SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF STANLEY BOYD BOSLER 8/2010

I was born on the 14th of September 1929 at Rice Maternity Hospital on 12th Street, Los Angeles, CA. Near Vermont and 12th, and is no longer there today. We lived in Inglewood, CA, on 64th Street, the 4000 block, in a rented house. Grandma Padgett lived about 5 houses away. My father, Edmund S.,
b. 1897 in Chicago, worked delivering eggs for an egg ranch in Inglewood. He died in 1988 in Fortuna, CA. My mother, Norma E., was a housewife, as were most women of the day. When married, she was about 20, and my father Ed, was 32. She was born in Missouri in 1909 and had tuberculosis, all but two of her family died of TB. Her father, Finis Chambers, her mother, Lillie Smith, her two sisters, and eventually herself, she died of TB in 1934. However, two sisters, lived to be in their 60’s, Opal and Ethel. They both had children; some of their grandchildren are still alive today. I am in contact with one, Delco Hagan, of San Marcos, CA, aunt Opal’s grandson.

In about 1930. My dad got a job from his sister’s husband, who had a furnace company. It was depression time and we moved to Sierra Madre while I was still an infant. It was there that my mom died and my dad tried to raise me on his own. I started kindergarten here and had a baby sitter who lived near by. She was an older woman who also watched me while my mom was in the hospital and after she died. While I was in the first grade, my dad got a dump truck, and was working all over the state mostly on highways. I was placed in boarding homes, the first in Gardena right across the street from a school, where I continued in the first grade.

Then in the second grade, I remember living in a home in Inglewood, maybe three miles from my grandmother and her husband. She had divorced the Bosler dude, who was now in Chicago. My dad brought her out to CA along with his brother and sister around 1919. Originally they lived in LA, near downtown. Helen, my grandma, Ruth and George, my aunt and uncle. George had no children and died young as an itinerant farm worker. Ruth had one child by the furnace man, Bert Scott. Her name is Jane Ann, she has one child, Merle Lee and they are both alive and living in Nevada. Merle Lee’s father was Earl Fleming. Jane is about 86, and Merle is in her 60’s (has a bad cancer) as I write. Ruth, Jane’s mother, died in her 60’s in Northern California with an aneurism.

Eventually, when I was about 7, I moved in with my grandma and step grandfather, Bill Padgett, and his son by another marriage, Bill Padgett. Bill, the younger, is still alive in Nevada City, CA living with his wife. He is 88 and is my step uncle. His father lived to be in his 90’s, so Bill may also. His wife is Ruth and has medical problems, and Bill takes good care of her. They have one son Bill, who has one son Luke. Bill, the youngest, and Luke, live in the Temecula area of So. CA.

My grandma was strict, and was mistreated by George Bosler, her husband, in Chicago. George made his family go to the Catholic Church, so that is the religion they grew up in. They never followed thru in CA, so I was not brought up with any church affiliation. I did go to the Mormon Church once with my best friend, Norm Kempton. However, in HS, I joined the First Christian Church, where all my friends went. There was a large Inglewood High youth group at that church. I was baptized and attended until I was in my 20’s. Some of this group still gets together in the Palm Springs area once a year.

The church had internal conflicts and split in two. I went with the splinter group, for a while. I sang in the choir, and my voice was deep and strong, so I did all the verbal talking parts during the music presentations. About 1950. I tried out to be the announcer on a radio station where the church broadcast. No, I did not get the job.

The friction in the church, made me believe that I could be just as good a Christian outside of the church, and rarely went again. However, in the recent past I have gone to the Catholic Church with friends, and visit other denominations to see if I would be interested. I am not a disbeliever, but not a believer either.

Back to my youth, I was an only child and motherless. So I adopted other mothers over the years as my substitute. I liked school and played in the harmonica band in the 4th grade. I have always considered my self musical. I like to sing and tap along with music. In HS, I was in drama and enjoyed being in three plays, including the Senior Play, Murder in a Nunnery. The drama teacher suggested I go to radio school (no TV yet), at LA City College. They had the best public school program for radio announcing and acting in the LA area. I had to use an LA address to attend, we lived across the street from LA, so one of my best friends let me use his address. I took a bus and two street cars to get there.

I was used to street cars and going to LA, as on week ends I would go downtown and eat at Clifton’s Cafeteria, and go to the Orpheum Theater for a matinee vaudeville show and movie. I could get off the street car at the Coliseum and go to the museum for free. There was plenty to do. I also went to the movies a lot; a local theater the Seville (the slimy dime), was about 4 blocks away. The others were a bus ride to downtown Inglewood. Those were 25 cent theaters. I collected stamps, and could buy them in downtown LA also. Most of the time I went alone. I have always been a loner, and enjoy watching people and fantasizing.

All the time in school, I had no one at home who took any interest in what I did, no family person ever saw one of my plays or school activities. I was into student activities and at IHS I was Student Body Treasurer in my last year. I helped in planning class activities, elections, proms, and other things. I worked in the Student Store for several years; had it as an office practice class, then volunteered to help any time I was free. Through that activity, I got paid jobs at Christmas and other paid jobs around school. Like helping register adults at night school. One time I worked for the Crippled Children’s Society in Los Angeles.

Sony Bono came through the student store at IHS, but was not a musician then. I did go to school with actress Jeanne Crain's sister and their father taught foreign language at Inglewood High. I usually took the bus to school, but walked home. It must have been a 4 mile walk, thru the Centinela Park and down Chester Avenue. As a student leader, I went to the Lion’s club with the adult school principal RK Lloyde. This was a great experience and I met many business leaders of Inglewood. It also gave me confidence in public speaking. I have never had any problem speaking before any size audience. They named the continuation school after RK Lloyde, and at one time I was offered a counseling job there.

The Centinela Park was a mile from home and it is where we spent summers, swimming in the pool. I met my first love there, when I was around 10. I could always swim and this cute girl I met there was my first crush. Never found her again as I aged. During my early teens I worked at a little neighborhood grocery store across the road from where we lived. At one time the proprietor was ill and I took over the store for several days. He lay in a bed near the door of the market. He lived in the back, which was common. I also mowed lawns, baby sat, and sold papers and magazines as a young kid. As an older teen, I worked at Sears as a credit interviewer, Al Davis' men store selling clothes, and at Scott's apparel shop in shipping and receiving. These jobs helped me earn my spending money.

With my mother gone, my aunt Opal, lived in the Valley and took me summers to stay with her family, my cousin Harry was the same age as me. They had horses and I became a horse person those years. I went to camp with Harry once, he introduced me as his “cousin”, so that was my nickname. Opal’s husband, Harry, was a friend of my father for many years. He became a horse person, and they owned two different riding stables in San Fernando Valley. I spent my summers helping around the stables and riding. When I was 12, they moved to Oregon and opened an auction in Roseburg.

Parents of another friend of my dads, the Sampsons, were also in Roseburg, and when I was 13 and 14, I spent the summers with them on their mini farm. We would go to the auction on Saturdays, which Harry and Opal ran. On the farm I was in charge of feeding the hogs, taking care of the chickens (300), collected eggs candling and cleaning them for sale. I raised a calf, killed chickens for sale and to eat. In general I was a farm handy man. Could not milk, though I separated the cream from the milk and put it out for the dairy to pick up. To get to Oregon, I took the Greyhound bus, it took two days and a night, and I changed buses in Sacramento. I was always an independent cuss, and could manage by myself quite well.

Mrs. Sampson in Oregon, was a Medium, and did crystal ball readings, tea readings, and séances. Really made a believer out of me. The neighbors fell in love with me, rich folk with a big estate, they wanted a son, and wanted me to stay with them, and raise me as their own. My dad would not have it. When my mother died, her grandmother Smith wanted to do the same. She lived in Missouri and wanted to raise me. I do not remember ever seeing her, but I think she came out in 1934 when my mom died. She was born Elizabeth Jane Borror in IL. She married AJH Smith, who left on a horse one day and never returned. She had three girls to raise alone.

During WW II, Centinela Park became a camp for soldiers. My uncle Bill went into the army, then I got my own bedroom temporarily. My dad’s sister, aunt Ruth, moved in for awhile, as did so many other relatives, so I slept on the day bed in the living room maybe half of the years while I was living at 4000 W. 64th St. We were below average income folk, and did not have much, my dad contributed to the house income. He was on the road most of the time; I can remember crying when he would leave after a visit. One summer, I did spend a month with him in Atascadero, he was working on highway 101. I met his girl friend, he asked her to marry him, she said no. I hope it was not because of me. I think that was the only woman he tried to marry in all the years. He died without ever remarrying. When he was home, we would eat out together at Thrifty drug store and go to movies with talent shows and I think that is where he got the idea I was to take tap dancing lessons. I did take the lessons, and appeared in some shows around the neighborhood. I was not bad, but did not want to be a tap dancer. Wished he would have done piano lessons instead. I was a good dancer, and throughout the years danced with all my friend's wives and others at many affairs.

In High School I had a girl I was sweet on, Laura Lee Kinikin. We are still friends and I still love her. She is married and lives in Orange Co., she is in poor health as I write. She and her husband would get together with me every other year. Our health is not too good as we reach the 80's.

Then one of the church girls had a crush on me, but she was about 6 ft tall and I needed to stand on a box to kiss her goodnight. I was 5’7 ½ with an 11 shoe. In my 20’s, I fell in love with an United flight attendant, went all over the country chasing her, San Francisco and New York. I asked her to marry me, but she said I wasn’t her type. I never asked anyone else, I did not want to be rejected again. This is while I was at TWA, Shirley Nelson, of Tracy, Minnesota, was her name. I tried to find her on the web about 10 years ago, without any luck. She was interested in a Pilot! I wonder if she found him and is still living. I now am 5’6 and wear a 13 shoe!

One of our church members was a Mason, and got a few of us interested in joining the DeMolays. We were charter members; I went thru the chairs and got the honorary degree of Chevalier. I also worked at the Hawthorne Lodge and was offered the job of caretaker, but turned it down. I was going to college at the time. One night on the way home from DeMolays to Inglewood, we watched Hollywood Park Race Track burn down. This must have been in the late 40’s.

I graduated from high school with a B+ average, and then I went to LA City College for a year, majoring in Radio Announcing, found I had a lisp, dropped out and went to work for a plastering contractor as a payroll clerk. I was always interested in Business classes, took them all in HS, was not a college prep kid, and so had to take Geometry and dumb bell English at City College. My protégé in High School talked me into going back to school to be a Business Teacher. I went to the local Community College, El Camino, and took the classes I needed to transfer to LA State College. I now had a driver’s license and drove to school. In my 3rd year at State, I was drafted into the Army, my best friend, Bob Rupert, was drafted at the same time and we ended up going on the same ship to the Orient; I got off in Tokyo and he went on to Korea. He was an officer, as he was in the Army Reserve.

After working for the plastering contractor and I went back to school, I worked part time for TWA in cargo and then a ticket agent. It was there that I met Bob Rupert. We got out of the service at the same time, he a little earlier, and got us an apartment in Manhattan Beach. We both needed to finish school at LA State, and we both worked nights at TWA. He got married and I bought a house in Torrance about 1955. He got divorced after having one child and moved back with me in Torrance. Then Bob got married again, to Connie, who also became my best friend, and I was best man at their wedding. I finished school quickly and got a job where I went to school, Centinela Valley UHS District. After my first year at Hawthorne High, the district opened a new school, Lennox HS, and I went there to start a student store and teach business subjects.

I ended up as head of the business department and director of student activities. Bob Rupert got a doctorate from USC, and became a school administrator. I got my Masters from State, in school administration along with a counseling credential. At Hawthorne High School I had one of the Beach Boys in my business class my first year teaching. I have seen him twice since that year. I was invited to a concert but never had the time or place to coincide with their schedule. After 16 years at Lennox, I went back to Hawthorne High to create their first career center and become a career counselor and work coordinator. This was 1973. I got my counseling credential by going to UCLA and the University of Michoacan in Mexico. We went three times to different cities in Mexico during school breaks.

.During this time I was active in the California Business Education Association. CBEA. I was So. Cal. President, along with other offices, and a member of the State Council for over 7 years. My specialty was being chairman of the local and state exhibitors at conventions of business teachers from the state. I received a life membership award upon my retirement.

After 32 yrs at Lennox and Hawthorne High, I retired at age 58, in 1988, and became a substitute teacher in Palm Springs, where I had a 2nd home. I lived there 6 months of the year and then came back in Torrance the other 6 months. After 23 years doing that I sold my desert home and live just in Torrance.

I found that former students, Annette and Gary Sneed, had moved to Park City, Utah. I followed them there, renting, and finally buying a condo to keep for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah. The condo was to use in the summer and rent in the winter. I worked for Annette in her property management business for many years. I showed property, did inspections, answered the phone, etc. I could do my genealogy in SLC in my free time..

In SLC I met a cousin, on my mother’s side, that became one of my sons. Gary Horlacher, is a bright linguist and has been good to me, I have known him since he was 18, and now is 43. He has a doctorate from BYU, and is looking for a job as a teacher or researcher in Family Life. He does have a temporary job at USC doing research in gerontology. Annette has remarried to Dave Johnson, a wonderful man, a lawyer and she has two successful sons from her first marriage. She is like my daughter.

Norman Kempton's son, Gary, is also like my son and has been good to me over the years, as have the Stewarts, Derek Orrell, Kathy Secan, Mike Chamberlain and many others.

In the desert, I became a volunteer at the Newsweek Tennis Tournament. I started as an usher, then an information counter worker, the VIPs credential desk and ended up in the players lounge. I worked the tennis tournament 12 years, met all the biggest players and celebrities: like Barbara Sinatra, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and many others. I was also working at the International Film Festival, where I have worked 20 years. I was on the staff for the film fest for 6 years as a theater manager. I was able to use my drama experiences, introducing films and stars. I also volunteered two years at the Bob Hope Golf tournament.

While in the desert, I got acquainted with so many Canadians who are my best friends. Then one of my neighbors became my best friend, Ruth. We travel together and go to many activities during the time I am in Cathedral City. The greatest travel experience was going down the Grand Canyon on a raft. Four of us from Lennox High went on this week adventure. My principal, (friend and one of the most wonderful people I have had the pleasure knowing, George Key) and two other of my good friends, Bob Dunn, and Carl Brandt were along. We saw and experienced so many wonders of nature. Number one in my travel experiences.

In the military I went to the Army Transportation School in Virginia, and was sent to Japan to work at the Japan Ordinance Command, where I had Secret clearance, as I was privy to ship schedules of ordnance for Korea. It was a fun assignment and full of wonderful experiences.

In school, English was my worst subject, and I am illiterate and not good at writing as you can see. While working at TWA, I earned passes and could travel. My first trip was to Miami Beach and Cuba. Then I went to Europe with a lady friend Clara and her nieces, this was a month, finishing at the Worlds Fair in NY. My travels included Asia, the Caribbean, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America and North Africa and six trips to Europe. I found my roots in Germany and France; in France I have many Bosler relatives. Going to Europe I would buy a car to pick up in a city of my choice, then camp through the countries and then ship the car home. I did that on three of my trips. I took two students with me on two of the trips, Steve Shaw and Tony Levizon. These were trips of over two months. My cars came back to LA, and I would pick them up at the port and usually sold them soon thereafter. I had two VW's and a Volvo. In Ecuador, my guide was a former exchange student to California, Paco. He came to stay with me after my visit there.

I missed not having children of my own, my students were my family. When I heard LA County would let single people adopt hard to place kids, I applied. I had three placed in my home, but found it difficult to raise problem kids when I was working full time. That was a disappointment. However, I have a big family of former students and some treat me like their parent, call me dad, or uncle Stan.

Many times I took kids from school into my home. They were young people with problems with their family or even on the streets. One sleeping on a bench. A recruiter brought one kid to me, said he was quitting school to join up. I took him for a few months so he could graduate. One of the kids gave me his diploma as he said I earned it. These are the guys who lived here from a day to over a year: Pete, Reid, Danny, Steve, Randy (2), Benjie, Mike (2), Joey, Robert, and Pat . My home was always open, and groups of former students used to meet here for socializing, etc. One mother would call me to find out what her son was up to. Another group of musicians jammed here before a gig and came for Easter and New Years, coloring eggs and delivering them to the neighbors. During this time my life was full. Now very few of them are in contact with me. No one is interested in hanging with an old crow.

While teaching at Lennox and Hawthorne High Schools, I kept busy summers and evenings teaching adults and students. I was a counselor for adult ed. for years and at one time worked 4 nights a week. From there I graduated to teaching nights at El Camino College in the Business Department. That was a great assignment as it included sick pay and time added to my retirement pay. My first summers were at TWA, teachers and airlines have times that jive, they need workers Holidays and summers, teachers are available at those times. After working one summer and Christmas, we got passes to travel. I went to Europe for two months my last year of airline work, in 1965. Several of my teaching friends got jobs at TWA also. I taught summer school about half of my teaching years, once being asst. principal. I loved teaching summers at Leuzinger High, and met so many different students while teaching typing.

My summer of 1979 and 1980 were special and the highlight of my working life. I applied for a job with the US Forest Service as a camp director for the YCC. I was hired to work at the local Angeles Forest and direct a camp of inner city teens at Tanbark Flats above Glendora. It was a live in camp for 8 weeks and the kids went home week ends. I got to use my management skills, with a great staff of 10, it was the best of my summers. Reagan canceled the program when elected in 1980, I would have liked to work one more year. We solved the drug and booze problem, but stealing was the problem I would have liked to work on the third year. So many of these activities are worth a chapter of a book of my life.

I love to go camping, so did many trips to the Sierras and National Parks. There I got turned on to bird watching and became a big time birder, it is still my big interest. When my former students, the Sneed’s moved to Utah, I got interested in genealogy. Ended up publishing my family book. It is in all of the major libraries in America. I also wrote 10 articles that got published in a Genealogical magazine. The word got out and I was invited to many conferences to talk about my hobby and experiences. I am the principal expert on Boslers in America. I still get calls or letters asking for information about their families. I quit doing my family, after two trips to France finding them, and finding that my name was originally Bossert. My name was Bossler before coming to America in about 1832.

I also got interested in gambling, and went to Vegas while I was working for TWA. Used my passes and discounts at the Sahara Hotel. It is still my favorite past time, taking day buses to casinos or just going to casinos from my desert pad. I like to play black jack. My form of exercise was walking and swimming. However, I am an original couch potato. I like all sports and watch them on TV. Bob Rupert and I used to have season tickets for UCLA Football.

At one time during these years, I got into politics. Bob Rupert's, brother Tom, ran for city treasurer of Torrance. Bob and I worked on the campaign. He was re-elected several times. I got to serve on a city committee once. Then Tom was Congressman Glen Anderson's campaign manager, and I worked on that campaign over the years. I also was bar tender for his victory parties. Glen gave me a nice write up in the Congressional Record when I retired.

I bought a house in Torrance in 1957, where I lived for 7 years on Marjorie St. I put in a lawn, and landscaped it completely by myself. I hate yard work, so soon found a co op apartment going up near by, and bought one. I have lived there for 46+ years. Bob Rupert and his 2nd wife Connie, followed me and were my neighbors until 2008. Unfortunately, Bob died here and Connie went to a board and care facility in Riverside.

I call myself Raggs, and a garage sale guru. Raggs after my boyhood dog that gave me so much love, and I love to do garage sales and go out every Saturday hunting treasures. I have done three estate sales for others, and do a garage sale with my neighbors here in Torrance once a year. Ruth has been my main helper. I also like to read, trying to read one book a month.

I am a lucky person, my life has been full and I have done most everything I wanted. Sorry I did not have any children, but my former students and friends have filled in that gap. Would have liked to have visited China and New Zealand, but it is too late for that now, as I do not walk well nor travel well on planes and ships. I have been recently on several long and short cruises. My life has been positively influenced by the many people who have come my way. I thank and salute them.

Miscellaneous Trivia:

In the 8th grade our teacher had us memorize a weekly proverb. This one I remember, “Lost, some-where between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with 60 diamond minutes. No reward is offered, as they are gone forever”.
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People I admire most in my current life and in history:

George Key, administrator and friend Centinela Valley School District
Benjamin Franklin and Robert E. Lee and Mother Teresa
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter
Vince Scully, baseball and sports announcer and John Wooden, basketball coach and humanitarian
John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt, for their creation of National Parks and Monuments

OOPS, More memories:

More topics I forgot: As a member of the CA Business Ed. Assn., I went to the International Business Teacher meetings in Europe, at least 5 years during the summers. Here, I met teachers of the world and made friends that I still have. I am especially close to the Finns. I met in Oviedo, Spain, Merja, who became my super friend. Once, after a conference in Bern, Switz., we went to the mountains of Lichtenstein for several days. Malbun?, was the town. She would come twice to Torrance to visit me and I went once to Finland to visit her and her husband. There I met many Finns that I am in contact with today. Other conferences were in Oslo, Naples and Stockholm. We discussed common problems in teaching business subjects.

At one time I became interested in wines. I had groups of former students, friends, and teachers over to my co-op in Torrance for wine tastings. Once I did a study of corks and their breathing and wrote an article that was never published. I converted a bedroom into a wine cellar, pasting wine labels on an entire wall. I put in a cooler for the best wines, and an air conditioner for the 20 cases of wines in the room. One of my Hawthorne students wrote an article for a school magazine on my cellar. I am not an expert, but do have books and read about wines of the world. Recently I did do two wine tastings for several important business people in Park City, Utah. When adopting, I had to convert the room back for sleeping. I sold the wines to a restauranteur for his cellar.

I would be remiss not to mention my super friend that influenced me soo much, Jim Stewart and his family. His mom was like a mother to me, and acted as my mom in the DeMolays. I took his father Ted two times to Vegas, and visited with him as he taught us to hit the punching bag in the garage. Also Ted helped me refinish my dad's sail boat in his back yard. Serena lived to be in her mid 90's, but Jim was lost to Cancer. He, Vince and I were regulars with the Inglewood High athletes at Hermosa Beach. Jim and I rode on his motorcycle to Yosemite one winter, going thru the tree in the snow. Jim and his family were also my family, and that story is worth its own book.

In about 1948-9, I bought a 1937 Chevrolet, my first car. I did not know how to drive, so after I paid the salesman $200, Bob Reeves followed me home in his 37 Chevy. I learned to shift when I rode with Bob and his girl friend all in the front seat. His arms were around her, and I shifted the gears as he pushed in the clutch. It was stop and go on the several mile trip to my house. I got the feel of driving after a few trips around the block. Then I went to get a license, failed it two times, but finally passed.
This car got me to LA City College in Los Angeles and to my church activities.

In these years school teams were transported by private cars. They paid them $8 for gas. My best friend played on the Inglewood HS baseball team, Jim Stewart. He was an All CIF football player and had natural abilities in all sports, hence his scholarship to Stanford. I went to all his games and signed up to drive some baseball players to their games. My black 37 Chevy was called the black bastard. The best players always went with me. Jim was the team’s catcher and sat in front. With Bernie, Dick, and one other in the rear. One day to a Torrance High game, we stopped for some reason and Jim went out and punched his fist into a phone booth glass. The glass shattered and so did his hand. We went to emergency and got him patched up, but no baseball for him that day. We told the coach that the car door shut on his hand. Also told his parents the same. Pieces of glass came out of his hand for a long time. Jim was a macho guy and always tried to prove it. He used to do push ups with me sitting on his back.

In 1984, I was hired as the head bus dispatcher for the press at the coliseum for the Olympics. My loyal friend Bob Reeves, a fore mentioned, was the head track starter of the 1984 Olympics, held in Los Angeles. I did personnel schedules, payroll and related duties assigned to me by the committee.

Then, while working as a career counselor at Lennox and Hawthorne High Schools, I was wooed by the military recruiters and private vocational schools. Over the years I was given awards, and trips to several schools and military bases. They paid all my expenses and housing. I went to Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Washington, and Calif. facilities for at least three day junkets. In Texas I met one of the astronauts and sat next to him for lunch. Flying to Nellis AFB, I sat next to a Hollywood writer who was doing a film script on jet fighters at Nellis.

My grandmother’s sister Kate, married Joe Briggs, who played piano by ear at silent films in Chicago. Joe went to the University of Chicago and became a financier and CEO of a financial firm in Chicago. His son, Don, my dad’s cousin, married a movie actress, Marjorie Weaver. She made many films in the late 30’s and 40’s. The most prominent being, Young Mr. Lincoln, with Henry Fonda. They lived about 15 miles from our 64th street house. Marjorie once invited me to Paramount studios to go on set to watch filming.. Don and Marjorie used to leave their dog, Toby, with us when they traveled. Joe went on to be a part owner of the Kansas City Athletics baseball team. He traveled to KC on TWA, and I took care of him at the LA Airport where I was working. My HS coach at Inglewood, went to the U. of Chicago with Joe and they were on the same athletic team together. Small world.

When Joe visited the LA area on business and to see his son. He stayed at the Town House Hotel on Wilshire Blvd. We visited him there once, and a big wind blew off my hat while crossing Wilshire Blvd., my dad chased it down the street. Joe’s daughter, Lorraine, married a Pan Am pilot and a former All American football player from Northwestern U, Steve Toth. They moved to Rancho Santa Fe, CA. where they both died of natural causes. Their daughters. Stephanie and Jane (twins) live there now. I visited Rancho Santa Fe many times over the past 40 years.

During the Vietnam war, I wrote three of my former students, Eugene, Eddy, and Brian. Brian did some sketches in Nam for me, I ended up giving his pictures and letters to his son. Gene was killed in an auto accident after getting home. Eddy was a druggy in Nam and continued when he got home, he got in big trouble and was put in prison for life, no parole. So I continued to write him in prison, and visited him once a year. I stopped the visits, as the drive was hard, and my legs gave me a problem with the long walks from the car to the prison. Eddy became a talented artist, I encouraged him and he just got better and better. He is a very talented man, and does his water colors from prison, and sends them to his friends and family. I have a great collection, some could be very valuable one day.

I remember my teacher friend, Jack Findley and the many trips we made on his sail boat. It was in a slip at San Pedro, near where I lived summers during WWII times, that story coming. While teaching at Lennox, Jack and I would slip away at noon on Fridays and sail to Catalina. I learned to sail when I was a kid living in the San Pedro dock area. Jack and many of his and my friends would sail on week ends or holidays out of Fleitz Bros. marina. I took along one of my adoptees on one of the trips, Robert Lincoln. On other trips, Steve Shaw, and Ted Curmi joined.

One time we sail to Santa Barbara Island, and on the way back we ran out of gas, there was fog and no wind, we were just coasting around. A speed boat came by and we hailed him down and bummed some gas, and made it to shore. Only to find we were at Manhattan Beach. We were heading for San Pedro. We motored to Redondo, as it was getting dark, moored the boat. We called Jack’s wife to pick us up. They sailed the boat back the next day. Then on one mother’s day, we were sailing from Catalina in a bad storm. The swells were at least 8 feet, in the rain we surfed back to the harbor safely. It was scary and I got a little sea sick. These were fun trips that we had for several years.

Now, during the big war, my dad was an electrician at the ship yards in San Pedro harbor. He lived in a trailer at the Fleitz Bros. marina. They had showers for the live aboard boat owners that we used.. We had our small sail boat on a dock. I also had a skiff to row about on. I spent summers fishing and staying with my dad in the trailer. He worked on navy ships in dry dock. One time he dressed me up in coveralls, gave me a badge, and took me to work with him. He was going on a shake down cruise on a Navy LST they had been working on. We had no problem getting me aboard, and I went with them out of the harbor for the day. They fired their guns at targets, etc. I ate with the crew and had a fun and interesting day. This was about 1945-6. One day I had breakfast at a close by restraint and ate next to a famous movie actor, Victor Mature.

While in France with my many cousins, I met Jean Francois Bossler, who became my close friend. He was about 10 years old. I brought him to the States twice, once at 19 and again at 21. We bonded well as we traveled around the CA and the West. He graduated from College with a degree in Chemical Engineering, but after working in that area, did not like it. He was a big mountain biker, and opened a Bike shop in NE France. Married, he bought a house, and has two children. He rides with the big folk and is in the papers, as he is often in the top ten in races, and has won. He is now over 30 and racing often in season, all over France and sometimes in other countries. He calls himself Jeff, nickname for Jean a common French first name.

Now, I would like to tell about 3 of my students whom I have been close friends with all these years. The first one is from the class of 62, Lennox HS. One of my student body presidents. There were several scholarly fellows that were selecting schools to attend, and I wanted to take them a week end tour of Stanford, U of Cal, and I cannot remember the other University. Gerald Lane the Boals, and Mitch, went with me in my car to the North. Mitch had an uncle who owned a motel in Hayward, where we could spend the night. Their parents all approved, some I knew quite well. We went to the universities and had a day in San Francisco. It was really a fun trip. I have some nice pictures of us at Coit Tower. Jerry became my lifetime friend, he became a used book store owner in Albuquerque, NM. In the 60’s he lived on a commune in Washington. After that, he and his wife had a coffee house, Blue Unicorn, in Haight Ashbury in SF. I spent many times with them there as they showed me the city. In ABQ I went to the 2nd best trip in my life, the worlds biggest balloon festival. Anyone going to ABQ I sent to see Jerry at his book store. No one is a stranger to Jerry. We have been close all these years. In 1972 he wrote this ode to describe me:

“In praise of SBB
Your foibles are steady
Your sort of MADNESS-an inspiring
\ constant, in this world of ever splitting
personalities and ever bleaker selections
of imitation nuts to be found in the
Whitman’s Sample of our days”

The next student, we will call him Lance. Also another student body president who has the distinction
of being married 5 times, the same as the third student to come later. Lance is a very bright man who married his high school sweetheart. He graduated from College, intending on going into the Peace Corps. Something happened in his life and he left his wife, lived in my spare room. He found another girl, married her and got a job with the US Air Force, not too far from Lx. HS. He had learned Spanish preparing for the Corps. His job was boring and he transferred to a position in Europe. He was married again by then. I loved it, I could visit him on my junkets to Germany, and Italy where he lived. I must have stayed with him at least 4 different trips. He found there a German girl he liked, then a Scot lassie, and now an Italian girl to marry. He left all the others crying. Lance had a unique personality, smart and moved up in his job to almost the top civilian rank in the Govt., a GS 13. I could write a book about our times together. I have known and admired him for 40 years. I knew all his wives well, except for the last one. Lance could speak 4 or 5 languages, French, Spanish, German and Italian. He also helped me with finding my French roots.

Lance referred a German girl to me for sponsorship, so she could come and go to school in CA. Petra Grosch came and stayed with me while she was getting accepted at a school. I lent her bedding and a few household things for her shared apartment in Long Beach. She found a friend at school, who came to my pad with her, Ted. Ted was a Lebanese boy who was schooled in France. She went back to Germany after one year, as she ran out of money. However, Ted became my good friend and companion for several years. He married Colleen and she was one of my good friends also. Hence, he is a citizen and works for a big computer company. They have three children in the Poway area of CA.

Former student, Kent, now lives in the Northwest. Married a school sweetheart when he was just out of school. He was in my typing class, cannot remember how I got involved with his life. The young girl he married already had a child, and they had one together. She left him and was not a good mother, so he took both the children with him to raise. He had trouble handling money and I took over his finances, his checks came to me. I condensed all his bills, paid them off, and doled out money for him to live on. I think he was working for UP, delivering packages at 10 bucks an hour. He spent time in my house with his kids, and we did things together over the years, like deep sea fishing and going to Vegas. He eventually got a girl pregnant and Steve Shaw and I took them to Vegas to get married…..she was very pregnant. That marriage did not last long, she left and he moved to the Northwest and became a long haul truck driver, marrying a lady Bank Manager. I visited him there and even went on truck trips with him around Washington.

One morning, I was watching TV before I went to work, I saw his wife’s picture on the screen. She had died from Cyanide poisoning. Took it in a Tylenol tablet. This was a very prominent case, and caused all medicines in America to be sealed. It was found that a lady had spiked the tablets in several markets to kill her husband. Too long a story to tell here. His wife was a nice lady, and had a daughter from another marriage. Kent inherited her money, bought a truck and a boat and went thru the money. His one son was with them and started a landscaping business, Kent ended up working with him and now has a very successful business. He also has a wonderful younger wife who can manage their finances.
I have visited them two times over the years. This would be wife number 5 or 6? We are in touch by phone at least once a year. The son from the Las Vegas marriage, he has never seen, as they moved East. I have E mailed him on Face book and heard back. I must stop writing these stories, else I will have a book.

When I first came to Hawthorne High, the student body president came up to me and said, “are you the man who saved my life at the Inglewood pool when I was a kid?” What! Who is this? When I was working my way thru college I got a job as a locker boy at the Inglewood HS pool. One day this kid was struggling in the pool, I dove in and pulled him out. Here he is standing in front of me. Also another kid at Lennox High came up to me one day, and asked a similar question. Was I the dude at Inglewood HS pool? Yes, I said. “Don’t you remember me, he said. I used to go to the malt shop and get your hamburgers several times.” Small world again. He ended up as the head U.S. judge on the Island of Guam. Alex Munson.

One of my students who lived with me for a year, was Dan Meier. He had problems living at home and I took him in. He was a gourmet cook, and worked at a Sir George’s? Then he got a job at one of LA’s most prestigious restaurants, Scandia. I got to eat there with him and meet the chefs in the kitchen. It is the most luxurious place I have ever been to. Then at home he made some of the great delicacies that I have ever had. At Scandia he was the hors d’oeuvres cook. His family all came to my retirement and we get together yearly when he takes me to dinner. He is an English teacher at Pasadena City College and has several children of mixed races. This is a story too long for a paragraph.

My Canadian friends in the desert were very special in my later life. They had me for dinners and became part of my family, as they accepted me into their lives and family. I treasure my times with them and the fun we had together for five years. I will miss and remember them always.

Hawthorne High School:

I have spent so much on the 16 years at Lennox, that I forgot Hawthorne. My Lennox principal George Key went to Hawthorne. He asked me to come there and start a Career Program in a Career Center. Our center started in a mobile placed in the center of the campus. I got a clerk from Lawndale HS, where they had a center, Robin. After a year, we were able to get a room and Robin moved in there and created the first Career Center. I stayed in the trailer and it was my office for the career program.

I had met this lady at the Hawthorne Community Hospital, she ran the volunteer program, Diane Vanstane. When Robin moved on, I got Diane, now Diane Oley, to take over. She became my confidant and best friend, and I moved into the Career Center and the trailer was taken away. As a career counselor, I wanted to be available when the students were free, so I came in early in the morning and stayed in the center during lunch time. Over the years I had regular visitors. I put a mirror inside the door, it was a popular place. I put a sign above it that said, “Would you hire you?” With the job opportunities posted next to it. We were very active in placing students into off campus volunteer jobs, giving them credit for the time spent. Northrup Aircraft our biggest industry in Hawthorne took many students into the HIP program. I had students in many locations around town and visited them along with the other students getting paid for work, called Work Experience.

I took pictures in all the programs and made a slide show. I showed this program to all the Service Clubs in Hawthorne, and to all Sophomores in school during the drivers training program. At one time I had close to 200 enrolled in the career program. Diane developed a wonderful center and we had programs on careers for classes of students, and career speakers weekly. Pat Macha, one of my Lennox students became a teacher at Hawthorne. He was an aviation buff, created an aviation club, so with the help of Northrup, we started an annual Aviation Career Day. It also included all careers. Pat became internationally famous for his finding of old airplane crashes.

The So. Cal. Regional Occupational Center in Torrance bussed students there for training, and this came under our center also. We had a large enrollment in their programs. I got to work there two summers, once as a teacher and once as an administrative aide. Their school is about a mile from my Torrance home.

I only took in two of the Hawthorne kids in my house to live. Mike was a bright kid, who went to SCROC and had a problem at home and did not want to go back. I was living in Hawthorne at that time. (When I was adopting I needed a home, leased my Torrance pad to Ken).
Mike had finished HS at age 16, and was training to be a Nuclear Welder. He lived in my mother-in-law room next to the garage. This was in the 70’s. He got a job near by, a motorcycle for transportation, and stayed with me at least a year. He ended up in the Navy traveling all over the world.

The other lived in my place in Torrance, he was the one quitting school to join the Air Force, mentioned earlier, Randy. I only had him three months in 1980. He got a girl pregnant, and went into the Marines.

Diane Oley was a super worker and had a degree in Linguistics, so was very helpful with our Hispanic students. She also took shorthand, and left for a couple of years to be the secretary to the Asst. Superintendent. Then she came back to the career center and was the College Counselor for the school along with her work in the career center.

During the months writing this missive, I have sold the place in the desert and moved back to Torrance full time. I will stay here until I can no longer climb the stairs or croak.

Current:

I just got back to Torrance from my last vacation, Gary H. drove me to Utah through the National Parks and to Park City to stay with my adopted daughter Annette. I must mention this, as I now have a new best adventure. Besides Capitol Reef, The Arches, and Canyon lands, I saw the most spectacular place ever, Dead Horse Point State Park.

As we got to the visitors center and bought some post cards (my camera), I was walking slow due to the altitude. While Gary was inside reading about strata, I went outside in the 40o temp, and took a visitors trail for about 50 yards. I looked at the vista and my jaw dropped and I had to hold on a post, seeing the most beautiful sight of my life. Words cannot describe it, colors and formations of disbelief with a lake of bright blue in the distant. I hobbled back to the car to get my camera and came back for pictures. Then we went into the park to see the Colorado river meandering thru this unbelievable canyon of all shades of red, grey, and brown. Gooseneck they call it. This is a must see, a secret place that is missed by those going to the National Parks. In nature, it is my number one, even better than the Grand Canyon.

I spent four wonderful days in Park City, seeing old friends and being wined and dined by Annette and her husband Dave. They treated my like a king. I drove home alone, taking my time and made it safely.

Death comes once, let it be easy
Ring one bell for me once, let it go at that
Or ring no bell at all, better yet
Sing one song if I die
Sing John Brown’s Body or Shout All Over God’s Heaven
Or sing nothing at all, better yet
Death comes once, let it be easy. Carl Sandburg, between 1920-48

    August, 2010