My Life (Part 1)

by Charlotte Louise Blankmeyer,
Between Times December 2004 page 1   

I was born in El Modena, California, east of Orange, California, on April 22, 1913, the youngest of four children, Rozella, Samuel, and Lori Oilman. When I was two years old my parents, Edwin Lee and Gertrude Oilman, moved to Yorba Linda where my Father became the first manager of the Foothill Groves Packing House. The packing house was located next to the train depot.

My parents had rented an apartment upstairs of the Holloway Apartments. Then they rented a house on Lakeview. The backyard faced on Valencia Street.

Ben Foss, conductor on the Pacific Electric Car, always blew the horn. When he walked up Valencia on his way home, my Mother let me go down the hill to wait for him and he would put me on his shoulders and give me a ride back to my Mother. When I was five years old, my parents rented a house on a hill.

Then when I was seven years old, I started walking to school located on School Street and Lemon Street, starting in the first grade. Richard Nixon was in the same class, but I graduated before he did as I skipped the third grade. He became the president of the United States on January 30,1969.

Then in 1926, my Father bought a lot from Mr. Kinsman and had a house built on the corner of Lemon and North Main Street. The house is still there looking nice all painted white. I can remember when Yorba Linda Blvd. was dirt, then gravel and finally paved.

On Saturdays, four of us girls would take our lunch and eat it in a cave up in the hills above Yorba Linda. Then we would continue hiking, heading home from the town of Olinda where a teacher named Hattie Conn would have punch waiting for us. Whenever I went with friends hiking, bicycle riding, etc., I had to be home by 6:00 P.M.

One time when were heading for Olinda, a bull chased us up a tree. He pawed the ground and bellowed at us. Then, thankfully, he finally left. We girls would ride our bikes into Fullerton to the movie theater, but I just got to watch the matinee. Then on Monday, at school, I would ask the girls what the movie was like. During elementary school I played first baseman on the girls' baseball team. I suppose that is why I am an Angels fan.

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