1954

1954

[I wrote the following letter to my great grandmother, Margaret Booth Schall.]

"Dear Grandma Margaret: Are you feeling bad? I am doing good in school. I get many many stars on my work. How many more operations are you going to have? I hope you are better by Sunday. Love, Jerry June 4, 1954." [JAM 9/3/2010]

The woman in the middle of this photo is my maternal grandmother, Marian Margaret Pfister Booth. The photo was taken at my grandparents house in Bellflower on Christmas day, 1954. My cousin, J.C. Coon is walking behind grandma and three other cousins are in the photo (Rita Coon, Bonnie Booth and Jo Booth). My grandfather (James Orval Booth) would die suddenly two weeks later (January 6, 1955) from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 52. My grandmother was the glue who held the extended family together. She would organize family holidays and events until she died on December 2, 1971 at the age of 70. After my grandfather died, my grandmother sold her house in Bellflower and moved with us to Studebaker Road. She eventually went back to work at Kolb's Catering and lived in a small house behind Mrs. Kolb in Downey, California. [JAM 6/4/2020]

After completing second grade at Julia B. Morrison school, our family sold the house on Corby Ave. and moved to Irving, Texas. I thought we were on vacation since this was a trip we normally took in the summer to visit Dad's family. Our parents did not tell my sister Betty and me that we were going to live in Texas now. We moved into a rented house near my Aunt Helen Moore Crofford, Uncle Robert "Boozy" Crofford and cousins Roberta and Kay. Dad had taken a job as a long-haul trucker. Later that summer, our grandmother Marian drove from California with cousin Judy Booth to see us. This seemed like a long vacation and then I started third grade in Irving, Texas probably in late August 1954. My only memory of that school was getting sick at lunch and being sent home one day. This was the first of four schools I would attend during the 1954-1955 school year. Dad did not like the long distance driving so he decided to move to California and get his old job back. For a while we lived with our grandparents (Marian & James Orval Booth) in Bellflower on Briercrest Ave. Our aunt and uncle (Jim and Kathleen Booth) were renting the house next door with their children Judy, Bonnie & Jo. I went to school in Bellflower for a short while until my parents found a house to rent in Norwalk on Orr & Day Rd. I remember learning to spell at the Bellflower school with "going" being one of the first words. In Norwalk I attended D.D. Johnston school with many students I would not see again until high school.

There was a small independent market (Arvo's) near our house on Orr & Day Rd. I would walk to it almost every day. For some reason, I thought my grandfather owned that store since the names were similar. One day, the daytime television show Star Shoppers (1955) hosted by Bill Welsh (1911-2000) came to Arvo's Market. I was one of several kids chosen to play a game for prizes. I rolled an orange into a cardboard box. This was the first time I was ever on TV although I never saw that particular show. Before the school year ended, we moved to 14535 Studebaker Rd. which was the second house our parents bought in Norwalk. I was enrolled in the fourth school of the year, Anna M. Glazier. My parents stayed there until Dad took early retirement in 1976. [JAM 12/24/2020]

D.D. Johnston third grade class 1954.

This photo shows Great Grandmother Margaret Booth Schall & her second husband Eugene Schall, Great Aunt Betty Booth, Grandmother Marian Booth and some cousins on Christmas 1954.