" All of the photos taken of my Dad, Mom, friends and all the
sailors,
were taken at the house/yard owned by
my mother’s ( Arlien's ) grandmother, Caroline ‘Granny’ Petersen.
The gals in photos were mother, her sister Pearl (2 yrs younger)
and
‘Sandy’, mother’s dear friend for life, and several other friends,
not from USO, just local gal friends.
The gas station/store/home where Rutherford and Charlotte White,
Arlien's parents, lived was on a pretty large lot.
So was Granny’s lot, next door on the corner,
turn right and you are on San Juan.
Granny and her sister ( Bertha ) owned the Stevens Creek Campground
where the
fellows are swimming, inner tubes, diving board etc.
See
Stevens Creek Section
My grandmother took daughters and their girl friends to
Moffett Field hanger USO dances and the girls of course met guys.
They would help cook, clean the kitchen and goof off.
My grandmother invited the sailors who were from everywhere in US
to come and stay,
spend their time off, that’s why so many different guys, my mother’s
friends etc. were always cutting up.
The Stevens Creek Dam was just up the road,
so many photos from that location as well.
My grandmother ‘Mom’ corresponded for many years with the mother’s
of these young men.
Mother and Arlene ‘Sandy’ Sanders
used to ‘exercise’ horses at the stable next door.
Mother told me that Seabiscuit was stabled across the road from
the store/gas station/home ( not certain if directly across ).
[ This could possibly be the McClellan Ranch Preserve,
a former horse ranch ]
No confirmation.
Recently saw a current diagram/map of that area,
one street named Phar Lap, another famous race horse.
During the time Granny and her sister Bertha owned the Picnic Area,
Granny lived there, probably a cabin.
** Note : Bertha died in 1936 **
Her sister had a pretty large cabin type home,
have a photo of it. Not certain where Bertha’s house was located.
Al and Arlien's first encounter
My mother Arlien, her sister Pearl and friend Arlene ‘Sandy’ Sanders
were sitting on the doorstep of the grocery/gas station built and
owned by her father.
On road leading to the Stevens Creek Dam on the right hand side.
The three girls were eating ice cream, Dad and buddy were driving
to the dam
and and stopped to talk to the young gals.
It became a regular habit and then the fellows would spend evenings
playing Monopoly.
Charlotte's third husband Magnus lived right around the corner on
San Juan Road.
Magnus Bertel Bendixsen was living with his
daughter, son-in-law and grandson on San Juan.
He was part of the security team at
Kaiser Permanente Magnesium Plant located
just several miles back toward Cupertino.
Mother’s first job when in high school, 16-17 years old, was to go
to school in
the morning and work at the office afternoons, ‘making name tags for
new employees.’
I called her every evening, one night several years before she died,
I asked her about the plant, what else did you do?
She said ‘oh yes, I fingerprinted the new employees and
we sent them to Washington’, also,
‘there was a huge fire department with lots of fire trucks, I never
understood that.’
I said, I thought it was a quarry.
That evening I spent about 4 hours researching the plant which
was under the auspices of the US Army.
It was the magnesium, presumably used in bombs etc.
The next night I told her what I had found out… "
