Lennart John Holmquist

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1960 Japan

Packing Up and Driving to San Francisco

Movers came one day and packed all the family's household possessions for shipment to Taiwan. The family piled into their 1959 yellow and white Chevy and took the scenic Highway 1 to San Francisco where they were housed in not-so-beautiful temporary quarters. Bud requested leave, which was granted.

Flight to Japan

Traveling by passenger plane was a special event. Bud and Doris and the kids dressed up and got on board a four propeller passenger plane - possibly operated by Pan American. Passenger jets were in use in the 1960s, but propeller passenger planes were still a common way to travel on long distant flights. Travel time was of course longer, and included stops to refuel. For their flight to Japan they needed to land in Hawaii (possibly Midway Island), Wake Island (and possibly Guam). Smartly-dressed young stewardesses served hot meals and drinks. Airlines at that time did not show movies during the flight.

Approaching Honolulu

Taking off from San Francisco, it was nearly midnight by the time they approached Hawaii. Most passengers were asleep except for Lennie who had a window seat, located slightly behind the left wing. Lennie's mother sat to his right. Lennie saw a bright beautiful orange and yellow oblong ball around one of the engines. Not knowing what it he tapped his mom on the arm. She looked out the window and was a bit alarmed. A stewardess was making her way down the aisle. Lennie's mom, touched the stewardess' arm and pointed out the window. The stewardess bent down for a closer look. She turned around a quickly walked to the cockpit.

The pilot or co-pilot accompanied her back to Lennie's row. He looked out the window, and returned to the cockpit. Then the pilot came to take a look. The engine was on fire. In about half an hour the landed at the Honolulu airport and the passengers disembarked. This was to be a simple refueling stop. However, about three hours later, all the passengers got back on board the same plane. Lennie knew it was the same plane because all their stuff they had left on the plane was still where they had left it.

Wake Island

After some hours Lennie's mom said they were approaching Wake Island. Lennied didn't know where or what Wake Island was. Looking out of his window Lennie could see no island, just water, but the water was getting closer and closer.

Shortly before it seemed the plane was to land in the water, land appeared below them, and immediately a runway. Within seconds the plane touched down, and started taxiing to the terminal.

Looking out his starboard window, Lennie saw the bow of rusty ship sticking out of the water. On the bow of the ship was painted a Japanese rising sun. Wake Island had been the scene of a fierce battle starting the same day Pearl Harbor was attacked, twenty years before, during WWII, though Lennie didn't know that at the time. Seeing the ship was very exciting to Lennie. It was real, tangible evidence and verification of all the Pacific war movies he had seen. (Decades later Len identified this ship as possibly the Suwa Maru. The ship had been hit by two torpedoes fired by the USS Tunny, and was beached by the Japanese captain to keep her from sinking.)

At the very small terminal, stairs were rolled up to one of the plane's doors. The passenger's got up an exited one by one. Stepping through the door Lennie was greeted by intense heat and intense sunlight. He squinted as he descended the stairs. The passengers were in the terminal for a brief time, perhaps an hour, and then asked to board the plane. They walked out on the tarmac into the heat and sunlight.

Lennie noticed that Wake Island was very flat, and the island was just a few feet above the ocean that surrounded it.

Hemeji, Kyoto, Nara, Nagasaki Japan

After some hours they landed in Tokyo.

They were given housing at Bachelor Officer’s Quarters (BOQ) at Yokuska. They shopped at Post Exchange (PX). An old friend, Dr. Eitel, a Swiss doctor, met them at officer's club. Doris and he were close. They had worked together at Farber Krankenhaus in Tsingtao when she, a young teenager, was training to be a nurse's aid. She had also played piano together with Dr. Eitel on the flute at social gatherings. Dr. Eitel had decided to leave or was forced to leave China when the Chinese communists took over China and relocated to Japan. The Holmquist family and Dr. Eitel spent whole day together.

While in Japan, in the Yokohama area, they visited Egron and Gerda Rinell, Egron being Doris' uncle. Gerda and Egron and family were missionaries forced out of China due to the communist Chinese and eventually they relocated to Japan.

The Rinell and Holmquist families had German pastry, and saw some of the sights. Bud and Doris asked to see the grave of Dr. Frank H. Connoly who had also been a missionary in China. Frank had helped Bud with Youth for Christ in Tsingtao. Frank and Bud became good friends, and also friends of Rinell family. Doris called him Uncle Frank. Egron took them to they top of big hill in foreign section of cemetery to pay respects. Frank meant a lot of Bud.

They boarded a bullet train and headed for Hemeji where Hellen and Oscar lived. They also had been missionaries in China. They were carrying about eleven suitcases of various sizes. Bud and Doris couldn't possibly get them themselves, four small children ages ten and under, and all the suitcases on board the punctual bullet trains. Japanese men who were either getting on or off the train saw the dilemma, laughed or smiled politely, and helped throw the suitcases onto the train.

They arrived at Kobe. Red-headed Margie Rinell, Lennie's cousin, came to see them. Lennie didn't really know who she was. He didn't know he had a cousin, and perhaps didn't know what a cousin was, and he didn't expect to have one in Japan. And they met with and spent time with his mom's uncle and aunt, Egron and Gerda. Lennie didn't exactly know who they were either, but knew they were in some way special because everyone was very glad to see each other.

Then they continued on to Hemeji.

They visited with Oscar and Hellen in Hemeji for about twenty days. Cookie had her bath in kitchen sink. Rest of family had baths in Japanese short rectangular hot bath, which was possibly made out of a dark gray concrete or stone. Flooring was of wood slats over a concrete floor. Lennie was instructed that he should soap down outside of the tub, rinse off, and then enter the hot water in the tub, which he thought was very odd.

The family, at least the kids, slept on tatami mats.

Meilynn made friends with a Japanese girl. Blonde and black haired. Became the best of friends. A kind Japanese sergeant who had been with the Japanese military in Manchuria invited Meilynn and Lennie to his strawberry patch. They sat for a while among the rows of strawberry plants which was awkward because they did not have a language in common.

Egron took family on tour of Kobe and Nara. Japanese businessman provided transportation in a company car. Egron and family lived in Kyoto about a block from the royal palace. Gerda and Egron were good hosts.

Hellen and Oscar lived next door to the Oguni family. Dr. Hiroyuki Oguni took them on tour of beautiful park and had everyone over for dinner. Beautiful home and garden. Home had one western room. He traveled world widely. He was outstanding Christian it was said. He was chairman of the Christian girls school, and Japan director of Lions Club for many years.

The Oguni family lived near Hellen and Oscar. Possibly it was Dr. Oguni that showed them Ryōanji (Peaceful Dragon Temple), built during the 15th century with its rock garden looking like islands in a sea. Temple was located in the northwestern part of Kyoto, Japan. Also, visited the Golden Pagoda, and the Nijo Castle with its squeaky wood floors, made intentionally to alert the residents of trespassers.

When left left by train back to Yokohama a large group of people perhaps fifty saw them off. This reflected the respect they had for Oscar and Hellen. (Years later Mr. and Mrs. Oguni visited Bud and Doris one 4th of July in California.)

Oscar and Hellen had started Hemeji Christian Center and church. Oscar spent time teaching conversational English at Hemeji branch of Kobe University.

1960-62 Taiwan

Flight to Taiwan

The next leg of the journey was the flight to the island of Taiwan again on a propeller airplane. However, they flew into a typhoon. The plane bounced irregularly as the flew toward the city of Taipei. Len looked out his small port window to his left. The metal wings of the plane were flapping like a bird. Airsick, passengers started vomiting. Lennie's mom gave him a small yellow pill, Dramamine, to hopefully keep him from getting sick. The pill made him sleepy and he fell asleep.

Upon landing Lennie's mom woke him up, and they gathered their things. Stairs were rolled up to the passengers' door and the everyone disembarked. Rain still fell, but the temperature of the air was not cold. The skies were dark. Then passengers walked into the small terminal. Lennie looked around. The passengers looked gaunt, clothes askew. Lennie asked his mom what was wrong. She said everyone got very sick during the storm. Later Lennie heard more of the story.

All on the plane were sick including flight attendants. Len's dad was so sick his face was white and sweat rolled down his face. Lennie's mom had a hard time breathing. The steward brought a bottle of oxygen, and put the mask over her face. She had a difficult time holding Cookie, then 18 months old. The steward took her and held her under one arm like a sack of potatoes, head facing forward and feet sticking out in back.

The plane circled the Taipei airport many times, but was not given permission to land. A cargo plane had crashed on the runway. No one was hurt but it was lunch time and the workers had taken off for lunch before removing the plane from the runway.

The pilot got permission to fly down to Tainan, about an hour flight south. After landing the passengers disembarked.

Two young men, officials at the airport in some capacity informed the passengers in English that Tainan was not a port of entry, and said that they had to get back on the plane after the plane was refueled.

When they were speaking to each other they spoke in mandarin Chinese.

Len's mom recognized their dialect. In Chinese she said,

"We are not going back up there. We're staying right here !"

One of the young men said to the other, "She speaks Chinese !"

She said that she was from China, was born and raised there. These two young men and Doris discovered they were from the same town, Kiaohsien.

"Your English is quite good," she said in Chinese. "Where did you learn it?"

"We learned English in school in China."

"Where did you go to school?"

"The mission school in Kiaohsien."

"What was the name of your teacher?"

One mentioned that person's Chinese name.

"That's my uncle," she said. They had been taught by Oscar's brother Egron.

A U.S. marine major made a few phone calls, and got custom officials out to the airport. They opened Doris suitcase. On top was her black bra. Doris was embarrassed and so were the customs agents. They didn't search the luggage further.

The marine major said that he was going to Tsoying and would send back a jeep, which he did. The family crammed into the jeep. Perhaps two vehicles were dispatched to carry all the family's suitcases.

The Holmquist family were the only ones allowed to have their customs done at the Tainan terminal. The other passengers were required to back on the plane and continue to Taipei.

Kaoshiung

In the town of Kaoshiung they rented a two story house, a former American chaplain's residence, about two blocks down from the always smelly, sometimes calm, sometimes raging Love River, a tidal river connected to the sea. Sewage flowed out, tide changed and sewage flowed back in again. Navy said that you could turn off radar ten miles out and go to the island navigating by smell. Fisherman on long bamboo rafts caught small fish in wide square nets slung from crisscrossed bamboo poles. (Len has a scale model made of a fishing boat made of water buffalo horn (2020).

The house was surrounded by a high wall with a gray cement surface. Embedded in cement on the top of the wall were broken bottles, an attempt to keep thieves out. All the windows on both the first and second floors of the house were latticed with green-painted iron bars. All the buildings on that side of the street were made of brick, surfaced with cement. All had iron bars. The roof tiles were of cement.

The whole yard was covered with cement. A channel about 8 inches across and 8 inches deep carried rain water away during exciting storms. During typhoons, they were not deep or wide enough to carry off the rain water, and the cement yard flooded, almost, but never entering the house.

Some rooms had ceiling fans. Lennie, his brother Carey and sister Meilynn folded paper airplanes and flew them into the whirling fans. Sometimes the planes got caught on the metal blades. Sometimes the blades ripped up the planes. It was like air combat.

Lennie found various ways to amuse himself. On the second story cement balcony he pushed ants off the balcony wall. They did not really fall but rather floated to the cement-covered yard, and then walked off.

Another kid in the neighborhood, perhaps a local Taiwanese boy, who lived across the dirt road or a U.S. military dependent kid who lived on the next street, taught Lennie how to light a firecracker under an empty tin can. With a very loud noise the can shot into the air like a rocket.

The family had two maids, Janey and Haloo, the youngest Janey being about fifteen of sixteen years old. The maids kept the house orderly, and took care of the baby, Cookie. Neither attempted to build a loving relationship with any of the children. This was only a job. Except for the baby Janey forced obedience by pinching the facial cheek pf Lennie or one of his sibling and twisting hard. This happened to Lennie at least once and maybe more. Lennie stayed way from Janey. He told his parents about it. Both Janey and Haloo eventually lost their jobs, but Lennie never knew if it was because of Janey's method of punishment or not.

At one time the family had a male cook who cooked solely Chinese food, which was the family's food of choice anyway.

Zachary

To keep thieves away Lennie's dad got a hunting dog, name Zachary. Zachary always tried to get out the green wood gate when someone was coming in or leaving. He was fast. Zachary was never taught not to chase and kill chickens. More than once the local farmer came to the house asking to be paid for his killed chickens. Lennie's dad asked his driver, Gee, to take the dog away. The family guessed Zachary became part of some family's dinner.

Neighbor

On the other side of the dirt road and stretching around the end of this dead end short street was a small farm, the entire two or three blocks of this short street. This was probably the farm of the farmer owning either live or dead chickens. The Taiwanese or Chinese farmer grew rows and rows of vegetables and probably less than an acre. The family lived in a bamboo and mud-waddled house with a dirt floor - the first several feet of the house. Except the entrance the rest of the house was elevated on a bamboo platform two or three feet high. What existed of furniture close to the floor and made of bamboo.

Directly behind the bamboo house a cesspool, about ten feet rouned square, was cupped by the rich earth. Deep rich red in color the cesspool smelled incessantly. Beside the cesspool stood an outhouse, used by the family and visitors. From time to time the farmer dipped a large tin can attached to a long bamboo pole into the pool, sank the can under the red surface, raised it to the side of the cesspool filling two wood buckets attached to the ends of a long bamboo pole. The farmer lifted the pole onto his shoulders, each wood bucket balancing the other to his right and left. The bamboo pool sagged in a curve from the weight. He walked to his row of vegetables and poured the sweet effluence at the roots, alternating the buckets so as not to put them off balance.

Stephen B. Luce

On weekdays a gray U.S. military bus stopped at the end of their block driven by Sam, a tall lanky Chinese or Taiwanese military driver. Sam grabbed the shiny metal handle in his right hand, moving it in a gentle arc to the right. Metal flat bar levers, pivoted at attached endpoints, opening the tall metal doors. Sam looked down on Meilynn and Lennie without saying anything, but with a kindly look on his face. They climbed up the tall bus stairs, turned left pass Sam, and sat down on metal tubed two person seats, joining other kids off to school.

The bus continued on, picking up a few other kids, with their final destination of Stephen B. Luce school, a one story multiple-roomed wood military building about thirty minutes away.

Lennie's classroom harbored both grades five and six. The teacher, the wife of navy doctor, taught both grades. She stepped from one side of the classroom, giving them an assignment to do or teaching certain subjects, depending upon the time of the day. such as geography, history and mathematics, and then moved over to the other side of the classroom to teach the other half of the class. She had short brown hair, wore a dark skirt and white blouse, was fairly young, perhaps in her late twenties, and was slightly plump. Her lips were red with lipstick. She was nice, and a bit strict. She was a teaching a class of squirmy nine and ten your olds, most of whom would rather be somewhere else.

Lennie, as usual was shy and quiet, hoping desperately his teacher would not call on him to provide an answer to some question.

The classes were fairly boring to Lennie. One day the boy who sat in front of Lennie whose name was Gary loaned Lennie a comic. It was the time of the day for the geography lesson. The teacher asked her students on his side of the classroom to open up their geography books, while she taught the lesson. The large format geography book was in a large enough format to fit a comic book. Lennie stood the geography book on about a 60 degree angle on top of his desk, and slipped the comic book on top of the book pages. He was reading along contendly, while the teacher talked on in the background.

After some time he heard his classmates nervously laughing. Lennie looked up slightly from his comic book, and looked slightly to his right. He saw a dark skirt and legs. He looked up and saw his teacher looking down on him. She looked stern, but Lennie thought he may have detected a very small smile at the corner of her lips. She lifted the comic book from the geography book, closed it, tore it in half and tore in in half again. Without saying anything she walked up to the front of the classroom, dropped the comic book, now in four parts, into the round metal trashcan, and continued the lesson. Lennie felt embarrassed and felt badly about the comic book. After class he said sorry to Gary about the comic book. Gary responded that it was no problem.

One day, just before class started, probably after lunch recess, Lennie stopped by the boys' restroom. Just before leaving, with his left hand, he leaned against one of the paned windows of the restroom door. The glass gave way, and his hand went through the glass. He pulled his hand back, and saw a long sliver of glass, several inches long, dangling from his hand. He though it was strange that it was dangling from his hand though he was not holding on to it. The sliver of glass had gone through the web between two fingers of the palm of his hand and out the back of this hand. He felt no pain.

Between two finger of his right hand, he grabbed the sliver of glass and pulled it out if his hand. Blood dripped from his hand. He bent his elbow so the hand pointed toward the ceiling. Bright red blood now dripped ran down his hand to his wrist and forearm.

Thinking he may be in a heck of a lot of trouble for breaking the window, he didn't want to go into the classroom, so he waited a few minutes. The second school bell rang signaling that all students should not be back in their classrooms. Now he thought he was really in trouble. Not only had he broken a window, but he was also late for class. He didn't know what else to do, so he headed back to the classroom. He opened the bathroom door with his right hand. Glass lay scattered on the floor. He walked down the hall to his classroom door, opened the door, and walked in with his bloodied hand still pointing toward the ceiling.

Lennie's teacher calmly assessed the situation, told the students to read a certain section of their lesson, and asked Lennie to follow her. She took him to the school nurse. Up until this time he probably didn't know the school had a nurse. His teacher left Lennie with the nurse, and the nurse bandaged him up. He returned to his classroom and continued with the day's lessons.

On Fridays, a Chinese woman, perhaps in her thirties, formally dressed, with dark coiffed hair, red lipsticked lips and gold earrings taught spoken and written Chinese for about forty minutes. Lennie learned about 15 or 20 Chinese words and their associated characters during these lessons such as numbers one through ten, mother, father, and mountain. He somewhat liked these lessons. Chinese characters and words were not totally foreign to him considering his family background.

Lennie's favorite part of the school day was of course recess, and his favorite three sports were kickball, tether ball and dodge ball. Tether ball was a ball about the size of a volleyball attached to one end of a rope, and the other end other rope tied to the top of a metal post. Two people played with the object of hitting the ball in the opposite direction the other player was hitting the ball and winding it around the pole. A match lasted two to four minutes at most. The loser went to the end of the line waiting his or her next turn. Lennie was pretty good at tether ball, but not the best.

Kickball is similar to baseball with four bases. The pitcher throws the ball underhand, bouncing over home plate. The kicker kicks the ball as hard as possible, aiming the kick toward harder to reach places in the outfield, such as between left and right field, punted it, and at least getting to first base or kicking elsewhere in-field. To get the kicker out, the players in the field could catch the ball and tag the kicker with the ball before he or she got on base or, more likely, or hitting the kicker with the ball by throwing it at him or kicker would be out if he kick a fly ball and someone catches it before it hits the ground. The best player was Joey Caldwell, to only black kid at school except for Joey's sister. Athletic and lithe, it was nearly impossible to hit him with the ball. Of course he was equally good a dodge ball.

Lennie loved this game. One day in one of the innings Lennie took up right field. A kicker kicked a high fly ball in Lennie's direction. Lennie ran toward the ball, but was not close enough to catch the ball before it bounced. The ball bounced a few feet in front of Lennie, and Lennie put his and down to block the ball before it traveled further. He blocked the ball, but the ball hit the end of his left little finger with force. Immediately, Lennie felt a terrible pain. He ran toward the ball and unable to pick up the ball because of the pain, he kicked it toward the in-field, so one of this team members could more easily get it. He then walked off the field.

The pain was a pain stronger than anything he had felt before during his nine years on earth. The pain was more intense when he let his hand hang, so he held it up, supporting it with his right hand. He went to his classroom. His teacher happened to be sitting there at her desk. He explained to her what had happened. She held the hand and gently felt the swollen area, and said it was probably just a bad sprain. Lennie though thought he had never felt a sprain like this one. She suggested that he walk to see her husband at their house, a short distance from the school. He was a medical doctor. Either Lennie's friend, Robert, walked with Lennie to the classroom or his teacher found Robert and asked him to walk with Lennie.

The two found the teacher's house. The doctor also thought it was a bad sprain, but suggested Lennie get an x-ray. At the military hospital, the x-ray showed that Lennie had a fractured little finger in the palm of the hand. The doctor stabilized the finger with a metal splint and wrapped the finger and hand in a plaster cast. This occurred shortly before the summer break. Swimming was out of the question, for most of the summer.

On the bright side, Lennie wore the cast with pride, like a soldier wounded in battle. Also, his friends and fellow students wrote their names or drew pictures on his cast.

Tsoying

The Holmquist family lived in this house in Kaoshiung for about a year when they moved about an half hour drive away to Tsoying.

They lived in Tsoying (Zuoying) for another year in a walled American military compound of about six houses. The American navy base was just down the road.

At the gate of the compound stood a Taiwanese military guard. Though guarded, the compound was not secure. Climbing over the wall at the back of the compound was easy, which Lennie did on a few occasions to buy fire crackers or keeshway (sugar water), i.e., a soda or a rubber ball about the size of a tennis ball, but soft pink in color.

At that gate Meilynn and Lennie boarded the same military bus every weekday for Stephen B. Lewis. Now the trip was only about ten minutes.

In one the houses was a kid about Lennie's age named Robert Taylor a son of an U.S. army soldier. They became friends and shared adventures most of which were initiated by Robert with Lennie, perhaps reluctantly at first, joining in with Robert's always successful coaxing.

Dragon Flies

Four-winged, segmented dragon flies hovered and darted in the air. Being too quick and alert they were impossible to catch. However, shooting them down with rubber band rifles was sometimes possible. Robert showed Lennie how to construct a rubber band rifle. You find a sawed stick about measuring about one inch by two inch by two or two and a half foot in length. On one end of the stick you hammer in a small nail about half an inch toward the top of the one inch by 2 inch end with about a quarter of an inch of the nail protruding. The nail could not have much of a head or cut the head of the nail off. The rubber band will catch onto the head if it was too prominent.

Next, depending on their length, you take three for four or five rubber bands and daisy chain them together. You don't want the overall length to be too short because you the stretch rubber bands would not have enough kinetic energy. And, you didn't want the overall length to be too long because the stretched daisy-chained rubber bands could not have enough tension, and so again would not have enough kinetic energy.

You wrap one end of this string of rubber bands around the nail, stretch the rubber bands along the length of the rifle at the top, take aim by placing the rifle in front of your eyeball, much as a sharpshooter would aim by sighting down the barrel of a rifle. You get a hovering dragon fly in your sights, and let go the rubber band.

If the rubber band was traveling at enough velocity and the dragon fly was not paying attention, the stringed rubber bands would hit him, and hopefully entangle him in the rubber bands. All would fall to earth. More often than not though, the dragon fly with surprising dexterity and speed dodged the missile.

A more effective method was hitting the dragon fly after it had landed on the ground or a plant. It probably was not that they were less alert, but they couldn't maneuver unless they were airborne, and getting airborne to a second.

If hit on the ground, the dragon fly might get entangled in the rubber bands or possibly be wounded of killed by the force of the rubber bands as it caught the dragon fly between it and the ground.

In either case two options were open to Lennie and Robert. They could let the dragon fly go or picking up the dragon fly by one of its wings, carry it to a nearby ant colony.

Upon holding it on top of the ant colony, the ants sensing a meal, climbed onto the dragon fly. After a reasonable number of ants were on board. Lennie or Robert let the dragon fly go, and dragon fly and ant passengers flew off.

Lennie and Robert placed dead or dying dragon flies on top of the ant colony, and waited for the ants to attack. The ants swarmed over the dragon fly and meticulously dissected it into small pieces, all of which they carried down into their ant colony. Only the non-edible wings were left which sooner or later blew away.

Lennie and Robert became excellent shots.

Rubber Bands and War

Robert and Lennie used their rubber band rifles for warfare. They took plastic army men who were in a number of poses such as shooting a rifle, throwing a hand grenade, flamethrower or operating a short wave radio or wakitaki and placed them in opposing armies on the floor of either of their respective bedrooms.

Robert and Lennie then positioned themselves behind their army. They took turns shooting. One would shoot at the opposing army, hitting as many as possible with one shot. The other picked up the linked rubber bands, loaded his rifle and shot into the opposing army. If an army man landed on his back, he was wounded. If he landed on his stomach, he was dead. After no man was left standing, then they stood up the wounded and continued firing. When all the men of an army were dead they were of course the losers.

They sometimes introduced an alternate topography by bunching up a blank, i.e., a mountain, and with each army man placed strategically on the folds of the mountain and on the plains below. A few times they took their armies outside to an area with sand. This was convent because they could form trenches. One time they added a few firecrackers to the battlefield which added a high degree of realism.

Ant Lions

Robert told Lennie about aunt lions who lived at the bottom of a cone-shaped sandy pit. They'd wait invisibly at the bottom of the pit, out of sight, waiting for an ant to fall into their pit at which time, the ant lion grabbed them. Lennie thought Robert was either joking or he didn't hear him right until Robert brought Lennie to the pit of and ant lion. Robert found an ant and dropped him into the cone-shaped pit. The ant tried to scramble out of the hole, but the sand under its legs would gave way. Though the ant might make it three quarters of the way up the side of the pit, he always slipped back down to the bottom. The ant lion, probably sensing the vibration of its victim, suddenly and quickly appeared, grabbed the ant, and disappeared under the sand again.

Curious Lennie later returned and gently removed enough of the sand to find the ant lion. The ant lion was hidden at the bottom of the pit, under the sand. He was a small beige bug with fierce-looking pincers. Upon being exposed the ant lion quickly burrowed back under the sand.

Lennie returned on occasion in weeks and months following, gently grabbing an ant and dropping the ant into the pit, and watched the action.

He felt a bit sorry for each ant.

Cobra

Lennie and Robert were walking to a section of the compound wall to climb up and over. Lennie was walking in front of Robert through a small patch of tall dry grass in the shade of a tree.

Quite suddenly Lennie heard a hissing. Directly in front of him a cobra had raised his body, hood expanded, body swaying. Lennie remembers the cobra's eyes being orange.

Lennie froze and walked slowly backwards. Robert, now seeing the cobra, grabbed a branch lying on the ground. He walked the snake and began beating it. Lennie told Robert to back away; he didn't want his friend bitten. Robert wacke the snake several times.

Lennie heard a door open behind him. The Taiwanese 'houseboy' servant ran frantically through the doorway eyes holding an expression of concern, down a three or four steps and tried to grab the stick from Robert who resisted. Robert wanted to be the one to kill the cobra. The houseboy was several years older than Robert. Robert was no match.

With the stick in hand the houseboy beat the cobra, finishing the job.

Later Robert retrieved the dead cobra and with his pocket knife skinned the snake. Lennie watched. Robert put the cobra skin on a metal can storage can to dry.

A few days later he told Lennie the cobra skin was gone. He saw a dog trotting away with the cobra skin in his mouth.

Lennie told his parents about the event. Lennie's dad ased the caretakers of the compound clear the compound of tall grasses and brush.

Other

BB guns, jungle, anti-aircraft gun mounts, fire crackers, throwing knives a trees, carving initials into trees, tree forts, leechee nuts, geckos, geese, rockets and parachutes, model ships, sister's ashes, toads, air raid shelters, typhoon, paper airplanes

Leaving Taiwan

Some time during the first half of 1962 Lennie's father decided to leave the navy though he didn't tell his wife or kids his decision immediately. When he told the navy, the navy's ordered Bud, and his family, to proceed to Hunters Point Naval Shipyards near San Francisco.

The move was abrupt as Lennie remembers. Years later Lennie's mom told him they had just three days to prepare to leave. Lennie didn't have time to tell Robert he was leaving or perhaps didn't know how to tell him. Robert found out somehow, probably from his father. Robert came to the door of Lennie's home and knocked. When Lennie came to the door Robert said he just wanted to say good-bye, a bitter-sweet good-bye. Lennie said a faint good-bye. He didn't know what to say. He felt like crying.

A Taiwanese moving company packed up their belongings, and loaded them on a truck. Lennie had some mainland copper Chinese coins in box in his closet. He never saw the coins again.

The family climbed into a gray navy carryall and his dad and the driver, Gee san she, loaded the suitcases. Gee drove out of town on the two lane highway into the evening. Len sat next to the window on the left hand side. The move was fast. He felt numb. He wanted to have a picture in his mind of his last minutes on Taiwan, a picture he could always remember. As they were driving through part of town lined with open front shops and homes with cloth servicing as doors, he was a home where the cloth door was pulled back. Inside the family were sitting around a wooded table eating dinner. A single light bulb dangled from a wire above the table. That was an appropriate image of Taiwan. He consoled himself with the belief and the self-promise that he would be back to Taiwan. He never made it back.

Gee drove the family to the train station, and helped Lennie's dad by handing him the suitcases. Others had gathered on the train station platform to see the Holmquist family off.

Gee boarded the train briefly. He handed Lennie a wad of Taiwan NT cash. Lennie didn't know what it was for and tried to hand the wad back, but Gee insisted he take it. Lennie couldn't argue nor ask any questions. Gee spoke only a few words literally of English. Gee said only, 'papa'.

After the train pulled from the station Lennie handed the wad of money to his father, and said this was from Gee. His dad was surprised and angry at Lennie for a few minutes. Later Lennie found out the money was a gift to Gee, but Gee didn't want to take it.

Gee had a sweet job as a driver for the Holmquist family and others. Being on land he could spend more time with his family. After the Holmquist family left, he was reassigned to ship duty, which Lennie's dad knew he would be, and for which Lennie's dad felt responsible.

The family took the train to Taipei where they boarded a plane to the United States. Of that journey Lennie had no memory.

Bud was finishing up the process of leaving the navy, which took some weeks, at Hunter's Point.

California Again

1962 Hunters Point

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard smelled of oil, had few trees and little grass. Most the ground was paved with cement or asphalt including the sides of the hills. Buildings were utilitarian. The family lived in a quonset hut of which the corrugated tine roof, walls and ceiling were one and the same. With no insulation and no air condition the interior of the huts were roasting hot during the day.

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard

Within a short walking distance the kids played on a steel swing set and slide. They each brought a length of wax paper from the kitchen to sit on when sliding. Wax paper on the steel slide made for a fast ride. Few families seemed to live at the shipyards so the Holmquist kids had the playground much to themselves. Lennie sometimes walked down the asphalted hillside with shallow cement water runoffs, to the small shipyard library to check out, one at a time, a book series, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet or buy a model ship or plane kit, which he glued together and painted in the quonset hut.

During this time Bud told Doris of his decision to leave the navy. She cried and cried. The navy and the life she and her family had in the service meant a lot to her.

Bud's final discharge papers came through.

On July 20, Lennie's birthday, Lennie was given a number gifts, one of which was a model ship, the USS Constitution a beautiful three-masted ship launched in 1797, which he could paint and glue together. After unwrapping the gifts his dad placed them minutes later in their car's nearly full trunk, and the family left Hunters Point and the U.S. Navy for southern California.

1962-67 Granada Hills

The family moved again in Granada Hill. Bud got a job, again at Bendix's pacific plant, again as a machinist. He worked the night shift. He did not like work and never did, but he had four kids to feed. Doris worked in a hospital as a nurse.

They bought a house at 17118 Index Street a small house in the sprawling suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, not far from the sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles.

Bud started taking classes, probably at University of Southern California (USC). Working full time, commuting to and from work, and taking classes was not easy. The kids had to be extra quiet while their dad was sleeping in the master bedroom off of the living room. The kids were not always successful. They were full of energy and the house was small.

Next door to the right when looking from the house was the Vaughn's house. The daughter, Roberta, was Meilynn's friend. Roberta became absolutely enamored with a new rock music band called the Beatles. Lennie's dad said their music simply sounded like a lot of noise. Lennie was surprised the guys grew their hair so long, more like girls.

Across the street was the Gilbert family whose father was a member of the radical right wing John Birch society. They had four children. The older girl, Cathy, was Meilynn's age. She had a younger brother, Jeff, and two younger twin sisters.

Jeff once told Lennie that their family had a secret underground bomb shelter under the front yard. Lennie didn't believe him until Jeff showed him an air vent sticking up between some branches of a large evergreen bush.

One evening Jeff's parents had a function to attend. Jeff and Cathy either attended the same function or were not home for some other reason. Their normal babysitter was not available. The parents asked Lennie to baby sit the two two identical twin younger girls, which he was glad to do because he always need some cash which there was little of.

The girls were then about eleven years old. They were a little wild, but Lennie ignored them, watching TV in the living room. He went into the kitchen for some reason, where he saw the girls pouring a sip of beer from their father's canister of beer in the fridge, drinking it and then running off laughing. Lennie was surprised, but didn't know what to do, so he did nothing.

Later, around bed time the girls were in their room getting ready. Lennie was in the living room watching TV. Suddenly, the girls, laughing, ran from their bedroom, across the hallway into the bathroom stark naked. No doubt it was a fun, daring thing to do. Lennie pretended he didn't see them, but was also afraid he might get in trouble if the girls' parents knew he saw their daughters naked. Nothing came of it. He was not asked to baby sit again for which he was glad.

Jeff was at least to a degree fearful of his dad. If Jeff did something wrong, and it was serious enough, Jeff said his father took off his belt and whipped him across the backside. Lennie was surprised a father would do that.

Patrick Henry Junior High School

The local school for Lennie's age group, seventh to nineth grade was Patrick Henry Junior High School. That it was called a junior high school made Lennie feel like he was growing up. He was no longer in elementary school. The first few days Lennie's mom probably dropped him off at the front entrance of the school. Subsequent days for teh next three years he walk the one and a half miles to school and back again.

He was impressed by the school. It was fairly new, made of brick, some buildings were two stories, had a large quad area with grass, auditorium, cafeteria with outdoor steal and wood picnic table seating, a small 'farm' called 'the little acre' because it wasn't quite an acre in size, a gymnasium with locker rooms, and sports fields. The number of students was large, perhaps a few thousand students. Unlike any other school he attended, students didn't report to one classroom.

The first day Lennie and all the other students were told to report to their assigned 'home room', where they were each given a sheet of paper listing the subjects they were taking, their assigned rooms, and a map showing where they were. The first several days were stressful for the new students. Finding the correct building not to mention the correct room before the late bells rang loudly on the walls of the school, the clanging bouncing off brick walls and cement walkways, was not always easy. More than once he entered a classroom late, and not knowing for sure if he was in the correct classroom at all. 'Let me see your schedule son. No, you're in the wrong classroom. He need to be on the second floor, next building over. Good luck.'

To Lennie this was cool and exciting. However, it had its shortcoming. Since he was both new to the school and his family had recently moved to the area, he didn't know anyone. Many of the other kids already had friends from their grammar school. He was not in the same classroom with the same kids everyday, so he could get to know anyone and make friends. Being very shy made it even tougher. During the morning break and a lunch he often ate alone though sometimes he would find a small group of kids he knew from one of his classes that he would sit next to.

At Patrick Henry Lennie was a member of the school band. Joining the band was not his idea. It was his father's. Lennie's father was in the school band when he was a kid, and thought it would be good for Lennie. Lennie's dad gave him his trumpet that he had when he was a boy. The trumpet was older than any other trumpet in the school band, and looked rather different. Its length was between that of a trumpet and cornet. Also, its color was not a bright brass, but a more mellow deeper brass color. Len still owns this trumpet (2017).

Lennie knew nothing about playing a trumpet. No doubt most of the trumpet, trombone, tuba, flute, clarinet and French horn players, didn't know how to play their instruments either. The percussion players, may have had previous experience At least they enjoyed pounding on their drums and cymbals even though it wasn't always at the right time.

The band teacher, a man probably in his 30s with a balding head, taught all the kids how to play their instruments and read music, and the students learned from each other or by trial and error. The teacher always tried to be patient and calm, but often seemed a bit stressed.

Meilynn and Carey started off attending Rinaldi Street School.

Granada High School

To Granada High he walked by way of White Oak Avenue because it was lined with large pines, a welcome sight along the otherwise drab suburb streets. The walk was two miles each way.

Granada High was big and overcrowded. Temporary beige rectangular flat-roofed classrooms were wheeled into the black asphalt parking lot to ease some of the pressure of overcrowded classrooms. From what Lennie later remembers, the number of students at Granada High numbered 4200, the second largest high school student body in America. (In 1970-72 school years it had the largest student body of any high school in the United States according to Wikipedia in 2017). Though teachers seemed devoted and hardworking, they had too many students to provide individual attention. One exception was Len's German language class which numbered about fourteen students. The teacher was Herr Werner, possibly the best dressed teacher at Granada High in his neatly cut suit and white shirt and tie. Though seeming straight-laced Herr Werner showed a side of his independent personality when he brought to class his toilet paper collection, short segments of toilet paper of about eight inches or so, neatly affixed to the pages of a scrapbook, each toilet paper identified by country and date. Herr Werner traveled a lot in Europe and took samples from lavatories on trains, hotels or wherever had the opportunity to add to his collection. It was remarkable the variations of quality. Some were soft and white while on the extreme end may be beige, nonabsorbent and a bit glossy.

He joined the band at Granada High, again playing his trumpet, a hand-me-down from his father who also played in the his school band when a kid in Chicago. The band numbered 100 musicians not including the band leader who war a Scottish kilt because the school was known as the Highlanders though the number of students of Scottish descent in the school were no doubt few. During the football season it was a marching band, playing at halftime and marching in a few parades including the famous Rose Bowl parade. A drill team of ten girls or more accompanied the band dressed smartly in green and plaid skits and white blouses. In the off seasons the bands was a concert band. Besides a welcome break from the routine of normal high school classes, Lennie was certain to get at least a B in the class, which was an encouraging mark amChurchong all the Cs and perhaps an occasional D on his report card.

The family attended the small A-frame, Missionary church, a non-denominational church a few blocks walk away at the intersection of Index Street and Balboa Blvd. Later they attended another church which was a bit of a drive. Len doesn't remember much about the church except for a high school kid with a great voice who sang at some of the services. His name was Galen. Roman Gabriel a football player with the Rams and his blonde pretty wife were members. They had a couple of small kids. Roman sometimes threw the football to kids in the church parking lot. Lennie was too shy to join in. At one Sunday morning service Mitsuo Fuchida who lead the bombing attack on Pearl Harbor spoke. After WW II he had become a Christian. Lennie's dad went up to Mitsuo after the service, introduced himself, and spoke to Mitsuo briefly. No doubt Bud was gracious and it was an amiable conversation. Lennie's dad never held anything against the Japanese regarding the war. "They (the soldiers, sailors, etc.) were just following orders just as we were," he would say.

From Pearl Harbor to Calvary by Mitsuo Fuchida

Activities

Their areas was very short on activities. No parks were nearby. Schools were a long walk but were devoid of any sort of playground. Very occassionally his next door neighbor Roger O'Mally and he had a good water fight using garden hoses during hot summer days or climbed over a 4 foot high English ivy-covered chain link fence of this front yard until his father denied them the pleasure because they were wearing out the ivy in patches.

Roger invited Lennie to his room once. He got on the phone in his room and called random numbers. He hoped to talk to a female of any age. Sometimes they hung up, but sometimes they remained on the line and talked for a while. Len thought this was very odd.

One day he and Lennie were in Roger's backyard. Roger suggested they throw the football back and forth. Roger ran into the living room, closing the sliding glass door behind him. Grabbing his football from his room Len saw Roger running across the living room, and forgetting the sliding door was closed, with one giant stride lept through the glass door onto the cement patio. Glass shattered around Roger. Roger stood there for moment looking startled. Seeing Roger was, apparently, not seriously injured, Lennie laughed, which upset Roger a bit.

Roger's mother, hearing the noise, walked into the living room, seeing what had happened, and brought Roger to the hospital. Except for a few minor cuts, he was OK.

The O'Mally family were a staunch Irish catholic family. Roger and his sister went to a catholic private school. The two youngest boys, Matthew and Mark, were twins. Mrs. O'Mally belonged to an 'identical twins club'. However, the boys were not identical twins. Perhaps they looked identical when they were smaller, but when they grew pass infancy, they certainly didn't look identical.

Mr. O'Malley was a tough-looking no nonsense navy chief. After retiring from the navy after 20 years, he couldn't find work. For some time he sold men's shoes from door-to-door. Len's dad said he would buy a pair of shoes, but never did because Mr. O'Malley got a job at the local bank as a teller. Len saw him there once and thought he was good at it, very polite to customers and efficient.

Some blocks from Lennie's home was a one story, unattractive shopping center with perhaps fifteen stores, the largest being a supermarket and the next largest being the department store Newberry's. When Lennie had nothing to do, which was often, he often walked to Newberry's. He walked from down Index Street, two blocks and cut across a dusty corner lot, pass the community church, down an alleyway where residents lined up their trashcans, and to an orange grove. He could walk down the main thoroughfare, but instead entered the orange grove, walking down one of the green rows, smelling the rich earth and the orange blossoms when in bloom, feeling the coolness of the shade, and the quiet, which was fairly hard to experience in Granda Hills. The branches of the orange trees were low to the ground, the lower branches creating an arch. A few times he bent down, walking under the arch and sat down on the decaying leaves and rich dark soil. He felt at peace.

Newberry's had a pet departmetn, in a corner of the garden department. The plated glass windows were tall, and the high ceiling made of steel with corrigated steel panels. The manger and only employee of the departmetn was Mary who was quite old, having some grey hair, and wearing glasses. She was probably in her 40s.

Mary was very kind. She let Lennie hang out in the pet shop, sometimes for a few hours. She probably new Lennie was bored and had no where to go. Lennie spent the time watching the fish in the acquariums, small turtles in their own acquarium. His favorite were the birds, parakeets runnng around in a gravel bedded area on top of a low cabinet, about 4x6 feet, the walls of glas panels about 8 inches high. The birds could not fly because their wings were clipped. Also, various types of finches, such as the colorful zebra finch, long-tailed bird of paradise, feathers of browns and greys, cockatiels, green peach colord faced love birds, a parrot or two, depending upon the time perhaps a multi-colored macaw or a green and yellow-faced Amazon parot. The parots all had an attitude. Also, one or two minna birds. All these birds were caged. Occassionally a finch would escape and fly to the steel rafters. Mary kept an empty cage on the shelf, door open with bird seed inside. She hoped and escaped bird would enter the cage to eat and she would quickly throw a rag, blocking the door. One day Mary gave Lennie the responbility. He watch for some time, quietly and not moving. A finch entered the cage. Lennie threw the rag at the cage door, trapping the finch.

Lennie was a customer too. When he had money, which was rare, over a few years he bought a goldfish, a guppy, now and then a parakeet, in time two cockateels, two love birds, several finches. Newberry's had a 'lay-away' plan. Customers could 'lay away' a product, which was kept in a store room and the customer would pay a small amount very week if necessary until the product was paid for. Women often did this, as did Lennie's mom.

Lennie 'laid away' birds, which were kept in Mary's pet deparment, and paid a bit of money when he could until the bird was paid for.

In Lennie's backyard was a large tree. Lennie often climbed high in the tree, and stayed there or some time. It was quiet and green, and he could feel any breeze coming through the branches.

And, he read. Comic books, books from the library, and magazines. From the library he read with difficulty, because he was not a good reader, translations of the French Song of Roland or the German Siegfried and others. He was not doing well in school, but at home was reading some of the classics. He also read JRR Tolien's Lort of the Rings and later The Hobbit. Lennie immersed himself in this fantasy world with it's memorable characters, places and stuggle between good and evil. He wanted to write fantacy some day.

Lennie asked his father if he could get a subscription to Time Life nature book series, with titles such as The Forest, The Desert, The Ocean. He also asked and got a subscription to Arizona Highways which had articles and photos of the state of Arizona's wilderness, often deserts. He loved reading all these and looking at the photos and day dreaming these places.

He didn't realize it at the time, but Lennie was doing the best he could to experience the natural world, a world that was very different than the sprawling, uniform, sterile world in which he lived.

1967-70 Ventura

Lennie's dad got his teaching credential.

Len's dad wanted to move out of the San Fernando Valley. It may have been for many reasons, but one of them was the smog. Len especially was affected. On smoggy days when the air had a purple tinge, you couldn't see the nearby mountains, and the air had a slight metallic taste, Len had a difficult time breathing. He couldn't even take a deep breath without it being uncomfortable and without coughing. He took short shallow breaths.

Len's dad found a teaching job in Ventura County, about forty minutes up the coast staring in the fall. They would need to sell their house, but that could take time. They arranged for the kids to start school in Ventura, even though their official address was still Granada Hills.

Early every school day morning Bud loaded the kids into their VW bus, along with their books and bagged lunches, and hit the road for Ventura, taking the Venture freeway. Bud turned on the radio at the same music station every morning. The kids slept or tried to sleep in the back seats. At one point in the route the freeway dropped from down to the coastal plain. You could feel the descent. The air was cooler, fresher and tasted of salt. The few times Len sat up at this point he could see the blue of the Pacific ocean on the horizon. It felt like a different world they were descending into. Seemingly every morning one of the tunes played by the radio TJ was Up, Up and Away in my Beautiful Balloon. It echoed what Len felt.

They eventually bought a house at new four bedroom, two bath, two story wood-framed, stucco house at 8270 Denver Street in a new housing tract.

Len was put in charge of landscaping, but was given little money to use to buy plants, mulch, fertilizer and paving for a patio.

About a four minute drive from their home the was the Santa Clara River, a raging river during occasional storms in the winter, but more or less a creek during the dry months. Stranded flotsam on the river’s mostly sandy dry banks included railroad ties. Len and Carey made forays to the river to pick up railroad ties, rounded river rocks, and sand, load them into Len’s 1950 Plymouth and drive them back to the house.

On the side of the house, Len embedded the river ties, and rocks into the soil, and in gaps in between dumped the sand all in a checkerboard fashion. In the backyard he got a lawn growing from seed. In the back left corner he planted a few flowering plants included aromatic sweet peas.

In the right corner he planted about a dozen rose bushes in three rows in a quarter semi-circle. His favorite of the roses was named ‘Forty-niner’. The bloom was colored red on the top of the pedal and yellow on the bottom.

In time Len planted several Mexican fan palms and three or four fruit trees along the fence. None of these bore any fruit except for the persimmon tree. On the side of the house near just inside the gate Len planed a giant bird of paradise, and several normal size bird of paradise at its feet, and between these lily of the valley. In the front yard he planted another Mexican fan palm and an ornamental pear. Almost all the plants came from ‘Green Thumb’ a local nursery. He put in most of these plants over several months because Len’s father didn’t have the money to buy them all at once.

Len still need paving stones for the patio. From a fellow student he heard a story about a Ventura downtown cemetery that some years before had been converted into a public park. The gravestones had been taken up a windy dirt road into the hills and dumped on a hillside. Len thought the story was unlikely, but he asked to how to find this dirt road. One weekend he drove his Plymouth up the dirt road. He didn’t find any evidence of gravestones at first, but driving a little further he thought he saw a portion of a smooth worked stone sticking out the tall yellow California grass on the downward slope on to the right side of the road. He stopped his car and walked into the grass, which stood about waist high. Here he found many gravestones scattered among the hillside grass. Later at home he told his dad about them.

‘Dad’.

‘Ya’.

‘You know I need paving stones for the patio I’m building.’

‘Ya.’

‘I found some abandoned gravestones up in the hills. What if I laid the gravestones flat, embedded in the patio. It’d be really cool !’

‘There’s NO WAY I’m going to have a patio made up of gravestones !’

‘What if I laid them face down so the names and dates of the people don’t show ?’

‘NO WAY’.

Some weeks later Len and his brother were scrounging around a lemon grove being cut down for a new development. In the lemon grove was an old wood outhouse, the kind that had a wood plank - with a hole in it - on which do sit.

‘Dad’.

‘Ya, Len.’

‘I need a woodshed to store our rake, shovel, clippers and other gardening stuff.’

‘Ya.’

‘I found this cool outhouse in a lemon grove. The lemon grove is being cut down, and they will no doubt destroy the outhouse. What if Carey and I got the outhouse and drove it back here. I can put it on the side of the patio. It’d be perfect !’

‘There’s No WAY I’m going to have an outhouse in my backyard !

At the end of Denver Street was an orange grove among the trees of which Lennie sometimes wandered. The grove was often cool, the air smelled of orange blossoms in season, and it was quiet. The citrus rancher stacked white wood box bee hives between two rows of orange trees. Len occasionally sat on the fertile rich soil of the grove, close to the hives, and watched the bees as they flew in and out of the hives. They never paid attention to his sitting there watching. A few times Lennie took his camera into the groves and shot a few photos including an old water tank wagon, and a tractor pulling sprayer of what was probably pesticides.

Ventura was a good move for the family. Largely agricultural, beside citrus groves, ranchers and farmers also grew fruits, vegetables and nuts including strawberries, avocados and walnuts. The Pacific ocean was about a twelve minute drive away. The smell of salt water was often in the air. Ventura had no urban sprawl.

Buena High School

Lennie attended Buena High School. The school was smaller, the class sizes were smaller and the kids seemed calmer. Len was happier not only with school but also with life. Lennie's grade point average went up to a B. He got a few As including two of his favorite classes Psychology and Art History, the later taught by Mrs. Bercaw who was a bit eccentric if all the stories be true, but who was also a good teacher and passionate about the subject.

Lennie graduated Buena in 1968, afterward Buena attending Ventura Junior College majoring in Liberal Arts which was a good major considering Len did not really know what career he should aim for. His favorite class was Marine Biology. Ventura College had two classes in marine biology. Len tied with a girl, whom he did not know, for the top final grade for the two classes. Another classes he enjoyed was Photography in which he learned to develop black and white film, and enlarge them into prints. One of is projects was photographics the neo-Greek classical Ventura court house with his fluted columns and sculpted heads attached to the fascade of the buidling.

Len worked one summer while attending Ventura College working at the Ventura Isle Marina a doing maintenance including painting, cleaning of buildings, scraping sea life off the bottom of the 'floats' that kept the docks from sinking. The marina provided 'slips' for sail and motor boats, restroom and shower facilities. The following summer he worked for the California State Parks as a Park Aid doing much the same thing except for painting. The next summer he worked in the 'visitor services' department, checking in and out campers at McGrath State Beach and Emma Woods State Beach.

As always the family attended church. For perhaps three years the family attended a church near the Buenaventura Center shopping center later named the Pacific View Mall. Here Meilynn and Steve Smith were married. Meilynn, Lennie and maybe Carey, eventually, were members of the Coralaires, and youth choir, singing mostly contermporary upbeat Christian music. Often singing during one of the morning services, once or twice a year they also went on tour, singing at other churches or events. The choir conductor was good at training a bunch of kids, some in junior high school, and most in high school and perhaps a few in junior college, and forming them into a fairly well performing music group. Of course some relationships developed, a few or more resulting later in marriage. Lennie thought a few of the girls were cute though most he was not interested in though a few were interested in him. One girl Lennie thought was very cute, but too young for him was a girl named Cheryl. She was still in junior high possibly. Lennie mentioned her to Carey, but he never followed through with getting to know her.

The family later moved thier membership to Bible Fellowship Church a few miles away. From what Lennie later remembered, Lennie's dad did not care for one of the staff members or perhaps his theology of the first church. The pastor of Bible Fellowship was Maxon, a kindly, low key, knowledgeable person. One member of the church, and whom Maxon asked to speak from the pupit one Sunday morning, was a scientist who was involved with attempting the save from extinction the California Condor, which later was successful.

It was around this time that Lennie was questioning the veracity of Christianity. He had probably questioning Christianity a few years before, but perhaps did not want to admit it. In the form of Christianity he and his brother and sisters grew up in, one was saved 'by grace through faith'. You had 'faith' that Christianity was true and Jesus was who said he was. After asking for the forgiveness of you sins (everyone was a sinner) and asking Jesus into your heart, you are 'saved'. You then go to heavn after you die. The only other alternativce was hell. So, not having 'faith' was potentially very risky that could have unfanthomable repercussions for eternity. Despite the risk, Len started reading about other relgions. Sometimes on Sunday morning, sitting by himself in a pew in the back row, during the service, he read about Zen buddhism.

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Footnotes