I remember Aunt Alberta's last years. Dad bought a Television at my Radio Shack store and we drove over to her house and installed it in her bedroom. She had a TV in the living room but when she became bedridden she spent her entire time in the bedroom. I remember that I wanted to explain to my Cousin Dian how to use the remote control but she said that it didn't matter because Aunt Alberta couldn't tell one station from another. She was taking morphine at that time but hated it. Too much nausea... After she passed away we all went to the Funeral at Oak Hill Cemetary. I Found out that she had a Hobby of Sewing Clothes for Barbie Dolls.
Grandpa Malek worked as a carpenter (general contractor). He would build entire houses. Mom's family would live in the houses while they were being built and then move on to the next house when grandpa sold it. Our family house on Hedding Street in San Jose was built by grandpa. We had to move because it was under the flight path for airplanes to the San Jose Airport and the entire neighborhood became uninhabitable when JET airplanes were started landing in San Jose. We moved to Los Gatos and the house was put onto a truck and moved to Almaden. The house was valuable enough to justify moving it instead of simply tearing it down. Grandpa became a carpenter right after the 1906 earthquake. He was living in Oregon when the call went out for all able bodied men to go work rebuilding the city of San Francisco. He also built a house on "The 17 Mile Drive" a neighborhood of palatial mansions in Carmel. Mom, Dad and Grandpa built a Redwood Deck on the back of our house in Los Gatos in 1960. The deck was still standing when we sold the house.
Grandpa Vanderlaan worked as a minister. During the 1930's the people that attended his Church had NO MONEY to put in the collection plate. Ministers feed their families with the money from the collection plate. Grandma, dad and uncle Marc went camping on the Trinity River because there was good fishing, hunting and NO RENT. Dad and Uncle Marc were very good at fishing and hunting during the 1930's because that was a major source of food. During the great Depression Grandpa came to the realization that God did not exist. So he quit his job with the Church and became a math teacher. He also was a founding member of the Humanist Society. It's an alternative to Christianity. My dad was an atheist until the day he died. My brother became a Unitarian and I just didn't care that much. Grandpa Vanderlaan wrote a book about Religion... I tried to read it a couple of times but got bored in the early chapters and never finished it. "Protestant Modernism in Holland"
We went to Christmas parties at Dorothy and Leland Lea's home in the hills behind Oakland. My cousin Gary and I would play guitars and sing. Gary also played the family piano and the drums in a rock band of his friends from high school. Leland had a huge collection of tiny liquor bottles. The size they give you on an airplane... Surprisingly, after Leland passed away Gary sold the collection to someone on the internet. Before he shipped them to the customer he emptied all the bottles and poured the booze down the sink. It's illegal to ship liquor across state lines but empty bottler are Legal... Leland also made a big deal out of serving beef tongue... To me it was a rather standard meat but he enjoyed serving it to squeamish relatives...
Gary Lea taught me about the Visual Mantra he used to quit smoking tobacco. Whenever you had an urge to smoke, think of the O'Neil's Surf Shop Logo and remember that if you don't smoke you will have a longer life and more opportunities to go surfing... Good Idea!
My mom's family lived in "The Heart of the Willows" and I remember going to Christmas Parties there. My uncle made apricot white lightning and I would eat an apricot, get drunk and then dance with my cousin. The adults thought it was funny to have small children experience sexual desire before puberty... HA HA! The way he made the liquor was to fill a mason jar with pitted apricots and rock candy (sugar) then pour in vodka. Set that jar on a shelf for a year and the liquid was nearly 100% alcohol.
He also went to a bar named "Chick Letty's" during prohibition. Willow Glen was an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County just outside the border of San Jose. The laws were not enthusiastically enforced in the County... Decades later I went to the same bar and purchased illegal marijuana in the parking lot. SO, nothing has really changed... He bought illegal booze and I bought illegal reefer...
Mom's grade school has been recycled as a Senior Center and Dad went there to participate in their bus trips to Eureka. It was a voyage to the Bear River Casino in Lolita but he just used it as a handy way to travel to see me.
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