Growing Up LA

Santa Monica. Day trip with my dad.

We would hit Westwood for ice cream then the pier and do the carousel. 

I went to the McMartin Preschool! (I'm the blonde kid on the far right) They gave us chocolate, so nothing seemed amiss to this kid. My family was living in Hermosa Beach on 32st, a half a block from the ocean at the time. Then my dad got a job in Delano, 30 miles north of Bakersfield, so we packed up and moved there. Then my mom came back and lived with her mom in Hermosa and I went back and forth between the country (Delano) and the beach. 

While my mom was working on her degree at Cal State Long Beach I did my own course of studies at the local Hermosa Library. Sadly, just as she got her Bachelor's degree and was hired as a first year teacher, she passed away. 

Marina Del Rey with dad. My dad would come up to Hermosa for the weekend and take me out for drives. We'd drive all around LA and he'd tell me stories about growing up there.