1390 Brookside Drive was the first home we ever knew after WWII. A small, post-war development called Victory Gardens just off Davis Street in San Leandro, California. Two bedrooms, one bath, stucco-faced that Dad with the help of Uncle Kaj added an upstairs bedroom to. It had the San Leandro Creek behind it and a lamp post out in front that Dad made with a wagon wheel from our grandparents’ farm in Orland, California. Our family dog Duffy once found what we thought was a large stone in the creek that was too big for him to lift with his teeth until we saw that it was a turtle! The bedroom upstairs was so cool and faced with Knotty Pine and Dad made a secret ladder up from the laundry broom cabinet downstairs that entered the bedroom from under the bench area near the built-in upper bed. Off to the left behind a swing-open cabinet door was a BB-gun range extending out over the attic of the rest of the house where we could shoot our BB-gun rifles at toy plastic soldiers. Downstairs there was also a toy box with a false back that hinged open so we could also gain access to under the house, what great fun! Neighbor kids, Larry Carpenter and Bobby Dutton and I formed a club for some reason and I asked Mom to make us a flag for under the house, which she readily did. I put the flag on a short stick and drove it into the dirt under the house. Naturally there was no wind or breeze under the house so the flag just sat there motionless. Pretty silly, we later disbanded the club.
Dad also built an above-ground wading pool for us out of 2x4s and a waterproof tarp, maybe 8’ x 8’ and 15” deep with a slide that dropped us into the pool. Then he taught Duffy how to climb the ladder and also slide down into the pool. Dad also made chinning bars in the backyard from 4 x 4 posts set in concrete with a 1- 1/2” steel cross bar so we had a chinning bar for exercising. Younger brothers Jim and Tom and I lived there until 1953 when we all moved to sunny Walnut Creek. Brother Michael was added to the family while in Walnut Creek. Dad and Uncle Kaj also added French doors to the dining room which exited out to the backyard, pretty cool! Across the street Larry Carpenter’s older brother had what I learned later was a 2-door sedan Model A Ford. How awesome! My friend Dino Verges lived not so far away on the walking way to Grover Cleveland School, and my first girlfriend in the fourth grade, Eleanor Matter, Woo-Hoo, lived in that direction too! In the other direction headed for Davis Street lived the Sweeney twins. There was an iceman who delivered ice to somebody in the neighborhood, and occasionally you could ask him for a piece of ice from a block and he would stab it with a huge ice pick, and it was crystal clear, with no air bubbles. There was also an old school bus painted light green that travelled around the neighborhood bringing vegetables to the homes. It also had gum and candy bars of some kind to check out after school. At some time I joined the Cub Scouts for some reason and we had to sell tickets in the neighborhood for a local Scout-O-Rama event. That was no fun! I swear there was a house way down on the way to the Sweeneys where a witch might have lived and it was scary being on her front porch trying to sell her tickets to the Scout-O-Rama. Her home had a weird smell to it.

Peter Bray lives, works and writes in Benicia and has written this column since 2008.

Bray portrayed Benton Fremont, the husband of Elsie Robinson, at a Capitol event Sunday. (Graphic by Peter Bray)

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