeled like crazy the next few days.
Jerry and I had one date (coke at the ISU's Cage) just before we left on this trip. He called the night before we left and asked me out. I had to tell him we were going to be gone for a month and asked him to call later that summer. I worried the entire trip that he might not call. But, obviously, he did!!
Sorry, this is too long, but I could write much more about the adventures of that trip.
6 comments:
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I can't imagine being 19 and driving cross country!
Very interesting...please add to it as you were tempted. I've always had reason to believe that Herman Hack had a part in the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" and played the Sheriff who hauled the guilty man out of the courthouse in that famous courtroom scene.
Can anyone confirm this? I also remember the Buick LaSabre -- a very nice blue 4-door.
Cleve
Herman was the bailiff in the courtroom of that movie. If you google Herman Hack, you will find several items. Apparently he was in over 500 movies. There was a movie about Quakers - can't think of the name right now. He was sitting quietly with all the men in the church - they singled in on him as he coughed.
He and his wife drove our buick and took Mother and me on a two-day trip to Yosemite. He kept stopping and going to the trunk for a "swig" of something. Mother was about frantic, but we made it home safely.
Remember when Cousin Dorothy Hack stood up on the women's side of the Gridley church and said, "Greetings from California!" I'm cracking up right now just thinking about that!
I also remember Dorothy Hack blessing her car with oil from Grandma's refrigerator. She also told me that "the Lord hasth cured by of my listhp."
The Quaker movie must be "Friendly Persuasion," one of my favorite old-time movies. I had no idea that Herman was one of the men in the church scene! I'll have to watch it again and see if I can recognize him from the picture you put in.
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