He also bought me a book: “Born Fighting” by Jim Webb about the history of the Scots/Irish in America. Remember the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd? That’s our people!
In the 1990’s I often drove around with my Dad. One time we were cruising down Vista Ave near our home and he said “At least I raised you right, that man’s son became a “Merry Prankster”…and he pointed to a neighbor’s house. I have forgotten who the boy was but I’m sure he was older than me… more like my big brother’s age. And definitely NOT Neal Cassady. He lived in a Different part of Los Gatos. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Cassady
I was living in Willow Glen at that time and Working at Radio Shack and he would often come over an we would get a cup of coffee and sit on a sunshiny bus stop and “solve the problems of the world”. He often wrote letters to the editor and they usually got published in the San Jose Mercury News. One letter recommended putting a stop light on Almaden Expressway at a dangerous intersection and soon the city installed one there. Saved some lives…
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.
One time when he visited we went on The Hammond Trail in McKinleyville to look at the Mouth of the Mad River. It is visible from a park bench there. We had a long and meaningful talk about Mom. I’m really glad that I got sober and became my Dad’s friend in the last years of his life. I was drinking heavily when Mom died and missed that event. OOPS! Mom worked as a secretary in Fisher Junior High School Library in Los Gatos and Lexington Elementary School. The kids loved and respected her. Dad proposed marriage to mom on the top of the hill behind the Novitiate in Los Gatos. There is a trail that goes to Lexington Reservoir and from the top you can see all of Santa Clara Valley. (Filled with apricot trees).
I did experience 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 beridden she spent her entire time in the bedroom. I remember tht I wanted to explain to my Cousin Dianne how to use the remote control but she said hat 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…
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 invented. 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 is still there today. https://www.pebblebeach.com/17-mile-drive/
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 became an Acid Head. 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.
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…
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 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!
We went to Sacramento on Thanksgiving to Uncle Marc and Aunt Peg’s home. They had two daughters, Robin and Jill. Uncle Marc became a criminal defense attorney in Sacramento and Aunt Peg was a Social Worker. Jill became a lawyer and moved to Seattle and Robin went to work at Uncle Marc’s Law office. One time a client of Aunt Pegs did a Bank Robbery and was holding hostages. The police called her and said that the only person he felt comfortable talking to was his social worker… She negotiate the release of the hostages.
Martin’s wife Patti took me to my first AA meeting at Lake Tahoe. Thanks! It allowed me to live a lot longer.
I remember going to Martin and Adrienne’s wedding on a Boat in Long Beach Harbor. We wore funny hats (Yarmulke) and I danced holding up a chair the she sat on.
I remember going to Nicole’s Wedding in Laguna Beach. Again, funny hats! No chair dance that I remember… It was at a really elegant Golf Course and we had a lot of regular dancing… We met Brodie’s Family for the first time. Martin bought us a Hotel Room at the fancy Hotel… it was where Hollywood Film Stars wen to party in the era of Charlie Chaplin. Big Fun! I also got to go to an Anti Iraq War protest march at the Beach. Every year we had protest marches in Eureka and I was afraid that I’d miss out if I went to Laguna Beach… But the people there hated the Iraq War Also!
Read more of my autobiography at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/how-bubble-up-economics-works-give-all-working-people-a-raise-and-we-will-spend-it-in-american-businesses/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/compulsive-hoarding-of-money-disorder-leads-to-global-economic-collapse/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/we-can-no-longer-afford-to-have-a-government-that-behaves-like-mindless-vegetables/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/no-nukes-stop-vogtle-georgia-usa-they-are-building-a-fukushima-chernobyl-tmi/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/all-earth-beings-are-being-called-upon-arise-violet-overgrow-is-calling-you/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/green-forest-brand-toilet-paper-is-an-alternative-to-koch-brothers-products-100-recycled/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/please-post-liberal-concepts-to-conservative-social-networks-to-help-educate-the-brainwashed/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/try-the-scientific-method-observe-reality-collect-facts-analyse-the-data-draw-conclusions-its-the-opposite-of-the-republicrime-method/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/the-day-the-power-went-out-speculative-fiction-in-the-what-if-genre-note-this-was-written-by-hand-in-pen-on-paper/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/comparative-religions-so-many-different-gods-many-loudly-proclaiming-that-they-are-the-one-true-god-absurd/
https://gregvan.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/im-in-favor-of-genetic-engineering-of-humans-lets-design-better-people-smarter-would-be-great/
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