Page 82 - People & Places In Time

Growing Up In Exeter
I’ve always felt this was the point in time when Fresno became as much my home as Exeter; an at- tachment lasting until this day. Our relationship moved beyond the college parties. My life began to thrive
in Fresno. From Friday evening after work until late Sunday, this is where I lived. Still with no direction I was as happy as any nineteen-year-old boy could be with
a wonderful girlfriend and my new car this second car, a yellow and white 1960 Ford Starliner.
Finally
Cheryl’s family lived on Van Ness Avenue (Christmas Tree Lane) in Fresno and they welcomed me, even though I was not in college and two years older than their high school aged daughter. This was a suc- cessful and prosperous family. Cheryl’s older brother was an Navy pilot and would eventually become a Blue Angel. None of this registered with me at the time; I only wonder in retrospect.
The ensuing Spring and Summer became all that my recently completed high school years were not. We attended her Senior Prom and graduation party from Bullard High School in Fresno, at the Rainbow ballroom. We went to drive-in movies then parked in her parents U-shaped driveway, behind a large tree, out of sight from passing traffic; a particular problem at Christmas time. There were swimming parties in her backyard with friends, then Righteous Brothers and Beach Boys con-
certs at Fresno Memorial auditorium. Finally, the pieces of my life had begun to fall in place.
By fall, Cheryl was a freshman at Fresno State, and I had returned to COS. More importantly I was committed to the architecture program with every ex- pection of transferring to Cal Poly. As is often repeated, the best laid plans should never be set in stone . . . soon enough the Selective Service brought to my attention the imminent likelyhood of my being drafted.
The best option available, was for me to join the Navy Reserve. This would postpone active duty for a year, allowing me to finish the school year. I could attend meetings at the Naval Reserve training center in Tulare once a week and my life assumed a status quo for the time being.
As it happened, I had done well in the archi- tecture program and was unexpectedly offered a job
at Kastner, Horner and Young Architects in Visalia. So, in the spring of ‘66’ with an offer in hand that was too good to turn down and the prospect of active duty in eight months, I left school again, this time, under far bet- ter circumstances than before; this was a good decision I’ve never regretted.
The year was far too short it passed too quickly it seemed, that before I could blink, I was saying goodbye to Cheryl, to my family and boarding a train in Tulare. I was twenty years old and on my way to Treasure Island in San Francisco, and soon after, San Diego then Viet Nam.
Looking back, Cheryl was part of my life for two and a half years, the last year of which I was in the Navy. There have been few passages of time throughout my life, with the impact on my life, this one had. We stayed in touch and saw each other when I was home. The last time I saw her I had just returned from Viet Nam and she came to Exeter for the weekend. Recently I came across fifteen or twenty letters she had written to me. This becomes another decision for which I have no explanation, I simply quit seeing her and that was the end of that . . . and yet, I can’t help but feel, that some- one so important in my life deserved more from me. I have always wondered was this one more opportunity that I had failed to grasp.
The brand new in 1965, Sunnyside drive-in was said to have the largest screen in the west.
In any case, this chapter of my life
my youth can finally be satisfactorily brought to a close . . . while a new chapter is ahead of me.
that of
1960 yellow Starliner ~ on Lenox Ave. in Exeter.
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