Ooops, One More

These last 4 posts are all of houses where my dad lived in San Mateo when he was growing up. But chronologically you should start at the 4th one down. My parents got married at 935 Culebra St. in a house that was torn down to build this giant estate. I think these owners must have bought at least 2 lots to build this. It's gorgeous but nothing like the little ranch house where my folks tied the knot back in 1950.

Last San Mateo post

(Dad, do you think any of these houses could be the ones on Oak Street or Edinburgh?) As a child I remember staying in a house on each street. The interesting thing was that they moved from Oak into the one on Edinburgh. The 2 houses happened to be directly behind each other and the 2 owners just swapped. When it was time to move they removed a section of fence and transferred their stuff without needing street or truck. My memories of the Oak Street house were of eating Campbell's chicken noodle soup out of a sea shell that we had just collected from Half Moon Bay and bathing in a tub filled with only about 4" of tepid water. Grandpa had a wood shop over the garage where we could build little boats and other things made out of bowling pins sawed in half. I love the Edinburgh house because it seemed to wind and twist all over the place. One of the houses had a cool tree fort. Bruce, what are your memories??

Continuing with 203 Seville Ave.

In 1936 Cecil and Margaret built this home where they lived for the next 9 years. My dad brought home a redwood tree sapling in a little milk carton and planted it next to the chimney on the right side of the house. Over the years it grew over several stories tall and started to wreak havoc on the foundations of the houses on both sides of it. Unfortunately we missed being able to take a picture of it by 3 months. The owner had to cut it down which was done after a memorial service on its behalf followed by a couple of margaritas according to Loretta Clark (in the backyard talking to Sarah), who moved into the home when she was 22 years old. So far she's lived here for 38 years! She had a copy of the blueprints on which you can barely make out the name Bond on the right end of the second line. Sorry it was blurry. There are also pictures of the houses next door and across the street plus shots up and down the street.

My Dad's childhood homes in San Mateo, California

This post is mostly for my dad. I was supposed to show him all these pictures on the laptop when we were in Florida but I forgot. I can't believe I did. But this is the easiest way for him to see them. There's a lot of pictures and they probably won't mean much to anyone but him. So here they are, Dad!

Above
The first house is 970 Laurel Ave. Dad thought he might have lived here between approx. 1930 and 1934 when he was maybe 4-7 or so. It was still in terrific shape. No one was home so I stuck my camera up to a window and got a great shot of their livingroom. Nice! The tile roof looked original! Home valued over a million.

1010 Palm Ave. My grandparents, Cecil and Margaret Bond, next moved here. I believe the new owners added the second story. They only lived here a couple of years. Below

My First Trip to Florida!

I took few pictures and this was about the only one that turned out. I do love the color of the water and the bright beach umbrellas against the white softer than sugar sand. This is most of our gang making their assault on the beach. I sure do wish I'd taken more photos now. Oh well, next time.

Nutritional Nuggets

Once in a while I'm going to put a little health blurb on my blog. This article about preventing kidney stones is from Dr. Mercola's website, http://www.mercola.com/, the most visited natural health site on the web. If I'd known this I wouldn't have brought so much soda to the beach house!

"Are You Still Drinking Soda?
With respect to your fluids, you also want to stay away from soda as it is loaded with phosphorous.
Sadly, the number one source of calories in the U.S. is from soda, and is in many cases the main source of fluids. The average American drinks a staggering 56 gallons of soda a year, which is a surefire way to ensure health problems, including an increased risk of kidney stones.
In fact, children as young as five years old are now starting to struggle with kidney stones, and soda consumption is a major contributor to this disturbing trend.
Also, diet soda is probably worse for your health than regular soda, so please don’t think switching to a “lighter” variety will make a positive difference.
Quitting soda is one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve your health, and can reduce your risk of developing kidney stones."

Oh California!

Located 30 miles south of San Francisco, Filoli is an historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and one of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century. So says their website. I didn't even know this place existed. Sarah, Lou and I toured the beautiful home and grounds on our Wednesday together in early July. I forgot who built it and why. It opened to the public around 1978 for the usual tax and maintenance reasons. The wing chair in the library is from 1690 and still has the original upholstery fabric. In the same room is a rug that belonged to Queen Elizabeth. The owners collected a lot of stuff in England. The home was constructed in the early 19th century.








The movie, Heaven Can Wait, with Warren Beaty was filmed here. The ballroom was set up as his gym where he practiced football. Now I want to see that movie again.

The stove area was an interesting mix of probably the original cooking surfaces, ovens and giant range hood juxtaposed with a 1970's era double oven on the right. Not charming.

Zone Conference

I'm just posting this little message to see if it shows up on Emily's update column on her blog. I had some posts which I thought were scheduled to post on their own while I was on vacation but they didn't. And when I went ahead and posted them manually they didn't register over at Emily's blog. So this is kind of a test.

A Zone Conference

Here's me in the Relief Society Room while the missionaries are eating lunch. I love all the suit coats and backpacks laying around. (I didn't want all the empty chairs in front of me in the picture).

Just pretend that Kyle is here. That's what I do.

I'm visiting with the sister missionaries that I hang out with. Our RS serves lunch at these about once a year.