I recall as a young boy, growing up in the 1940 and 50’s, noticing material differences between families in my Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. Some of my friends had luxury homes near the top of Baldwin Hills. Others lived in very nice homes below the hill in Rancho Vista, and others, like my family, lived in more modest apartments in the Village Green and lower lying environs.
April 1947 neighbor kids at my 4th Birthday party in the Village Green.
1961 Lawn Surfing in the low-lying environs @ 5627 Bowesfield, Otto and Close. It happens I rescued someone on a different surfboard when the Baldwin Hills dam collapsed December 14, 1963. That Dewey Weber was stolen when I was in the army 1962.
At Christmas kids would show off their gifts and it was clear that some kids fared better than others. Then kids talked about what their Dad’s did to make a living: Otto’s Dad was a well-paid engineer for Walt Disney. Devitt was a Frigidaire salesman. Abraham’s Dad owned a paint store. Kaley’s family lived at the top of the hill, and their Dad, R.J., was a successful contractor. Goodman’s Dad was a District Attorney, Schredder’s Dad owned a car lot on La Brea.
Marty Goodman in Vietnam c 1968 (horrific, life altering experience)
Abraham, Kaley, Otto and Close varsity swim team Dorsey High 1960.
My Dad was self-employed in the house cleaning business. It seemed near the bottom rung on the career list, which was a little embarrassing, but I didn’t shy away from saying what he did for a living. Dad spent a lot of his time with me: baseball, cards, games, camping, tinker toys, etc. Modest pursuits perhaps, but I wouldn’t have traded our good times together for anything. Mom contributed through extensive part time and volunteer work and a steady supply of love.
Steve, Bobby, Eleanore, King and Ginny c 1953 Baldwin Hills Village Green
Perhaps that’s one reason, I don’t measure success or failure in economic terms. For me, economic status is one of the poorest measures of success or happiness. All the sadder, in my opinion, to stoke the flames of material envy for the cynical acquisition of political power.
1949 Sister Ginny with Denny and Mike Devitt.
Yes, we compared our Dad’s and their cars and houses and luxury items and sometimes jealousies arose, and feelings were hurt. For my own part, though we weren’t all equal materially, I accepted the way things were. I observed that everyone was free to choose their own career and that some were perhaps more ambitious, or clever, or lucky than others, and so differences were inevitable. That’s the way life was, and everyone’s outcome was different. And it was OK, as long as we were free to choose, and no one hurt or stole anything from anyone. Nor was anyone stuck in place. Some went up and some went down with the winds of fortune.
1953 Aunt Winifred’s clunker. She traveled from St. Louis to visit and help her sister (my grandmother, Elena), financially. That’s what folks did.
Likewise, as we became adults, we made choices that mostly determined our destinies and economic outcomes. The same factors were at play: mainly ambition and sometimes a little luck, good or bad. Rich or poor, many of us worked before we graduated from high school: Otto at Sav-On, Kaley at Thriftimart, Goodman at Safeway, Schredder at Baldwin Hills Drug, Devitt at Hody’s and Abraham at Wilshire Gas. I worked at Sutton’s Union 76. Instead of borrowing for college, many of us worked our way through. There was an assumption of self-reliance.
Heidbrink, Otto, Zimmerman, Close and Hill graduation Baldwin Hills Elementary School 1955.
I never felt someone should even things out by taking away my friend’s stuff. That seemed akin to stealing, something I learned and innately believed, was wrong, if not unlawful.
c 1955 Bobby Oates genius, telepathic, kid. His Dad wrote a sports column for decades in the L.A. Times. Mostly covered the Rams. His dear Mom, Marge, made me a sandwich when I visited her in 2000, aged 57. I felt like a kid again.
There was no Medicare, Medicaid, Medi-Cal or food stamps. I didn’t know anyone on welfare. Government spending and debt were nominal. Health insurance was affordable, and doctors made inexpensive house calls. I never saw anyone starve or die in the street from lack of care. The safety net was your family, your friends, houses of worship and private charity.
1959 Catalina Island kitchen boy for 8 weeks @ $20/week + room and board. Learned more here than all previous years in K-12. Saw James Whitmore dive off his boat and sat next to Johnny Crawford at the Isthmus bar. Ray “Termite” Arnold from West Virginia, aged 21, more capable than any college kid you ever met.
And we kids, though perhaps at times obnoxious about differences in status, chose our friends across all levels of economic strata. And despite economic differences, I felt a sense of community among most of our families. Most of my friend’s parents were stellar in their treatment of me and I was always welcomed into their homes. That love and sense of community meant more to me than anyone’s economic position.
Women’s Volleyball Team at Baldwin Hills Recreation Center 1952. 1950’s moms treated us boys very kindly but also kept us in line. My mom front row, 4th to right. All slim and trim. Special moms to me: Jane Goodman, Marie Otto, Marge Oates, Ellelie Kaley, and Mrs. Schredder who cried when I brought her a present from my Mom.
There are more meaningful things in life than economic position or possessions. And, if they choose, people can ascend the economic ladder as far as their ambition propels them.
1996 at the Toro Canyon farm. Good enough for me.
This was a beautiful post. I love all the pictures of a younger Steve Close :) The one at Toro Canyon is epic...what a beautiful place you got to call home