“He’s not a fancy toy. He is just one of the earliest things from my past and represents a good, everyday friend.”
Alice was born in Loma Linda, and grew up in San Bernardino along with her three siblings.
We moved into this house that I grew up in when I was about four. It was a nice middle class neighborhood. I had no girls to play with, so I had to be a tomboy.
She remembers being doted on by parents and uncles as a child.
I had an Uncle Don that I always treasured. He was growing tomatoes out back, and one day he had me pollinate them all. And as a kid you just eat that kind of stuff up. Then there was my Uncle Ivan, who loved to make up ice cream flavors. We would test then, and give them each a grade.
As we got older, and my dad did better in business and he wanted us to learn how to ride motorcycles. We’d go out to Dead Man’s Point in the Desert. I’ll always remember all the effort they put into making it a good experience for us. Same with the beach. We would also stay up in the mountains for a month at a time, so we’d have the experience.
As a young child, Alice shared a room with her brother, and then later with her sister. At night she’d cuddle up with her teddy bear, on display here.
I don’t remember when I first had this bear because it’s been so long, but I do know I’ve had it a long time. He’s one of the earliest things from my past. In the evenings, going to bed, he was a security item. I lived through WWII, and that scared me to death — the top halves of the streetlights were painted black, you had gas stamps, shoe stamps ... it was really quite a different experience. Depending on your imagination, you could think just about anything might happen.
Despite this era of uncertainty, Alice looks back on her childhood in comparison to the way kids grow up today and sees a lot of privileges to her own upbringing.
I think I had a pretty secure life. It wasn’t like nowadays, where there are so many people who have to express the terrible things within them. During the day, we were outside, unless it was raining. Moms could send their kids out to play without any worries in those days. We used to get to sleep in the backyard at night. To wake up in the middle of the night, and there you are with the stars – it’s a nice experience. And mom didn’t worry about us out there. We did get caught trying to smoke a cigarette one time, though — she smelled the smoke. Boy did we get in trouble.
Alice bemoans transformations in society that she has personally witnessed over the last eighty years.
I wish I had the savvy the kids do on computers. I think I probably could benefit from living a little bit how they live nowadays. But I think they could benefit from experiencing being able to go out and run around in your neighborhood and feel safe. You hear so much bad news today – I can’t imagine.
Alice’s teddy bear is one thing that has stayed the same, over all of these years.
He’s something that has always been there. Always the same. Watching everything. At one point I had to sew buttons on the eyes — I needed to keep this bear going; I didn’t want it to die. That might be something important? I don’t know. When people like to hang onto things – if they’re excessive they’re called hoarders. But I think I’m just trying to have a lot of respect for my own family, and what was going on at the me, and trying to see the good things in life.