Tehachapi

March 17: We went to Nori’s sister Floria’s work at an assisted living home (I may have to go there someday….wow what a thought)! We were there for diner to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the residents. While there, I got to interact with one particular male resident who had lived a fascinating life. He told my brother-in-law David and I of the time when he was in charge of new US draftees. He was processing one person who had an unusual last name (I will not say, to protect the innocent). Since he was a history teacher prior to serving in the army (1958) he told the young man that he had the last name of a President of one of the South American countries. The newly drafted student smiled and said that it was his father and that he (not the father) was OK with serving in the US army. This could have turned into an international incident if the press or his father would have found out. After superiors were notified of the situation, it was quickly sent to the Department of the Army, Secretary of Defense and finally the President of the United States to officially release the young draftee who had the famous father. This was kept very hush-hush and this story is known to so very few and would probably be denied but now we know a part of unpublished history. The fine gentleman that told the story had all of his faculties intact and I’m grateful to have been at the right place at the right time since he was going back to his own place at the end of the month of March.

Sunday, March 18^th, my birthday and I was ^3 years old (it’s a test). We woke up to fresh laid snow. …..Beautiful! Later that afternoon David and I went to town to get ingredients that Nori needed to cook smoked salmon with Alfredo sauce on linguine (great stuff). We go to the cashier at Save Mart and standing in line are our two nephews Tony and Jody from the LA area who came to Tehachapi to play in the snow. Wow, what dumb luck is that….well it was my birthday…_ _it happens. As if that wasn’t weird enough, we grab the groceries and in walk Dave’s son Marlon, his wife Charina and their two boys Odin and Zen to get dessert for Nori’s diner that evening. Can you believe that we were having this family reunion in Save Mart….well… everybody else in the store was watching 8 people taking turns hugging each other were just as surprised as us. We invited Tony and Jody for diner as well. All in all, it was a great birthday.

It kept snowing and Marlon and his family left to go home in Tehachapi and after finding out that highway 14 and 58 were closed to travel, Tony and Jody had to spend the night. Nori and I got some quality time with Nori’s sister’s Rose’s sons. The birthday surprises just kept coming. 

By mid day Monday the 19^th the temperature rose and Tony, Jody, Nori and I could all get on with our travels. Our next stop was Nori’s sister Rose and husband Tony (parents of Tony and Jody) home in Delano, Calif.