November, 1963

jfk
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

When little Danny was about 3 or 4, he became more and more aware of the people and things around him. He was especially facsinated by what he saw on that old Emerson television set his parents would watch every night. He soon learned to turn the tv on himself in the morning, and would watch Captain Kangaroo. In one of his earliest memories, he saw an image of a charismatic man on the screen, "That's President Kennedy" his mom Sally would say. She was a huge supporter, and quite frankly, a fan of JFK. He had brought a youthfulness to the White House and indeed, to the nation...'Camelot' or 'The New Frontier' they called it. His Presidency seemed to be a breath of fresh air to America. With his bold plans of NASA space exploration, of landing a Man on the Moon, The Peace Corps, The Civil Rights Act, JFK was a very progressive leader.
No one knew at the time of his personal habits and affairs, it didn't matter to the public then. What Danny remembered most was his mom saying "President Kennedy said this, or President Kennedy did that..."
The phrase 'President Kennedy' even had a ring to it.....There were many times when a commercial would come on, a public service announcement that featured JFK's most famous quote during his inauguration, and Sally would say, "Look Danny! There's President Kennedy!"
And Danny would look at the screen,
"ASK NOT, what your country can do for you...ASK what you can do for your country..."
But at the time, all Danny really heard was, "EFF blah blah blah...EFF blah blah blah..."
It must have been the thick Boston accent.
And another thing about the Kennedys, they were glamorous. Jackie Kennedy was a virtual American Princess, and they had young children, just like millions of Americans at the time.
A common misperception was that their son was called 'John-John'....This was from a quote when he was born. Someone from the press asked, "What's your son's name?"
JFK said "John, John" He was only repeating the name, but the press took it as 'John-John' and the name stuck....
One afternoon in November, Danny, who was being babysat in the afternoon by Joe and Lena Cassa, two delightful elderly neighbors, who had come from Italy, sat and watched their black and white tv at images of a presidential motorcade, scenes of a hospital, and they shook their heads and spoke to each other in Italian. When it was time to take Danny home (which was next door) Joe Cassa was in a somber mood. Sally was home from work, and she had been crying. In a shaky voice, she told Danny, "President Kennedy has been killed..."
There are only two things Danny remembered after that, one was the image of another guy getting shot in the stomach, being played over and over on the news. That was Lee Harvey Oswald.
The other was the next Monday morning, when he went to turn on the tv to watch Captain Kangaroo, but instead saw a parade, with horses,and a US flag-draped coffin, and blocks and blocks of people dressed in black.

Illustration Friday: Play

RUDI
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

In the 1972 World Series between the Cincinatti Reds and Oakland A's, in game 7, Joe Rudi made an amazing play, and the Reds didn't score. The A's went on to win, woohooo!

August, 1963

clu
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

Little Danny loved to watch television. His parents, Dan and Sally, had an old black and white Emerson television set that Dan had bought from his cousin, and they watched TV nightly. Old shows like Hawaiian Eye, The Untouchables....and Dan liked to watch scary shows like The Outer Limits, and The Twilight Zone....
One night, they were watching the Twilight Zone, Sally thought that it might be too scary for little Danny,
"Naww, let him watch it, it's only a tv show."
So Danny watched, and was terrified, it was about a guy who was on a plane, and every time he looked out the window, he would see a monster on the wing! Danny would hide his eyes whenever he saw the monster.
They also watched westerns like Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Rawhide (starring a very young Clint Eastwood) and The Virginian.
Dan heard on the radio that one of the stars on The Viginian, an actor named Clu Gulager, would be in San Jose at an auto dealership to sign autographs. It wasn't very often that TV stars visited San Jose, so Dan thought it would be fun, "Hey you wanna go meet 'Clete'? (or whatever his characters name was)
"yeaaaaaaahhh!"
So Dan took his 5 year old son to Bonded Motors in downtown San Jose. There wasn't a huge crowd, but a sizable line of about 30 or 40 people in the showroom, waiting to get his autograph. More than half of the crowd were young women, obviously fans of this young actor. If you've ever seen film clips of girls in the audience at the early Beatles shows on Ed Sullivan, that's what they looked like. Though not screaming or anything.
But there was a definite buzz among them...Dan picked his young son up and stepped away from the line to get a glimpse of this TV star, and there he was, sitting behind a table dressed in his cowboy outfit, obviously in character and clearly enjoying the attention of all these young women. At one point, he pulled out his six shooter and fired into the air, blanks of course, but the loud bang sent shrieks throughout the showroom.
Finally Dan and little Danny came up to the table,
"Well! Who have we here?"
"This is little Danny."
Clu grabbed a photo from a large stack and as he signed, he sang the old Irish tune, "oh Danny boyyyyyy..."
"Here you go buddy!"
Clu gave little Danny a wink and a salute, and Danny saluted back.
Dan said, "What do you say?"
"Thank you"
Both Dan and Clu laughed and he said to Clu, "Thanks alot!"
"You bet!"

August 1955

At the end of World War Two, lots of men did not come home, 400,000 of them. Those who were lucky enough did come home. In 1946, Merced Mendias was happy that the war was over, and his oldest son Arthur, who flew B17 missions over Germany had finally come home in one piece...Art was a turret gunner, and showed no sense of stress or remorse whatsoever about killing men out of the sky, or being in the line of fire.
The interesting thing about Merced's kids, was that they were of two types; there was Art and Carmen, loud and firey personalities, and there was Robert and Sally, quiet and demure personalities...these two types are not in their extremes of course, there is always a bit of a combination of the two...but those two distinctive traits were later always defined in subsequent generations.
Arthur was the first to have a son. This was in 1948, Merced was thrilled, it was his first grandson! and then two years later another grandson, Michael....
These two sons, little Art (or little 'Toody" as some called them) had all the makings of his dad...brash, funny, a bit ruthless....and then Mike, quiet, sensitive....
In the early 50's, Merced's second son Robert had escaped from Tulare after high school... he put himself through college while working at a cannery, and bought a house in Santa Clara, (which is right next to San Jose). Bob had a certain creative drive. He married and had two kids, Bobby and Susie....
Upon visits, his young nephew Mike would marvel at the gadgets and books his uncle Bob had around the house. In the 50's, television sets were beginning to be all the rage, but Bob would go to electronic shops and buy parts, he wanted to build his own tv set.
"Hey Uncle Bob?"
"uh huh?"
"Why are are you going through all this trouble? when you could just buy a tv set?"
"Well anyone can do that, it's much funner to build one."
Later, Bob was building a roof over the deck of the back yard, but at two strange angles.
"Hey Uncle Bob?"
"uh huh?"
"Why are you building the roof that way?
"So it can capture the maximum amount of shade when the sun angle is at its height."
Well, young Mike wasn't sure what he meant by all that, but he sure was in awe of his Uncle Bob.

March 1958

The 1950's have been described as almost a Golden Age in American culture. World War Two was over, soldiers came home and started families, they bought homes, they bought cars, they bought refrigerators and stoves and air-conditioners, they even bought television sets. Freeways across the country were being built. And brand new cars that were works of art, with huge fins, and brash new music was on the radio, Rock and Roll they called it, with a swivel-hip guy named Elvis Presley leading the charge...
In one home, these national trends were only in the background. One young man was trying to keep things together. After losing both his parents at the young age of 23, Daniel had become head of the household, with defiant younger siblings. He didn't think he could do it, he didn't even want to. But his uncle helped him out, gave him some money and guidance, urged him to take some classes and learn a trade, so he did.
After a few years of dating, Daniel married Sally in 1955, and she moved in to the house on Willis Street in San Jose, his parent's house. His two brothers had since moved out, but his two younger sisters still lived there. They saw no need to move out, since this was their home too after all, and, though they resented their oldest brother taking over as the head of household and always bossing them around, it became quite clear that Daniel was indeed their new 'father'...
For whatever reason, no one will know, or no one will say from that time...perhaps when Daniel's sisters started treating Sally badly, not overtly, but in small subtle ways, especially when she became pregnant, that Daniel would disown his own sisters and send them away.
On the evening of March 7th, Sally went into labor, so Dan, Joe and Carmen took her to O'Conner Hospital, where they had a new maternity ward. Dr. Dana would deliver the baby....Dan and Joe had both remarked at how stunning Dr. Dana was....she looked very glamorous, like Marilyn Monroe....but very competent indeed...
"This baby is not going to be born in the normal way"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean she'll need a Cesearian Section, and I don't think she can do this again."
So that night, Dan and Joe went out for some beers and came back to the hospital where Sally was still in labor. At about 2:30 in the morning Dan said, "you want a hamburger?"
Sally just looked at him, "whaddya kiddin me???"
The next morning, Sally had a healthy baby boy, they named him little Danny.

September, 1956

In 1956, President Eisenhower signed a bill that would change America forever...the Interstate Highway Act....which was to create a freeway system all through the country...Every freeway we drive on, every green sign we see on them, even in Hawaii and Alaska, is thanks to Eisenhower....But before that, there were only two-lane highways, most famously Route 66, which winded from Chicago to LA.....with its famous quirky motels and diners, only to die on the vine, once the Interstates bypassed those towns, which is quite a shame....
Dan and Joe had become fast friends, they found themselves back in San Jose after the Korean War...Joe had married Carmen in 1953, and Dan had married Sally...they were sisters.
One day, Dan and Joe decided to drive to Bakersfield...Joe's father had moved his family out to California in the 30's from Oklahoma....from the 'Dust Bowl' during the Depression....."Okies" they called them...and still do, to this day....but Joe evolved...
On that trip that day, they drove a pickup down Highway 99, the main road that connected northern and southern California at the time. At some points it became a four-lane highway, but not an Interstate as we know it, with on-ramps, and no cross traffic....
On the way back they picked up a hitch-hiker, they told him to hop in the back of the truck.....they took the truck off-road and bounced around, and when they got back on the highway, the guy in the truck had fallen out...he was gone. They thought it was hilarious, but they were only in their 20's...
A couple years later, Dan slammed his truck into the back of a huge Chrysler and ruptured his radiator, but the Chrysler kept going, those cars were made out of iron then...so Dan drove home with a steaming radiator and fixed it on his own later...it was no big deal at the time...