Thoughts On Travel, Books, And Life
Maybe the road to Spadra wasn’t the mystical road to Shangri-la, but it definitely served a purpose in local California history. In 1887, the Amerige brothers bought land that would eventually become Fullerton. There was already a north-south trail nearby that aided transportation. That trail was named Spadra Road (or Spadra Street, to some). Continue reading “Spadra, The Community That Vanished”
Sometimes my mind just floats. Yesterday, as I was looking at my blossoming bush lily out on the patio, I was thinking of the words spring and bloom. Then my mind went to bloomer and, finally, bloomers. I’ve always been intrigued by how words have come to be and how they might be related to each other. Continue reading “Bloomers and Their Backstory”
When I was at a conference a few years ago, I was approached by a woman I had never seen before. She gave me a huge hug and claimed very emphatically, “We are RELATED!” She had looked at my badge and saw that my last name was Curlee. Her family name was McCurley. She explained Continue reading “Bubble and Squeak”
It was a sunny and beautiful day on Monday. Tom and I decided to do some “micro-traveling” by driving fifteen minutes away from home to the Olinda Continue reading “Olinda Oil Museum and Trail”
Driving along Highway 111 through the Palm Springs area, Tom and I would always look forward to stopping in at St. Margaret’s Cellar Door Thrift Shop to see if we could snag any deals. It was always my favorite thrift shop when we were on vacation in the area until just a few years ago when Continue reading “St. Margaret’s Cellar Door Thrift Shop”
Back in 1962, Bobby Vinton’s “Roses Are Red” spent four weeks at number one on Billboard’s Hot 100. Currently, “Roses Are Red” clocks in at #23 on Billboard‘s Top 50 Love Songs of All Time. In 1963, Vinton’s most famous love ballad “Blue Velvet” was number one for three weeks. Vinton had many more hits, Continue reading “Bobby Vinton and His Musical Legacy”
We always knew it would happen sooner or later and it finally did. On January 28th, Fullerton lost its last commercial orange grove. Nearly 500 Valencia orange trees (and many avocado, pecan, and pine trees) were removed on what used to be the property of Kimberly-Clark, which closed its plant in 2020. The reason for the Continue reading “Valencia Oranges and the Elephant Packing House”
With all of the current discussion in the media about the Covid-19 disease and promising vaccines for it, I remembered when my parents were concerned about our family getting polio and the debilitating paralysis (and even death) that could ensue if we did get it. As I recall, it was the late 1950s or early 1960s when the anxiety peaked high enough Continue reading “What I’m Thinking About This Week”
My recipe study began with searching for Mom’s Polish fruit soup recipe in a stack of old recipe cards this week. Once during the wintertime, Mom would make fruit soup with dumplings and, for the sake of tradition, I thought I would make some this week if I could find Continue reading “Molasses and More”
One of my favorite books of all time has been Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I was introduced to it in my high school French class and I’ve read it many times since. Tom bought me a Continue reading “Taming Remi”