SUNBURN AND NOXZEMA

 SUNBURN AND NOXZEMA

For those of you who read my latest blog about the runaway girl, this is a back story before she ran away.

The events I talk about are not always in the order of when something happened.  For example, I told you about the time Chrissy ran away from home. 

Our mother moved us often and we never lived anywhere for a long time.  Sometimes we lasted only a few weeks.  After moving from Geneva Towers to a 3 bedroom house near Golden Gate Park.

Going back in time; it was the time I was still in the Eighth grade at Hoover Junior High School.  I was hanging out with Chrissy which I knew was the wrong thing to do. I should not have been around her and she was the only person I knew.  I considered her a classmate as opposed to an actual friend.

She often skipped classes and wondered up and down the hallways.

I was slipping behind in my studies, but nobody seemed to care; least of all my mother. 

I took the city bus to school.  I went everyday and always tried to be on time.  I usually was, but sometimes my lingering caused me to be late. 

Back in the 1970's there we people called Truant Officers who would go to the parent's homes to make sure the students were actually in school and not running around loose on the streets. This was the law and there would be consequences for the parents and the children.  I was more afraid of the Truant Officers than my own mother.

My mother often wanted things her way and one day in San Francisco the weather was very hot which was very unusual for any time of the year. 

One day it was at least 100 degrees and when I left for school that day , my mother expected me to meet her at the beach at noon.  

The beach was not very far from school so I could walk there.

She warned me that she would be extremely mad if I did not show up at the beach exactly when she said to . 

I was very hesitant about meeting her when I was supposed to be in school.  We only went to school because it was the law not because it was educational. 

Back in the 70's Truant Officers would show up at a child's home who had frequently been absent without an excuse. 

I was not prepared for the beach since it was a school day so I was wearing long pants on this very hot day and I knew it would be difficult for me to enjoy my time at the beach because of the fact that I could not get wet and could barely manage to roll up my pant legs to lie in the sun to suntan. 

I left school as soon as I could right after the bell rang for lunch. I was worried about being in trouble for leaving school and if I did not meet my mother at noon. 

So I ran quickly out of school and down the street that led to the beach.

My mother was there with my little brother, Timmy who never left her side.  She kept him out of school, even though he should have been in the third grade by then.

I found a spot to lay down a towel that she brought along for me to use.  I rolled up my pant legs up to my knees and I didn't have any sunscreen.  I walked down to the water to wade in a few inches not wanting to get my clothes wet. 

Even though the temperature was hot, the water was still cold. I love the water and enjoy the beach.  I headed back to the towel and laid on the ground. I closed my eyes to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and had only been lying there a few minutes with my bare legs exposed to the sun.

Little did I know that those few moments exposed to the sun would actually burn my legs so badly that when it was time to leave I could hardly walk.  I felt such pain and I was crying as I slowly walked my way back to the road where we could catch the bus home. 

I regretted that day , especially the outcome.

I do not recall whether my mother blamed me or actually cared that I was suffering the consequences of skipping school.  
After all, she threatened to abuse me if I did not do as she asked. 

When we got home I carefully removed my clothes immediately and saw the dark, red color on my legs.  I was suffering and I would suffer for many days after that. 

My mother sometimes wore make-up and she had bought a white cream called Noxzema to apply to remove her make-up.  

The Noxzema was the only product we had at the time so she helped apply it to my burned legs to sooth the pain. It really helped relieve some of the pain temporarily. 

Now I promised to mention the pit stop I made after we left Seattle. I had an older friend that I met when we lived downtown in our first small apartment in San Francisco.  This friend visited me sometimes from downtown when he had the time. 

Since we didn't have a telephone, he came to visit us by car. 

Yes, he was old enough to drive.  He became a good friend of our family after meeting us through my older sister.  

His name was Rick.  The day after my beach incident, he came by to visit and by the look on his face I could tell that he was not happy to find out that I had skipped school and gone to the beach. 

Since he seemed to care about me, he felt inclined to help me heal my legs so after scolding me about allowing it to happen he helped me by applying the Noxzema gently to my legs and applying bandages.  I felt bad and guilty for what I had done. 

Since he was older, he assured me that it was best for me to be in school and not playing at the beach.  I was aware of his need to teach me this and he understood a little bit better after I explained the consequences I would face at the hands of my mother.

At this time I will not reveal too much about this friend. Those of you who know me can take a guess at who he turned out to be.

Noxzema does help sooth sunburn.  I was warned to never let it happen again.  I kept that promise for sure.

The end of a bad day at the beach.

Written by:

Heather A. Pasaphunthu 

THE RUNAWAY and the FBI

 THE RUNAWAY and the FBI

The fact that our mother always seemed  to want to move or was forced to move was a burden on us all.  Often times we did not know what she would do next.

We were living in two separate apartments.  One for the three boys and the other for the girls.  My sister and I slept on the floor while our mother had her own bed.  This apartment was very small and cramped.  My three brothers were living it up in their very own place.

These apartments were the first apartments located downtown in the really bad Tenderloin district.  We had been living in rented houses since I was very young; so apartment living was very new to us all.

I had no idea how long we would be living there.  It didn't cross my mind that we would move out.

I had started to go to school everyday on the city bus for the first time so I had  to rely on myself to catch the bus to and from school.

Little did I know we were being kicked out of the two apartments shortly after moving in; which was a few short months.

The manager already had 2 families ready to move into both apartments and he charged them higher rent. 

As I mentioned before, my mother didn't care where we lived.

To my surprise she found the Geneva Towers far on the outskirts of the city.  These towers were built especially for low-income families.

They were brand new 20 story twin towers.

These apartments were more modern and very nice and clean.  Mommy managed to get us into a 2 bedroom apartment.  This time the boys lived with us.  I felt ok there just a little bit scared of the neighbors.

Nothing last forever because one day my sister and I were home alone and a few of the neighbor children knocked on the door and Elaine opened it.  These children were big for their age and they were able to bust in the door and beat us both up and rob us.

Here we go again.  We packed our bags and moved into an upstairs 3 bedroom house which was over a restaurant in a much better neighborhood very close to Golden Gate Park.

By this time I had changed schools and entered the Eighth Grade.

This new neighborhood was a little bit upper class and I was able t meet new people to play with.

My brother Doug was pleased with this new place and he liked to explore the neighborhood.  He made friends easily and met 2 teenage girls who were sisters.  They were Robin and Chrissy.

Robin and Chrissy lived with their parents in a nice house a few blocks from where we lived. Robin was Doug's age and Chrissy was my age. 

Chrissy and I went to the same school and we were in the same classes.  I did not hang out with Chrissy much and when I did she often wanted to do something bad like skip class or hang outside.  I knew she was trouble and she often made us both late for class.

We managed to live in that house through most of the school year.  Being a child was one reason parents used for not having to tell their business or give a child a reason for their actions.

Without our knowledge she had decided to move us all to Seattle, Washington. 

Doug wasn't happy.  I wasn't happy and the other children were surprised about this decision.  Elaine didn't care one way or the other. 

For some reason Doug ran off to visit Robin and somehow persuaded Chrissy to run away from her "horrible" life at home with her bad parents.

Was Chrissy really afraid of her parents or just stupid enough to run away from home simply because Doug told her to?

Since we were still on Welfare Mommy probably didn't pay the rent again so that she could pay for the train ride for all of us to move to Seattle.

This was really happening.  We got our stuff packed and left a lot of stuff behind.  Mommy never cared about furniture or appliances or things we really needed.  We usually packed our clothes and left everything else behind.

At the last minute, Chrissy showed up with her suitcase in hand.  Apparently Mommy had already purchased a ticket for her and claimed her as her daughter.

Little did I know that it was illegal to take a minor child who was not your own legal child across state lines.  Well, we were going to cross two state lines.  The first being the California-Oregon border; the second , the Oregon-Washington border.

I was shocked to know that Chrissy really ran away from home and she did not seem to realize the seriousness of her situation or her circumstances.  She may have believed she was taking a trip with us and playing along.

This was not a game.  This was real.  She was actually running away from home and Mommy was responsible for her.  The other children wondered why she was going with us.  Doug laughed and thought it was funny.  He even pretended to be Chrissy's boyfriend.

The train would take 24 hours which would be an extremely long and tiring trip.

I, especially did not want to leave San Francisco.  What choice did I have?  I could be angry and pissed at Mommy, and I probably was.

While we were on the train, Chrissy and Doug sat next to each other enjoying the ride and did not feel guilty about what Chrissy was doing.  I didn't talk to her much.  I didn't have much to say.  I didn't even ask her about her parents or her life at home.  This was the way I always was.  I never asked  anything about people's lives.  It wasn't because I didn't care or was consumed with my own life.  I just never asked questions.  It was my nature.  I was just like that.

(I am still like that today.)

We arrived in Seattle.  We were tired, hungry and there was no place to go. 

Mommy did the first thing she could think of.  Something she had done before.  We had walked to the first motel we could find.  There were seven of us now.  Mommy managed to get us 2 rooms.  Both with a kitchenette.  A kitchenette was a small kitchen with a mini refrigerator, a stove and a small table that folded down from the wall.

The one thing we always do when we get to a new place is explore the town.  Seattle is a big city that is famous for the Space Needle.

A tall towering skyscraper with a top like a needle. It is still the main attraction of Seattle today. 

There is also a Monorail , tram/train  type of ride that travels to the Space Needle.  So we took a ride on the Monorail and that was fun.

We were always broke so we couldn't do much and we didn't go to school either. 

We stayed at the motel and watched TV and nothing much more. 

I was wondering how long we would last in Seattle and secretly wishing to go back to San Francisco. ( I had a good reason for this to be revealed at a later time.) 

We had only been in Seattle about 2 weeks.  I wondered if anyone was looking for Chrissy.

We didn't have a telephone as usual, so I didn't know if she had contacted her parents to let them know that she was ok or if she even missed them and wanted to go home.

All of a sudden , it happened.  Doug came running into the motel room yelling about the FBI.

He was very excited, out of breath and started telling everybody that the FBI is after Mommy  and that they have a warrant for her arrest for kidnapping Chrissy and taking her against her will across state lines.  

There was panic in his voice as he spoke.  We were scared and worried that Mommy was going to jail.

She didn't actually kidnap Chrissy and she had to prove this to the FBI.

Chrissy's parents had been looking for her the entire time that she went missing from her home.

We never saw or met her parents or the FBI.  I believe they had taken Mommy to the police station but we had no details until Doug came running into the room.

The story Doug told us was that Robin probably knew something and told her parents about Doug and the possibility that Chrissy was with him. 

I only knew what Doug told us.  Mommy was in a lot of trouble and Chrissy's parents could press charges and send her to jail.  That would be very bad for everybody and we did not need that to happen.

As much as we didn't want to be with Mommy, or lives would be disastrous without her. 

So according to Doug, Chrissy's parents made a deal with her and the FBI , to let her go and not press charges against her for kidnapping.

As long as Chrissy verified that she ran away from home on her own, the FBI had to agree and let Mommy go free as long as she returned to California with her children.  This was her big mistake and she had to face the fact that you can't run away from your problems and take someone else's child with you. 

Again we were to turn around and make our way back to California.

(I made a pit stop alone and will tell you  why in another story.)

Chrissy was back with her parents and we never saw her again.

Doug did not contact any of them again so I suppose he was sad in his own way and I never knew if he ever got over it. 

THE END 

Written by:  Heather Pasaphunthu

 

THE BART CAPER

The BART Caper

 The BART is the subway in San Francisco, California.  It travels to Millbrae in the South of the Peninsula; across the bay to Oakland, south to Fremont in the East Bay and north all the way to Concord. 

There are many BART stations around the Downtown area of San Francisco.  

I have mentioned in some of my stories about traveling from Florida to California in the early part of 1975.  For you new comers to my Blog this was my family's first time in San Francisco, so we were getting to know the city and while I was just a young thirteen year old girl and my family was poor and living on Welfare at the time; the only way to get cash money to ride the bus or train or the BART we had to look for change lost on the streets.

Welfare paid for the rent and electric but nothing more.  Food and only food was bought with food coupons.  Back in the Seventies food coupons came in a booklet like a ticket book and each coupon had a dollar amount such as a one, a five a ten or twenty.  Anything that was taxable could not be purchased.  Soda, beer, laundry detergent, all taxable.  we could only buy edible non-taxable food.

My brother, Doug liked to con people to get money and he was trying to teach me his trade.  I was a good girl and I was not going to do bad things and get into trouble because I knew better.

We hadn't been in San Francisco long and we walked everywhere.  We didn't have a telephone.  Everywhere we moved to we never had a telephone.

Doug and I hung out together for no other reason than company.

Doug was fearless and when we went places together he had ideas about finding ways to get money. 

One idea was to beg adults for change for the telephone so that he could call our mother to come and pick us up.  Another thing our mother didn't have was a car. Nor did she know how to drive.

Doug was fifteen and always expected me to follow his lead. 

One day we walked down to the BART station together.  Doug wanted me to try begging for a dime for the telephone.  I said, "No I can't do that.  It's wrong.  It's a lie."  We needed money but one dime was nothing. He said keep asking a lot of people and most of them will give you money out of pity.

I stood far back away just far enough to watch him in play.  H asked women for a dime to call his mother to come pick him up.  Each time he got a dime he would go over to the pay telephone to pretend to make the call.  When the woman was out of sight he put the dime in his pocket; then he would keep asking other people for money for a few more times and this was a way he was becoming a con man. 

I tried it once and was afraid and felt guilty. It worked but I didn't do it again.  I did not ask for money anymore, but one day when I was alone at the BART station I did something more daring than begging.

I knew there were lockers at the bus stations that people used to store some of their belongings in.  They used quarters to put into the coin slot to pay to get the key to use later to retrieve their belongings.

Since I knew about the lockers in the bus station I decided to head to the BART to the lockers there to possibly find a quarter of two because sometimes they get stuck in the coin slots.

This I decided to try without Doug.  I was very hesitant and really felt I would get caught and I needed to be seriously careful and watch my back. I already learned long ago how to be extra sneaky quiet and not seen from my experience in my earlier years of my childhood. (Thanks to my evil mother.) 

I spotted the lockers and slowly began checking the slots for loose , stuck or dangling quarters.  I made sure to glance around to see if anyone was coming or watching me.  

I was bending down close to the floor when I spotted a quarter that I thought I had a chance of getting out.  I had already retrieved one quarter from another locker and I almost had the second one when a sneaky man caught me off guard and yelled, "What do you think you're doing little girl?" 

As I turned around, I saw that he was a very large Security Guard.

I thought to myself, "Oh no! I'm in trouble and I had to get out of it fast."

"I'm trying to get my quarter out. It got stuck.", I said.  He said, " It looks like you were stealing it because I've been standing behind you watching you grabbing at it for a few minutes now."  I said, "No! it is my quarter and it got stuck."  

He tried to grab me and take me to the Security Guard counter.  I thought to myself; I have to get away, get out of this fast.  No Juvie for me.

He asked me my name.  I told him Sally Smith right off the top of my head.  He asked me where I lived. I said I don't know.  He asked me what's my phone number.  I said we don't have a phone.

As he turned his back on me to talk to the other Security Guard, I eyed the exit to the street which was directly in front of me and up the stairs.  

He was immersed in conversation with the other man so I took off running like hell and made a beehive for the door; dashed up the stairs and hit the streets running my little butt off down Powell street and disappeared onto the nearest bus home.  

No, I did not pay.  It was easy to hop onto any bus in San Francisco at that time by way of the back door and nobody could stop me because it was so overcrowded that the bus driver never had a clue.

The Security Guard never saw me again and I never did it again.

I never told anybody in my family at that time or to my husband or children. 

That was my first and last Caper told now in this Blog.