The Second, Second Best Blog

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My youngest brother Ted was just a baby when the mother he never would know was taken from us, 51 years ago tomorrow.

The day started like most summer Sundays back then. We piled into the station wagon for the 14 mile trip to Sacred Heart Church in Susanville to attend the 8:00 AM mass with Monsignor Patrick J. Moran. I don’t remember it myself, but at her funeral a few days later, Father Moran said she had Holy Communion.

The rest of the day was supposed to be fun. We all put on swimsuits under our clothes in anticipation of playing in a pool! We were going to visit at a friends new house in Milford.

I lost conciousness briefly during the crash. I was sitting in the left hand seat in the middle row of the 9 passenger wagon, directly behind Dad. I don’t remember getting out of the car, only walking around in back of it, then toward the front on the other side. Mom was curled up laying on her right side, coughing and choking, between the car and the mailbox post that stopped her flight when she was thrown out, bleeding from the nose and the one ear I could see. Even though I had never seen anything like that, I knew it was not good. There was no one else outside of the cars that I could see, so I started walking down the lane to the house where Mom’s friend lived. As I approached the front door, the woman came out. I said, “We wrecked.” She said, with a forced smile, “I know.” and took me inside, laying me on a bed and hurried back out.

Several minutes later someone carried me to the back seat of a car and drove to the hospital in Susanville. I ended up on a gurney in a hallway near the entrance. Shortly after, another gurney was rolled past. The person on it was covered with a sheet except for some brown curly hair. A doctor came and did a brief examination, including my groin. I didn’t object, just thought to myself, “You can do anything you want to me, just save my mom.” even though I knew she was dead.

When we bought our house back in 1985, it had all the original light fixtures, indoors and out. Several years later we decided we wanted one of those new-fangled automatic motion sensing lights by the front door. It turned out to be fairly easy to remove the old “jelly jar” style fixture and replace it with a motion-sensor carriage style light, which served very well until last month. It was on when I came home from work. I didn’t think too much of it because it was possible that my most excellent spouse had just been there. It was on again the next night so I checked it out by switching it to test mode. It turned on and off seemingly appropriately while I stood in front of it waving my hand. I went inside and watched through the front door window. It came on about every 10 to 15 seconds with nothing moving that I could see. When switched back to normal 3 minute mode, it just stayed on. Time to replace it.

My first thought of where to get a replacement was Home Depot. [Read more →]

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Since I was born and raised in Lassen County, I still think of it as “home”, even though I have now lived the majority of my life in Orange County. That is why there is a link to Lassen County News on this blog’s front page. I don’t often go there, but nearly every time I do, I find an unexpected connection, usually by reading the obituaries.

Today I went there and saw a name I remember from high school: Loflin. Kenny Loflin is about 3 years older than me and was a senior when I was a freshman. His brother Donny was a junior that year and excelled in the pole vault. We were both on the wrestling team in 1967. The youngest brother Bobby is a year younger than I. We were both on the wrestling team for a couple of years. Many years later either Ken or Don (I don’t remember which) bought a house from my stepmother, Jacquelyn (Fountain) Fuller. The obituary was for their mother, Betty Jean Loflin. The unexpected connection was Betty Jean’s father: Leo Lusker. Leo was one of the high school custodians during my years there. I knew him because our first and best housekeeper, Juanita, married him after leaving us. We visited them a few times at their home in Janesville. My condolences to the Loflins.

I was quite surprised to see Daniel Paul Sanchez. Dan was married to my stepmother Maggie’s sister, Lois. They lived in Susanville and owned a lot at Lake Almanor. We spent many summer weekends there, swimming and water skiing. They are pictured (right) in 1967 with my brother Hal.

Another obituary with a connection was for Jim Buffham. I never met him but his mother Edna was my first and second grade teacher and the Principal for many years at Shaffer Union Elementary School in Litchfield, CA.

• The Maserati was sighted on Lake Forest Drive in Lake Forest on May 24.
• The pickup tailgate sticker was spotted on Lake Forest Drive in Lake Forest on May 24. Click the picture and read it.
• The “Grand Opening” sign was spotted on Moulton Parkway just east of Lake Forest Drive on May 21.
• The Bat-1 was sighted at the intersection of Irvine Center Drive and Muller in Irvine on May 25.