A Trip Back through Time

We decided to do a little driving around yesterday. My family technically lived in Oceanside when we were here, which is an adjacent from Vista beach-side community. Nevertheless, we were closer to Vista, inside the boundaries of the Vista Unified School District, subscribed to the local Vista Press newspaper, etc. Although our address was Oceanside, we considered ourselves Vista residents. 

Mike and I were on the hunt for some lunch yesterday. We spent a good part of our time pointing and announcing, "Oh, the so-and-so is still there." Or, "Isn't that where the so-and-so used to be?" Or, "Oh look...the old something-or-other is a something-else now!" And on it went. 

One such thing was the Jack in the Box restaurant. It was the very first fast food restaurant to come to our little town. I can't think of Jack in the Box without thinking of a dear friend from high school, Paul Solomon. He was so funny in every way. One night after marching band practice, we went to the Jack in the Box, and Paul ordered a Bonus Mac. Get it? It was hilarious coming from Paul at the time.

So we had some lunch and then took a little drive around. Mike wanted to see the former downtown area. One might refer to it as "old town" now, although I didn't see any such signs around. Originally, there was one main street through town. It might have been two lanes in both directions. Now, it has been split into two streets, each one way, heading in opposite directions. The streets used to be lined with family-owned businesses. I went to school with many of the kids whose parents owned the businesses. The businesses are all gone now, and the streets are lined with lots of restaurants.

Below is the Avo "playhouse," which used to be the Avo theater. It was the only theater in town. I had a friend I hung around with. She was really kind of a bad influence, and always up to mischief. We always went into the theater fully intending to get kicked out. My friend would always buy a box of jelly beans and start throwing them at other people. Yeah...I joined in...peer pressure, you know. We were about 13. But the point of the story is that we could get kicked out of the theater and be completely safe on the streets of Vista in the evening, while we waited for someone's parent to come pick us up at the designated time. 

Just down the road is the former (I think) First National Bank. This was where I opened my very first checking account at age 16. Having a checkbook with my own name on the checks was quite a thrill.

Now we were getting close to where I used to live. In the image below is Tri-City Hospital. My mom was a nurse, and she worked there. The structure is much larger now, but the original building is still in the middle, with more structures now clustered around it. She worked in the newborn nursery. The original structure was next to the road, and the three delivery rooms had high windows. She always checked to see if the delivery rooms were lit up to see if any babies were being born as we drove by. She'd judge how busy she expected her next shift to be depending on how many of the delivery rooms were lit. She worked at the hospital for around 15 years before she retired. She also died there many years later.

Although we've been to Vista several times over the years, I've been hesitant to look for our old house on Linda Drive in Thunder Hills. I worried the place would look slummy. We decided to brave it yesterday, and I have to say the old neighborhood didn't look too bad. The trees and landscaping have all grown up, and so it's a mature neighborhood by tree and shrub standards. 

There were so many cars parked on the roads and in driveways that it all looked kind of closed in and tightly packed in contrast to my memory of the place. And here's our old house. It appears to have some spider webs or angel hair left over from Christmas decor, or maybe as far back as Halloween. Or maybe it just looks like that all the time. Of course, it's been painted many times over since my folks sold it around 1976.

It doesn't look much different, although it has a different garage door. The wall and brick work my dad did, and the hedge he planted above the wall are all still there. My dad lovingly tended this yard, and it always looked good. Now weeds are growing through the bricks he laid in the parking strip next to the road. The flagpole he raised in the corner of the front yard was broken in half years ago, and it still looks the same (outside the frame). We raised the flag every day during his three deployments to Vietnam. He wanted us to, and it was certainly the least we could do while he was overseas. Also, I notice the mailbox has been relocated to the street. The mailman used to deliver the mail to the front door.

There were two people unloading something from a van parked on the street in front of the house. I asked the woman, "Do you live here?"

 

"He does," was the reply. So I looked at the man beside her and said, "I used to live here! My folks were the original owners of this house!" He seemed completely unimpressed. Oh well. The house was built in the early 60's, and so it's about 55 years old.

And then we headed back to the RV. I'd already stitched the day's inchy...fly stitch.

This being Sunday, I'll link up to:

Today's inchy has been posted...another fly stitching motif. I'll do that next. Once again, I have no idea or thoughts about how we might spend the day. The mask I made at home came apart the other day when one end of the elastic pulled loose. I'll need to repair that, and I'd like to make a mask from some camper fabric I brought along. Possibly, it will be a sewing day. We'll all find out together, I guess.