My father insisted that Ben and I get married the day I arrived in Tokyo. The wedding was to take place in the chapel at Yakota Air Force Base where Ben was stationed. Even though the base chaplain and his wife wrote to my parents extending an invitation for me to stay with them the … Continue reading 4. Tokyo 9 September 1955: The Wedding
Old photos
Epilogue: The House on Coronado Avenue
The house in the photo above is where I lived a major part of my childhood. My family moved there the fall of 1942; we moved away in June 1949. I was four when we moved in, eleven when we moved out. I had finished 6th grade at Woodrow Wilson Elementary and would have entered … Continue reading Epilogue: The House on Coronado Avenue
Old Photos: 1930s
Child Bride, my second book, begins each chapter with an old photo, or in one case a painting. I wanted it to be an album of memories, stories and photos that together tell the story of my parents' marriage that focuses on the early years, the 1930s and 1940s. I grew up hearing stories of … Continue reading Old Photos: 1930s
11. Sewing
It is late fall, the living room is dark except for the pool of golden light that shines on my mother’s hands as she guides the fabric for my new nightgown under the pressure foot of our old Singer sewing machine, the teeth of the feed-dog pulling the fabric as her feet work the treadle. … Continue reading 11. Sewing
9. Post-War
No, California would never be the same: not after the federal government had spent more than $35 billion in California between 1940 and 1946 …, multiplying the manufacturing economy of the state be a factor of 2.5, tripling the average personal income between 1939 and 1945; not after some 1.6 million Americans had moved to … Continue reading 9. Post-War
6. Stockton: WWII
“When Lowell and I quit Junior College we went to Lodi and lived with your parents until the war. We enlisted shortly after. Your parents made several moves before they lived on 21 West Third Street in Stockton. While on Third Street your dad and I got jobs driving dump trucks at the Stockton Airport.” … Continue reading 6. Stockton: WWII
4. The Youngs
The Adam & Margaret Young Family (November 1941) My mother stands at the left end of the photo above. It was taken November 1, 1941, the day Mom’s brother David married Jane Weston. The parents sit on dining room chairs taken from the house, their four sons and six daughters stand around them. It … Continue reading 4. The Youngs
Chapter 3: The House on Highway 99
The photo below was taken November 1941. I was two months shy of my fourth birthday. My father was twenty-seven. In less than a month, Japan would bomb Pearl Harbor, and the United States would enter World War II. Jacob & Loretta Willems, November 1941 I have a dim memory of this photo being taken, … Continue reading Chapter 3: The House on Highway 99
“Toddlers remember better than you think”
“Up until the 1980s, it was thought that babies and young toddlers lived in a perpetual present. … The paradigm of the perpetual present has now itself been forgotten. Even infants are aware of the past, as many remarkable experiments have shown. Babies can’t speak but they can imitate, and if shown a series of … Continue reading “Toddlers remember better than you think”
Old Photos
I have been going though my accumulation of old photos, trying to find a satisfying way to both organize and preserve them. Particularly urgent are the colored snapshots and portraits made back in the 1970s and 1980s. Unbeknownst to us then, that lovely color was doomed to fade. Before long they will be ghost photos. … Continue reading Old Photos
