Cambrian Park in the Fifties

 

My dad always enjoyed being generous, especially at Christmas time. His mother was a substitute grammar school teacher in various little towns around Barstow. It wasn’t always easy. She was a divorced mother with two kids to raise, and she couldn’t always depend on having work. My dad grew up with very few luxuries. He took tremendous satisfaction in sharing his affluence with others.

 

 

I’m with my mom, and sister Teri (right) in the backyard of our new house on Evora Drive. And you might be able to make out my corrective braces under my jeans.

 

 

My dad is relaxing in the backyard of his new house. That’s a prune tree on the right, which was soon replaced with a better tree for climbing.

 

 

Explorer 1 was launched on Jan 31, 1958 and marked the beginning of the Cold War Space Race. It was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt, returning data until its batteries were exhausted after nearly four months.