The California Dream

This house in Pasadena must have seemed like a little slice of Eden to my parents in 1948. No more moving at the Navy's whim. For the first time, a home of one's own, in a nice middle class neighborhood, with a backyard filled with fruit trees, peach and apricot and lemon and avacado, close to everything, and for me, at 9, close to a huge park within bike riding range, where later, after I was long gone, a new high school would be built. I have fond memories of growing up there. They say the Dream may be over in California. I'm glad I was there in the late 40s and 50s when indeed, California seemed like a little piece of Eden.