High School Follies

Not sure what year this was, but sometime during World War II, probably 1943 or 1944. Grandpa's Dad and brother were both away in the service, and Grandpa was alone with his mother. They lived at that time in a little house at 1403 Rincon Avenue in Montrose, but Grandpa went to high school in Tujunga, at Verdgo Hills High. At this point, his brother was in the 802nd Aviation Engineering Battalion behind Japanese lines in the Aleutian Islands, building secret airstrips. The Japanese fleet passed, they removed the camouflage, launched B25 bombers and P40 warhawks armed with torpedo bombs, and stuck the Japanese from behind. Confused about the direction of the attack, they turned around and left.

Now back to California, where Grandpa was in high school. At this time, he was dating a young lady named Patricia, and often stayed at the home of a friend named Ed Castlemann, due to the distance to his home in Montrose. Grandpa had to take a public bus to get to his own house, but could walk to the Castlemann's. When he stayed overnight there, he slept on a pull-down couch in the living room. One night, he missed the last bus home, because he was out late with his date. He walked to the Castlemann's about midnight, knocked lightly at the door, and hearing no one quietly let himself in and took off his shoes. He found the couch already pulled down and ready. Thinking this was a very thoughtful gesture on the part of the Castlemann family. He crept into bed. At this point, a he discovered he was in bed with a strange woman, who, upon waking let out a loud scream! It turned out this was an Aunt who had come to visit, and hence used the couch. Grandpa ran out of the house carrying his shoes and walked down Foothills Boulevard in the dark. At this time, all coastal areas were under a strict blackout and curfew due to the war, so he could hardly find his way. Around 2:00 a.m. a police patrol spotted him and gave him a pretty hard questioning. The took his ID, put him in the back of the car, and dropped him off near his house. Grandpa later used this incident in his entrance essay to UCLA and was exempted from his freshman English requirement!