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I was born in Sacramento,California in 1939. Mom and Dad Met at a Public dance, which was acceptable at that time. They soon married and the following year I was born. We moved to Las Vegas in the early 40s and Dad worked on the Railroad. The town was small and friendly then. We didn't know any one who didn't work for the railroad until I was about 9 years old.
There were no casinos then just smokey card rooms and pool halls with a few shot machines. Those were on fremont street, which is the fremont street experience now.
It is known now that Las Vegas was run by the Mofia then, but we didn't really know or care about that because there was no crime then. There fore we were happy the way it was.
When Dad bought our home it cost $2,000. For a long time we had one car. Mom would take dad to work and go pick him up although sometimes it was in the middle of the night. She would get up and cook for him no matter what the time when he was called for work.
The government was testing atomic bombs in the 40s on the test site about 90 miles from Las Vegas. It would light up the whole bedroom in the middle of the night. We were not afraid. We didn't know any better. This went on for years.
Las Vegas was a very prejudiced , segregated town in those days. I never thought anything about how things were. Those were very nieve times. Nothing was not discussed if it was at all uncomfortable. There was one movie theater where people of color sat up stairs. Looking back I can see all those things now. Things that were really bad. But in those days I didn't know any better.
I remember one time I asked Mom where babies came from and with a RED face she said "we don't talk about those things, You will find out all those things when you get married" Need less to say I never asked Mom anything again. Pregnant was a nasty word, you had to say" expecting" or" In a family way".
When I was about 13 or 14 years old, we moved to Southern California. Until then I had always gone to Catholic school , now I went to a large Public School. Talk about culture shock..I had never had P.E. where you had to shower with a lot of girls. I failed the first year in P.E. And the words they said, I had never heard OH MY GOODNESS. But by the second year, I was used to it, and was able to function
Well that's it for now..See you next time?
I hope you were helped with my story. What a compliament you have given me ...thanks
Sharon, I wanted to share with you that I used your article for an assignment in my college English 101 class. Part of the assignment was to find an article about memories of growing up that reasonated with you. You are one year younger than my mother and even though I grew up in the 70's the attitudes of the 1940's were a part of my life growing up. I have many memories of my mother's mom telling me, "Young ladies do not talk about such things!" or "That's not how young ladies behave." My mother often made those comments too, but not as quickly and restrictively as my grandmother did. I enjoyed your article and you have inspired me to sign up for Street Pages and share some of my own work. Thank you!
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