Debi

Greetings family and friends and Happy New Year! Today's page from the Ralph family album recalls trips taken by dad and Debi and some family traditions established back in the 1950's and 60's.

Mom’s Bird Bath

Mom stayed home with our 2-1/2 month old sister Debi when dad, Jimmy and I made our first visit to Disneyland over the 1955 Thanksgiving Holiday. We traveled to the newly opened park with stops in Death Valley and Las Vegas in mom’s 1949 Oldsmobile convertible. Dad brought home gifts for mom and Debi including an infant size Disneyland Snow White dress. There were many family trips to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and other Southern California destinations in the following decade and dad and Debi continued the tradition after Jim and I got married and began raising our own families, establishing careers and making our own Southern California trips. Dad and Debi made day trips, weekend jaunts and long road trips. Some trips were with the Hayward Movie Club to nearby destinations like Sonoma and Monterey, and there were weekend visits to Yosemite, the Delta and Tahoe and vacation excursions to Yellowstone, Expo 74 in Spokane, and Lake Louise. Regardless of the destination dad and Debi often brought home gifts for mom, who was not fond of long car rides, including artificial flowers and tropical birds from Disneyland and nick-knacks for the rumpus room. were. On one of the many trips to Southern California dad and Debi brought home a heavy cast cement bird bath purchased at the Cottage Pottery Shop across the street from Knott’s Berry Farm. Mom’s bird bath spent decades on Forest Avenue in the front yard under the the large tree along with the bird seed feeding station just outside the breakfast room window where mom spent many hours watching the birds and squirrels. Like the “Mossy Rock” that Cindy salvaged from our childhood Castro Valley family home and now resides at their home in Tennessee, “Mom’s Bird Bath” is at home in our front yard in Fremont as a reminder of all dad and Debi’s trips and mom and her “souvenirs”,

-Bill