Weblog #2..Welcome..Included are family photos, information and much more

2008-03-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

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2008-03-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

A 1930s photo taken by my father of "Old Faithful" in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming

2005-11-19T22:17:00.000-08:00

A 1930s photo taken by my father of "Old Faithful" in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming where he would take my mother and my brother and sister for many camping trips in the 30s before I was born

Houses in 1906 Pomona, California on Holt Avenue

The 500 block of East Second Street in Pomona in 1954

Child actor Bobby Driscoll, who was born in the state of Iowa and got into the movies after his family moved to California...He was Disney`s top child star in the late 40`s and early 50`s but after being dumped by Disney in the early 50`s, he turned to drugs and got into trouble with the law and then dropped out of sight during the 60`s...His last known film was with Frances Farmer and Connie Stevens, in 1958, called "The Party Crashers" which was a flop, and which was also Frances Farmer`s last movie after being released from the state hospital system in 1950...Driscoll was found dead in an abandoned apartment building in 1968 in New York City, at the age of 31, from a drug overdose, and no one knew who he was at the time...He is now buried in a pauper`s grave in New York City...

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Frances Farmer--------------click here for my 5th weblog

2005-11-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

Frances Farmer, the former movie actress whose own mother had her committed to a State Hospital in Washington State in 1942, really could vouch for what really goes on inside a State Hospital as she experienced it first hand and for several years and it also ruined her life and her career as a movie actress...They made a movie about her life in 1982 called simply "Frances" with Jessica Lange playing Frances...Frances Farmer died penniless and alone in 1970...

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Louise Fletcher..."Nurse Rachett"...

2005-11-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

Louise Fletcher as "Nurse Rachett" in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo`s Nest" (1975) with Jack Nicholson...The film really does a pretty good job showing the realism of what really goes on inside a State Hospital...Another good television movie based on a true life experience of what someone really did experience inside a Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Criminally Insane is the 1978 film "The Other Side Of Hell" with Allen Arkin...

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"The Snake Pit" (1948)......click here for my 3rd weblog

2005-11-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

Movie poster for "The Snake Pit" (1948) with Olivia De Havilland and Mark Stevens about what goes on inside a State Hospital without actually showing what really goes on inside a State Hospital...If you happen to ever see this film, you will notice that in this film there is a very fictional part whereby the De Havilland charactor is being treated one on one by the ward psychiatrist while all the rest of the patients are being ignored by the ward psychiatrist, but since De Havilland is the star of this picture, she gets special treatment...However, in real life state hospitals, this would never happen...They are merely a place for warehousing, on a grand scale, mental patients and then left to rot and die there if no one on the outside cares about them enough to get them out, or it was one of the patient`s relatives who had them committed in the first place in order to get the patient out of the way...And secondly, there does not exist, in any state hospital, a psychiatrist for each ward as depicted in this movie, but only a regular low grade medical doctor, who could not find work any place else but a state hospital, for each ward, and his main function is to prescribe drugs for the patients to turn them into vegetables and walking zombies (note: The Thorezine Shuffle)...The only psychiatrist you will find in any state hospital would be the hospital administrator himself, and that would be it, and he is definately not there to give a patient one on one therapy...

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The Los Angeles County Museum Of Natural History...

2005-11-19T16:09:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History...Erected in 1909...Interesting place to visit...

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The Lauren Chapin Tragedy-------

2005-05-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Kathy "Kitten" Anderson, Father Knows Best.
Now:
Manager/evangelist.
FYI:
Author of the 1989 memoir, Father Does Know Best, in which she detailed how she was molested by her father and her father's friend, punched in the stomach by her brother, driven to a suicide attempt suicide at age 10, arrested for check kiting, high on acid during her second wedding, reduced to finding work as a hooker and trying to chop off her hand with a meat cleaver.
Accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior in 1979.
Cruises the high seas in a live, "interactive" version of Father Knows Best, handling the role of Margaret, the mother.
Named honorary mayor by cities in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.
Links:

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2005-05-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

.....Lauren Chapin had played Kathy, or "Kitten", the youngest (television) daughter of Robert Young and Jane Wyatt on the 50`s show "Father Knows Best", which was a very high rated show, at the time...Lauren was born in 1945 to an alcoholic mother, who was also a "demon" and a "witch", who brutalized Lauren when she was growing up and had "Billy Chapin", (who, also, was in the movies, and who was Lauren`s brother) torment Lauren and beat her up with his fists, and lock her in a closet all night...And this was all sanctioned by the mother, who never gave Lauren any love, but devoted all her attention to the brother, Billy...There was also an oldest sibling, Michael Chapin, who also was in the movies, but was the only brother Lauren could confide in...The father would molest Lauren, also, and had his friend also molest Lauren...He would ejaculate on Lauren and have at her sexually when she was 10 years old on up until she was 15 years old or thereabouts...When you see Lauren on "Father Knows Best" TV show, there is no indication that she is being abused at home...She had hid it very well..None of the TV cast members ever suspected she was being abused at home...Lauren had tried to make her TV family her real family, since this was the only family she really had...She was starved for love and attention...When the TV series ended, so did Lauren`s career as a child star, at around the year 1960...The abuse at home got so bad that when she was 10 years old, Lauren tried to hang herself in the closet, but was unsuccessful...After leaving Father Knows Best..... (This is Lauren Chapin today)

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2005-05-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

....After the TV series, Father Knows Best ended, Lauren Chapin could not adjust to regular schools...
Lauren got married to some guy, while still living with her father,(her mother no longer wanted her to live with her) and her father was still sexually molesting her, at this point in time, when Lauren was at around age 15...
Lauren had to get her father`s permission to get married, however...Lauren had about eight mis-carriages, while trying to have a baby...She got divorced from her first husband...Then she hit the streets and met an Italian barber who got her hooked on heroin and taught Lauren all about sex...This barber also put Lauren out onto the streets as a prostitute...This all occurred in the 60`s...She finally got rid of the Italian guy, who was meaner than hell to Lauren, and a very dangerous person, as well...Then she got hooked up with someone else who had her helping him smuggle drugs across the Mexican border..And then she got caught doing that and wound up in the Los Angeles County Jail...And then she was sent to women`s prison at Norco, California...She then got out on parole...Then Lauren continued to do heroin, and had a partner also doing drugs...She and this partner were living together... Lauren finally managed to have a couple of kids with some Mexican guy she met at Camarillo State Hospital, where the judge had sentenced her because of her drug problem...But before she had the kids and went to Camarillo, she was on the streets and Lauren got a meat cleaver and tried to hack off her arm, unsuccessfully..And that is when the cops took her to The Los Angeles County General Hospital..Then, while at the hospital, Lauren requested to be put into the psycho ward...And then Lauren was released from the general hospital, from a 30 day self-commitment, but then somehow wound up in Camarillo State Hospital, but she was sentenced there by some judge (if this story seems a little confusing, it is because I am trying to remember it from my taped version of the two hour special "Entertainment Channel" program on Lauren Chapin`s story)...Lauren then turned to the only person she trusted, her brother, Michael Chapin, who let her stay at his house in Irvine, California...She sort of cleaned up her act after that and was raising her two children and trying to work...When the "Father Knows Best" reunion, TV movie came out in 1977, she had the part of "Kitten" all grown up, with Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinore Donahue and Billy Gray, all reprising their roles, as well...She, from doing that movie, was able to buy a house across the street from , Michael, her brother, in Irvine...Her mother and father had passed away...Her mother wound up committing suicide...Then Lauren got heavily into religion, (Something I do not believe in, myself) as a way out for her, and she, today, is very active, on the right track, and into many different things, as well as evangelistic preaching...Lauren is currently living in Coline, Texas...Her daughter and son are all grown up now....

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The Woolworth Building..Historical Landmark..Los Angeles----------------click here for my 1st weblog...

2005-05-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

The Woolworth Building..Historic Landmark in Los Angeles, California..Erected in 1920...

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Family Gathering...Early Pomona Photo at our First Residence at 418 Kenoak Drive...

2005-05-02T01:44:00.000-07:00

From left to right...my grandmother, my sister, my greatgrandmother, myself (in front), my mother (behind me). two women, my brother, and finally my grandfather, in 1951, Pomona, at 418 Kenoak Drive, our first house in Pomona and before they put in the freeway across the street from us (the I-10)...Please click on photo for larger image...---------------------------------

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2005-05-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

The year 1954....I am on the right and on the left is some guy named "Marshal Turpin", who, at the time, I really didn`t like much at all because he was the "neighborhood bully", so to speak...He was two years my senior, and I was age eleven in this photo...I was in the sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary School, in Pomona, California, at the time...Terry Densley, my very first, real friend, who I met in 1951 and who lived on the same block as I did in Pomona, on Kenoak Drive, was taking this photo...He was just a little guy, the same age as me, only he had to go to a Catholic school, which was much more strict than regular public schools, where I attended school...This Marshal Turpin guy sort of just moved in and took over everything, including my friend, Terry, which I didn`t like at all and sort of came between myself and Terry and was sort of an instigator and trouble maker..He also would humiliate me and make fun of me in front of my friend, Terry, and make me have doubts about my self worth as a human being...This photo was taken in front our garage at 404 W. Alvarado strret, in Pomona, Calif., our second residence in Pomona, after moving from 418 Kenoak Drive in Pomona, which, of course, was our first residence..Terry`sfamilythen moved into our former house on Kenoak Drive after we moved to this Alvarado location...I might have my arm around this Marshal guy in this photo, but that was his idea, not mine...And it surely wasn`t because I liked this guy..that also was his bike in the photo...So there is a lot of trivia for you to digest.....

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2005-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

The High Sierras...location of the fateful Donner Party who became stranded here in 1846 while traveling to California from the East..."Donner Pass", between Carson City, Nevada and Lake Tahoe, California, is named after the Donner Party, who had to resort to cannibalism to survive, but quite a few perished anyway...

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2005-05-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

The Donner party is the name given to a group of emigrants, including the families of George Donner and his brother Jacob, who became trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1846-47. Nearly half of the party died, and some resorted to eating their dead in an effort to survive. The experience has become legendary as the most spectacular episode in the record of Western migration

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2005-05-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

2005-05-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Flambouyant Al Capone...The first gangster to turn crime into a profit making, sophisticated business and also which began the mafia underworld which still thrives strongly today....

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2005-05-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

World Famous Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California...Construction began in 1933 and the bridge opened to traffic in 1937...

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2005-05-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

The year 1958...My brother-in-law, Kenneth Hadley and sister, Dorothy Lee with their newborn baby girl, Sandra Hadley...My sister. I can`t help noticing in all photos with her and her new baby, is never looking at the camera, but seems to always be pre-occupied with her baby, while, as you notice, Kenneth is facing directly at the camera and smiling... But my sister doesn`t even acknowledge the camera and is not smiling at all...Quite revealing, if I do say so, myself...I have kind of a personal grievance against my sister, you see, I never actually ever had a sister..she never existed, at all..As far as I`m concerned..She is only concerned about herself and no one else...A very evil person...I haven`t seen her in 37 years now and never communicate with her at all, nor any of her acquaintances, nor do I want to..She is completely erased from my mind...Occasionally, however, haunting memories tend to creep through...None, of which are good memories as far as my sister is concerned..and the same is true for my mother, my dear, dear mother...Actually, I never had a mother either and she also never existed, as far as I`m concerned...Although, if still living, she would be 93 years old today...

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2005-05-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

This is what Bush was doing during 911....Reason?...Because he knew very well what was going on...Because he was in on it from the beginning...Just like Roosevelt knew beforehand that the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor...Bush also knew beforehand about needing a second "Pearl Harbor" to get the American people stirred up enough to support a war against Iraq ..And who, by the way, had nothing to do with 911...But Bush needed an excuse to start a war with Iraq and that is what was behind 911...

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2005-05-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

2005-05-01T04:47:00.000-07:00

An early shot of the main walk way area next to the Exhibit Buildings area at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, California....This is considered to be the largest county fair in the world, and is also world famous...L.A. County fair actually began in the early 20`s with just a few tents and it espanded from there-on...

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2005-05-01T04:27:00.000-07:00

The 1939 James Cagney Film "Each Dawn I Die" co-starring George Raft....

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My Military School Experience At Age Thirteen...

2005-05-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

....This is a story about one of my past experiences when I was at the age of thirteen...I was tricked, more or less, by my family to attend Brown Military Academy located in Pacific Beach, California which is no longer there and the location on Garnett Avenue is now a shopping center--
I was sent there due to manipulation by my mother and grandmother--Another one of their attemps to permanently get rid of me and put me off onto someone else`s responsibility--
I only attended the school for six months and after that I could no longer stand it--But my family still tried to get me enrolled for another year--However, I got myself out of this horrible unjust situation and got myself back into public schools in Pomona simply by a maneuver which I had performed and my family (my mother and grandmother) most certainly hated me for doing it----
What I did was, I wrote a letter to the school saying that Frank doesn`t wish to return for another year-- I typed it out and signed my mother`s name to it...This all occurred in Pomona at my family`s house during the summer vacation period, you understand, and also thinking to myself, at the time, that maybe I was rid of my family`s idea of trying to force me to attend a military school...
The day before my family was going to forcibly return me to this school, I ran away to Los Angeles and my parents had the police out looking for me in Pomona--Keep in mind I was only thirteen years old at the time--
I had taken the bus to Los Angeles and was sleeping on the bus bench at the bus station when a security guard then took me to the back room and called the police-- Then the police found out where I was from and called my parents----
When my parents came for me I was actually in the jail at the police station in Los Angeles...
Then my mother and grandmother, along with my next door neighbor friend, Mike Holm, and my older brother`s friend, Cary Seldon, drove me back to Pomona ...
Upon reaching Pomona they first stopped off at the police station and the Pomona police sergeant then told me I had a choice of either going back to military school or to "Camp 5" which is actually reform school--
The next day my parents forced me to return to the school by getting my older brother to physically force me by pinning me to the floor with a hammer lock on my arm---
--My family then drove me down to San Diego in the family car with my brother (who was driving), a family friend, Helen Frey, my mother and my grandmother----
-- When we arrived at the military school the Director of Admissions, Major James H. Barham, advised that he had received this letter from, supposedly my mother, which I had actually sent, and he then asked me if I was the one who sent this letter and I said yes, so then he said, well, we don`t want anyone here who doesn`t want to be here and he refused to admit me---
Well, this really pissed my mother and grandmother off, to no end...
They still tried to talk me into enrolling into the military school for another year and even had me take a tour of the campus with them before they were forced to take me back to Pomona...
--So therefore it was only the letter which I had written to Major Barham which was the single maneuver that had saved me from another year of hell at this military school---But they (my family) eventually won in the end (another long story)---

Fun Zone Area of The Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona...

2005-05-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles County Fair at around the year 1951...The sign you see "Fun Zone" no longer exists, but the "fun area" still is located in the same place it has always been for years and years...When I was just 10 years old, I would walk around the "Fun Zone" area, by myself, and i would get really spooked by a, for lack of a better word, model of an old woman (not a real person) and who would always be laughing at the entrance of some carnival attraction...Some trivia for those who might be interested...The fair was only a few blocks from our first house, where we lived in Pomona, Calif...and was also walking distance for me...Some more trivia: I also went with a friend and his sister to see "Mighty Joe Young" with Terry Moore and the second feature was "Isle of the Dead" with Boris Karloff, at the same time the Los Angeles County Fair was going on in 1953 in Pomona, and I really got spooked by the second feature with Karloff, so much so that I had to leave the movie and go out into the lobby of the theater in downtown Pomona, which really irritated my friend`s older sister since she had treated us to a movie that evening, and she also let me know about her dislike of my leaving the movie in the middle of it, in no uncertain terms, after she drove me to my house with Terry, my Catholic friend, at the time...We also lived on the same block, my friend Terry and I, on Kenoak Drive in Pomona...However, after reaching my home, I began crying because I was still upset over the Karloff movie and my grandmother was most unsympathetic with me and thought the whole thing was nonsense and that I shouldn`t get so upset over watching some movie...and she would say something like..."Oh Pooh!"....My brother also was laughing at me the next day and telling his friends that I was crying because of watching some horror movie, as I was walkig to the L.A. County Fair, alone, and had to pass him with his friend, Sterling Kingsley,at his house, which was located even closer to the L.A. County Fair Grounds...This happened in September of 1953...A bit of trivia for you....

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2005-05-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

Union Station, downtown Los Angeles...

2005-04-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Union Station, Train Depot...Built in 1939...Historic Landmark...

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2005-04-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

The Brown Derby Restaurant on Wilshire in Los Angeles, World Famous, was saved from being torn down because of it`s historical value...Many movie stars used to eat here and their photos were posted along the walls....

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My Family Ancient History Photo....1911...Phillipsburg, Kansas...

2005-04-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

From left to right, My grandfather, Joseph M. Fiske, holding my mother, Mercedes, my grandmother, Berenice Fiske, My uncle Clyde (behind Berenice), then two unknown ladies (unknown to me because I wasn`t around in 1911), then I think the kid is my cousin Dean Bickford who later in life had his arm taken off because he was driving his car with his arm resting on the opened window section and a car came along and sideswiped him and took off his arm...And then next to him is my greatgrandmother, who was born in 1866, one year after the assassination of President Lincoln....She died in 1953, at the age of 87, while we living on Kenoak Drive in Pomona, CA (Our first residence in Pomona)...My greatgrandmother had also come out here to California with us, to live with us, in 1950, from her residence in Phillipsburg, Kansas, where she had been living alone... My mother was born in Philipsburg, Kansas in 1911...My grandmother was born in 1888, in the Mid-Western United States, and my grandfather, Joe, was born in 1878, in a small town in Missouri called "Moorseville", two years after Custer`s last stand agaisnt the Souix Indians...My grandfather, Joe, died in 1951, at the age of 73, and not very long after the family moved out here to California from Iowa, and it was my grandfather who drove us all the way here in his late 40`s model Buick, at the time...My grandfather had been employed as a railroad train conductor with "The Rock Island Line" which was based in Iowa, before he retired at age 65...So, finishing up, next to my greatgrandmother, Alice B. Stinson, is another unknown woman and next to her, on the end, I think, is my greatgrandfather, Frank Stinson..And this photo was taken at my greatgrandparents` house (On my mother`s side of the family) in Phillipsburg, Kansas..And why everyone looks so concerned about the kid, hiding in the background, I do not know....A bit of ancient history of my background for those who might be interested...Please click on photo for larger image....

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2005-04-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

The El Capitan Theater. historical landmark, in Los angeles. built in the 20`s when they used to build theaters like large Cathedrals with a lot detailed designing and what not....

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2005-04-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

From left to right, A friend, my mother, my grandmother and then another friend...Photo was taken in 1977, not long before my grandmother passed away at the age of 89...my mother was age 66 here and had already retired from her work as an insurance clerk at the Pomona First Federal Savings and Loan Association where she had been employed since 1951.....The family moved out here from the mid-west in 1950 and my mother was working for a bank in Council Bluffs, Iowa as a bank clerk before we made the move to California....She was living with my grandparents, who had raised me from birth, after she had left my father, William, when she was living with him with my older brother and sister in Amarillo, Texas...She left my father in 1942 and was living with my grandmother ever since until the year 1979...My grandmother, Berenice, died in January, 1978, and left my mother all alone in the apartment they were renting on Towne avenue in Claremont, CA...in this photo, they are pictured here standing in front of my mother`s and grandmother`s apartment in Claremont on Towne Ave....So, in March, 1979, my mother left Claremont and her apartment and me and my sister and my niece, who also were living in a nice house in upper class, Claremont, while I had a middle class apartment in Upland, Calif with no furniture in it, what-so-ever, and this was the last time I ever saw my mother, to this day...If she is still living, she would be 94 years old now....

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2005-04-15T05:59:00.000-07:00

The Owl Drug Company, erected in 1933, downtown Los Angeles.....

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2005-04-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

Michael Benner...Radio Personality of Radio Talk Shows (mainly, telephone talk)...He started a show on KLOS-FM in 1977 which was really inspiring to me, personally...I had to call the station and be on his show to tell my sad story to the world in 1979, around April, but I lost the tape of the show, much to my grievance...I called in on two occasions, in fact...This guy is really smart and knows a whole lot about everything..He is against everything that Bush stands for and against all of Bush`s wars and just war in general..He believes in taking more personal responsibility on everything on not blaming everything on other people...Micael is five years younger than me, actually....He left KLOS-FM in 1987...But you can catch him now on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles, CA on Friday afternoons at 1:00 pm on a show called "Innervisions"..that is 90.7 on the dial, a free speech radio station...This guy is dedicated into helping people, believe me, and he really knows his stuff.....Also you can listen to Roy Tuckman on week nights, all night long, on a program called "Something`s Happening"...And you will become more informed on what is really going with the world right now and especially with the United States...And "Gary Null" is usually on there on Tuesday Nights, another guy who is dedicated into helping people....Please click on photo for larger image......

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Me at age three

2005-04-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

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2005-04-15T03:27:00.000-07:00

Entrance to Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue, Culver City....Lot of Great movies were made here, a lot of classics...The Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, W. C. Fields, Jerry Lewis, Bing Crosby, Alan Ladd, Mae West and the list goes on and on...

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click here for blog 7

2005-04-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

Frances Farmer...In the thirties and early forties, she was a great actress...Then she started taking drugs and drinking and her mother put her in a state hospital in Washington state in 1943...She would run away and then her mother would have her sent back...The conditions inside the mental hospital were barbaric..There was no rehabilitation, what-so-ever, only human warehousing...And extreme cruelty...Frances was subjected to insulin shock, ice baths, forced drugging with tranquilizers. shock treatments and finally a lobotomy..The food was thrown onto the floor for everyone to fight over...She was raped by servicemen who were brought to the hospital and by the guards....Frances was finally released in 1950, but she was never the same again... a completely broken person...So who was responsible and should be held responsible...surely not Frances...She was the victim of all of this...I say it should have been her mother who should have been put into the asylum, not Frances and let her mother get a taste ofhow the other half lives and experience the same amount of torture and misery that they had to endure...No doubt her mother had no compassion for Frances, what-so-ever, but only contempt for her daughter to do something like that to her and ruin her life forever..It was her mother who was to blame and should have been brought to trial for "killing" her daughter!! ..She just signed her over to the state of Washington...all nice and legal!!..So who is going to question the word of a shrink against someone who is diagnosed with being crazy??...You already have the stigma written all over you from the start and no chance in hell of wiping it away!!..That`s what it amounts to once you are diagnosed with mental illness..and this is what happened to Frances Farmer...She died at the age of 57, completey all alone and penniless...no more Hollywood lights and glamour for her..So what ever happened to her mother who was responsible for her tragedy ..that`s what I`d like to know...They made a movie about Frances Farmer in 1982 called simply "Frances" with Jessica Lange....A very depressing movie....But it was a true story...

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2005-04-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

James Cagney in "The Public Enemy" (1931)....Please click on photo for larger image....

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2005-04-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

Me, I just turned age eleven here...My mother took the photo while she and my grandmother and myself were spending Halloween, on a Saturday, at Knott`s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California....Please click on photo for larger image....

"A" Barracks..Brown Military Academy

2005-04-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

While I was attending Brown Military Academy Boarding School, I took this photo myself at the age of thirteen...This was "A" Barracks where the junior college cadets were housed...A lot of military officers from the Second World War were employed at this school as teachers and supervisors and everything else...It also had an R.O.T.C. program so you could go right on to West Point from here after graduating from here...They had the same exact uniforms that they use at West Point....Dr. Brown, the school founder, was a very elderly man and he was also a protestant preacher and would give sermons in the auditorium building on Sundays...So, it just figures this is why my mother picked this school for me to attend...It is a very religiously based school and so was my mother and grandmother..very much so
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2005-04-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

I took this photo myself while at Brown Military Academy in Pacific Beach, California...This was the Mess Hall building and behind it was the Auditorium building...I was thirteen years old at the time...I was using my Kodak Brownie Camera...Please click on photo for larger image....

2005-04-14T03:36:00.000-07:00

This is the oldest structure in the city of Los Angeles, the Avila Adobe, built in 1818, when California was the property of Mexico...Please click on photo for larger image....

2005-04-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

Photo of me at age thirteen while on home leave from Brown Military Academy

2005-04-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

Me, age 13, at the time I was sent to a boarding military academy in San Diego, Calif, Brown Military Academy and also at the time we were living at the corner of Wisconsin and Alvarado in Pomona...This photo was taken in the backyard of our house at that address while I was on some sort of leave of absence from the school, probably for Easter vacation or something..I was very depressed while attending this school and i was completely miserable while I was there...But my mother and grandmother and my sister insisted that i go to this school after they had bribed and talked me into it , which adults can do to 13 year old because you generally believe in what they are telling you...But my guardian, at the time, which was my mother, had alterior motives for sending me to this school...It was just to "get me out of her face" and not because "it was in my best interest"...How niave I was at this time in my life...I, for the most part, believed my guardians actually cared about me...not true, not true..They actually cared more about themselves and their Presbyterian (Pomona, California) Church and the false sense of security their religion gave them and nothing for what I felt or cared about..But you can get away with a lot if God will forgive you as you confess your sins to him, right?
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2005-04-13T05:02:00.000-07:00

Humphrey Bogart in "The Petrified Forest" (1936)....Please click on photo for larger image....

2005-04-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

click here for my 3rd weblog

2005-04-13T00:41:00.000-07:00

From left to right, my older brother, John, and then me at age 13 or 14...My brother is four years older than me so he would be eighteen in this photo..We are pictured here in front of our house which was located on the corner of Wisconsin and Alvarado streets in Pomona, Calif.....this was our second residence in Pomona...We moved three times, in all, while living in Pomona and while I was growing up in this city and attending public schools...The reason my brother, here, looks so, rather, disgusted with everything is because we just got out of church, the Presbyterian Church, to be exact...My mother and grandmother were very religious people and made us kids attend church every Sunday...My Grandmother died in January, 1978 at the age of 89, just one month before her 90th birthday...My mother was then living in an apartment on Towne avenue in Claremont, CA with my grandmother, a two bedroom apartment, and she literally went to pieces right after my grandmother died since she had always depended on her, and vise virsa, so now she, all of a sudden, was all alone...My mother was at the age of 66 at the time..I was living in a motel in Pomona at this particular time, also..I never attended my grandmother`s funeral, but everyone else did, including my niece, who was 19 years old at the time of this event, and also my sister did attend the funeral....I was not in contact at all with either my niece, my sister or my second brother-in-law, Arnold, at this particular time in history and during this event...My sister got divorced from Kenneth, my first brother-in law, in 1964 and then she found this, Arnold, A college professor at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA, and whom I do not care much for at all, but we won`t go there... And my sister, Dorothy Lee and Arnold have a nice house up there in Claremont....But that is more information on my background for those who might be interested....Please click on photo for larger image......

2005-04-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. Pomona, California, over 100 years old now...located on North Garey Avenue...I had my appendix taken out here when I was twelve years old...Please click on photo for larger image....

2005-04-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

Hotel Cecil, downtown Los Angeles, Main Street and at around 7th, I think...I have also stayed at this hotel in the past...It was built in 1924...A Historic Hotel...Please click on photo for larger image...

Current photo of me

2005-04-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

2005-04-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

Clifford Clinton, the person who first opened this cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles in 1931, on Broadway Avenue, was also heavily involved with early Los Angeles politics and on the right side of it, I might add...The cafeteria is still going strong today and I have eatin here myself in the past as well as the other cafeterias of Clifton`s located around Southern California area..A very good place to eat, I might add....My mother and grandmother first introduced me to Clifton`s Cafeterias some years ago when they took me to one for the very first time....Please click on photo for larger image....

click here to go to my first weblog

2005-04-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

2005-04-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

King Edward Hotel, 5th and Los Angeles Streets, downtown Los Angeles...Built in 1903 and named after King Edward of England, at the time...Robert Blake used this hotel when he was filming his "Barreta" TV Series and this hotel was his residence in the show....I also have stayed in this hotel in the past and I once worked as the elevator operator..A historical hotel...Behind it, another historical hotel, The Hotel Rosslyn, where my grandmother and grandfather stayed when it first opened at the begining of the last century....Please click on photo for larger image...

click here for my 3rd weblog

2005-04-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

2005-04-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Oakland Bay Bridge, Oakland, California...Construction began in 1933 and the bridge opened in 1936....Construction was simultaneous with the Golden Gate Bridge construction...The length of the bridge is over eight miles, a double-deck structure...Please click on photo for larger image....

2005-04-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

Me, at age eight, in Jane Russell`s swimming pool in Sherman Oaks, California...One of our cousins, Josephine, used to work for the actress as a maid is how I happened to be there as the whole family went there to see her home along with Josephine...Please click on photo for larger image....

2005-04-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

K-POP AM top 30 list, 1957, when Hunter Hancock and Art Laboe were disc jockeys on the station, which no longer exists, in Los Angeles, California....Please click on document for larger image....

2005-04-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

My mother, early photo...She was an only child and I think she probably was pretty much spoiled by her parents...she met her husband, my dad, while attending boarding college...They then got married and then they lived in Amarillo, Texas where she bore my older brother and sister...My father was born in Cody, Wyoming...He was a corporate lawyer for the Amarillo Oil Company...My mother was still carrying me when she left my dad with my brother and sister because he was threatening them with a gun and had a drinking problem and also mental problems...he was suicidal..they had to hide all the kitchen knives from him to keep him from killing himself....Please click on photo for larger image....

2005-04-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

Hoover Dam, Nevada...Construction began around 1931 and I think it took around 4 or 5 years to complete....One of the biggest projects undertaken by man...Please click on photo for larger image....

Me at age 10

2005-04-11T04:49:00.000-07:00

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Post Card From Knott`s Berry Farm in the early 1950`s

2005-04-11T04:29:00.000-07:00

One of the early day features at Knott`s Berry Farm..A sort of an exhibit you could look into from an outside window...There were others like this, also...I remember it well from my childhood visits to Knott`s berry Farm in Buena Park, not far from Disneyland, Another World Attraction in Orange County, California, which first opened in 1955, but Knott`s was there long before Disneyland was built...
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Knott`s Berry Farm, Buena Park, California in earlier years

2005-04-11T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is what Knott`s Berry Farm looked like in earlier years when you didn`t have to pay to get it....

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Me at age fourteen

2005-04-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

This photo has seen better days...Sorry for the condition of this photo...Me at age 14...Junior high school class photo, nineth grade, Pomona, California
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2005-04-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

Me at age 16

2005-04-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

Junior year in high school class photo
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2005-04-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

World Famous Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California...Work on it began in 1933 and ended in 1937...

This Photo, taken in the late 1800`s, is actually made out of tin...

2005-04-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

My Greatgrandfather, Frank Stinson and his younger brother, on my mother`s side of the family...Frank was married, of course, to Alice B. Stinson (or "Mammy", as we called her) who, of course, was my greatgrandmother and who lived in Phillipsburg, Kansas, and later, in 1950, moved in with us when we moved out here to California from the mid-west..."Mammy" died in the Fall of 1953, in Pomona, Calif. where we lived on Kenoak Drive...I never met my greatgrandfather, Frank Stinson, as he died before I was born...please click on photo for larger image...

My late distant cousin...

2005-04-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

My late distant cousin, Clyde Norcross, who lived in Hamilton, Ohio...His sister Zelta and other relatives of ours has some sort of connection with "The Fountain" which, I guess, is a sort of attraction to the public and located in Stowe, Vermont...I never did get the story on that place and how it connects with our family tree, or whatever...My grandmother and mother must have thought I was too dumb to enlighten me on any of my family history background when I was little and living with them, or maybe they just thought I wasn`t worth talking to about anything of any importance...All that I have found out on my family history since living with my folks, I have had to research on my own and with no help from them, whatsoever, meaning "my so-called guardians" of my very disfunctional family of which I came from, and also of whom I never ever want to think about ever again from what they did to me many years ago....

2005-03-15T01:24:00.000-08:00

This is where I go for exercise and fitness..L.A. Fitness in Southern Calif...

My Story...Summarized Version

2005-03-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

Hello
I am sort of ambevilant about what I want to tell about myself here, because I am aware of just how dangerous it is to tell too much of one`s self to perfect strangers on the Internet, but on the other hand, I do feel a strong need to tell someone of my past experiences, so having said that, here goes...
Just as many many other American citizens, I am a product of a very inadequate and disfunctional family...
My mother was born in Phillipsburg, Kansas and she was an only child and was very much pampered, spoiled and brainwashed by her mother...
My grandparents sent her to college in Nebraska where she met my dad in the early 1930s...
My mother was a product of the old school way of thinking and our family had always been for the Republican Party and shared it`s values and ways of thinking (You know, Herbert Hoover and the whole scene)...
And my mother also had been brainwashed about religion and "Sex was Evil and Bad" and about "God and The Devil", and "Fire and Brimstone", and "Billy Graham", and "The First Presbyterian Church", and I had to be baptized when I was first born, and so on, and so on, and, well, you get the picture....
My mother even gave me a lecture when I was around six or seven years old about that if I didn`t be "a good boy", I would go to Hell and Burn in Hell Fire for Eternity...
However, I did not join my family in their very medieval and set and stupid ways of thinking...
Maybe when I was a little kid I went along with it, not knowing any better...
However, I was always a rebel at heart and I never followed anyone`s set standards or traditions...
They also followed the Republican Party traditions and ways of thinking in that they had very little compassion for their fellow man...
"If you didn`t make the grade then out you go" was their motto, you might say...
Sort of like Nazi Germany, you might say...
As to why my mother set out to have three children with my father is beyond my comprehension...
And also my mother wanted only girl children...No doubt about it...
My father was apparently very unstable and had drinking problem...
He was a corporate lawyer for The Amarillo Oil Company...
My mother had to hide all the kitchen knives to keep him from killing himself...
He finally checked into the Langley Porter Clinic in San Francisco for treatment...
At one point, he insisted that they perform a lobotomy on him or he would jump out of the window and kill himself...
I guess they made him think that they did the lobotomy, although whether they actually did it, or not, remains a mystery...
One day when my father had been drinking, he was holding a gun and threatening my mother with it (so the story was told to me by my sister)...
This is when my mother decided to pack up and leave my dad and move back to Fairbury, Nebraska to live with my grandfather and grandmother...She was still carrying me at this time...
Amarillo, Texas is where she had been living with my father and my older sister and older brother...
However, my mother had always had a problem with dealing with the men in her life and always seemed to get along better with women than men, so you be the judge as to what was really going on with her and my father...
My father remarried, after being with my mother, and he didn`t seem to have any problem dealing with his second wife, and they had two boy children together..
Then later on I was born in Fairbury, Nebraska...
I never had a father for the reason that I just explained...
I was raised by my grandmother, grandfather and my mother...My mother never did remarry after leaving my father, at least not until the year 1979...
She went to work for a bank in Council Bluffs and also for a bank in Pomona, California...
The family moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa when I was around three years of age.. And then we moved to Pomona, California when I was eight years of age...
My grandfather died at the age of 73 when I was at the age of nine and therefore leaving only my grandmother and my mother to raise me from then on...
While attending grade school in Pomona I was picked on a lot by the other students...This made me feel that I was somehow inferior and different from other people...
My older brother would also pick on me and also he would get his friends to do the same...
My third grade teacher, Miss King was her name, thought that I looked like a cross between a boy and a girl, and right in front of the entire class she made this known, and she made up a name which would sound like the cross between a boy and a girl, and that everyone in the class should call me this name from now on...
Ordinarily, today, if something like this occurred, the kid would complain to his or her parents and have the teacher reprimanded, but I knew then that my parents would not care less, so I never mentioned it to anyone...
My mother never really showed any close affection or love for me (or my older brother, for that matter)...
She always seemed to like and favor females rather than males, and she also seemed to favor and offer more love towards my older sister, rather than to me or my older brother...
The only time when us kids got any attention, it would seem, from our mother was when she would read the bible to us at bedtime and preach to us about religion and make us kids go to church every Sunday...
And being raised by my nuerotic grandmother was even worse since she never liked my father, and she also never really liked us kids and we seemed to be a burden on her...
And things got even worse after my grandfather and my greatgrandmother died (she was also living with us in Pomona)...
I always sort of had a compulsion about certain things in my life...
You might say I was a perfectionist about certain things, or very meticulous, such as cleaning my room all the time, and it always had to be perfect...
I would have to move all the furniture out into the hallway and start from scratch and begin waxing the floor, and so on...
At the age of ten, I came home from school one day and I was in my room and it would not appear right to me in my mind, no matter how I would look at it...
A terrible fear came over me and I went downstairs and into the kitchen, but the terrible feeling was still there...It was a feeling which I had never experienced before...And it all began by my looking at my room that day and I could not make it appear right in my mind...
And from that moment on I would continually have these experiences in my mind...
Well, you might say that Howard Hughes and I have something in common and I won`t say anymore about it than that...
Back in those days, however, people knew nothing about this sort of thing and you were looked upon as being something weird or not normal...
When I was at the age of twelve, my mother, having decided that raising three children with only the help from my grandmother was more than she had bargained for, sent me to Florida to live with my sister and brother-in-law.. My brother-in-law, Kenneth, was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa at the time...
I only lived there with them for one school semester (January to June) and when they left to return to California for the summer vacation period, I felt better to be back home where I felt I really belonged, although my mother and grandmother didn`t feel that way, I`m afraid to say...
Sending me to Florida, when I was twelve years old, was the first time I experienced being pushed out of their house and into someone else`s house...
They even took me to see a "shrink", a Dr. Madlem, to see if this was the best thing for me, to go to Florida and live with my brother-in-law and sister...
During the month of August, after having returned to California from Florida and when the family was on vacation at Newport Beach, California, I came down with a very serious illness and no one knew what was the matter with me, and also no one bothered to take me back to Pomona to see a doctor until I became so seriously ill that they had to do something about it...
I was so sick that I couldn`t even stand up straight and I had to walk around all humped over, because walking straight up would cause too much pain inside me, but this still didn`t give my family a clue that something was terribly wrong with me physically, and they simply let me go on like this for about a week, or so...
At one point, I was too sick to get up and get around and simply wanted to lay down in the front room of the beach cottage which my family was renting for their vacation period (my mother was employed at the Pomona 1st Federal Savings and Loan Assn since 1951 and retired in 1976, and she always took 3 weeks vacation in August and always spent it at Newport Beach, California)...
Anyway, my sister, who had very little compassion for me and always really hated me and resented me as being her younger brother, insisted that I not lay around the beach cottage, even though I was too sick to do anything else...
She slapped me and said to get out of the cottage and go down to the beach and lay in the sun (and in my condition)...
Well, I did what she told me to do, and that night while we all were asleep, and I was also asleep on the couch in the front room of the cottage, I had a terrible nightmare and while still asleep I got up and was yelling and screaming and running all over the front room and even gave my grandmother, who had been asleep across from me, a black eye, and I did all this while I was still asleep and still experiencing my nightmare...
What I remember next is my older sister on top of me and with me on the floor and she was slapping me in the face and telling me to stop it, as I was then still screaming and then I was starting to wake up after that...
Of course, this was all caused by the poison which was leaking into my system from my bursted appendix...
My brother-in-law finally drove me back to Pomona and then to the Pomona hospital, and our family doctor then discovered I had appendicitis...
After the operation, I was informed that my appendix had already burst open sometime before they finally drove me to a hospital (as I had already previously mentioned) and I could have very easily died, because the poison was already into my system and it was causing me to have very freaky nightmares and I was running around the room while I was still not awake and yelling and screaming, and things such as that (as I had already previously went into detail about), while I was still at the beach at Newport, before they finally drove me back to Pomona...
So when my sister and her husband wanted me to return to Florida with them the following Fall Season, I refused to go, and therefore upsetting my mother`s plans for me (which was to get me out of her house and out of her face)...
However, that same school year at the beginning of the second semester, my mother talked me into going down to Pacific Beach near San Diego to attend a military boarding school (Brown Military Academy, which no longer exists) and telling me it would very good for me, indeed, which, of course, was not true at all...
My grandmother and my mother, both, even were bribing me and said if I did this, they would buy me a television set for my bedroom when I returned home for vacation (this is how badly they both wanted me out of their house, and out of their face)..
I was thirteen years of age at this time in my life....
My mother and grandmother tricked me into attending this school...
Usually when parents want to send their kids to a boarding school, the reason is because they are not wanted at home and this was also true in my case...
After I was enrolled, I was completely miserable at this school, but my parents didn`t care about that...They insisted that I continue with the school, no matter what...(My parents being my grandmother and my mother)..
Well, here is actually what I had to go through in order to get myself back at home in Pomona and back into public schools again... It meant me having to write a letter to the Director of Admissions, Major James H. Barham, of this military school, after I had already been attending this school for a period of one school semester, which was actually from January to June, and keep in mind that I was only 13 years of age doing all this...After typing out the letter, I signed my mother`s name to it...The letter was saying that Frank doesn`t wish to continue with the school next year...(This being the summer vacation period when I did this)...It went as far as my having to run away from home when my mother was going to return me to this school...
After having run away and taking a bus to Los Angeles, I fell asleep on a bus bench at the bus depot in Los Angeles and then a security guard woke me up and took me to the back room of the depot and called the police...
I was then taken to the police station and placed into a jail cell...
The police had called my mother as to where I was...
And then my mother and grandmother, along with a few other people with them, drove to Los Angeles to pick me up...
After driving back to Pomona with me, a next door neighbor older kid who I knew, Mike Holm, and my older brother`s friend, Cary Seldon, in the car, they then stopped at the Pomona Police Station and had the Police Sergeant give me a lecture and telling me that I had a choice of either this military school or "Camp 5", which was actually "reform school"...
The next day, my mother and grandmother, a family friend, Helen Frey, and my older brother, who was driving the car, were all ready to return me to this military school...
My older brother was also in with the rest of the family as far as forcing me to return to the school...
My older brother, "Jack" (as the family called him), never really liked me at all and he really resented me as being his brother...That is, until I reached the age of fifteen and that`s when he started to lighten up on me...
My brother actually physically assaulted me and had me on the floor of my bedroom and had my arm in a hammer-lock...He was forcing my arm upward until I would say I agree to go with them back to the military school...
Everyone then drove me back down to San Diego to enroll me back into this school for another year...When everyone entered the administration building, Major Barham asked if I had written this letter which he had received saying I didn`t want to return to the school next year, and I said that I had...So he refused to admit me, because he said they didn`t want kids there who didn`t want to be there..
So that letter, which I had wisely written earlier to this school, was the only thing that saved me from another year of hell at this military school...
But, the fact was that I simply was not wanted at home, so writing this letter didn`t change that fact any, or make my family love me any the more...
I always felt that I somehow was a mistake that someone made and I should never have been born in the first place...
After learning that they had no choice but to return me to Pomona with them, my mother and grandmother then took me on a tour of the military school campus and they were trying to talk me into changing my mind about enrolling into this school for another year, but I still refused...
They were plenty upset that their plans for me had "gone down the tubes"...
There`s another story that could also be told along with this very depressing story...And this story tells you of the fact that my family did succeed, in the end, in totally ruining my life...They got even with me in the end, in other words, and boy how they did get even with me...But I cannot tell that story here, I`m afraid...
Just another added note to his already very depressing story...I usually would kneel down next to my bed at night and say my prayers, as I was taught to do by my very religious mother and grandmother, who always went to church every Sunday and also forced us kids to do likewise...
Well, I was saying my prayers, also, this particular evening after returning from San Diego, after a very traumatic day for a thirteen year old kid, such as I was at the time that all this occurred in my life, and I suppose I was thanking God for sparing me another year of hell at the military school... Well, the door to my bedroom happened to be open while I was kneeling down saying my prayers next to my bed and my grandmother happened by and said these very words to me..."You`d better say your prayers, Boy, after the stunt you pulled today"...
The story even gets better after all this, but I think everyone gets the picture by now....

My third grade class photo...Lincoln Elementary School, Pomona, California...I am pictured in the top row, 3rd student from the left...(Note my teacher: Miss King, on the far left, second row from the top)

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This photo is of me at age twelve with my older sister when I was living with her and my brother-in-law in Tampa, Florida...Photo was taken at Clearwater Beach, Floridaclick photo for full view

This is me at age thirteen in the back yard of our 2nd Pomona residence when I was on a home leave from Brown Military Academy in Pacific Beach, Californiaclick photo for full view

Major James H. Barham, Director of Admissions at Brown Military Academy when I was attending the school in San Diego, California...It was actually this man who saved me from another year of hell at this school

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Dr. John Brown, Sr. who was the head and founder of all the John Brown Schools which were, at one time, located all around the Southern California area, and Brown Military Academy in San Diego, California was one of them...Dr. Brown was also a pastor and every Sunday at the military school, where I was forced to attend for one school semester, we were forced to listen to his sermon in the auditorium building

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Brown Military Academy, which was located on Garnett Avenue, Pacific Beach, California..A photo of the auditorium building taken from "The Warrior" Yearbook..This school no longer exists

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An overhead view of the Brown Military Academy campus in Pacific Beach, San Diego, California (no longer there)
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click here to go to my first weblog...

2005-02-19T23:47:00.000-08:00