HINSHAW'S: MOM'S FAVORITE PLACE TO SHOP

Hinshaw's was Mom's favorite place to shop even after the Santa Anita Fashion Plaza was built in 1974. But it was beloved by many in the neighborhood.

WRITER FOR THE MARINES

My dad was drafted into the Marines in 1943 and served 'til 1945.  He was stationed on one of the atolls in the Marshall Islands.  I wanted to post this fact.  The photographs below are a few of the things that he had on his desk when I was a kid.  While in the Marines on the Marshall Islands, my dad wrote articles and drew cartoons.

The cap above, a khaki tan garrison cap, was worn by WWII Marine servicemen.

ABOVE: U.S. Marine Corps. Eagle Globe Anchor pin, Black; 1 3/4”.

BELOW: U.S. Marine Corps. Eagle Globe & Anchor pin jewelry.

Men's lariat bolo tie.  My dad had a few of these, given to him by his father.  His dad used to wear them.  

Add to that the ritual of going to train yards in downtown at 5am to pick out a tree and get a hot dog from the catering truck. Nothing was more special. My dad would pick a tree that was still stacked in the train car with ice. He never failed to get some extra boughs for the nativity scene. It was a religious ceremony for me.

CONROY'S LA TIMES OBIT, AUGUST 2012

CONROY, William M. Age 87, retired Inspector, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, passed away on August 22, 2012. Bill joined the Sheriff's Department on July 1, 1952, and retired from the Sheriff's Information Bureau on October 3, 1973. A funeral Mass will be held at Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles, CA on Monday, August 27, 2012, at 12:45 p.m. Interment will immediately follow.

Here is Conroy's obituary in the LA Times:

Dad, Conroy, his wife Gerry, and Mom.  This looks like 1984.  Conroy was spokesman and writer for Sheriff Peter Pitchess.

Conroy is standing, hands folded, at the far right.  Bill Conroy is survived by his wife Gerry, his son Michael, and daughters Kathleen and Maureen.

Another friend of Dad's, Joe Sullivan, worked for the LA County Marshall's Offices, where he was mainly responsible to the courts perhaps as a bailiff.  My brother, Dan, explained that the County got rid of the Marshall's Office in the late 90s and merged the marshalls with the sheriffs.  He added that marshalls used to serve subpoenas. 

HOME IN SAN GABRIEL, 1943

Happy Birthday, Mom!  July 15, 1920.  Is there a more beautiful day!

I liked this sentence by Jon Morrow, Associate Editor at Copyblogger, "Because, let’s face it, your ideas are your children. Their future is as tender and delicate as that of any newborn."

This picture is taken on her door step of her Alhambra home, 1943.  She was 23 years old here and probably just had Charlen. 

LILY & PA, 1959

Sally and Mary in front, Chuck in the middle, Dan, Lily, and Pa at the back.  It is nice to see how they're so proud to be connected to Pa and Lily.  They were our grandparents.  With Pa, I remember his large hand around a tumbler with ice and bourbon and stories about him abandoning a job.  At his apartment in Temple City below, he used to give us 10 pennies that I considered my first real capital.  A stack of 10 sticky copper wheat pennies from the '40s and the '50s.  He and Lily preferred macaroon cookies.  There was a dishful on his table and the light from a window in his south-most wall shone through provided the consolation when I was alone with old folks.  Pa died on August 19, 1966, and it absolutely crushed my dad.  The funeral service was held at St. Luke's on Broadway & Cloverly.  The parking lot was full and framed with tall pines.  

There was one moment a few days after Pa's passing, where we had just left church on a Sunday morning.  Dad drove to a local liquor store to get a Sunday paper and some 7-Up.  Tom, Joe, and I waited in the car, while my dad went inside to get the Herald and the LA Times.  He'd parked the car in the back alley of the liquor store, which had a backdoor entrance.  The car was actually parked under a cover.  The shipping dock against which Dad parked was only a couple of feet high.  He'd backed his '62 bug that I think he purchased in 1964 from a weeping seller in Monterey Park, CA up against the low-lying dock.  [I thought the owner lived up on Cresta Vista or Kingsford, west of Atlantic, south of the Cascades Park.]  He returned to the car and began to weep over the loss of his father.  His grief was inconsolable.  I tried to find the place, that liquor store because Dad had parked in the store's docks with the front of his car angled up, facing the back alley.  I thought that that store was in Temple City.  It may be in Alhambra.  I drove through the back alley of the liquor store in Temple City, the Cigarettes for Less, but no ramp in the back of the store.  Was it Cappy's Liquor store on Mission Drive in South Pasadena?  I know they have a dock, not a raised dock, but a ground platform for deliveries.  And they had a back door; I used to go through it whenever I stopped in that store to get a drink and a snack.

This is where Pa and Lily lived in the early 1960s before they moved to the upstairs apartment over on Golden West across the street from Temple City Park.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.  The address is 5633 Noel Drive, Temple City, CA.  

BUENA VISTA AVE. BUS STOP, DUARTE, CA

I wanted to get a picture of this bus stop because my mom would rely on the local Duarte shuttle to maintain her independence from her busy sons and daughters.  One day when I still owned my 1986 Toyota pick-up truck, I drove past this stop and saw my mother waiting for the shuttle.  But I didn't stop.  I didn't stop because I saw how she was enjoying her conversation with the other women waiting for the shuttle.  I wanted to stop.  I thought to stop, but when I saw her enjoying herself so much, having friends and cultivating a good vibe that I didn't want to interrupt that joy.  In fact, I drove right to her house.  Fifteen minutes later, she stepped through the garage door with a couple bags of groceries from the Ralphs, from the Big Lots, and other nearby stores.  Shopping was her favorite activity.  Independence was her ethic.  And shopping was when she felt the freest.  Stores gave her choices.

MOM'S COOKING
Mom would love to cook her boys breakfast.  Her breakfast would consist of a short stack of pancakes and bacon or sausage, always with a pot of fresh-brewed coffee.  She enjoyed mixing the batter, its sound, and the viscosity of whipping.  There may not be a more comforting feeling than to see one's mother standing in the kitchen, herself warmed by the heat of the pan, preparing breakfast on your behalf.  All was right.  All was love.  She would time the cooking of the pancakes by boiling a pan of water in which to place the syrup and heat it so that it would pour thinly over the pancakes.  She always purchased Mrs. Buttersworth syrup.  Though we knew that the ingredients were probably not the best, I felt that her hand transformed everything she touched.  She'd place the bottle of syrup in the boiling water and let it thin.  Taking it out, she'd place the bottle on a saucer, next to the plate of butter from which we'd slab generously.  As I see my mother cooking in the kitchen I can't help but think of her cooking in Aunt Gertrude's kitchen on Clarkson in Denver, where she was domesticated right out of high school.