This is the first chapter of my life, my autobiography! I started out being an adventurous, fun loving little boy but as I approached puberty things went terribly wrong, I lost my way and became obsessed with girls, sex, and Rock and Roll! Everything I've written is the truth!  



               

     VOICES

      IN THE WIND

                                                                                        BY:

                                                                                 Barry Lee

                                                    IN LOVING MEMORY

OF

ANNETTE TICKEY

08-1941-----02-27-2011

 This story is dedicated to my lifelong friend Annette. Thank you for encouraging me to do this. Many times as I wrote I wanted to quit but you wouldn’t let me so I kept going until I was finished. Unfortunately you passed away two months before the story was done. I miss you so much and I will forever! Goodbye my sweet.

                                                                                                        
© 2011  All Rights Reserved

 THE BEGINNING

 

        

                1942, February 18^th. World war two was raging around the world. Almost 4:00 O’clock in the morning in a small country town named Booneville, Arkansas, a tornado was heading this way! but a young 19 year old woman was to close to giving birth to run to the cellar. Her Husband took their first born daughter barely 14 months old and went to the cellar while the doctor and the young mother struggled to give birth. No hospital in this little town, the newborn would come into this world in a bedroom of a little cabin close to the Arkansas Ozark Mountains. The new born was a boy weighing in at 8 1/2 pounds, the doctor and the new born and the young mother survived the storm even though there was extensive damage done to many structures throughout this little town The young 19-year-old woman was my mother Jean, the newborn boy, well that was me Barry. So it was in February 1942, two months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and in the middle of a serious tornado in Arkansas I made my entrance into this war torn world. For the first six months I was still In Arkansas but my father, Ira left for California when I was a little over four months old and at six months of age, my mother also left for the Golden state carrying myself and my older sister,  Annie. We settled in Pasadena when we hit California, my dad was working at a gas station and my mother had two more kids while we were there, my sister just under me, Gloria, and my little brother, Dennis, after which we moved to Alhambra, California. It was here in Alhambra where my first memories of life begin, I was somewhere between 3 and 4 years old but I can remember things that happened during this time before I started Kindergarten and I started school in my fourth year so some of things that happened had to be while I was yet 3.

              I don’t remember my dad leaving to go fight in the war but in 1945, I was at least three and a half, I remember one day when everybody was yelling and running out in the street hugging each other, people in cars were honking their horns, church bells were ringing all over town and I ask my mom why, she grabbed me up and hugged me yelling: “the wars over, daddy’s coming home!” Then, I remember my dad when he walked into the house hugging and kissing mom, mom couldn’t stop crying. Then one by one he kissed all of us kids. He still had on his uniform and I remember thinking to myself how tall he looked, sitting down he opened his army duffel bag and took out war souvenirs and gave one to each of us kids, mine was a small silver metal bomber airplane. After the war my memory is cloudy but I still can remember living in this little courtyard where there were 7 small houses and one big house right in the middle which was where the landlord lived, all the others he rented out. We were tucked in behind some kind of a small factory in the front and another one on one side of the court, on the other side there was an alley that ran along side and we were always plagued with peeping toms that would come up the alley and try to peek in anybody’s window where the shade was left open. In the back was a giant wall with a metal gate that led out onto railroad tracks, mom threatened all of us kids with death if she ever caught any of us going through that gate and getting out on the tracks because trains ran 24-7. More than once I remember sneaking through that gate and walking way down the tracks where I found more kids to play with, I would be on the verge of a heart attack as I slipped back into the courtyard fearing that mom was looking for me and I was going to get a beating but that didn’t happen, not that I didn’t get beatings, I got those everyday. According to mom, I didn’t like our landlord, I don’t remember his face but I remember his name, it was Mr. Bicky, he was a foreigner but I don’t know what his nationality was. I guess he was always yelling at me for one thing or another so of course I didn’t like him at all. One day he came looking for mom and told her: “Mrs. Jean, your son zshit on my sidewalk!” I don’t remember this, mom told this story all the way up until she died, I guess I thought I would show old Mr. Bicky so I went over to his house and pooped on his side walk right outside his front door, of course I was long since potty broke so mom went looking for me and gave me a good spanking, I most likely was around 4 years old then, she spanked me because it was wrong for me to do that but she laughed about it the rest of her life!

             During my fourth year of life I started Kindergarten, the year was 1946, I was really not ready to go to school and I had to walk up this long busy street to get there. The first day was my worst day! But, every morning for about a week I would walk to school and play on the play ground slide and swings, but when the bell rang for everybody to go to their classroom, I left the school and walked back home, mom would have to take me back to school and threaten to spank me with a belt if I came home before school was out. I attended all of kindergarten and part of first grade there in Alhambra, California but at age six or 1948 mom and dad bought a house in a little city called Duarte, it was a small sister city to a larger city called Monrovia so whenever we told someone where we lived we had to say Monrovia/Duarte and most people knew about where we lived. Duarte was a rally nice community. Because so many young boys went to war leaving their mom and dad behind, four years later they were young men, many already married, coming back after the war was over, and needing a place to live, the government got busy building homes by the tens of thousands! Our little two-bedroom home was one such brand new house. It was part of a tract of homes built right in the middle of citrus orchards that pretty much covered most of Duarte, as far as your eye could see there were orange groves, some grew grapefruit trees, even lemon trees, apple trees, and plumb trees, it was a virtual playground for a little six year old boy!

               Back in 1948 things were much different than they are now, black people had to live up on the north side of the railroad tracks and whites lived on the south side. Even though I was only six I remember wondering why that was but I never asked mom or dad why. I was busy making a new life, meeting other kids in the neighborhood and roaming through the orchards with my boy hood dog Duke. I can’t remember when we got Duke, but he was my very best friend and we went everywhere together, at night, he slept on my bed but he watched over all four of us kids, he was a floppy eared cocker-spaniel, black and white and I loved him more than I loved just about any other thing. There was this time when the orchards served another purpose. Instigated by my older sister, all of the neighborhood kids went into the orchard deep enough where no one could see us and Annie decided we were going to play nudist colony and before you knew it every one of us took all our clothes off and we were just running around the orange grove like it was nothing! We did however get caught, someone saw us on the second or third time we did it and we all got beat with dad’s leather belt! Needless to say, that put an end to our nudist days in the groves. Annie being only maybe 8 years old was the oldest of all the kids but somehow she managed to duck out of taking the responsibility for this whole nude idea. I don’t remember what she told mom but one thing for sure, it was a lie. But mostly, to me and my dog, the orchard was our domain! They were endless! I became a “hunter”….All summer my days were consumed with me and duke chasing after lizards and horny toads, snakes, even rabbits. Of course, at first we had to get settled into our new house! The front and back yards needed to be planted. Our new house was a little two bedroom, single car garage house but it was set on a really big piece of land!  There were six orange trees in our back yard and one sitting right in the middle of the front yard. Every year we had all the oranges we wanted to eat. My mother realized early on that I had a special love for animals and reptiles, even though it was against her better judgement she tolerated me and my love for critters. Our back yard in Duarte was huge! At night, I couldn’t even see the end of it. At the very back I built my own rabbit hutch and had two white rabbits that today I can’t remember their names but I do remember naming them. I also had a big white duck, two white mice, and a turtle that ran loose in the back yard, and of course I always had a snake or a lizard or even a horny toad in a small home made cage in the garage and then there was Duke. I remember the spring between my second and third grade year, school was coming to a close for the summer but we still had about another month to go. When I walked home from the bus stop I would cut through the orchards everyday. One day I saw something that didn’t look right and I stooped down to get a closer look, it was a sand toad, their like frogs but the color of sand and don’t really need to be in water. Well, I didn’t know that and so I took froggy home and filled up the bathtub with water and turned him loose. I said there you go froggy, that should make you feel better. My mom worked as a waitress most of her life and usually didn’t get home until a couple of hours after we got home from school. Unfortunately, I went out in the back yard to play with my animals, feed them and water them as well. Some how I forgot about the toad in the bathtub, that is until I heard my mother let out this blood curdling scream! She came home and went to go to the bathroom and as she sat down on the toilet she looked over at the bathtub and that was when I knew I was in trouble again! I didn’t get spanked but I got yelled at really good and had to take the toad outside, I just wanted it to be happy that’s all. When Dad got home of course mom had to tell him what I did but he only laughed and said: “well, he’s all boy honey, that’s what little boys do.” My duck, this was a special kind of duck, he had a red bill and made no sound when he tried to “quack,” I thought something had happened to his vocal cords because I never saw a duck like this one., it’s like he was whispering when he tried to quack. Later I found out there was a breed of ducks like this and he was normal for that breed of duck. We got really close and he looked forward to playing with me everyday when I came home from school. I was the only one that could walk up to him and rub my hand over the top of his head and down his back, I could even pick him up but he wouldn’t let anyone else get close to him.

               Having no idea that what I was doing was going prove fatal for “quacky,” which was the name I gave him seeing as how he had no quack to his quack. Knowing he would be waiting for me everyday when I came home from school, I would come into the kitchen and we had a wooden framed screen door leading out into the backyard (the way all screen doors were made back then) so I would look out the kitchen window to see where quacky was and then I would just jiggle the screen door and quacky’s head would perk up right away, I would do it again and quacky would get ready, he knew what was about to happen....I would bust out of the back door running across the yard as fast as I could with quacky right on my heels! Then, I would pretend like I tripped and I would just fall flat on the ground and quacky would climb up on my back and start pulling my hair close to my neck with his bill, it hurt a little but we were just playing and both of us were having fun. Finally, with the passing of time quacky thought that anytime someone came out of the back door it was play time and he would attack who ever it was, this included my mom when she came out to hang clothes up on the clothes line. quacky would bite at her legs and she would have to kick him to get him to leave her alone. I inadvertently trained quacky to be “vicious” well-trained attack duck. One day he got out of the backyard somehow and got this little 5-year old girl down on her front yard and was biting her and pulling her hair. The little girls parents came up and complained to mom and mom said that’s it Barry, quacky has to go. I cried a little because we became really good friends and I knew it was my fault that he was the way he was. Dad knew a man who lived 60 miles away on a little farm so he gave quacky to him. However, he told my dad sometime later that quacky was so mean to everybody they finally had to have him for dinner. Goodbye quacky...I’ll miss you! My Turtle. I absolutely cannot remember where I got my pet turtle. It had to be from a friend of the family who was aware of my love for animals but at any rate, I never named him and he just lived free out in my backyard. Like I said, my backyard was huge but only the first half was planted with grass which was where the turtle pretty much lived because he could have all the grass he could ever want for food. Of course, when it was time for me to mow the lawn I had to search him down and put him somewhere safe until I was finished. I never paid much attention to him because he wasn’t a pet that you took out for a walk, he didn’t chase you around the yard or sleep in your bed at night, he was just always there and I never forgot that he was. A couple of times I remember finding him out in the middle of the street heading for the other side, for what I don't know’ maybe just needing new scenery or an adventure to brighten up his otherwise dull existence crawling around in my backyard. I always caught him though and put him back and telling him he better not do it again...as if he would understand what I was saying. One day, I looked out my kitchen window and saw duke out beyond the grass chewing away at something so I went out to see what it was, it was my turtle! His whole front half was eaten away or so I thought. I was so upset with duke that he would kill and then start eating my turtle, I grabbed him and started spanking him for doing it. My poor Duke, he looked at me confused, not understanding why I was spanking him so hard, something I never done up till now. Mom was home at the time and asked me why was I giving Duke such a beating because she never saw me treat him that way either. I told her it was because he killed my turtle and started eating it. It wasn’t until years later, after I was married to my first wife that mom told me what really happened to my pet turtle. Back in those days we were allowed to burn our trash out in our backyard and one of my chores was to burn the trash every morning before leaving for school or to go play in the summer. One day I forgot to do it and mom got angry at me and took the trash out almost to the very back where we had this big 55 gallon metal drum that was even turned over and laying on it’s side but we threw the trash into the drum and lit it. Well, I guess this particular day my turtle got a smell of something good in that drum and had crawled in to see what smelled so good. Mom comes out and throws the trash in the barrel and lights it up. Later that same day she noticed Duke out they’re chewing away at something so she went to check and saw my turtle all burned up. She knew it wasn’t Dukes fault but she didn’t want me to see the turtle burned in half like that so she dug a hole and buried it out in the part of the yard I seldom go around. Well, she didn’t expect Duke to find it and dig it up but he did a couple of days later and she told me that it literally tore her heart in two to watch me spank Duke and blame him for something he didn’t do but she didn’t have the heart to tell me that the turtle crawled into trash barrel and she burned him up. Goodbye turtle, I’ll miss you.

            My two white mice. They had pink eyes and were so cute and friendly. I loved to hold them and let the crawl up my arm and over my shoulders. I could even put one in my coat pocket and take him to school with me. The teacher could never discover this or I would be in real trouble! But at recess, I would chase girls all over the schoolyard trying to put the mouse on their shoulders. Somehow, one day they escaped and got out of their cage. One I found living on a sort of loft my dad built in the garage where we could put items for storage without having them down on the garage floor to be in everybody’s way. I used to go up there when I just wanted to be alone and not be bothered by my brother or my sisters, it was like my secret hide away. The other one I didn’t find for a long time. He took up living under a house about two doors up and became wild so I left him alone. The one in my garage just stayed there and I didn’t even have to feed him. Mom put the garbage that had to be put in the garbage can for the garbage man to pick up on a certain day of the week, outside on the back porch, I was supposed to take it from there and put it in the garbage can. Well, the mouse would come down from his loft residence and go through the garbage every morning looking for food before I took it away and that's how he survived. One day I was feeling mischievous and I climbed up into the loft and fed my poor mouse ex-lax! I guess he almost pooped himself to death because I didn’t see him for a couple of days so I climbed back up into the loft and there was poop everywhere! I felt really bad for doing it and he even came over to me and crawled up onto my chest and kind of just laid there looking at me like he was saying why did you do that to me? I scratched his nose and his ears and promised him I would never do anything to him like that again and I didn’t. He lived in the garage until he died of old age I guess, I didn’t see him for a long time so I went up looking for him and he was up there where he was the happiest, dead. I took him out to the backyard and buried him deep enough so Duke wouldn’t find him...Goodbye mousy, I’m going to miss you. My snakes. Snakes hibernate for the winter and come out in the spring. So it was that when springtime came around I knew if I were lucky I would catch a snake and have him for a pet for a while. It was this summer between the 3^rd and 4^th grade that I caught a red racer snake almost a foot longer than I was tall. I remember I would wrap him around my neck and leave about 18 inches from his head backward just hanging out in front of me and then I would jump on my bike and take him for a ride, that snake loved that bike ride! He would move his head from side to side taking in all the sights as we cruised down the street, he couldn’t figure out how he was moving along so fast and he wasn’t even doing anything to do it. People driving by in cars would almost have an accident looking at me with a snake around my neck riding my bike down the street. I didn’t understand enough about snakes to know how to feed them so I would only keep one for two or three weeks and then take it back to about where I caught it and let it go. After which I would set out to find and catch another one. The fondest memories of my childhood center around my adventures in the orange groves and beyond! My mother was strict but she wasn't a tyrant! All of us had chores to do each morning…Once they were done we could go play or do whatever we wanted…But…We all better be sitting at the dinner table which was around 5:00 PM or we would get a good spanking! So, after my morning chores were done…. It was time for me and Duke to take off into the deepest darkest regions of my new world known as….. The “Orange Groves!”……..

             My street and another street were the only the only two cut into the middle of hundreds of acres of orange groves! My Street, Wesley Avenue, the other one was Stephens Street. My house was the third one from the end of the street where there was a “Dead­ end,” Block-Aid”…. So I was never far from the groves.. In the summer of 1948 we were busy getting settled in our new home and mom and dad had things for us kids to do, to help out so Duke and I didn’t venture to far into the orchards at first. But I do remember when I was six years old, the orchards were still very new to me, I wandered to far into the orange groves and got lost! I was scared but not real scared…. I had Duke with me and I totally believed no harm would come to either one of us! After a couple of hours of wandering around lost, I ran into a teen-age boy with a 22 rifle out hunting rabbits… I told him I was lost! He asked me if I knew the name of my street?… I said: “Wesley Ave, it’s a brand new street.” He said he knows where it is and led me back to it… I made it! I was safe!   J  As I walked out of the groves he said: “ from now on be careful and don’t get lost anymore!” Waving goodbye, I Said: I won’t.” I never saw that teen-age boy again! But I never got lost again either!….J Fall of 1948 finally arrived! I started the 2^nd grade in Duarte, California! My second grade school year, 1948/1949 is “fuzzy” I don’t hardly remember it at all! I can’t remember my Teachers name either but I can see her face. She had dark hair and wore glasses. She looked like a grouchy old woman, but she was probably only around 30! However, she wasn’t grouchy either! She was in fact a nice teacher!  The school year seemed to last forever when I was 6/7 years old! Winters were pretty normal back then so we usually got a lot of rain between October and April! So Duke and I roamed through the orchards on week-ends, but the days were cold and most of the reptiles went into hibernation for the winter which means there wasn’t much for us to do out in the groves during the winter months…. But Duke and I always found some things to do as we headed into the orchards….This was our world!!….To us, it was a dangerous “Black-Forest! It was a jungle in Africa! It was a wild “wilderness of Doom!” I always had my wooden sword and my trusted slingshot which I could shoot with deadly accuracy! Duke and I were explorer’s in a dangerous land, Brave, fearless, we could not be over taken by the forces of evil!

            No matter where we went….You could bet money on knowing  that Duke was right beside me. We were inseparable. My whole life, my whole world revolved around my love for my dog Duke! I loved all my animals, all my reptiles, but Duke was a part of me, a part of my heart, a part of my soul….That’s just the way it was…… Mom tolerated my love of animals and reptiles, she knew I was a very adventurous 6 year old boy, she knew that Duke and I were roaming through the orange groves all day, but she also knew that Duke would die fighting to protect me from harm. So even though she worried about it, she allowed me to keep doing it saying to me every once in a while: “Be careful Barry, and don’t stray to far into the groves.” But….The groves belong to me and my dog, and through the winter of 1948/1949 we became more and more familiar with our domain…..The groves! Duke and I were learning how to survive… I found irrigation outlets among the orange trees that, with a little muscle, I could turn it on and water would come bubbling up out of the ground.... Duke and I never went without water! Inside the groves we found rows of apple trees, we found plumb trees, and grapefruit trees, and some of them still had fruit on them even in the winter! So we lived on things we found to eat out in the groves and we never went hungry…. The 1948/1949 school year was coming to an end. At school I met a lot of kids that lived on my street. But it was spring and Duke and I were anxious! Snakes, lizards, and horny toads were going to be out looking for food!! ..…Duke and I were getting….”Orange-grove fever!!” The parents of  other kids wouldn’t let them go deep into the groves! But duke and I were ready! It’s summer, 1949, I’m 7 years old now and a serious explorer! It’s time for the hunters to HUNT! In 1949, I’ve come a long way since we left the little court in Alhambra, California. The orange groves of Duarte opened up a whole new way of life for me! My senses became “fine tuned” while I was out in the groves! I could see hidden things that blended in with their surroundings! I could hear ever so small a noise in the bushes telling me something was there! Even my sense of smell was different in the groves…. I could smell the orange blossoms, the leaves, everything was telling me something, I just needed to pay attention to everything around me, it was all trying to tell me something! I even learned to hunt by watching Duke, He would hear and see things before I would. I caught a lot lizards and horny toads because Duke alerted me to their presence!

             Sometimes, when I was chasing a lizard, Duke wanted to get in on the fun, so he started chasing the lizard too! One time he caught up to a lizard before I did and put his paw on his back to stop him! Unfortunately, Duke’s front leg was stronger than he realized…. He killed the poor lizard! L  I couldn’t get mad at him, He didn’t mean to do it. So, School is out and Duke and I headed for the groves! We were a lot more confident than we were a year ago so we moved deep into the orange groves! I didn’t know my directions when I was 7 but this morning Duke and I were headed east. At 7 it seemed like we traveled for a mile…. But as we were moving along, we were looking for something to chase!  In time we came to a “Wash!” A huge storm drain with asphalt sides that were slanted so you could walk down the sides to the bottom about 15 feet below. No water ran down this storm drain during the summer . But at times during the winter it becomes a raging water drainage system! It could be 10 feet deep and moving so fast that if anyone fell in they would most likely die! Well, this wash wasn’t new to me, I had to walk through it or ride my bike through it every time I went to a little neighborhood store that sat on the corner of Euclid and Mountain avenue. Euclid Ave. cut right through the wash and even though it was in Duarte, it came to be known as the “Monrovia Dip!” Teenagers came from as far away as San Gabriel and Pasadena to drive real fast through the “dip. More than once a car load of teenagers pulled up by me as I was walking down Euclid headed for the little store and asked me: “Where’s the Monrovia dip?” I would say: “keep going, your almost there!” Kids liked to  drive through the dip as fast as they could, you would leave the seat of the car going into the dip and fall back onto the seat coming up the other side! Girls especially liked it. I know, because my dad would drive through the dip real fast with all of us kids in the car just to hear my two sisters scream bloody murder!!  Anyway, now I know the groves ran up to the wash, making it the East border. This is good to know because if I ever got lost again, all I had to do was head for the wash. Then I could follow the wash to Euclid Ave. From there I could get myself home. So, Duke and I chased lizards and horny toads all day and I could tell the day was winding down so we headed for home. I didn’t want to be late for dinner! Duke would always sneak under the dinner table and sit between my legs so mom wouldn’t know he was there…. He put his chin on my leg and would bounce it up and down letting me know he wants his share of my dinner! I gave Duke everything I didn’t want and he ate it! Didn’t matter if it was green beans, green peas, or spinach, Duke would eat it! But of course, I gave him some of the good stuff too! After all, he was my partner, my best friend, we shared everything. I don’t know if mom knew that duke was under the table every night… If she did…. She never let on that she did! Mom loved Duke like he was her fifth child! Once in a while I watched mom stoop down and tell Duke: "Come here Duke and give me love!” Duke would run to her and put his paws on her shoulders and start licking her on the face! Some people might think that’s terrible but my mother grew up on a farm, she took care of animals every day of her life until her and dad moved to California in 1942! Animals were in her DNA! Which is probably where I got it!!  J The next day I finished my chores and once again Duke and I headed for the groves! This day I decided to move in the opposite direction, so we traveled west…. This time the distance was farther than when we headed east, it probably was a good mile this time but eventually the orchard ended at a busy street, California Ave. to be exact. Well, again, this was good for me to know, I knew if I could get to California Ave. I could follow it up to Euclid Ave. and then to Wesley Ave. And home. At the ripe old age of 7 I was getting my "bearings!" Learning the different directions to go that would always lead me back home. I didn’t realize it at the time but I was expanding my boundaries, the jungle that belonged to me and Duke was growing. Duke and I were excited everyday as we headed into the “Black-Forest!” Everyday was a new adventure for us and we loved every minute of it! However, the summer of 1949 was coming to a close! I will be starting the third grade and I wasn’t looking forward to another long school year! I absolutely cannot remember my third grade teacher! I know she was a woman because my first male teacher wasn’t until my fifth grade year. I do remember I had to change to another school which required me to ride a bus through what was called “Rock-town.” It was a sad looking place where black people were forced to live and I can remember wondering why, but I don’t remember ever asking mom or dad why black people had to live in such deplorable conditions. Racism, prejudice, bigotry, were words unknown to me, plus mom never allowed us kids to think badly of people whose skin was different than ours. So, my third grade school year was 1949/1950….. And I don’t remember much about it. But I do have one bad experience that stands out in my mind. My little brother and I slept in the same bed together all the way up to our teens. Well, some how, Denny messed around with a stray cat and got a ring-worm on his head! Right after he got it, I got it and we both went bald! Not completely but the entire top of our head had no hair, it was really embarrassing and humiliating for me. Mom took us to a health clinic, and in order for us to continue going to school, (ring-worms are highly contagious) we had to do what the clinic told us to do! The clinic gave mom some kind of ointment that she had to put on our heads every morning. Then they gave us special “skull-caps”  we had to wear or we couldn’t go to school. They kinda looked like those aviation caps worn by those old time double winged pilots. They covered your entire head with straps that connected under your chin. The top front came down almost to my eye brows!  Denny and I had to wear these caps to school for three months! We had to be checked by the clinic twice a month. At the end of three months the clinic said the ring-worm was gone! We didn’t have to wear the caps anymore….. We eventually grew back a full head of hair. But, for three months we had to endure the cruelty of all the other kids at school! We were called “Scrungy,” “Dirty,”  “The ring-worm brothers,” and we were made fun of every single day! This made my third grade school year seem twice as long!  L But now it’s 1950! I’m 8 years old! For some reason I feel so much older! Duke and I have pushed the boundaries of our world far beyond anything I could have ever imagined! All the other kids never lost sight of their houses when they went into the groves. Duke and I have ventured our way deep into the orchards, but we knew……… We knew there were miles and miles of groves we haven’t even touched yet! What new and exciting adventures are waiting for us? Out there…..  In the uncharted orange groves of Duarte, California? Duke looked at me….. I looked at Duke…. Once again…..As the last days of School approached…..We were getting “Orange-Grove Fever!”  The winters back then were cold but not freezing cold! After all, this was Southern California! The 1949/1950 winter was no different. But with my morning chores, caring for and feeding all my animals…. And School…. Duke and I didn’t go into the groves during the week. It seems we only felt free when we were out in the orange groves, like this is where we belonged. So we would always go to the orchards at least on one day on the week-end, either Saturday or Sunday….. Always on the lookout for something new, strange, or exciting that we could add to all the experiences we’ve already had!  I remember one day I came upon this really huge persimmon tree! It was old but it was still producing fruit! Persimmons are a beautiful colored fruit but I didn’t like the taste at all! The tree was almost twice as high as the orange trees, so I started climbing up into the tree, Duke did not like this one bit! He couldn’t go with me so he wanted me to come back down immediately! He was whining, whimpering, even barking running all around the big tree! I kept yelling at him that I was ok and I’ll be down in a minute but he just kept fussing at me. I finally got up as high as I could climb and Oh-my-god…. From this height I could see the orange groves stretching out farther than my eyes could see! I realized that day, Duke and I haven’t even penetrated one quarter of the total area covered with orange groves!!!! I climbed back down where I was pretty close to the ground and pretended like I fell out of the tree, hitting the ground, falling on my face and again, pretending like I was unconscious! Duke was fit to be tied! Licking my face and whining and crying until I opened my eyes and putting my arms around him and hugging him tight! He thought he saved me! I never let him know  I was faking it!  J The 1949/1950 school year seemed to drag by! I hated school. I missed Duke during the day, we weren’t roaming through the groves… I hated school a lot! During the winter months I just hung out on my street and played with the other kids. Across the street and up a couple of houses lived a boy named Tommy, He had an older sister named Marilynn, she and my older sister kind of hung out together. Tommy and Marilynn were both over weight but not real fat! Tommy had no spirit of adventure in him at all! More than once I tried to get him to come with me into the groves, he never came with me, not even once. There were other kids on my street, lots of kids! Once in a while a bunch of us boys would get together and go bike riding. It was actually fun! Of course, Duke was always right there, running as fast as he could to keep up with me! But now, It’s finally summer 1950, I’m 8 years old now, a totally experienced explorer of the unknown! I was very good at hunting, finding, chasing, down and catching all sorts of reptiles! But my favorite was always a long beautiful snake! By now my mom was used to me coming home with a “gopher-snake,” or a “red racer-snake!” I was always so excited at first and just had to bring it right into the house to show it to mom!  She no longer screamed at the sight of me showing her my latest snake! In fact, she got to where she would even rub her finger across the snakes head! My two sisters also got to where they were no longer afraid of the reptiles I brought home!  J As the last day of school approached, Duke and I were getting restless….The orange groves were calling to us like an old friend. We both knew, we had to go, it’s our destiny, it always has been. The adventure, the hunt…The unknown, is waiting for us out there…….In the orange groves…..

            For a while now Duke and I have known where the east and west boundaries of the groves ended. We also knew we would never get lost again! We even learned to follow our own tracks we left in the sand leading us back home. In our minds, we were two brave hunters….fearless…. And afraid of nothing! Even though the summer days were long and hot, Duke and I didn’t care! We were where we wanted to be…. In our undiscovered world. On some really hot days, we would find a big shady orange tree, lie down in the shade and fall fast asleep. I knew with Duke lying next to me I would be safe from any kind of danger! Now we were pushing south. It gave me an uneasy feeling , I remember climbing way up in that persimmon tree and seeing how far away the groves stretched! So heading south, I knew we were moving deeper into the groves than we had ever gone before! But, the excitement surrounding the unknown was driving us deeper and deeper into the orchards and Duke was just as eager as I was….We were two of a kind…. Mom never questioned me about my time spent wondering around out in the groves. She long since realized, and accepted the fact that I was an adventurer…. It was in my blood….. As long as Duke was with me, she felt in her heart I would be ok. Once in a while, mom would caution me to be careful and make sure the snake I was chasing wasn’t a rattle-snake! Of course I already knew what a rattle-snake looked like…. And I knew what a rattle-snake sounded like, and I told her this just to put her mind at ease. At the beginning of every spring and summer the orange groves would start to blossom! You could smell the orange blossoms no matter where you were in Duarte!  Duke and I both knew what that meant. In the summer of 1950 it was no different. It was time to go. We were always excited as we headed deep into the groves. The trees were rich and full and green as they prepared themselves to grow a beautiful new crop of oranges! The sight, the sounds, and the aroma of the groves was invigorating! Some days the summer breezes would blow through the trees making a howling noise like they were trying to tell us something, something we needed to know, like there were “voices in the wind.” It was so peaceful, so serene, so beautiful in the orange groves Annette…. I wish you could have been there! Writing about it could never do it justice!

           When I was in the groves, I could sit down in the shade of an orange tree, Duke by my side, petting him on the head…. Listening to all the sounds that were by now very familiar to me, And I would wish I could stay there forever. I still remember those days and all the feelings in a little boys heart like it was yesterday. Duke and I were really stretching our boundaries each time we went into the groves now! We knew that someday we would reach the far south end of the groves but we weren’t in any hurry. Our number one goal was to find new and different places to look for snakes and lizards! Once in a while Duke would take off like a bat out of hell chasing a wild rabbit! It was something he had to do so I never called him back. It might be close to an hour before he would suddenly be by my side again panting like he was dying of thirst! We would have to go find an irrigation pipe so I could give him a long drink of water. I don’t think Duke ever did catch a rabbit…. But he loved the chase….. J Duke and I would take a really long drink of water and then look for something to eat, a peach, an apple, an orange, it didn’t matter. We would find another shady tree, sit under it and eat the fruit. Dogs as a rule, don’t really like fruits and vegetables but Duke didn’t know that, if I would eat it, Duke would eat it, that’s the way he was! When the breezes started blowing harder, we knew we were well into the afternoon which meant it was time for us to start making our way back home. We cannot be late for dinner! Very seldom did we ever see other kids when we were deep inside the groves. If we did run across anyone, they were teenage boys with B-B guns hunting and killing birds…. I hated them! The birds just like the reptiles were mine, they belonged to me! No one had the right to kill my animals, birds, or reptiles! I loved all of them. I would never ever hurt one of them, they meant everything to me! I never saw other kids my age way inside the groves though. Their parents wouldn’t let them stray that far away from home… Besides, most of them were to afraid to go deep into the orchards…. So the groves belonged to me…. And to Duke!

           So, each day presented a new challenge to me and Duke, we kept heading south, our objective, to get farther into the groves than we did the day before and still get back home before dinner! The summers seemed long when I was a little boy. As long as I had Duke with me, I would go anywhere! I didn’t care, I wasn’t afraid. So, as the summer of 1950 was winding down…. Duke and I felt sad, we felt older, more experienced, braver, more fearless, but sad…. Facing a new school year was never exciting to me. I didn’t know what was waiting for me during the 1950/1951 winter but I  knew I had no choice but to go through it! I’ll be entering the fourth grade. What experiences are waiting for me this year? I went into the groves every day toward the end of summer. At this point Duke and I stopped heading south trying to reach the far south end of the orange groves. That will have to wait until next summer now, and that was ok with us, it gave us something to look forward to which kept the excitement burning in our young adventurous hearts! One day we went into the groves and just headed for the wash. We had to climb up the embankment before we could look down into the wash. Standing at the top of the embankment we could also look out over the orange groves. This was our kingdom! Our endless adventure! We really loved being out here, it was where we belonged. But, the summers didn’t just involve the groves…. That’s where Duke and I were the happiest but summer time was for playing and having fun and like I said, there were lots of kids on my street. I don’t remember the year but a family moved in right next door to us. There were four kids, three girls and one boy. Janet, Leona, Linda, And Chipper (his nickname) Janet was the oldest, probably 15, or 16. Leona was next probably around 12, Linda was my age, and Chipper was around 5 or 6, the same age as my little brother. During warm summer nights every once in a while all the kids would come out to play. It had to be dark for this game to be any fun! We called it “Kick the can!” It was like playing hide and seek.

             We had to get an empty can, you know, corn, peas, green beans, didn’t matter. We would dig it out of some ones trash and we were ready to play! One person had to be “It!” Then we put the can in the middle of the street and then some one kicked it as hard as he or she could The person who was “it” had to run after the can, bring it back to where it was when it was kicked. The second it was kicked, all the rest of the kids scattered and hid! The person who was it had to bang the can on the ground real loud and count to 30, yelling: “Ready or not here I come!” The “IT” person would try to find every body playing the game! When some one was found, they had to stand by the can in the middle of the street. Now, If some one was well hidden and if the “IT” person wandered far enough away from the can, looking for maybe the last person…. If that person got the chance, he or she could come running out and kick the can! This set every body free to run and hide again! The “It” person had to start all over again! This game was so much fun Annette! The first couple of times we played it there was only like 6 or 7 kids to go find. But soon, even the older kids in their teens wanted to play so the number grew to around 15 kids running and hiding all over the neighborhood! This just made it more fun and every body liked playing this game! Life was simple back then, the neighborhoods were safe, everybody knew everybody…. There was no danger! So, after roaming through the orchards all day, and playing kick the can long after dark…. Needless to say, when mom called us in to take a bath and go to bed, all of us kids got in bed and simply died! That includes ol’ Duke! Duke slept on my bed every night but he curled up at my feet and fell fast asleep. Even though, for all intents and purposes, Duke was my dog!… He belonged to me…. I belonged to him. Everybody knew that! But Duke loved all four of us kids! He would die fighting to protect everyone in my family. My mom found out how true that was one night when after being out some where with a lady she worked with. She brought the lady home and wanted to quietly sneak her into our bedroom to get a look at us kids. My dad wasn’t home either, probably out drinking somewhere. When mom would leave she wouldn’t even lock the front door, (nobody did back then) She just looked at Duke and said: “Watch my babies Duke!”  She would close our bedroom door and leave. Well, mom didn’t have to really tell Duke what to do… He instinctively knew it was his job to keep all four of us kids safe from harm. So, all four kids are sound asleep, Duke is sound asleep…. Mom quietly opens the bedroom door with her friend right behind her….Duke doesn’t sleep THAT sound…. The bedroom door squeaked…Duke came flying off of my bed! Barking, growling, the hair on his back was standing straight up!  His “Mean” teeth were showing! Mom kept saying:: “It’s me Duke, It’s ok!” But he could smell the stranger and no stranger was coming into our bedroom while we slept….Wasn’t going to happen while he was alive! Remember, mom grew up on a farm, she understood animals, even better than me! She decided to yield to Dukes demands for her to take the stranger and go. She closed the door and told her friend: “I guess you’ll have to come back when the kids are awake, Duke won’t let us in the room tonight!

           Mom fell more in love with Duke that night! Now she knew for a certainty that Duke would never let any harm come to us kids as long as he was alive! Mom told this story about how Duke wouldn’t even let her in our bedroom that night over and over for the rest of her life! However, now the summer of 1950 was over. I don’t remember how many snakes I caught that summer but I always caught 3 or 4! I kept them for a couple of weeks and then took them back to about where I caught them and set them free… It was the right thing to do…. They were wild reptiles, they needed to live free, roam free, it’s the way God intended it to be for them. Lizards, I always caught dozens of lizards and horny toads! They were everywhere! I did the same with them, I always let them go to live free in the orchards where they belonged. I loved every snake, every lizard, every horny toad I ever caught and I wanted them to be free in the groves, it’s where Duke and I felt free as well! The thought of starting another school year no longer intimidates me, after all, I’m heading into the fourth grade, most of the kids I’ll be going to school with I’ve known for about two years now. So, the 1950/1951 school year is just another school year I have to get through before Duke and I can head back into the orange groves! Attending the fourth grade will find me once again attending the same school out on the edge of “Rock-Town.” My fourth grade teacher I remember, her name was Mrs. Waters and she was a really nice teacher, she seemed to have a real love for kids, I actually enjoyed being in her class. At the ripe old age of eight I was still pretty much all boy, I didn’t like girls! I thought girls were on this earth just so boys could be mean to them! It was fun being mean to girls, including my two sisters, after all, they were girls! But in 1950, in the fourth grade, in Mrs. Waters class, a cute little blond named Edna sat right behind me. One day she handed me a little folded up note… I opened and read the note:

                                   I LOVE YOU,

                                   DO YOU LOVE ME?

                                   Yes---------------- or no----------------

Well, This was new to me! I didn’t know that girls loved boys or vise-versa! But, like I said, she was a cute little blond… So I thought, what the heck… I put an X next to yes and handed the note back to her! Now what am I supposed to do? I have a girlfriend only, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do about it! J We rode the same bus to and from school so we started sitting together on the way to school and on the way home. We passed notes back and forth to each other all day in class… I thought this is kind of cool having my own girlfriend! One day I found out she started passing notes to another boy in our class so I told her not to send any more notes to me and I quit sitting with her on the bus………SLUT! But now my heart knew a different and brand new feeling…. Liking a girl….Instead of being mean to her… I liked this new feeling… The fourth grade was starting to get interesting! The fourth grade was in fact turning out to be a fun year! During recess all the boys in the whole school played marbles! We came to school with our pockets bulging with marbles, it was a contest of skill…. I would shoot my marble at another kids marble… If I hit it… That marble was mine! If I missed… Well, then it was his turn to shoot his marble at mine, if he hit it… He won my marble! If you were a lousy shot, you could lose a lot of marbles in the course of one day! But… If you were a good shot, you could win a lot of marbles! So I spent a lot of time just practicing at home…. I didn’t want the reputation of being a lousy shot!

Marbles was seasonal, it lasted three months…. After which, we stared bringing yo-yo’s to school! We had yo-yo contests but we never lost our yo-yo, we were either the winner or the loser! But you know boys, boys don’t like losing ! So we had to be good at doing yo-yo tricks! Like “around the world,” “Rock the cradle,” “walking the dog,” and on it went. Whoever could do the most tricks keeping their yo-yo in motion was the winner! It was fun….. But…..Not as much fun as playing marbles! Yo-yo season lasted three months and it was over! Next we started bringing “TOPS” to school. You wrapped a string around the top and threw it to the ground as hard as you could pulling on the string at the same time causing the top to spin so fast it was a blur to the eyes! Spinning your top was a contest like everything else. Two boys would throw their tops on the ground pulling the string and seeing which top would spin the longest…. The one spinning the longest was the winner! I had my own top but I never could master the technique. I think it was because I was left handed. Ok, so 1950 was coming to an end. As February, 1951 rolled by, I am now 9 years old! Back in December, 1950, when Christmas vacation came to an end, we had a couple of new kids in our class, and my oh my oh my my my! One was a girl named Valerie… She had the face of an angel! Before Edna I never noticed if a girl was pretty or not, it didn’t matter, I was going to tease them with my snakes, lizards, horny toads, pet rats,, that’s what we did to girls…. And it was fun too!  J But Valerie, oh my god, I was in love with her face! She was so pretty… So I started talking to her during recess. If she was playing on the merry-go-round, so was I, if she was on the slide, so was I, if she was on the monkey bars, I was on the monkey bars! We started getting close even though we didn’t realize it at the time. One day we were just talking to each other hanging out on the playground, the bell was about to ring telling us to return to class, One of her girlfriends came up to me pointing at Valerie and said: “Barry, Valerie said she loves you!” Valerie was so embarrassed her face turned beet red! I looked at her and smiled saying: “you know what? I’ve loved you since the first day I laid eyes on you!” She felt better then. I reached over and took her hand as we walked back to class….First time I held a girls hand! I thought it was incredible! I will never forget that day! I was still a good 3 years away from puberty or feeling anything sexual coursing through my veins, but my heart was pounding that day as I held Valerie’s hand.

             Well, now it’s 1951 and I’m 9 years old, Valerie was already 10 but at this age, how old we were didn’t really matter…. We were in love…. And that’s the only thing that matters right? The funny thing is….. Valerie is really tall! I barely came up to her shoulders. But, this was something else that wasn’t an issue with either of us so we just hung out together holding hands…I am so in love Annette! Valerie lived on the other side of the wash but we rode the same bus to and from school. After school I got off the bus at her bus stop and walked her home everyday. I hung out with her at her house for a while but I had to be home for dinner so I would go about two blocks toward the wash, hiking along the wash for about a half a mile then cutting through the groves moving pretty fast, I would be sitting at the table in time for dinner! All was well with the world! There was one more life changing event that took place between the summer of 1950 to summer 1951…. One morning I saw a work truck drive to the “dead-end” “blockade”  at the end of my street and two men started removing the blockade.  Being a curious little boy, I approached the men and asked them why they were doing this? They said: “Your street is being extended.” I asked: Just my street?” They said: “No, Stephens St. will be too.” I asked: “That’s it?” They said: “Yep.” Well, this bothered me a little bit but not to much. After all, there were still acres and acres of orange groves I haven’t even reached yet so I thought, that’s ok, more kids to play with! By summer 1951 people were already moving into the finished new houses and the name of my street was changed from Wesley Ave. To Wesley Grove Ave. No big deal to me either. I really wasn’t paying to much attention to the construction work  anyway. Especially from December to June! All my attention was centered on Valerie!  We never kissed. Of course, I didn’t know that a boyfriend was supposed to kiss his girlfriend! If Valerie knew, she never said anything to me. When the last day of school was over I was faced with a dilemma……The orchards were calling me and Duke! All our reptiles were awake and just waiting for Duke and I chase and catch them! So there was a lot of excitement in the air in June, 1951! But wait! What about my woman? After all, now I’m a mature man of 9! My girlfriend is going to require some of my attention won’t she? Well, Duke was already upset with me because I was late getting home everyday after school! So off to the orchards we went the next day after school was out! Duke was happy that day! No snakes but we caught a couple of lizards.

             The next day, I brought Duke with me as we headed into the groves, only I went toward the wash and followed it to Valerie’s neighborhood. Duke was confused, we came out of the groves, crossed the wash, we are now in Valerie’s front yard! I could see the look in Duke’s eyes…He was thinking… What the hell! Duke was about to meet my woman! J Well, Valerie came out and of course she fell in love with Duke. But she had some bad news for me….. Her family was going on vacation back east, wherever the hell it was they came from, for two weeks…. I said: “Well, ok, I’ll see you in two weeks.” Valerie looked really sad. She said: “I’m sorry Barry, when I get back my parents are sending me to live with my aunt in Long Beach, I won’t be back until September.” Now I felt sad,  I didn’t know what to do or say….I guess she didn’t either. Valerie just looked at me for a second, then she hugged me, she even had to bend down a little to do it…. I hugged her back… My first hug….But it was sad! As she started walking back to her house, she said: “I love you Barry!” What could I say to that? I said: I love you too!” we were older now Annette, and soooooo in love! J I just stood there in her driveway for a minute looking at her front door. Duke was getting more confused, we were supposed to be chasing reptiles out in the groves…. We left Valerie’s house and headed for the orchards. I wasn’t in the mood to chase reptiles but Duke and I headed south for a little ways, we looked around to see if there were anything to chase…. Nothing….We turned around and headed for home…..

             I knew I was going to miss Valerie during this summer of 1951, but I still had Duke and the orange groves, and the lure of adventure was still as strong as it ever was! Besides this, there were changes in the neighborhood happening almost on a daily basis. Although I didn’t know it yet…..Some of these changes would have a profound influence on me for the rest of my life! The new part of my street was done and lots of families were moving in, and lots of kids! The very first house of the new part and across the street, an old man and woman moved in…The old man drove an ice cream truck and he quickly became the favorite old man on the block! The family that moved in next door to me…Janet, Leona, Linda, and Chipper…. Well, the people that lived on the other side of them divorced, sold the house and moved away. The family next to me, their name was Yetsgo… not sure about the  spelling…. They had family members come from back east and they bought the house the divorced people moved out of.. In this family, their were two boys, Glen, the oldest, and Tom, the youngest. Their last name sounds Dutch but I’m not sure. Their last name is Brumbaugh, Still not sure about the spelling. Tom and I eventually became close friends but not right away. Up until now I had a few friends on the street and if Duke and I weren’t in the groves, I was most likely bike riding with these neighborhood friends. But for now, Duke and I had places to go, things to do deep in the “Dark Forest of Death!” I especially wanted to reach the far end of the orange groves this summer! Every morning after my chores Duke and I headed for the orchards. We moved south, always south. Along the way we would chase down a lizard, sometimes we caught him, sometimes he got away. This will be my fourth summer exploring the groves. First summer I was 6. Second summer, I was 7. Third summer, I was 8. And now this summer, I’m 9. Duke and I were very familiar with most of the orange groves, seasoned adventurers, experienced explorers, and fearless hunters in a jungle that belongs to us! We knew where to find a Couple of rows of apple trees. We knew where to find a couple of rows of peach trees.. We also knew where to find lemon trees and grapefruit trees but we didn’t like lemons or grapefruits. Hidden in the groves I found one extremely large, old plumb tree! That tree produced the biggest, best, juiciest tasting plumbs I have ever eaten in my life! When the plumbs were ripe I would climb high up into the tree… (yes, Duke was fussing at me the whole time I was up there) I picked 5 or 6 of the biggest, ripest plumbs I could find and climb back down.

             Duke and I would sit in the shade of the plumb tree and eat our plumbs! Duke was such a weird dog…. He would eat his plumb seed and all! It never seemed to bother him so I just let him do it. Being 9 years old now, I looked at things differently, It’s hard to explain but I was definitely growing up…. Maybe even faster than other boys my age! I was still drawn to the orange groves, so was Duke…. The thrill of chasing and catching a lizard or a snake was as exciting as it ever was. My imagination was still as active as ever as I searched the trees for new and strange adventures! I was never bored as I hiked my way through the orange groves, there was always something new and different to do, to discover, and I roamed through the orchards everyday with a heightened anticipation wondering what was waiting for me today. I loved those feelings… I absolutely loved them! After a couple of weeks moving south I finally reached the extreme end of the groves! It was probably only 3 or 4 miles but at age 9 it seemed like a hundred to me! Of course, I never walked in a straight line… I zigzagged constantly. Going right, going left. Following Duke when he heard something. Climbing trees for food. Looking for an irrigation pipe so we could drink water. It was always something but… We made it! Here we are! We came out into an older neighborhood that has been there for years probably. First thing, I saw a kid playing in his yard who was in my class every year! His name was Gary. He saw me at the same time so we talked for a while. He couldn’t believe that I hiked all the way from my street to his street by myself through the groves!… I said: “believe it, that’s how I got here and that’s how I’ll get back home!” After a few minutes of talking to Gary I knew I needed to get going so Duke and I headed back into the groves. I never knew exactly what time it was but I long since learned when the breezes picked up in the afternoon it was getting late! I looked for and found an irrigation pipe…… Duke and I took a long drink of cool, cool water and took off for home! We didn’t goof around! We “double timed” it in a straight line…..

             It was getting later by the Minute! I told Duke: “ We have to run boy or there will be trouble waiting for us when we get there! We broke into a jog, didn’t bother duke…. He loved to run! We didn’t stop until we came out onto my street…. I went in, washed up and put on a clean shirt. We made it! I was sitting at the dinner table on time, Duke was under the table, we were both tired, hot, and hungry! J So, it took four summers for me and Duke to find all four boundaries of our “Enchanted Forest!” Now, as far as we were concerned our conquest was complete. I learned more about life and survival out there in our world….The orange groves during those four summers between age 6 to 9 than what most boys will learn in 10 years or more! I learned so much just by observing my loyal companion Duke. I learned to listen to what all the sounds in the orchards were telling me, like “Voices in the Wind.” I learned to recognize the difference between rabbit tracks and tracks left in the sand by lizards and horny toads. I could spot a trail in the sand made by a snake. I could tell if the snake was large or small. Duke could literally smell danger! He knew when something wasn’t right…. So could I when I saw his hair stand up on his back! This only happened a couple of times and it was usually because of teenage boys close by with B-B guns, but Duke was always leery of strangers and he was quick to let me know when they were near. I didn’t like older boys hunting birds to kill in my groves but I was in no danger, they would even talk to me for a little bit before moving on. Now, the summer of 1951 was coming to a close. School would be starting soon. I knew I would be meeting new kids but I was mostly anxious to see my woman…. Valerie! I was excited to start school this year! This was a new feeling for me! I was never excited about starting school but this year I was so anxious to see Valerie I couldn’t wait! But Valerie wasn’t on the bus! Now I’m confused, I expected to give her a big hug and sit with her on the way to school. Once again I felt sad. L When the bus arrived at school, I got off and out of nowhere Valerie grabbed me, hugging me really tight! she said: “My dad brought me to school on his way to work.” So, as fate would have it, we were in the same class. Our teacher was a man named Mr. Riley.

             There were a lot of new kids at school this year! Of course, Duarte was a fast growing community so naturally there would be new kids showing up at school on a regular basis...As much as I wanted to hang out with Valerie at every recess all the boys were teasing me to death! So far, I think I was the only boy to have a steady girlfriend….All the other boys were more interested in sports more than they were girls. So, I would have to go play baseball, or basket ball, or football with the guys at least during one recess just to keep them from making fun of me for being sweet on Valerie. It wasn’t to bad, I did like playing sports too, after all, I was an all American boy! J Mr. Riley assigned us to a desk, that is where you will sit for the entire school year. So, Valerie sat on one side of the room and I sat clear on the other side dam it! But we kept it interesting, I would write her a love note and go to sharpen my pencil, on the way back I walked by her desk and slipped her my note! Later, she would do the same thing…..Funny, we said things in our little notes that we never said to each other face to face. But, it was fun and I was really happy having Valerie as my very own girlfriend. At first, I got off the bus with her everyday, I walked her home and hung out with her for a little while before making my way up the wash, through the groves and home. One morning as I sat down next to her on the bus, I reached over and took her hand like I did every morning. She smiled at me but I could tell something was wrong. I asked her: “What’s the matter?” She said: “My mom and dad said they don’t think it’s a good idea for you to hang around with me everyday after school.” I said: “Ok, but we can still hang out together at school can’t we?” Valerie squeezed my hand, scooting closer to me, she said: “Of course.” Actually, I was a little relieved, it put a lot of pressure on me to get her home, talk to her for a while, and then make a mad dash for home so I wouldn’t be late for dinner! Duke of course never did like me getting home late from school everyday, he was used to me being home at a certain time and he didn’t like me not sticking to the schedule. So, now Duke is happy again. All in all, my fifth grade school year was starting off really good.

             Remember the old man and woman that moved into the first house of the new part of my street? The old man drove an ice cream truck? Well, the old man had a son in the army, a Colonel no less! Well, him and his wife and son suddenly moved in with them. The sons name was Edwin, he was 10 years old and he wound up in my class. Edwin got off at the same bus stop I did so we kind of met walking down our street going home. He seemed quiet and I guess he could say the same about me. School had only been in session for about two weeks when Edwin showed up. I didn’t know it then but Edwin and I would become almost inseparable. Soon after Edwin showed up, A kid named Earl moved into a house on Stephens street. The corner of Earl’s backyard connected to the right corner of my backyard, So it was easy to climb over my backyard fence into his backyard. Earl was a geekey redhead with lots of freckles. He also wound up in my class and rode the same bus as Edwin and me and Valerie. As with Edwin, I didn’t know it at first but the three of us would form an unbreakable bond of friendship! The adventures Duke and I experienced, our conquest of the “Forbidden Forest,” all that we did, everything we learned out there in the groves will seem insignificant compared to the journey Edwin, Earl, me and Duke will be embarking on by the summer of 1952. The fact is, the 3 of us started getting close almost immediately! Earl climbed the backyard fence every morning and Eddie came to my house and then, after I finished my chores we all walked to the bus stop together. I of course had to sit with my woman on the bus but Earl and Edwin didn’t mind. Like all the other boys at school, they loved to tease me for having a girlfriend! Right from the start, Edwin and Earl were fascinated with my stories about my adventures in the orange groves! I showed them some of my reptiles I still had in my garage in my home-made cages. They really liked my lizards and I had one gopher snake, they both held the snake and could see it was harmless. One Saturday morning, in  September, 1951… Earl, Edwin, and me and Duke, took the gopher snake and two lizards out into the orchards to set them free. That day, Duke and I showed Earl and Edwin some of our secret fruit trees hidden deep inside the groves where few people ever went. We showed them the irrigation pipes that supplied us with water we needed to survive on hot summer days. I told them the groves stretched out for miles and that Duke and I had reached all four boundaries.  Edwin and Earl were hooked! Now they are infected with “orange grove fever.” They both wanted me to show them the groves….All of the groves! I told them I would but it will take time, it can’t be done in one day, the groves are to big! On this day, in September, 1951 the days were still warm. After we set the reptiles free and I revealed some of my secrets to them, I took them to the wash! I told them if you ever get lost, head for the wash, follow it in that direction, pointing north, you will come to Euclid Ave. You will know how to get home from there. I told them about the wash, how it fills up with water after a heavy rain and becomes very dangerous! Edwin was a service brat! And an only child. Earl was also an only child. But Edwin was different in a lot of ways, Earl and I were so jealous of him because he, at the ripe old age of 10 has already been to Germany, Japan, and France! He even crossed the ocean on a world war two battle ship! Edwin was going to open up a whole different world for me and Earl and Duke! My spirit of adventure was going to be tested, and so was Earl’s who up until now, didn’t have a spirit of adventure! For Edwin, there was no such thing as “Boundaries!’ So the friendship begins. The 3 of us did everything together! Hung out in my garage or my yard together, we went bike riding together. The first 3 years in Duarte, it was just me and Duke, my most trusted, most loyal friend and companion! The other kids in the neighborhood were only “street” friends….To scared to follow me into the “Valley of the unknown” …….The orange groves….So I never became close to them….They were scaredy- cats!

             Edwin, Earl, Barry, and Duke…. We were all brave, fearless, scared of nothing! We were the “three musketeers.”  “all for one and one for all!” And Duke was our guardian dog who would warn us of impending danger! This will be a journey that will never be forgotten….Not ever!   Even though I told Edwin and Earl that the orange groves weren’t much fun in the winter and all the reptiles hibernated until spring, they didn’t care! They wanted to explore the groves every week end…. So we did…. It was all new to them and they wanted to venture into the orchards and go all the places I’ve already gone!….. So that’s what we did! During the week we went to school. I paid as much attention to Valerie as I could during recesses and we kept writing notes to each other all during class. Whenever our eyes met we smiled as if to say “I love you!” My heart would literally skip a beat every time I looked into her beautiful blue eyes. After school Edwin, Earl, me and Duke just hung out together. We played ball out in the street with other kids. My two sisters and Leona and Linda next door would all come out and we all played “Keep-Away.” The boys against the girls… It was a lot of fun and the girls played harder than we thought they would! One day, me, Edwin, Earl, and my little brother Dennis were in the garage and I found a 5 gallon square can that my dad used to store gasoline in, only now it was empty except for a very little bit on the bottom. Well, I was curious to see what would happen if I dropped a match into the can! We were all in a circle with the can in the middle when I struck the match and dropped it in the can! That dam can exploded like a stick of dynamite! It shot straight up to the top of the garage hitting the wooden rafters setting them on fire but it only burned for a couple of seconds and it went out by itself…. The can came back down landing by the wall only now it wasn’t square anymore, it was round, and part of the bottom was blown out! We all ran out of the garage just as mom came flying out of the front door to see what the explosion was! The front garage door was open and we did the only thing that made any sense at the time….We all lied! We told mom that the can was sitting where the sun was shining on it and it just exploded! She bought it! It wasn’t even hot enough for the sun to do that. When my dad got home from work mom showed him the can and told him our story He looked at the can and smiled.

             He knew that the can could not have exploded from the heat of the sun! But, he didn’t rat us out. So I didn’t get the beating I would have if mom knew what really happened…. J Dodged a bullet there! On the week ends we were deep in the groves. Only, it was usually cold, the ground was damp and the trees were wet but our young imaginations were always in high gear! We were just 3 little boys looking for adventure! Depending on our mood and where we were, We played cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, we played war! And if we were in the groves, we just played “good” versus “evil!” We of course were always the “good.” And we could not be defeated by the “evil,” that lurks behind every tree! Always alert, ever vigilant…. We destroyed everything that was bad and evil! I made home made sling-shots out of Y-shaped tree branches and strips of car inner tube rubber and old shoe tongues. All 3 of us had one. We would shoot anything that looked like an evil person. We set up old tin cans and practiced shooting stones at them. The orchards were always a fun place for me to be, but now, with Edwin and Earl it seemed twice as much fun! One day we started gathering dead bushes…. Big dead bushes and placing them all around an orange tree…. We would go under the tree pulling the last bush into place behind us…. This was our secret hiding place…. It was so cool! No one could see us inside our little hide-away! Little boys back in those days loved having their very own secret hiding place and we were no different! What was really funny,….. There wasn’t anybody in the groves to hide from! Especially in the winter. But we didn’t care, it was still our secret hiding place and we went to it every time we entered the “war-zone!” The 1951/1952 school year was turning out to be more fun then I ever had in my young life! The 3 of us were always up to something and you could be sure whatever it was, it was going to be fun! As December, 1951 approached, it dawned on me that Valerie and I had been going together for a year! I told her I loved her more and more everyday! She would say she loved me that much and more!…We would hug each other for a long time! I didn’t see Valerie during our two week Christmas vacation and I really missed her a lot. Sometimes my feelings were difficult for me. Of course, I didn’t know this at the time but my relationship with Valerie was causing me to experience feelings in my heart that I shouldn’t be feeling for at least 2 more years! To a 9 year old this can be very confusing. All I knew was, the closer I got to her, the closer I wanted to be. Then…… I was also bonding with Edwin and Earl and that seemed as strong as my bond to Valerie! Soooo Confusing! The day after Christmas Edwin and Earl both showed up at my door with brand new “Daisy” B-B guns! That changes everything! Now, we are in the same category as teenage boys, like the ones I ran across from time to time out in the groves. My dad would not allow me to have a B-B gun… He said it was against the law to own a B-B gun in the city! But, it seemed like every other kid in the neighborhood had one! Looking back I think the war traumatized my dad, he hated any kind of gun and didn’t want me to have one….. So, I never got to own my very own B-B gun and that was hard for me because the 3 of us were a team! It was difficult for one of us to be missing his weapon! But, the first week end after Christmas we headed into the orange groves…. At first Earl and Edwin shot at anything and everything they saw. They even let me shoot at something once in a while. Then they started shooting at a bird that landed in a nearby tree! I got really mad and told them both that if their going to shoot any living thing in my orange groves then our friendship is over! They both agreed to never shoot at birds or reptiles again….So we remained good friends. Two months later, or February, 1952 I turned 10! But I feel like I’m 110 years old! I didn’t want to write about this but I will briefly…Back in 1950 when I was 8 years old, I was walking down my street…. My bike probably had a flat…. There was a 13 year old girl who lived up close to Euclid on the same side of the street as me. Her name was Teresa. As I walked by her house, she was sitting on the front porch and said: “Hey Barry, come here for a minute.”…… So I walked up to where she was and said: “What?” She said: “Follow me.” So I did…..She took me into her garage by the back door and closed it…. She said: “I want to show you something.”….

                She took off all her clothes and stood there naked smiling at me! This was terrifying to me! I had no idea why she would do this but I liked seeing her completely naked like that! Sooo confusing!! She said: “Ok, I took my clothes off now it’s your turn!” What do you think I did Annette? Yep you guessed it, I took off all my clothes! I figured… If she did it I might as well do it too….So I did! I thought we were just being naughty, you know, you show me yours, I’ll show you mine! But Teresa was fully developed and well into puberty! She had breasts and pubic hair! To me she was a woman. But it got worse! She had me sit in a chair and she started performing oral sex on me! I was shaking all over! I would never have thought that people did things like this to each other! I really was traumatized, it scared me to death. After a few minutes, she had me get up…. She sat in the chair and wanted me to do it to her! Shaking my head I refused! Even though she tried to talk me into doing it, I wouldn’t do it! To me, at age 8, our private parts  were good for only one thing…. To go pee!! and I wasn’t about to put my mouth on her “Boogey-Man”….. If you know what I mean! This wasn’t the first time I had been molested. Back when I was 3 years old and dad was off fighting the war and mom was working in that little factory right in front of the little court where we lived, she had a baby sitter named Dina, she was 16, come over and sit with us while mom worked the night shift. The only thing is, this particular time I don’t or can’t remember everything that happened I just remember she would take me into the bathroom with her and make me stand in front of her and watch her go pee. I know there has to be more to it than that but I’ve formed some kind of a mental block preventing me from remembering exactly what happened. This is common for kids exposed to things to complicated to understand, they just block it out. Anyway, I digress, …At age 10, I have been molested twice by teenage girls! Duke and I became highly seasoned hunters, adventurers, explorers, survivors as we roamed through the dense dark jungle known as….. the orange groves! How many other little boys were there that knew the things I knew? Duke and I conquered the groves! No matter how far we went into the orchards, we knew how to back track and get ourselves back home! When the breezes were light…. We knew it was around noon. When the breezes grew strong, we knew it was around 3:00 or 4:00 PM and it was time to head for home!

                 I wasn’t a normal little boy….Duke wasn’t a normal dog… We were different, and we loved it that way! Even though my fifth grade year started out being the best and coolest school year… Unfortunately, that’s not the way it would end! This ends the first 10 years of my life! The next 10 will be almost to bazaar to believe. But every word of what I write will be the truth! In the next decade, my life moves to the "Dark Side!"

   My book, "VOICES IN THE WIND" can be purchased at:
                  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XT2LFPA   
                                                                                               

   My other novels: "Kids that Kill
                  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VUKO0LO
                   

                                "The Orphan Vigilante"
                   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VUIUMLS
              

                                "Called To Kill"
                   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VR8XLR8

               



Also, Together, myself & my Close friend co- wrote her first novel: "The Vampire and the Cheetah Ling." By: H. M. Summers
                  
                                https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J0HT50Y                 


                                   

                                      

                                                                           H.M. Summers