My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings : 1)  Do you have memories of your Junior High School (or Middle School) years?  Please share several of them. Actually, I attended neither a middle school or junior high but an intermediate school consisting of seventh and eighth grades. Parkmead Intermediate was located on Newell Avenue in Walnut Creek, California adjacent to Parkmead Elementary, which I also attended. I walked to school. In the low water part of the year, I took a shortcut by crossing the creek and cutting through Mr. Newell’s property. Both grade years had English, math, science, social studies, P.E., foreign language, music/art in 7th grade and home ec. in 8th grade (boys had shop), and one elective, which for both years was girls’ chorus. I took German for foreign language from Mrs. Harvey. My grades were average (couldn’t find the report cards I...

One of my favorite places to hang out while growing up was The Creek. It wasn’t until much later that I learned the creek was called Las Trampas Creek. Its source starts in Lafayette where Happy Valley Creek, Lafayette Creek, and Old Jonas Creek come together. The creek then travels east towards the city of Walnut Creek until it joins the San Ramon Creek to form Walnut Creek. Some parts of the creek have been channeled in downtown Walnut Creek, some parts have been “tamed” with small dams and concrete banks (riprap), and some parts still appear natural, though watershed maps indicate our area was earth constructed. To us, the creek upstream from the dam was pretty wild with tall trees and deep pools. At the end of our street, Paulson Lane, there was a small diversion dam. In the winter, water flowed over the dam and spilled into a widen plain. In the summer, only a small portion flowed through openings below the top of the dam. The dam top was wide enough that we could walk across. W...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has another great topic this week. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) Remember when you were 12 years old? On a summer day out of school? What memory do you have of fun activities? 2) Tell us about that memory (just one - you can do more if you want to) in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook.  Please leave a link to your own post in comments on this post. 3)  Have you told your children and grandchildren about your childhood memories?  You really should. It was 1966 when I was 12. In that summer, I had just finished up 6th grade at Parkmead Elementary in Walnut Creek, California, and we had a whole summer before starting 7th grade at Parkmead Intermediate, which was located right next door to the elementary school. A typical summer was breakfast of cereal that we served ourselves. Then outside to play until called for lunch, when...

Another great assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings . Here is my assignment: 1) Do you know how, when and where your parents met? 2) Please tell the family story in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in your own Facebook or Google+ post. When I put together a family history of my father, William J. Hork's Gleeson line, I sent out questionnaires for my dad, his sisters, and my cousins to fill out. One of the questions was how did you meet your spouse. He said that he met Lela Nell Johnston at the Walnut Festival. The Walnut Festival was held yearly in Walnut Creek, California in September to celebrate the walnut harvest. A long time ago, a lot of the valley was covered in walnut orchards and Walnut Creek had a walnut packing house, where the trains of the Sacramento Northern would haul them out. The Walnut Festival was a weekend affair were one could ride on carnival rides, eat great junk food, and play games. And of course it was a place to me...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has another great assignment. Here is our assignment: 1) Remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and in fifth grade at school? Was that one of the best times in your life? Or not? 2) Tell us about your fifth grade memories and the highlights of that time of your life - in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+. I attended Parkmead Elementary in Walnut Creek, California for fifth grade. Mrs. Griffin was our teacher and she was the hardest teacher I ever had. She hated our handwriting and made us re-learn cursive all over with all of the exercises. She was also one of those teachers who seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. I think we wore her out because she retired after our school year! But the best part of 5th grade was joining Junior Girl Scouts. I was part of Troop 374. [1] We met once a week in the Kindergarten room and our leaders, Mrs. Bailey & Mrs. Hanson, were teachers, I think (though ...

I'm with my brother, Steve.  I think this is end of 5th grade. Today, March 12, 2012 is the 100th Anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts of the USA by Juliette Gordon Low.  I joined Girl Scouts in the 5th grade in the fall of 1964.  Our troop met in the kindergarten room at Parkmead Elementary School in Walnut Creek on Thursdays after school and our leaders were teachers.  In those days, the troops were multi-grade.  Junior Girl Scouts were 4th, 5th and 6th grade.  I don't remember the girl's name who asked me to join the troop but I sure had a lot of fun. Hiawatha A few things I remember doing in Girl Scouts: earning badges, learning folk dancing and attending a festival, camping at Bothin in Marin County, camping in Sonora, backpacking, hiking up Mt. Diablo and camping, camping with skunks, having a tea party with our mothers, reciting the poem Hiawatha, and going to the state capital. I was in Girl Scouting for just four years: two yea...