About two years later, we moved up to Santa Cruz. Chula Vista is dry, dusty, and has more traffic.

Why Santa Cruz? I think it’s the only time in fire department history that Santa Cruz hired a lateral transfer, and John got the job. We like this area but it was one of many we were looking at.

What made us choose this home?

The fireplace!

We were coming from San Diego where we had owned a home. We probably drove our poor real estate guy crazy. But when we came to this house and I saw that fireplace, I knew. When I walked out and I saw that view I knew again. That would do it. Wrap it up!

At first we thought that this was too far out, but it worked out fine.

We moved into our house in Corralitos in 1986, and Abby was born in 1987. Alyssa was eight, and Anda was five. Then I said to myself: “this is all the kids I want.”

Today the kids are doing great. Alyssa and Jaime lived up in Sacramento. She’s managing an office while she goes to school to get her accounting degree.

Anda is in Fresno and is looking to move back over to the coast. She’s working, but looking for career – type work.

Abby finished one year at Chico, came home for a semester, and just moved up to Chico again.

We are blessed. They’re not perfect kids, and we’re not perfect parents. We’ve had our up’s and down’s but we’re very fortunate. Somehow we have weathered all of these changes. Our kids are great people. We’re close with them.

Junior high was probably the roughest time. Junior high stinks anyway.

AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE
Grandmother’s Table is the Center of Our Home

We’re sitting around my great grandmother’s table. We cook, we eat, and we watch movies together. I’m going to teach Anda to knit.

This is a big round table, about 4ft. across. It’s got some leaves so it will stretch out, too. My great grandmother’s name was Letty Graves; she was my mother’s maternal grandmother. My mom inherited this table, and then I got it. We’ve had it since we were married; it was a wedding gift. It’s a little rickety, and needs to be refinished.


THE FRONT PORCH
“I Have Girlfriends That I Really Count On”

I have girl friends that I really count on. Even though I may not see them all the time, they are really important to me. I’m just someone who likes female friends. I have two friends from high school; we get together once or twice a year. We shop, visit different places, share what’s going on with our family, and shop some more.

For the past few visits we’ve gone down to Nancy’s house. It’s cheap, there’s no one there, it’s comfortable, and we have the run of the place.

We’ve also gone down to Palm Springs, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Napa. For our next one we’re talking about Vancouver. We tried to go to Vancouver once before but my mom got sick right before I was supposed to leave. So that’s Nancy and Sandy.

We’ve also made some really good friends in Santa Cruz County. I’ve heard about people retiring and moving somewhere else but I would hate to do that. We’ve got really good roots in this community. I have good friends that I would hate to leave, including people from the emergency room.

FAMILY SCRAPBOOK

A Few Precious Things

I have some linens from my grandparents. I have some stuff that my grandmother knitted or crocheted. My mom has some stuff that’s meaningful, and nice to see when I visit her. She has a hutch that came around Cape Horn back in the eighteen hundreds.

But this dining table is the biggest thing as far as my family goes. There’s been a lot of discussions around this table going back for generations.