I loved Berkeley!   I still enjoy the visits.  Our children enjoyed the visits as well!

You know that Berkeley was settled by conservative midwesterners.

I recall  visiting Ann-si's home...quite Chinese in etiquette; we played quietly, and left our shoes outside.  In Girl Scouts we made pottery, at Mary Yarwood's home. We taught Albert Wong some English in the 6th grade; and he taught us some Chinese! Still remember the symbol for "man."

Many of us were first or second generation children of parents from other lands.  My grandparents came to this country and Berkeley from Sweden and Norway.  Thanks to cousins and the internet, we had a wonderful reunion in Sweden, and I was able to find the farm in Norway (home of Pier Gynt, the inspiration for Grieg and Ibsen).  Thrilling!

Shireen might tell you about our Norwegian cookie--"Krumkaka!"  My mom was a real lady, and loved to make cookies for us. We would go to Shireen's home for "The Lone Ranger." I have enjoyed the Mayeri hospitality for many years.

Remember the Student Leaders? Blue felt armbands with a gold "O."  Each Student Leader would have a table in the Cafeteria to "control."  That was how I learned to eat cauliflower . . . I could not go out to play until I tasted everything. And we made sure the tables were clean before we left the cafeteria.

We also kept things in order in the halls and steps . . . "No Running!"  Wood floors... "Fire trap."

When we visited the Principal, Mr. Rhodes, he asked us how we might suggest we improve the School.  (I was sent to him for flipping wheat paste to the cloakroom ceiling with a ruler.  I was not the only paste flipper in my classroom!  Others went with me to Mr. Rhodes's office.)

The basement...for air raids....covering our heads as we kneeled, and said,  "I know my heart, I know my mind, I know why I stick up behind!" :-)

Oh, there was another classroom west of the cafeteria . . . I think Miss Swarthout taught us there???  They moved us around . . . we weren't always in  the same class.

I recall "the school" gathering on the Upper Terrace, facing the flag and some faculty on the NW porch, and we would start the week pledging  allegiance to the flag.  Did we also say a prayer?  Or  a verse?  Or sing a song?   Whatever we did, I thought it was wonderful!   I think we were still in Oxford when we all took the bus to Berkeley High to hear the San Francisco Symphony. They performed "America," or "God Bless America" . . . and some of us had tears in our eyes.  It was the beginning . . . the first day . . . I love classical music!

I thank God and family for my faith!

Do you remember Miss Kusick's Reading Groups . . . BlueBirds? etc. We had to work to get to the highest level of Birddom!

We were encouraged to be creative!  Mrs. Moulton had a pink convertible with large white dots on it!  The Standard School Broadcasts. . . and the painting of our "feelings" as we listened to it . . . or after?  Mr. Whiteneck invited his pretty wife to visit during one of those musical journeys.

Trick or Treat was FUN!  Safe treats and our parents waited at home to see what we had been given.  We could enjoy the parade at school . . . all dressed up in our Halloween costumes.  Did you ever see Bill Hickock dressed up like Uncle Sam with "I like Ike" buttons all over his costume?  (He and his sister went down in the plane with the US Olympic Ice Skating Team...enroute to the competition in Europe).  I loved to ice skate at Iceland.

Many good memories about Brownies and Girl Scouts.  It was a treat to plant a hillside in Tilden Park with seedlings. . . as a conservation project . . . later we learned that we buried them upside down.  The horse back riding lessons were thrilling......a few of us rode stallions, while another rode a tired pony.  Penny Brogden took us for quite a horse ride in Napa--on her Birthday!   Gallopy. . . Gallopy . . . .   The Cooking Lessons to prepare us for the camping trip yielded edible food!

I think Greg Hoblitt loved to read comics in the back of the room???  Now he directs and produces.... Shireen and I used to write plays, act them out, and record them on my parents' wire-recorder. We would also lip sync cute records for the Father Daughter Banquet.

Shireen and I would have "funerals" for baby birds that fell out of the tile work...roof... and once we made Norm Randolph come across the street for the funeral.

The photos of Amador and Shattuck took me home!  Shireen and I would meet at the "corner."  There was a honey-suckle plant wrapped around the bottom half of that obelisk, and we would suck in the taste of the Season....honey suckels in bloom...sweet !  (Shireen lived up the street two homes, and I lived two homes down on Shattuck....1166)

Shireen and I also learned about different faiths. I came from a wonderful, loving, Christian family, and Shireen came from a wonderful, loving Jewish family. Her father studied the stars . . . constellations . . . in his time away from his work. She has a wonderful mother, also!!  We will forget that when Barbara Rossi, Shireen and I were camping out in her backyard her brother, Ray, sprayed DDT on us and called us "insects."

The Brown House on Amador about a third of the way down from Shattuck on the south was Ann Walsh's.  The Walsh's home was lovely!   Ann had a beautiful third floor suite, with a beautiful view of the Bay.   Ann had wispy, curled dark brown hair, a big smile, and freckles.  Mara has spoken to her since Oxford days.   Most of us had a beautiful view of the Golden Gate, S.F. and Marin County--and we would see Alcatraz's light beaming. . . blink . . . blink . . . sweeping the bay for prisoners trying to swim away?  No, just keeping the boats from running aground, I think.   The Sealys had property right at the corner of Amador and Shattuck, with a lovely rose garden in the rear. That "vacant lot" we once shared was a great place to play cowboys and Indians.  Mom made apricot jam and crabapple jelly from the trees in back.

Pat Blew lived toward the top of Mariposa. His mother taught piano.  My sisters took lessons from her, but they wouldn't practice enough, so I didn't take lessons.  My mom thought that was enough.

I think Robbie Cross lived up there too. His father was the Mayor of Berkeley for awhile. One of our classmates lived next to Mariposa Path . . . right where the path met the street . . . but I do not remember her name.  I think her father was a physician.

Carroll Sinclair and Martin Stryker were good friends. We made up a song about Martin, which went along with clapping and slapping of hands--pre-rap--because we liked him so much.

Alta Bates was where a lot of us started our life.  The doctors made house calls.  Remember Dr Long?  So nice.  I worked in that wonderful hospital for awhile even after I graduated from College.

At the foot of Amador you could catch a bus to The City. But in grade school we would take the "F" train into Berkeley, or into The City.  San Francisco! When we were in junior high we could go alone, just the two of us . . . whichever friend . . . while twisting the parent's arm . . . you could talk into it. . . the ADVENTURE!