We Stayed in Ramona

We were invited by my parents to share a condo in Ramona near San Diego. We drove up and down Wild Cat Canyon a good bit to get to anywhere. The resort where we stayed was lovely (pools, spas, tennis etc...). I couldn't identify all the trees and flowers I saw but there were orange groves, pepper and palm trees, bougainvillea and cactus.

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A lot of folks drive pick up trucks in Ramona and there are buses that will take you to a big casino. There was also a school for Indian children with a board made up of "The Elders" (sounds so Presbyterian .... or do we sound Indian). There were very few stores or shops in the resort area. It seemed inconvenient. I should think a few more businesses would do very well there. There's still gold in them there hills. Go west young man!

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Since some of my childhood was spent in the San Diego / San Francisco region, sights and smells seemed to conjure distant memory .... riding in the back of my grandparents pick up truck trailed by tumble weed on dusty dirt roads with my aunties. Visiting my grandparents (Kellogg) and maternal great, grand parents (Peterman) on Windy Lane. My great grandad always had candy in his top drawer .... Circus Peanuts. The horse named Babe and a dog named Chico. Climbing the old pepper tree. My sister sticking her hand down a gopher hole and getting bit and scolded by one angry gopher.

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There was church and kindergarten. My dad was a young pastor and my mom taught the kindergarten and sang with my sister and me in church. I remember going to Disney movies, Disney Land and San Francisco's China Town. I remember we had a big sand pile behind our home. One day that is where I was playing when I ran in to quick use the bathroom only to realize that my cupped hands were full of sand. There just was not time to go back outside so I dumped the sand in the sink, finished up and left to play. I do recall hearing the distant sounds of my mother finding the sand ....

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Later after we moved to the east coast my grand parents moved from Windy Lane to a house overlooking the San Diego Bay. It was a Spanish style adobe house with the tile roof built on a street that sloped up hill behind. An enclosed garden in back contained some of my uncles early metal sculptures and native plants .... bird of paradise. Jasmine planted near the window of the master bedroom perfumed the house. Two large windows overlooked the bay. My grandmother's grand piano presided over the living room ... her children's oil paintings and silk screens hung on the walls. The furnishings were Spanish, Mediterranean. My aunties, Deborah & Janice, had a hooch upstairs with home made candles and posters of Bob Dylan. I used to sit in their room and listen to records of Peter, Paul & Mary.