Short story: La Mirada - The Gathering Place

I read this recently in the L.A. Times and it caught my eye: “It’s a gray day when there is no sky in the clouds.” 

That quote spurred me on to thinking about how Mom used to look up at the sky and form just ordinary things out of the clouds; one may have taken the form of a dog or cat or another animal, or maybe even a kid, another cloud may have taken the form of a heavenly creature; God, Jesus, or an angel, and there were many others.  She made commonplace clouds seem real and almost touchable.

Thinking of Mom spurred me on to take the trip down Rosecrans to Valley View; this is a trip that my three kids (Steve, Mark, Tracy), and I, made very often when mom and dad lived in La Mirada, except that we traveled the 605 Freeway to Rosecrans from North Whittier. 

 I had not seen the home since my siblings (minus sister Donna) and I made our “Memory Lane” trip several years ago when the then-present owners invited us in. We even saw the “doll house” that dad made for Dana and Nadine when they lived there.  It was then being used as a tool shed.

There is a huge Pep Boys’ store where the Market Basket and Kinney’s Shoes used to be. The dairy and commotion that mom enjoyed seeing, as she washed dishes while looking out the kitchen window, is no longer there.  An industrial-looking complex is now there in its place.

I must say that the street of De Alcala itself looks as though it has been gentrified; as all the homes seemed to be upgraded to a newer look; new frontage, or fresh paint in a lot of instances, etc. I saw where the Leonard family lived, and where Dena and Tony rented for awhile (when Ernie and Nessie were grammar schoolers).  I just find it ironic that years before she saw Ernie and Nessie as grammar schoolers in La Mirada, she saw their mother, Dena, walking to school when we lived on Gleason Street in East L.A.

However, 13902 has a “For Sale” sign near the curb.  I have a photo of George Jr., Cindy and Steve sitting on that very curb and posing for whomever was taking the picture. The small tree that was planted just behind them is now a full-grown, cascading pepper tree; it is lovely and would make Dad very proud.   

The color of the house is now a light olive green; the dichondra lawn is gone (that Dad used to pay the grandkids to keep weed-free).  Gone are the roses that lined the walkway up to the porch, and gone are the annual accolades and awards to dad from the City of La Mirada in the form of their “Beautification Award for Outstanding Home Maintenance.”

Gone, too, are Mom and Dad and so many others who enjoyed making La Mirada the gathering place.  Left behind are just traces of what used to be…just enough to keep my heart and mind etched in the memories.

I’m ending this writing with a short poem I wrote in one of my many episodes of Mom and Dad:

The very neatest place I could then or now roam
Would be to pull up to the curb and find them at home.