THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

  First of all you need an office building like this one at 160 Pine Street on the northeast corner of Pine & Battery Streets in San Francisco, CA where I worked for an insurance company for several years.   Or this building on Webster Street in Oakland, CA where I also worked for the same company. And if you were a clerk typist as I was to begin with, you would need a desk and a typewriter.  In this case my desk was being moved to a new location.  I worked in the automobile claims department of an insurance company taking calls from unfortunate insureds who had had accidents and were calling to report them.  I took down all the information, set up a file for them, contacted the underwriting department to check on their insurance, then turned the file over to the Examiner who would be handling the claim from that point on – assigning it to an adjuster who would go look at the car, assess the damage, and talk to our insured about the accident. Sometimes an ...

  My Grandma Louise’s Singer sewing machine.  My Mom taught me to sew on this machine when I was around 13 years old and from then on – more when I was older – I made many of my own clothes. I made big-skirted dresses in the mid-to-late ‘50s, and short sheath dresses in the ‘60s along with Bermuda shorts and peddle-pushers and two-piece sets to match. By then my Mom had a new machine, and not long after I bought my own machine.  When I was married I continued to make some of my own clothes as well as clothing for my children.  I also made most of my costumes when I was active in the Golden Chain Theatre.  This gown of satin taffeta for dancing the Can-Can was one of the hardest things I’ve ever made.  Part of the bodice was cut diagonally on striped material, the skirt with its variegated gores lined with rows & rows of white ruffles underneath was a bear to put together! The gowns were beautiful, but heavy as the dickens!  In fact, because of ...

  My Dad built himself and my Mom Adirondack chairs, then created his own pattern to build a little one for me.  They were painted yellow – my favorite color.  I loved my little chair.  I wonder if that’s why yellow is my favorite color? J Some years later Dad & my brother built a roof over the terrace in our back yard. The terrace roof completed created a great place to gather in the summer – to play ping-pong or just sit around.  The ping-pong table was collapsible & easy to store off to the side when not in use. I designed & my husband built this front entry deck for our house in Groveland.  It was a tricky design because there is a stairway leading down from the front door to the garage behind the railing behind the bench, so we came out the front door and either went down the stairs to the garage, or came forward out onto the deck.  They don’t show here, but we had flowerboxes behind the railing where the candy-canes are crossed....

  Me, mowing the lawn in 1942-43 Here I’m doing a little watering - 1942-43 One of my sisters is watering a neighbor’s yard.  Summer watering jobs were one way to earn a few extra bucks!  I did my share. Me, digging what would become a flower bed in 1952.  I planted stock & snapdragons because they stood up tall and I could pretend they made a jungle.  I watered them to the point where little troughs of water formed between the rows of flowers and I'd sail toy boats on the 'river' through the 'jungle'. An old wringer washing machine similar to the one my Mom used to wash our clothes when I was young.  When the washing was done, Mom would wring out the items through the electric wringer, hand them to me, and I’d hang them out on the line from our back stoop.  Then I’d help her take them down from the line when they were dry, fold them up, and put them away.  And all too soon, it was time to start all over again. I was 4 years old, here, ha...