Saturday, February 20, 2016

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Who Were Your Neighbors?


It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 


 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:


1) Think about who your neighbors were when you were a child.  Where did you live?  Who lived next door or across the street?  

2)  Tell us a story about one or more of your neighbors.  If you want to keep them anonymous, just use first names.   Do some research if you need to recall names and years.

3)  Share your story in your own blog post (but leave a comment on this post so we can find it), in a comment to this blogp ost, or on Facebook or Google+.

Here's mine:

I lived at 2119 30th Street in San Diego from 1947 to 1968 (ages 4 to 25).  This was a second floor apartment - downstairs was 2115 30th Street.  My grandparents also owned four other apartments on the block - cottages at 2123 and 2127 30th Street, and a two story apartment house at 2114 and 2116 Fern Street.

1)  My grandparents, Lyle and Emily (Auble) Carringer, and my grandmother's mother, Georgia Auble, lived in the 2115 30th Street apartment for the 1948 to 1961 time period, and then moved to the Point Loma House in 1951.

I recall two of the subsequent occupants of 2115 30th Street after my grandparents:

*  A widow, Lillian, and her son Rocky lived there for about five years in the 1952-1958 range, until she married again.  My brother and I played with Rocky, and had  some fun with him, although I don't recall many details.  What I do remember is trying to cuss Rocky out once, saying "you, you, you, you baxter!" in the presence of his mother. Obviously, I was experimenting with the word, and was punished for that.  I also remember getting sick on a rare-cooked hamburger provided by Lillian.  They moved out when Lillian got married.

*  A young married couple, Ben and Sharon, moved in during the late 1960s, and stayed into the 1970s, having three children.  All of them fondly remember my parents.  My parents enjoyed them and their kids - it was a great place to raise kids.  Ben and Sharon are still close friends of ours.

2)  I recall only one occupant of the 2123 30th Street cottage (this was one bedroom, one bath, ideal for a single person):

*  Frances Chapman lived there in the 1950s and into the 1970s.  I don't recall when she left.  My mother interacted with her a bit, but I didn't.  She worked downtown, I think, but I don't know what she did. I don't know how old she was at the time.  An Ancestry search reveals her name was Muriel Frances (Wilkinson) Chapman (1907-1994).  Entries in San Diego City Directories show her in 2123 30th Street in 1947 (a stenographer), 1950 (a stenographer), 1961, 1962, 1964 (stenographer), 1967, 1978 (retired), 1979 (retired).  Her spouse may have been Ralph W. Chapman.  

3)  I recall only one occupant of the 2123 30th Street cottage:

*  Ruby LaTourrette lived there in the 1960s.  She was elderly, but a sweet little old lady.  An Ancestry search reveals her name as Ruby Elizabeth LaTourrette (1884-1978).  A 1928 New York passenger list shows her husband's name as Willett (born in 1876 in Iowa), their marriage date in 1918 in Michigan (Ruby was Ruby Mitchell, born in Scotland), and they were going to Denver, Colorado.  The earliest San Diego City directory entry for Ruby and Willett is 1962 in 2127 30th, and the latest is 1978.  Willett J. LaTourrette died in 1968 in San Diego.

4)  I recall only two occupants of 2116 Fern Street, the upstairs apartment:

*  During the 1960s, Mayme Lonzway and her son lived there.  My mother talked to her often, across the back porches, I think.  An Ancestry search of San Diego City Directories revealed Mayme (1902-1978) and her husband Reeves Lonzway (????-1948) were from Baker, Oregon.  Mayme lived in this apartment in 1961 and 1964.  She moved to nearby houses in the neighborhood by 1968.  

*  During the early 1970s, my brother Stanley and his wife Sheryl lived there.  

5)  I recall only one occupant of 2114 Fern Street, the downstairs apartment:

*  A young couple, Frank and Gayle, lived there in the 1970s.  Gayle was the daughter of my mother's friend Alma, who lived at 2121 Dale Street, one street to the west.  Gayle and Sharon (from 2115 30th) are good friends.  I found only one San Diego City Directory entry for them in 2114 Fern.

This was a difficult apartment to rent and have a longtime renter.  It was really small, with a living room, kitchen/dining area, bathroom and one bedroom, and the back door opened onto the brick patio where the Seaver boys played all of their games (ping pong, basketball, whiffle ball, etc.) during the 1960s.  It was noisy when we were around!

6) Well, that was a fun trip down memory lane, with the help of City Directories!  I'm sure that my brothers have more memories of the neighbors on this block.  

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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


6 comments:

Dorene from Ohio said...

Randy - Here is mine:

http://graveyardrabbitofsanduskybay.blogspot.com/2016/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-february.html

L Smith said...

Randy - Here is mine.

http://genealogyinwestbrookfieldmass.blogspot.com/2016/02/mr-andrew-stirling-memories-of.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

Hi, Randy! Here's mine:

http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.com/2016/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-who-were.html

Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith said...

Interesting question, Randy. I'm currently reading my Mother's daily diary for 1943, when I was having my 4th birthday, we had just moved to the farm where I spent the balance of my youth. At this time, my 'friends' were through the local rural Star Church four miles away. Sidenote: I attended my future wife, Nancy's, 4th birthday party, in August. A year later, I attended a one-room rural school a mile away. Some of those fellow classmates became friends. Quite different from life on a city street, for sure... ;-)

Nancy said...

Thanks for hosting SNGF, Randy. You come up with some great ideas.

I'm always late getting my posts published. I just can't seem to accomplish it on Saturday night. But my post is at http://nancysfamilyhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/furnace-street-neighbors.html.

Thanks again!
--Nancy. (ndmessier @ aol.com, nancysfamilyhistoryblog.blogspot.com)

Unknown said...

You all get to put up with my response here, since I don't have an active blog right now. All personal names will be made up, but locations are real.

Although I was born in the Midwest, I grew up in San Mateo, CA. The houses across the street were actually on the perpendicular streets so I won't count them as neighbors (one had kids about 8 years older, the other was a retired couple).

On one side of us we had a family of second marriages, with her kids (minimum 10 years older) and theirs. "Luke" was my age, "Rick" was my brother's age, a couple years younger. On the other side was another family of second marriages, with one of his and two of theirs. "Dan," the oldest, was in the Marine Corps and had the pleasure of serving in Vietnam. "Katy," in the middle, was about 6 years older than I; while she didn't have a lot of time for the little kids she was friendly and, as I recall, quite good looking. The youngest, "Tim," was my age (in fact, 6 weeks younger). On the other side of them for a while we had "Diane" and her toddler sister "Eva." Diane was my age, as well.

The six of us -- excluding Eva -- used to play together all the time, back in the days when it wasn't politically incorrect to play "Cowboys and Indians" or "Cops and Robbers." We played a lot of hide and seek, put countless tennis balls through the window across the street (I can honestly say I never did, but Tim was the usual culprit, since the window was across from his driveway -- and the girl living there was the only other one I actually saw break it). Diane moved away after a couple years and the new occupants were the manager of one of the local Round Table Pizza stores, his wife, and their toddler.

Although we were the same age I was a couple years ahead of the others in school, so once I started 6th grade (our middle schools were 6th through 8th) I kind of drifted away from the others. My family moved first, just across town, at the start of my senior year in high school. Luke and Rick moved, as well, but I don't know where; now they're all down in the Phoenix area. Tim, unfortunately, died of leukemia in his senior year; his class honored him with a posthumous diploma.

I've pretty much lost touch with everyone in that neighborhood, aside from Luke (we're connected on LinkedIn, but haven't chatted in years). Most of my high school friends were from other parts of town.

(Our middle school was fed by three elementary schools. After that we dispersed to three different high schools, aligned with the elementary schools. That was just an accident of geography; the three other middle schools in town each fed one of the same three high schools.)

Dave L