Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your "Place Line"

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

 It's Saturday Night again -

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Randy Seaver of GeneaMusing has our assignment for today:

1)  We're all familiar with Timelines - date, location, event, etc. - for events in our lives.  This week, create a Place Line for your life, or for the life of one of your parents or grandparents - your choice! In that Place Line, tell us the location (address if possible), inclusive dates (if possible), and events. Consider topics like residence, schools, churches, employment, etc.

Here's mine:

Residences:

* After my parents (William J Hork and Lela Nell Johnston) were married on 19 April 1953, they lived with his mother at 3418 Wren Avenue, Concord. I cannot show a photo from Google Maps because it’s tucked into one of those flag driveways and is behind another house.

* They moved to 35 Wharf Drive in the housing tract called Shore Acres in West Pittsburg (now called Bay Point). Lela’s parents gave them the down payment and closing costs for a wedding present. Here is a photo of them at the construction site. The next one is Bill holding me at their front porch.

* They probably couldn’t afford the payments and were next living in a rented home in Pittsburg at 467 E 9^th Street in 1955. It was a two-bedroom house and by the time the fourth kid came along, my parents were sleeping in the dining room downstairs. The best part of the house was the nice sidewalk and driveway where we rode tricycles, bicycles, and pedal cars, or roller skated.

* In 1963, they purchased a three-bedroom house in Walnut Creek on 130 Paulson Lane. It was such a nice tree-lined, one-lane road that ended at Las Trampas Creek. It was a great place to grow up. Of course, the family got larger with two more kids and they converted the garage into another bedroom so we could end up with two to a room.

* In 1988, the state bought their house to widen Interstate 680. My mother had a hard time finding a place that she liked that the state would pay for. Nothing their real estate agent showed them was comparable to the little country road they lived on. Luckily, the neighbors across the street had become unable to remain in their home due to age and illness and my parents were able to buy their place. It was set back from the little lane with trees in front, so they couldn’t really see the huge retaining wall built by the freeway construction. We had fond memories of the house because we were often invited to swim in the pool. Now, we had full access to the pool. The address was 141 Paulson Lane.

* After my mother passed away in 1992, my dad lived there alone until a development company came in and offered him and many of the neighbors a buyout. He then moved to a condo at 1037 Northoak Drive in Walnut Creek where he lived a couple of years until his death in 2007.

Schools

* My mother, Lela, attended school in Stephenville and Fort Worth, Texas, Sand Point, Idaho, Mountain View, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, and Concord, California. She graduated from the Walnut Creek Grammar School in 1948 and then attended Acalanes High School in Lafayette for two years before her parents moved to Pleasant Hill. She finished high school in 1952 at Mt. Diablo High School located in Concord.

* My father started school in Cucamonga, probably at a parochial school. When they moved to Napa in 1940, he finished grammar school at St. John’s Parochial School. He attended high school at Napa High School. His mother moved to Concord and he did his last semester at Mt. Diablo High School, graduating in 1950.

* Us kids attended St. Peter Martyr School in Pittsburg until we moved to Walnut Creek, where we all attended Parkmead Elementary up to 6th grade, Parkmead Intermediate for 7th and 8th grades, and Las Lomas High School for high school.

Churches

* Bill and Lela were married at Queen of All Saints Church in Concord. I was baptized there.

* In Pittsburg, we attended St. Peter Martyr Church. The next three children were baptized there.

* In Walnut Creek, we attended St. Mary’s Church. The last two children were baptized there. First Communion and Confirmations happened there, too. I was the only one married there.

Employment

* My mother worked at JC Penney before she married and then was a housewife.

* My father worked early years at a gas station, then a loan company, and finally settled at working in produce at supermarkets. He worked at Safeway, LoRay, and Ralphs. Later he returned to Safeway, where he retired. I don’t have the dates of each. At LoRay, he worked up to manager of the department in the Walnut Creek store, and then to buyer, working in the main office. Later, Ralph’s bought out LoRay and he worked for them for awhile until he was laid off. He might have worked at other stores that I don’t remember, but finally ended up with Safeway.

I can see that I have some looking up to do. I have my father’s papers and perhaps I can learn more about his employment and discover when he retired. I found his withdrawal from the United Food & Commercial Workers dated in 1993, so likely that’s when he retired. He would have been 63 years old. 

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