Down Memory Lane

While staying near LA we decided to do a little trip down Memory Lane.  We started out the day with a trip to the Los Angeles Temple. 

 

We enjoyed a session in the huge Temple and then visited the remodeled Visitor’s Center.  We saw the ladies as they were taking down the nativity display from the Christmas season so that was a treat for me to see some amazingly beautiful ones.  While watching one video about the building of the Temple there were several spot interviews with John Carmack who was the Stake President when we lived there.  He was the person who actually asked my Dadd when he would be ready to be baptized and my Dadd answered “how about now?” So President Carmack has always been special to our family.  He later became a General Authority and the Director of the Church’s Perpetual Education Fund.

Steve walked over and took this picture of the Temple Apartments where Great Grandma Flossie Guymon lived during the 1970’s and did thousands of endowments. 

We drove to Western Avenue to El Cholos the Mexican restaurant we used to go eat hot tortillas and butter with salsa and drink soda pop after Sunday School on Sunday!  Back in the day when Sacrament Meeting was later in the afternoon and there were no laws against buying stuff on Sunday!! My, my I am old!!

Then we took some pictures of the old Wilshire Ward which now has a sign in the front saying Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Korean as well as in English.  There is a big iron fence all around so we could not get very close.  The neighborhood actually looked still really good and well kept up.

 

Then we drove up to 823 S Citrus where we lived from 1965 until Mother passed away and it was sold in 1990.  I walked up to ask if we could take a picture of the outside and the lady came out and acted like we were old time best friends when I said I used to live in this home.  She asked if I was part of the Stockman family and how much they loved the home.  The front porch that was there when we lived there was gone and the front door was back in the original spot entering directly to the front room rather than into the little room to the side.  The big magnolia tree was gone and the owner explained it had died when they removed the porch and the cement got stacked on the roots.  The tree they had replaced it with had died last summer and they have not decided how to replace it yet.

She invited us in to see “our” home and called her son age 22 or so to give us the tour as she had to leave with her daughter.  The husband/father came home while were still there and was very talkative about the house and how much they loved it.  He is a TV producer and has made an office out of the garage and also made a rather fabulous waterfall feature against the wall on the north side of the backyard. 

The lady is a costume designer for mostly theatre and uses the basement as a sewing space.  They removed the old furnace that took most of that area when we lived there to be replaced by something more modern and smaller.  It was nice to see they loved the home so much even though it was super cluttered and helter-skelter they seemed super happy with it.  The main bathroom that was white tile is now purple tile everywhere.  The kitchen had been updated and a nice big restaurant type stove installed on the wall where there used to be a second door out into the hallway. (that never made any sense)

It was all very nostalgic for me.  I am glad we got to go.

We decided to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library which is not too far from where we were staying near Aunt Karen’s.  It was VERY interesting and we really enjoyed it even though it was super crowded from people still there from the Rose Parade & Game.

Picture made from Jelly Belly Beans which were his favorite candy

 

 

 

There was a lot of interesting history about Ronald Reagan when he was a radio announcer and with the General Electric Company traveling around meeting people at plants all across the country for his job.  He also worked president of the Screen Actors Guild keeping communists out of the movie industry and then Governor of California.  Then there was lots of information about when he was President – the great communicator.  Of course it was all biased in favor of his view of history but it seemed like we could use a little bit of taking responsibility and not putting the government ever further in debt today.

 

 

One of the most impressive things there was the actual piece of the Berlin Wall that was torn down while Reagan was President. 

There was also a life size replica of the oval office set up like it was when he was there.

And a real Air Force One that you could walk through!

 

All in all VERY IMPRESSIVE!