Home Is Where the Heart Is

I can still remember the address. 13609 ½ Weimer Ave in Paramount, California. I don’t know what qualified it as a “1/2” because it was the only house on the lot but that’s where we started our lives together. Al already lived there and I moved in after a few months of dating and as soon as my lease was up at the little duplex I shared with friends in Monrovia, California.

We had a lot of fun in that house and even held our wedding reception there. Family prepared most of the food and a party to remember ensued!

We got our first dog when we lived in that house. A cute, funny little German Shephard pup we named Hagar the Horrible.

We had some crazy neighbors back in the day. On one side was a large Samoan family who would have great gatherings where the center of the party was a massive pig roasting on a pit just beyond the little picket fence that separated our back yards. On the other side was a crazy Greek who every once in a while would get drunk on Ouzo and light up the night sky with his homemade “fireworks” – burning magnesium!

I remember going with Al to a friend of a friend's house in East LA to look at an old gas stove stored away in a garage. I think we paid $10 for it. We got it home and I spent the next week cleaning the dirt, grease, grime and rat poop out of it. We put a new thermostat in it and that gorgeous 1950s white Kenmore gas stove was BEAUTIFUL! I loved that thing and wish I had kept it to this day.

We had a great going away party when we decided to move to Tucson. Move to Tucson!? Al had gone to Tucson to line up a job with an old friend to help open a restaurant. He came back and we packed up everything we owned in to a U-Haul truck and hit the road. I was 4 months pregnant and ready to start our Arizona adventure.