Windmill House

A third grade friend lived in the Windmill House. That was back in the late 1940s. I was invited to spend the night there by a girl named Kathleen. I remember the house very well. My mother took us to Washington State in March of 1949 and for some reason though we moved back to Lakeside I was never friends with Kathleen again.

I did not see the house again until many years later. In the early 1970s  my children's grade school class went to see the Native American grinding rocks that are on the property. Some of them  are very deep into the rocks.

The house is now surrounded by an RV park. The land was once part of a Mexican land grant and before that it was a Native American village. Los Coches creek crosses the property and there are springs near by. It was quite wonderful all those years ago before it was covered by trailers and RVs. The whole area should have become a real park.

A person can just drive in and see the windmill house. Jackie and I did that yesterday after our lunch at the Italian resturant near there. She was surprised as most people can live around here for years and not know the Windmill House exists. There is a sign that gives some of the history of the house. I had always thought it was much older than it is. It was built in 1925 and the windmill was built to generate electricity. I had always thought it was to pump water. Two of the owners of the house were listed but not my friend's family.



I remember that we had to leave the house and go out to a separate building to go to the bathroom and that seemed scary at night. Kids remember stuff like that.

Bird of Paradise

Taken with my Olympus E3 and an old Minolta Rokkor 50mm lens.



 

Quiet Morning

Up before sunrise this morning. A little piece of quiet to enjoy. School starts on Tuesday and that means a quick trip down the freeway and then a slower trip through a few red lights to her school. Had a cup of coffee in my hand by the time the sun came up in the clear sky. It will be another hot day...yesterday was a 100 plus.

I noticed the bird of paradise beginning to bloom so got the camera.

Looking forward to taking more photos...

Swimming

We didn't learn to swim as very young children growing up in east San Diego County. Life was different back then. Houses didn't have air conditioning and they didn't have swimming pools. At least we didn't know anyone that had these things. Our hills were covered in sage not miles and miles of track houses. During my very early years America was at war with Germany and Japan. We had blackouts. My family had the only telephone on our part of the road and there were two dairies, one up the road and one down the road, that needed to shut down their lights during a blackout. There would be the phone call and my great uncle would go to one dairy and my dad to the other. The first time it happened my dad was so excited he ran into a barbed wire fence on the way to tell them to shut off their lights. I remember when the war was over. My parents were divorced by then and my first stepfather loaded us up into the car and we drove to San Diego honking the horn while other people on the roads did that too. We were so excited though I don't think we fully understood what it meant that the war was over.

By the time I was six years old my mother's marriage was on the rocks. She took us to Washington state. Bob flew up and talked my mother into trying again. We drove back to California in my grandfather's brand new Kaiser automobile. The next summer the marriage really was over and Mama took us back up to Washington. This time for the whole summer.

There are a lot of lakes in Washington state and summer programs to teach children to swim. So my cousins, my sister, and I were taken to the lake and put into swimming class. The first thing we had to learn was to face float. I saw my sister and cousins quickly go on to the next phase, backfloating. I couldn't seem to get out of face floating. Finally I managed to float to the count of ten...I really think the instructor was tired of me and wanted to send me on to the next class. Back floating was a disaster. By then my sister and cousins were dog paddling. I tried to do everything right but I would only sink up to my nose and breath in water. I decided that I was never going to learn to swim.

A few years later my Dad and Stepmother took us, most weekends, to Mission Bay to picnic and swim . My dad got big inner tubes from his work and so I had a great time floating around on those tubes. Mission Bay was also a different place back then. Lots of space and only a few people.

By the time I was twenty, my mom, by then married to my last stepfather put in a swimming pool. Years go by and my sister and I were both married with children and often on weekends we would visit Mama with our children. My sister smoked back then and she would tread water and smoke. I would hang on to the side of the pool.

I joined a backyard swim class for moms. I learned to dive into the deep end of the pool and to glide face down accross the pool. I even learned to swim a few strokes. I had gained some weight by then and it was easier to float. However when the instructor had us tread water, I began to sink. She looked at me and as I was going under she grabbed me and pulled me up. She said I was doing everything right too!

So I decided I had heavy bones and I just wasn't ever going to float like most people do. Give me a floaty and I'm a happy camper.

Yesterday I had a bone density test. The test is for osteoporosis. My bones are fine. I sort of knew they would be but it is nice to have that confirmed.

Summer's Past Revisited

Jackie and I went to Summer's Past. I had the iced tea and she a cappuccino. I wandered around and took a few photos while she checked out the soap shop.

Then we drove west on Old 8 to the Italian resturant and had a lovely lunch. I got a small pizza and Jackie ordered bruschetta and we shared. I took this from the resturant parking lot. I liked the way the sun hit the flowers.

Sunlight on Water

Hailey in the pool, and I noticed the designs the sunlight was making on the water.

Another Photo from Saturday

This one needed a bit of Photoshopping...