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planned, oh two or three times a year to have an excursion, someplace that the whole
family would go on, mother and dad would go and all ofus kids together, and the one I
remember the most, we went to the Bolder Dam.

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SRL: Oh, a little more than half built when we were there. And of course you had to cross the
desert and all of that to see it, it was incredible. Another time we went out into the dese1i
because dad had some gold mine property that he owned, but then some others that he
was looking into and we spent a weekend up there and going down in to the mines. And
that was awesome, scary, but interesting. And there was a very special place out in the
desert where there was a fairly large mountain out in the middle of the desert and it was
flat all the way around it, but there was an opening in the base, there was a spring that
came out of this, up towards the top of this hill, small mountain, so over the millennia it
made a little water way that came down and we could climb up there,and slide down, and
it was really something. The water would go out into the desert and just disappear, but
there was all kinds of wild things in there, plants, occasional four legged something or
other. Then we went to Death Valley one time and saw all of that. We were taken to the
opera in Los Angeles, and we had to be dressed in long gowns in those days. That was a
big deal, and so we did those kinds of things.

MD: Sure beats the field trips I went on as a kid.

SRL: But then we'd have to write about it, of course, when we got home.

MD: Of course, it's not just a free trip. So you already told me some things you did with your
siblings, you know, playing in the trees, what other, were some of the most memorable
moments that you have as being children in your day to day life.

SRL: Well my older brother and sister had very close friends who had a ranch around Fillmore,
and they were inseparable, there was a daughter and a son, so they matched my brother
and older sister, there is four years between my older sister and myself. They were bigger
and more grown up, and they had a club, and they had a tree house and, we wanted to
join their club and they said, "Oh well, okay, you can join but you have to go through a
testing" so we went through all kinds of horrible things for two years before mother and
dad found out about it, it was crazy, it was crazy. They'd make us eat awful things. But
then my sister Boo and I, we would read on quiet days, we would read to each other
aloud lying on our tummies in the library, and it was just a wonderful group. The library
was great, there were books there for all ages, and history and background and all kinds
of things, so we would read to each other. And most afternoons we would have tea in the
afternoons, all ofus did, and as kids Boo and I were given what was called Cambric tea,
which was half and half with milk and few drops of tea, anyway it was delicious. But
mother would, oh that was fantastic, mother was a wonderful reader, and she would put
expression into her reading and she would read to all ofus, and as we got older, she
would read adult books to us and we lie around and feed ourselves and listen to these
wonderful books. Yeah I remember that a lot.

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