GOOD OL’ DAYS
I remember our neighbor’s 1927 Diana, made by the Moon Motor Car Company. Work or play, it made our days exciting. My Grandmother and the neighbor loaded the Diana with eggs from my Grandparents’ egg ranch in La Sierra, California, and hauled them to the market. I can remember finding a place to sit in among the dozens of eggs, very carefully finding a seat, and then having to make sure I stayed put! One little slide could mean disaster to our cargo, AND to the Diana!
And when we weren’t hauling eggs, we used the Diana to pull a two-wheeled box trailer to haul hay. Hauling hay was a lot more fun than hauling eggs! We would put the Diana in low gear, point the car in the direction we needed to go, and it would just idle up and down the field while we walked along side loading the trailer. Every once in awhile, one of us would have to jump on the running board and correct the steering.
We used the Diana for fun, too, playing car tag! Something we could never do, today! And actually, our car tag was more like a game of hide-and-seek. Several of my friends and I would drive up one of the small hills in our rural area, or down to the very bottom of a hill, and try to find a place that had a little bend in the road where we could hide a car. We’d park, turn off all the lights, and make sure no one stepped on the brake!
We’d take turns being “it,” and the object was to find the hidden car. The Diana was pretty easy to hide. It was blue and black, and with no street lights of any kind, it blended in, very nicely, with the night.
The Diana was a lot of fun, work or play, for about 15 years, 1937 to 1952. Ah, yes, those were the good ol’ days.
We used to go from Redondo Beach to see Grandma and Grandpa in Riverside about once a month to spend the weekend. It was always fun as a kid going to the country and staying in their guest house. Of course we always stopped in Corona on the way to eat at Mava’s Ice Cream Cafe.
The adults would play Canasta at night while my sister Barbara and I would watch T.V.. Sometimes they would let me play one game.
Hi Jimmy and Diane
I had forgot the trips you and your folks made to Riverside ,thank you for you comments.
Wayne
And I can remember:
-Grandma teaching me to swim in the public swimming pool;
-Grandma mowing the lawn with the push mower;
-The baby chicks in the incubator;
-Sitting on their patio swing having ice cream on a real hot summer day.
-Seeing the old “Read Cars” on the route from L.A. to Long Beach while on our trip from Redondo and Dad saying that they should never get rid of those;
-Seeing a Steam train traveling thru the Santa Ana Canyon and Dad saying that that’s probably one af the last steasm trains you’ll see as deisels are replacing them;
-Walking over to see Uncle George and Aunt Gladys along side the old Arlington Ave when it was a 2 lane road and seeing all the orange groves across the street.
-I bought their 1954 Ford in 1962 and kept for many years. I had added chrome wheels, dual exhaust, rear deck radio speaker, and eventually had it repainted a dark blue at Earl Sheib for $19.95. It came out great;
Jim
Hello Wayne. Chuck Townsend here. You might not remember me. The last time that I saw you and your wife, Jeanie, was when you first got married. I helped you move in to the house that you first lived in. I have someone else that has been looking for you. Elbert Myrick. He ask me if I knew how to get a hold of you and I said that I would look on the internet and see what I would come up with. That was about a year ago. I look and look and finally came up with something. Well is you see this comment send me an email letter at cateddy2004@yahoo.com and say HI. Bye for now. Chuck