More Wildfire Memories

Mount Baldy. Mount Wilson. The Wilson Observatory. San Gabriel mountains. All in southern California, all just north of Altadena and Pasadena. And Azusa, Cucamonga, Glendora, Claremont, Pomona, and many other communities. This was my childhood region. We lived in Altadena and later in Glendora. Grandparents were in Claremont. We drove through this region constantly. All in the 40’s and then the early 50’s. This phase of my life ended in 1954 when we moved to Massachusetts. What a change! Snow. Four seasons. And a different history learned in school.

California schools, of course, focused on Mexico, the Catholic missions built up and down the California Pacific coast. And Indians, but not a lot of details about them. My education about Indians is simply sparse. I’ve learned much more from traveling the western region of our nation, especially camping on deserts and in forested mountains.

The California wildfires sparked (no pun intended) memories of growing up in the region. The grit of southern California was very real to me. We explored our surroundings. I think this came from my parents who were from the Midwest. Dad was born in Chicago and moved frequently with his parents; grandpa was a Congregational minister. Mom was born and raised in Freeborn, Minnesota, on a farm. The town was tiny then and still so when we visited as kids. 900 residents, maybe? Today it is larger but still small by any standards.

With midwestern parents, we explored deserts (even lived on the Mojave for 3 years!), camped throughout the national park system in Kings Canyon, Yosemite and many others. We traveled every summer for at least 2 weeks, sometimes 3. We camped and parked in motels for the showers and laundry facilities. We hiked the mountains and walked Yosemite in great detail. All wonderful experiences. All long-lasting memories. That’s part of the grit mentioned earlier.

But grit was present in Altadena, too. Grit from concrete driveways (never asphalt in those days). Sidewalks, too. Paths through green meadows and spaces near horse farms and golf courses. Grass, lots of grass. Trees of all shapes and parentage, including hardwoods, but mostly pines and firs.

Horse farms were part of the Altadena legacy. Santa Anita racetrack was several miles to our east but relied on horse farms local and distant. Our local farms gradually disappeared, but they provided open spaces in our day. And then golf courses.

We drove up into the mountains often. At times this provided my parents with a touch of snow they had escaped from the Midwest. For us kids, snow was very rare, an oddity to be sure. Our backyard neighbor was Mount Wilson. Atop its reaches is the Mount Wilson Observatory. An early science partner from1905. Einstein, Hubble and Hale were common names associated with the facility in those days. Hale the founding father of the observatory, oversaw its construction and expansion to three telescopes. The road to the observatory in early days began in Altadena but was rarely used by the public.

I don’t remember visiting the observatory, but we checked out Mount Wilson each morning to see the large “W” carved from the forest marking its spot. In winter we checked the mountain for snow and how far the snow line crept down to us!

We often drove up the mountainside to peek toward the coast to see if the ocean were visible. On a clear day, we could see Catalina Island. Most of the time smog kept that view secret.

Later our drives in the mountains were to transport us to the Mojave Desert where we lived on what was then called the Naval Ordinance Test Station near Inyokern. Dad was a civil servant engineer working on torpedo systems and inertial guidance systems in the days before transistors. All interesting memories from those times. And stories. I will attempt to uncover some of those stories in the future.

See what wildfires have brought to light? More than weather and sunshine, Altadena was a place of magic and beauty. A pleasure to be lived.

January 22, 2025

 

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