Mom and Dad's house

When Mom and Dad got married, they lived in a one-bedroom apartment on California St. in San Francisco. It was just down from Nob Hill. One year later, Monica was born. Ten months after that, Eileen was born. Two babies in a one-bedroom apartment! Mom used to say that Eileen had her days and nights reversed- she would sleep all day and cry all night. Mom worried about disturbing the neighbors. In 1953, a few months after Eileen was born, they were happy to move into their new house at 513 Marine View in the Sterling Downs neighborhood of Belmont. Mom and Dad liked the neighborhood. There were lots of families with young kids. They joined a babysitting coop. At the end of 1955, I came along to join the family. Then in 1958, they moved to 2602 Ponce Ave. Bob was born a few years later making the family complete.

We had so many good times in that house. Mom lived there for 58 years. It's such a long time and yet, here we are cleaning out the house. It's really a reminder to me that as much as we feel that we own things, we are all just renters here on this earth. Mom was fortunate to be able to rent for a good long time. We were fortunate, too. Fortunate to have her in our lives, and fortunate to have our family home to visit for all these years. I want to post these pictures to keep that house and all of its memories alive in us. For us, it will always be our house.

On this pocket door in the kitchen, we used to measure ourselves, our friends, even our cat and dog.

It will be a little secret for the future owners to discover.

And here we are filling the house and creating some of the happy memories:

In remembrance of Dad

April 17, 1992- It's been twenty-four years since Dad died. Mom had to live a long time without him and so have we.

Going through Mom (and Dad's) house has provided an opportunity to think about Dad. There are some pictures and things that I don't remember seeing before.

Here's a picture of Dad in elementary school. He is in the second row from the top, the first one on the right. He's so cute!

Here he is as a freshman in high school. He is in the second row from the bottom, third from the left. Phil and I were married by a priest who was the pastor of this church of St. Peter's in the Mission which was a nice connection.

Dad joined the US Navy during World War II at the age of 17. I think he was stationed in New York at the beginning of his training. Here are a few pictures of him horsing around with his friends who had names like "Pop" and "Big Red."

Then he went to officer's training in North Dakota and became an ensign. He was stationed in San Diego and went out on the ship USS PCS 1423.

Here is a picture of him following the captain of the ship.

We found his hat up in Mom and Dad's closet. I don't know if they cut part of the hat when you leave the military so you don't impersonate an officer.

Here's a letter that Dad got from the Secretary of the Navy thanking him for his service and a picture of the ship he was on.

And here is a cute picture of skinny Dad when he was in San Diego.