Middle: Ann and I at the La Reina apartment pool, July 1961
Bottom: Mom and I at the La Reina apartment pool, September 1960
Our grandmother from Kansas was visiting mom in September 1960, but when they showed up and asked if they could take us two kids for the weekend, our stepmother refused. (We likely had not seen Grandma Breeze in quite some time.) Dad was not home. Between the bribe of a new model kit and cajoling, as well as pulling me toward the car (I wanted to go but knew that Willene would be nasty if I left), I got kidnapped for the weekend. Since I was only wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt, they took me to Fashion Island Shopping Center and Bullocks Department Store, to buy me a decent shirt and trousers. Since Ann was too afraid to leave with us, that's why she isn't in the bottom photo. (When we were forced to move mom to an assisted living situation in 2002, and were going through her things, I came across a court order that admonished mom from taking either of us on other than a designated visiting weekend.) I had thoroughly enjoyed the weekend away, but dad forced me to apologize to Willene for having left when she told me not to. (I was not one bit sorry but pretended to be anyway.)
Somehow, the rules must have gotten relaxed after this confrontation because we were allowed to spend more than one Saturday a month with mom as evidenced by the photo a year later with both Ann and me in that same pool. (I am not sure who the woman is sitting in the chair beside the pool behind us.) We loved swimming in pools since we did not own one ourselves.
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