Sometime in the 50’s San Gabriel Valley changed from acres of farmland to a suburban bedroom community. Mainly populated by middle class workers of the Southern California boom. This was the story of many areas within California. The only difference is, when you mention San Gabriel Valley, very few, even Californians, immediately recognized exactly where and what you are talking about. So in case you don’t know, it goes from Pasadena, to Montebello (where I was born), to Arcadia (where my sister was born), to Glendora, and onward to San Dimas – all beneath the south-west side of the San Gabriel Mountains. Go farther south along the San Gabriel river where the Valley ends you’ll find Whittier (where my Dad’s brother, Oliver lived).

Back then the freeways were still being built, but even still, the beach and disneyland were well within reach for a weekend getaway.

Our first house was on 1041 Bradford Drive, Glendora, alongside what was to be the foothill hwy, now the I-210. I remember a lot of rural mountainous areas for explorations (mountains to me then, but really just hills), and a “wash” – a concrete flood channel ( a river to me though). In between the river and the mountains were acres of wilderness. Well, that’s how I remember it.

I wrote a song based on those memories (see comment). It was from 1041 Bradford drive I remember my mom calling out into the woods (where we were playing in treehouses or whatever) , “Clay! Clay!, Clay!” and I would yell back, “What!”, and she would answer “It’s dinner time, come home”

Its all just a bunch of suburbia now if you google the address (but the wash and hills are still there 😉

It’s too bad we didn’t seem to use the camera much, but the movie camera got a lot of attention. So many of the snaps here are from the home movies, which actually is pretty cool as they are like snaps of memories in Glendora. My Uncle Jimmy swinging me in the front yard. My Mom loved Palm Springs (and Vegas), and I remember just on a whim on random weekends, they’d tell me to grab my swim suite and get into the car cause we are going to the desert. My Mom and Kelly Jean next to our black pickup truck (in those days you could ride in the back, and man that was fun) …Disneyland, beaches, Mount Baldy (my mom loved the snowsled)…

My Mom was pretty strict on us going to Church, some snaps here are of my first Holy Communion.

I remember near our house a drive-in burger joint that my mom loved, called “In and Out” on arrowhead highway. I hated the place cause there was all that weird sauce, tomatoes and lettuce on the burgers…yeah, plain ole McDonalds was for me, which she never cared for (I have since changed my opinion).

These pictures were probably taken just before we moved in 1968 or 69.