Contents of a Dusty Box, Part 5

My old friend Marc, AKA NovaShip, said in the comments of the last post:

"It is funny how happy we could be as kids even in difficult times. The South Bay was a great place to grow back then. The picture of the MB pier makes me home sick."

True dat! The South Bay was da bomb!!! I'm sorry for all of you who didn't grow up there with us :(

So sad...

A few weeks back I joined a group on facebook called 'I Grew Up in the South Bay Which Means I'm Kind of a Big Deal.' The name alone makes it worth joining, because let's face - I am kind of a big deal ;-) Finally a little recognition. And oh the memories that are packed in the group's description:

If you grew up in the original 310/213 (Carson, El Porto, El Segundo, Gardena, Harbor City, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes (RPV & PVE), Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills Estates, San Pedro & Torrance) join now and invite all of your fellow South Bay-bred friends.

The beaches (Redondo, Manhattan, Hermosa, Torrance, RAT, Imperial), Malaga Cove, PCH, Del Amo Mall, Daily Breeze, Marineland (R.I.P.), Sand Dune Park, Hawthorne Blvd, Farrells, King Harbor, Chillers, The Red Onion, The Castle Miniature Golf (R.I.P.), Fashions, Tequila Willies, Ports of Call, Seaside Lagoon, The Plunge, Old Towne Mall, Shamrock, Madrona Marsh, Oktoberfest, ECC, Home Depot Center, CSUDH, Goodyear Blimp, 110 & 405, the Strand, surfing, beach volleyball, South Bay Galleria, AVP, Riviera Village, El Porto, and home of the Beach Boys.

Oh South Bay of my youth, how I loved you!

*****************************************************

Now back to my autobiography...continued from Part 4...

Maybe I've romanticized my memories of the Children's Center - I tend to do that, which is a gift I believe. Who wants to look back at life and focus on the sucky parts? I'm sure there were boring days, but in my mind it was non-stop fun.

To begin with, being so close to the beach meant we could walk there. During the summer months we went twice a week (this is when my love for swimming in the ocean was born). Three teachers, including my mom, would take about 50 of us (the other half of the school would go on different alternating days). It seems like we stayed for hours and hours - the entire day really. This was back before sunscreen was widely used, and or available, so after lunch, we'd all don over-sized t-shirts and zinc-oxide on our noses to protect from the sun. Aaaah, those were the days! Playing in the shade of the lifeguard station with friends, digging for sand crabs, being poked on the bottoms of our feet by sand crabs, trying, but not succeeding, to get the sand out of our bathing suits, being washed up in the waves with a mouth full of saltwater, tar stuck on the bottoms of our feet that we had to get off with lighter fluid (there has to be something better now), standing in the sand in one place at waters edge to see whose feet would be buried the deepest as the waves came and went, seeing how close we could get to a receding wave before another came and chased us back, etc., etc., etc..

*sigh*

We also went on LOTS of field trips. We went to some places many times over the years (we helped our mom sometimes when were were older - she worked there until I was 12). Some of the places I remember going include: Marineland (RIP - and RIP Bubbles the whale too), Seaside Lagoon, The Japanese Gardens, Knott's Berry Farm, Disneyland, Los Angeles Zoo, Santa's Village (RIP), Busch Gardens in Van Nuys (RIP)(we always toured the brewery while there, so age appropriate :D), Cabrillo Beach Museum, The La Brea Tar Pits, Barnum & Bailey Circus, Lion Country Safari (RIP Frasier the lion), and many many other miscellaneous theater productions and puppet shows.

We also watched a lot of memorable short films with the classic movie projectors and pull down screens. Whether it was in school or at the Children's Center, turning off the lights for a movie was always exciting (I was very expert at tying peoples shoe laces to their desks)! The sound of the projector running is still so fresh in my mind. We watched some films many many times, including these:

The Red Balloon - click here to watch (it still has the power to mesmerize). Who did/does not love this film? I want to know.

Winter of the Witch - click here to watch a scene. This show was almost as freaky as HR Puff N Stuff, but not quite.

Skaterdater - click here to watch - so classy and classic!

When we weren't doing any of those things, we were having fun out on the playground or doing crafts. One of the days I remember best, was when someone discovered that using wax paper on the slide could make you go about half the speed of sound. We spent all afternoon, with what seemed like the entire school, standing in line to go down that giant old school metal slide. It was huge!!! The teachers were at the bottom as we came shooting off end. We also had those stainless steel industrial tricycles and two wheelers. We had BBQs regularly, and holiday programs. We did Easter egg hunts and had relay races. We took swimming lessons at a public pool (when the school was at its second location), and spent hours looking for polliwogs at Polliwog Park. I never fail to think of the MBCC when I hear 'Up Up and Away' by The 5th Dimension (I have it proudly on my i-pod). I think it was played alot when I was very young, when it was popular. The teachers always played with us, and cared about us. I can't think of how such a school/day care center could possibly ever be better!

I've never been able to part with my grandmother's MBCC windbreaker

RIP Manhattan Beach Children's Center. You were so good to me - good to us. You will never be forgotten.

So please, let us observe a moment of silence...