Jackie and her daughter Jocelyn and Hailey and my other granddaughter Megan went to see the seals at the children's pool in La Jolla. They are so cute. But people in La Jolla want the children's pool returned to the children. The pool was made when a breakwater was built in the early 1930s. The money to build the breakwater was donated by the newspaper heiress Ellen Browning Scripps. There was a natural shallow beach from rocks that partially enclosed the area. The seawall was built over the rocks. This web site tells the story:
http://www.lajollaseals.com/history.html
Jackie drove us there. She parked by the Cove and we asked where the children's pool was from there. About a ten minute walk we were told. So the three girls walking in front, we set off toward the seals. It took us more like 20 minutes to get there then we walked the breakwater to get a really good look at the seals. If the latest court decision stands the seals will be removed and sand dredged out of the pool area to turn it back into a pool instead of a haul out area for the seals. The seals bask in the sun and have their babies there.
I took photos of the seals. The day was overcast.Then we drove into La Jolla to find a place to eat. We ate at a coffee house. I had delicious clam chowder and the girls each had a large slice of pizza. I don't remember what Jackie had. After lunch we drove to the Shores. The girls and I found a place on the beach while Jackie parked the car. The girls walked to the water and got their legs wet, turned around walked back and flopped down on their towels. By the time Jackie got there the girls wanted to leave. I told them that Jackie deserved some time relaxing on the beach after driving around finding a parking place. Here is a link to the photos I took: http://www.dotcombs.net/show/seals1.html
We enjoyed our time at the beach. The sound of the surf is soothing. I wore a hat and I didn't mind too much that the sun was hidden by clouds.
There are a lot of beaches in San Diego. So La Jolla wasn't one we often visited. I didn't know much about the area. I grew up in Lakeside. In the early 1960s I went to San Diego State. Didn't graduate. Lots of reasons for that. One was my family had some problems. When my younger sister decided to go to State my father and stepmom moved into a house in the College area. My father had a swimming pool put in and the house was really nice.
Then I was let go from my job at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company because I was asthmatic. No company could get away with a thing like that now. Anyway I had taken the entrance exam for State...my sister's idea and passed. I had decided not to go to college. I would have stayed at my job. Fortunately the end of my job came just in time for me to apply for college. I only had a few days. So I moved into the new Bixel Street house too. Looking back I don't think that made my sister happy. Going to college was a good thing. We joined a soroity and I made a life long friend there.
Barbara had a boyfriend named Don. I remember Don's sister bringing her little girl to swim in our pool at Bixel Street. Don's sister put a float vest on her and let her jump off the diving board. That little girl would paddle to the edge of the pool, get out, and run back to the diving board to jump off again. She loved it and had a great time.
When my father and stepmom started having marital problems, my stepmom moved out. One day my dad sat my sister and I down and told us that he decided to keep the marriage together and he was moving back to Lakeside with Marlise. He said later that a divorce would have cost him too much money. When they were both old he told me that he was very glad that they stayed together. They really were best friends.
We had to find a new place to live. We found a two bedroom apartment on University Ave. and got two roommates. I shared my room with a girl named Sally.
Barbara and Don broke up before our move to the apartment. My sister went out a lot and I didn't. I was tall and very thin and not very good looking. I also had a lot of problems with self image. One evening when I was alone at the apartment, Don showed up looking for Barb. When I told him she wasn't there he asked me to go down to the beach. Meaning find a bar in the area for drinks. I let him talk me into it. He said it was only as friends and I believed him. Don was shorter than me...Barb had a lot of short boyfriends because she was only 5'1" tall. We were so different. I was tall with blue eyes and thin as a rail, and Barb was short with big brown eyes, pretty with a good figure. Not the same at all. Later we found out that we had different birth fathers.
Anyway after Don and I drank a few beers and talked we seemed to be having a good time. I always was a happy drunk. He drove us to the children's pool at La Jolla. It was dark night and the surf was crashing against the sea wall. We walked out on the seawall and couldn't see anything. I held on to the railing and said that this wasn't a good idea and I wanted to go back. Don wanted to stay there. He picked me up and held me over the railing. I hung on to him for dear life. He seemed to loosen his grip and I really thought he wanted to drop me into the surf. I would have died and I knew it. Finally he pulled me back across the railing and shaken I talked him into going back to our apartment. I guess I let him think I would sleep with him. I did kiss him. When we got home, I tried to say good bye at the door but he came in and sat down on our sofa. I got him a beer and he asked me to sit down next to him. I did sit on the sofa but kept some distance. He asked if anyone was home. I said no. I didn't know our room mate, Sally was sleeping in the bedroom. Don told me to take off my shirt and I said, "No!" When he got it through his head that I wasn't interested he left. I never saw him again.
This whole incident seems harmless enough. Several years later I married E.R. Combs. E.R. worked at Rohr. One day E.R. came home from work and asked me about a boyfriend named Don. I told him that I never had a boyfriend named Don. I never thought about that again for years. E.R. and I had a lot of problems. He was angry at me a lot for no reason. We went through years of that. We had three children and adoped our nephew. In the early 1980s when our marriage was finally to the point of no return E.R. asked me again about Don. This time he told me Don's last name which clicked in my head and I finally remembered who he was.
I remembered that Barb had a boyfriend named Don...not me. It seems that when E.R. told the guys he worked with at Rohr that he had married Dorothy Toston, Don bragged that he slept with me and that I was his girlfriend. All lies. Later I asked Barb about Don an she also never slept with him. Why he lied, I don't know, but the lie caused me a lot of heartache for a lot of years. Now all this is not why E.R. and I broke up. The breakup was more about the fact that something like this could upset E.R. and cause him to make my life miserable. Sometimes I wish I believed in Karma...what comes around goes around. Maybe life would not be all that kind to Don.
So while going to La Jolla Children's Pool to see the seals was fun it did bring back some bad memories.
