In the mid sixties we lived in San Diego. I loved San Diego. Hubs was a Marine drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot and used to come home with the weirdest stories. He and our son, who was also a Marine, would sit and tell stories in the later years and we would laugh and laugh together till tears rolled down our cheeks. It's really fun sitting and listening to those two talk about the Marines.
He came home with a story about the new recruits. When they would arrive they had to send every single thing on their body, except a wedding ring and a watch, home to their folks.
Hubs told me about young men arriving there on the bus without shoes even. Some had never even worn them. Some had never worn a belt. They were then immediately taken to have their heads shaved. He said once there was a kid with an open sore/cut on his head full of lice. There were other stories I'll have him tell me and post here again later, but that's the few I remember at this point. We're talking really "green" recruits, first time away from home.
He also came home one day with lice. Yes, lice! I discovered them on me one evening and since we had never had them even as children I didn't know what was crawling on me. Hubs, being a Marine and having been versed on those kinds of things as all military men are, knew immediately what those tiny things were. I was appalled and in shock and couldn't sleep that night. But the next day he went to the base and got medicine for both of us. We also stripped all the beds in the apartment and went to the laundromat that night. We figured he got them from the toilets at the base because we were both faithful to each other and, after checking our two kids, didn't find any on them but they weren't even school age then. He was much more careful after that.
But we lived across from MCRD and near a small Mexican take-out-type restaurant that sold taquitos for ten for a dollar. Actually, at that time we could get tacos at Tico's Tacos ten for a dollar also. But I'd run down there in the next block and buy them for me and the kids all the time.
That small house was backed by a huge hill with a retaining wall that came tumbling down in a terrific roar during some heavy rains one year. If my kids had been out there, they very likely would have been hurt at the least. It also sent a huge wood beam through our bedroom in the back of the house. The landlord lowered the rent for us but we had to find another place relatively soon. So we moved up to a house near Kensington. It was fun living in that house because it was bigger than any place we'd lived in previously in a real neighborhood and was close to Mission Valley, which was great shopping for us then, even if we were too poor to buy much.
One day my cousins and I decided to go downtown San Diego. We just wanted to window shop. We dressed in nice pants but a policeman stopped us downtown and told us pants were inappropriate for downtown! We were floored and embarrassed. San Diego is a tourist town with a Navy base and a Marine base in it. We couldn't believe the policeman. I think he might have been flirting but here I was a mother of two kids and didn't even think about someone flirting with us but it was inconceivable that we weren't dressed "appropriately" for a beach town. I imagine now they go into town in their bikinis with the way things have changed! We're going down there next year for a convention and I can't wait to see how things are. We were down there a few years ago at UC San Diego when our grandson was going to school there.
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This is an antique servants bell. I think it's beautiful.
A beautifully clean street somewhere in western Europe.
Glittery handmade flowers with jewelry in the centers.
Just a bit of froufrou today.
This looks like it was or is a porch by the looks of the walls but it's beautiful just as a living room also.
Cute idea for extra cups around the house.
Italian coastline.
More eye candy but actually real so you can eat it!
Lovely arrangement for a cookie party.
Another darling birdhouse.
I couldn't tell if these were fabric or edible but they're fantastic looking no matter what.
Another beautiful road in Europe somewhere.
I thought this was a decorated bottle but it's a jewel with more jewelry around it. Stunning. Maybe it's a pin.
Wish I had a sign like this for my front porch.
Just some romantic roses and peonies.
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Tidbit:
Conakry, Guinea, in West Africa, is the world's wettest capital city with over 12 feet of rain per year.
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