Growing Up In Long Beach

As I said in a previous post, I grew up in Long Beach, California.  My family moved there when I was about 4 years old.  I lived there until I was in high school.  Long Beach was a wonderful city.  I have so many lovely memories.  The weather was wonderful.  My parents had jobs and worked and were very happy.  We lived in a succession of houses which we rented. 

We started our tour with the first house I  remember.  It was on Kildee Avenue and I lived there 3 years, from the age of 4 to 7.  It was a modest little house with just 2 bedrooms.  My sister and my brother and I shared a bedroom.  My oldest brother, Richard, slept on a day bed in the dining room.

 This is the house where I learned to ride a bike and to roller skate.  I loved this house and this neighborhood and it broke my heart to move away from it.  The Bromleys lived next door--an older couple who I adopted as my grandparents.  I was sad to leave them behind.

The next house on the tour was the house on Charlemagne St.  I lived there 2 years and have many happy memories playing with the children on the block.  We played kickball in the street and we set up lemonade stands.  Most of the children attended the nearby Catholic school and I remember waiting for them to walk home down Wardlow Road.  In the summers we spent most of our days at the park just around the corner.  See below.

This is Wardlow Park.  We played in the sprinklers, played hide and seek, played on the equipment including the swings, and even attended the recreation center where we did arts and crafts.  I took baton lessons in this park as well.  We played there unsupervised for hours and loved our summer picnics in the park. 

The summer between 4th and 5th grade we moved across town to a house on Lee Street where we lived for 9 months.  It was across the street from Helen Keller Elementary school, and that became my playground.  I loved rollerskating past all the school rooms and up and down the sidewalks of the school when it wasn't in session.  We played kickball and dodge ball on the playground.  And I had lots of friends to play with there as well.

The next stop on the tour was the house we moved to when I was 10.  We lived there until I was 15.  It was across the street from John Marshall Jr. High school.  This house has been remodeled to add a 2nd story and the A framed entry.  (I edited the picture to remove the 2nd story.)It was just a flat roofed 2 bedroom house when we lived there.  But it had a nice backyard and a step down family room.  I liked living so close to the school.

We ended our tour with a stop at the high school I attended.  Grover was surprised at how big it was!  Of course.  It had nearly 3000 students attending it.  1100 in my graduating class.  The town of Lovell only has 2300 people in it.  Here it is:  Robert A. Millikan High School.

 You can see the gym in the background.  Off to the left the white building with windows was the cafeteria.  The area in the front is just walkways between the several buildings.

This is one of the 4 buildings of classrooms at my high school.  All 2 story buildings.  It was built in 1954 and was brand new when my older sister attended it. 

I consider Long Beach my home town.  I have many good memories of it. 

I hope you enjoyed the tour.