Which way did they go?
When I was 16 and a junior at John Burroughs High School in
Burbank California we lived on Chandler St. in a small narrow house. When you went in the
front door you walked right into a small living room that went straight into
our kitchen. And then you went through my sister Chris’ bedroom and then to my
father and stepmother’s (Phyllis) bedroom. Originally there was a hall way to
the left of Chris’ bedroom that ran the length of her room that took you to the
parent’s bedroom without going through Chris’ room. But because I was there a
bed was put in the hall and it now was my bedroom. Although it was very narrow
I enjoyed it. My fondest memories of that room was lying in bed at night going
to sleep to the voices of the play by play announcers, Vin Sculley (Dodgers)
and Chick Hearn (Lakers).
So my Dad and Phyllis started looking for a home to buy in
Burbank. I wasn’t involved in any of the plans mainly because I wasn’t home
much. Mike Bivins would pick me up at 6:00 a.m. to go to Seminary and then we
went to school. After school I worked at a local grocery market in our neighborhood
(Winsted’s) and after work my friends would pick me up and we would go play
basketball and then go Bob’s Big Boy to eat and then I would get home about 10
o’clock and shower and go to bed. You might notice I didn’t mention homework.
And that is because it wasn’t a priority. Friday nights we would have a party
at someone house (never ours) and Saturday night was the Stake dance. So you
can see I wasn’t involved with much going on at home.
Well one day after work I decided I would go home and change
clothes before going out to play basketball. When I got home the door was
locked and when I knocked no one answered so I looked through the window to see
if anyone was there. To my surprise the house was empty! My family had moved
and I had no idea where. This was long before cell phones were invented so I
couldn’t just call my parents and asked where they moved. So I sat on the porch
thinking they would surly come looking for me. But I don’t think they missed me
because I was hardly ever home. So after sitting there for a while I took off
to my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Buss’ house a couple of miles away. And I stayed
there until late that night when my family realized they had never told me when
and where they were moving.
It was a great house close to the Walt Disney, NBC, and Warner
Brothers studios. But there was one problem, it was a 2 bedroom house and again
there was no bedroom available for me. But behind the house was a small room
they were going to use as a TV room. So I slept on a couch in the TV room in a
sleeping bag. But I loved it out there; it was kind of my own little world.
