Tunnels

For a while we lived in Fontana. We moved there from Arizona so that our Dad could help the struggling family office supply business. Things were tough because his Dad was having health issues related to the heart (Go figure... :)) )

Well, we moved into this really nice house a bit out of town. It had a lot of bedrooms and was on a really big lot. Next door there was nothing built yet and it was a giant dirt lot with Eucalyptus trees lining the property.

We moved in during the summer time, school was out. Both our parents were working, my Mom having found a job working at a construction company in Colton.

It didn't take us very long to use that big dirt area for our "Fort". Only this fort was an underground fort. We found some shovels and started digging. We didn't tell our parents - we were going to surprise them when we got done.

We dug for days. A big, long, straight main entrance and then a perpendicular tunnel meeting the main tunnel. We added rooms at the ends of the T. The whole thing was probably three feet deep - deep enough for two little boys to crawl through...barely.

Now, what to cover the tunnels with? It took days for us to find a pile of abandoned plywood sitting along the tree line. With considerable effort we dragged the plywood over to the tunnel area. We covered the entire tunnel in plywood.

Now it was pretty obvious that the plywood would give away our secret location, so we proceeded to cover the plywood in dirt - plenty of it!

Finally, we had tons (Probably not tons, but when you are little... ) of dirt disguising one of the coolest tunnel systems on the planet.

One problem - the tunnel was very dark. How to solve this problem? Go to the garage and you will find kerosene lanterns!

We drug those lanterns with us into the tunnels and lit them! We were pretty proud of ourselves for that move!!

Well, when the time came to show off our "Fort" to our parents we expected praise like we had never known before. After all, we had worked for days building this beauty!

Our parents came out to the dirt field and didn't exactly react the same way we had anticipated. It seems that they were very concerned about all the dirt that was placed on the flimsy plywood...even more excited when we showed them how we were able to illuminate the tunnels. Saving the most excitement for the fact that the lanterns were sucking the oxygen right out of the rooms at the end where we spent most of our time!

To our parents this was a "DEATH TRAP"!!!! Take that down right now...Norris, help the boys take this apart before someone gets hurt! Don't you ever build something like this without talking to us first!

Parents sure don't have a sense of adventure...

War is Hell

A final chapter to the Freddie Upchurch story...for now...

Another boring summer day...what to do?

Freddie comes up with another idea.

He had noticed that a variety of airplanes landed at the Hughes Aircraft landing strip nearby our house in ulver City ...

Now Freddie mobilized his troops - just Kent and I - in our fighting uniforms...Freddie was outfitted in a complete soldier outfit, with canteens, knives, compass, etc. - all in camoflage...

Kent and I were outfitted in our fighting uniforms...shorts and a tee shirt...it's the best we could do... :))

Freddie loaned us BB guns from his arsenal and we were ready!

Freddie had us march down the streets toward Hughes, probably counting cadence for the patrol...

When we got to Hughes we headed straight for the east end of the property - it had a cliff facing to the east and the planes always landed from the east...

We took our position and waited for the first unlucky plane that crossed our path!

Here it comes! Ready!! FIRE!!!

We quickly unloaded our one shot apiece at the approaching aircraft...we couldn't have been more than a quarter of a mile from the intended target...easy range for a Daisy BB gun!!

We all thought we got a piece of the plane - we even heard the BB's bounce off... :))

Couldn't understand what kept that baby in the air, though...

We spent most of the afternoon trying to bring down every kind of plane that came in...they most have had some pretty exotic airframes in those days... BB gun proof, I think...

When we were satisfied that we had defended our position and things were safe for America, it was time to march home - with Freddie barking out orders all the way home.

Wonder whatever happened to that juvenile patriot???

Shake and Bake

Blame that Freddie Upchurch again!

Another boring summer day....now that I am older (really old) I don't seem to think that Culver City gets that hot...but, when we were kids we believed that the summers got to be about 120 degrees...

What is there to do?

Freddie looks down his driveway and spots an abandoned 1950 Plymouth sedan - two door as I remember it - kind of a grey color. Parked next to the house.

Freddie looks at me and says "How long do you think your brother could survive in the trunk of that car?"

"What do you mean?" I ask. "Well, if we lock him in the trunk, how long do you think he could last?" "I don't know..." Well, let's find out!"

So we go and capture Kent and bring him to the car kicking and screaming. We open up the trunk of the car easily and put Kent inside, making sure to secure the trunk.

We stand across from the car (In the shade of the house, of course) and wait.

At first there is little sound. Then, a muffled yell. Then, a muffled scream. Beating on the trunk lid from the inside. Finally, no more sounds. Sounds like he is done.

We open the trunk and see Kent sitting there, all red faced and sweating like a pig.

I guess we answered the question, how long would he last...

Swing My Brother To and Fro

Blame everything on Freddie Upchurch!

Freddie lived on our block in Culver City. He was an only child and his parents both worked. He was a year older and considerably larger than the rest of us. His parents were able to buy Freddie pretty much whatever he wanted.

War stuff was what Freddie wanted.

He had camo clothing, BB guns, knives and assorted weapons of every description. Basically, what you had here was a walking Army Navy store.

Freddie was fascinated with warfare. He had little GI Joe action figures and battlefield layouts.

We would get pretty bored during the summertime - all of the parents were at work.

Well, not this day! We got the bright idea to try our hand at target practice in the garage of Freddie's house.

I remember putting up some regular targets and shooting at them from the garage door line into the back of the open garage. We were pretty accurate...

After a while that got pretty boring...we needed to liven things up a bit!

What if we shot at something a bit more difficult? Like my brother Kent for instance!

We get Kent to come over...we string up a rope over the rafters of the garage and we tie the rope to Kent's ankles. Now, turn him upside down and pull on the rope so that Kent is above the floor and hanging there. Mind you, this wasn't done easily - he fought pretty hard for a little guy!

Now, to make things more sporting, let's swing him back and forth from the rope.

Ready, aim, fire! See if you can hit him while swinging wildly from the rope. Remember, no head shots - that would really upset our parents! Just some body shots...steady, steady - time your shot to dead center. Got him!

After a while we even got tired of that! Bring him down...his face is really turning red now!

"You OK?" we ask him...he seems to be upset. He's gonna tell Mom and Dad...no, don't do that!

Don't worry - he'll get over it...it's only been 50 years and he's almost forgotten about it...

Our Smokin' Cool Christmas Gifts

We were living in Culver City in a little house in a modest area of town. I was in a brand new school, Marina del Rey Junior High School, and very involved.

In fact I had been elected Student Body President of the school - running on a platform that included a speech addressing the seagull "poop" that we all had to dodge every day. Very edgy, deep stuff.

The point is - I was a big man on campus - well, not really a big man - but on campus.

Our parents tried hard to provide the necessities of life - but the luxuries were another matter.

Everyone at the school surfed - we even would get on our boards and paddle down Ballona Creek behind the school and paddle right out the channel into the break.

True surfer outfits always included a white T-shirt, levis, white socks, Purcells (the tennis shoes with the black slice in the toe) and PENDLETON shirts.

Well, we did pretty good on most of the stuff - not real levis, off brands on the tennis shoes, white T-shirts - check...

Now for the Pendleton shirt...not so much...too expensive!

Christmas was coming around and expectations were running hight...our parents knew that we really, really wanted Pendleton shirts. Now remember, Christmas gifts were usually purchased on Christmas Eve at KMART (Blue light specials).

Christmas morning rolls around and we see two boxes under the tree that are just the right size for the expected shirts. We open all the other gifts (probably 1-2 max) and then excitedly tear into the wrapping on the "big gift".

When we unwrap the present, we are immediately puzzled. The label said Pendleton alright, but it was a shirt that we had never seen before. It was large - oversized - and had a pocket on the upper chest and two large pockets over the stomach area. We only remember two pockets in the upper area on the shirts we had seen at school.

We proceeded to try them on - Mine a blue plaid and Kent's a brown plaid. We told our parents how great they were and how much we appreciated the gifts. Later we met in the bedroom to try to decifer what the heck these things were.

When school started again I remember going to Home Room and how everyone admired (OK - they stared) at the Pendleton jacket I proudly wore! I remember the first kid who asked me what that thing was! I told him that it was a special Pendleton jacket - no one else at school had one just like it!

Note: Actually the jackets were Smoking Jackets! Our parents got a real deal on these babies because why would teenagers wear a jacket to smoke their pipes in? The upper pocket actually was for the pipe, the lower pockets were where you put your pouch of tobacco and lighting accessories.

Well, word got around pretty fast that the Hambly boys had special Pendleton jackets!

Kids started coming up to me in my first class and wanted to know if he could wear the jacket. I told him that he could - just trade his Pendleton for my Pendleton and we would change back after the class. This went on all day. I got to wear everyone else's Pendleton - and they got the special jacket.

The teachers were especially amused. I think they figured out the purpose of our jackets pretty fast. They made some comments behind my back - but I was too young or naive to get it.

Anyway, the moral to the story. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. These cool jackets took on a life of their own. If the cool guy wears something unusual, odds are that kids will think that it is special.

Kids!

Flowers, Anyone?

We used to live in an apartment building. It was an apartment building amongst other apartment builders - 6 in a row, I think - along a main street by the old Santa Monica airport.

My Dad worked at the Douglas factory and this building was located very nearby.

I remember picking Dad up after work and watching people leaving the plant. Each person had a badge on and on each badge were colored buttons which signified what level of security they had. There were two green buttons, one green and one yellow, two yellows. My Dad was two yellows - the highest. Never knew what he did - just that he was two yellows. Years later after we had moved to the San Fernando Valley he told me that he would work weekends correcting the work of some idiot with a college degree - that is as close to knowing what he did as I ever got.

Now this apartment building was a gold mine for some enterprising kids.

We started a flower business and went door to door selling these flowers. The gold mine? The flowers were growing down the side of the apartment building - free! The enterprising kids? We bought a can of gold spray paint at the local Thrifty Drug store on the corner and then we painted the flowers with the gold spray. Really kicked them up a notch.

My brother Kent was used for the door approach. Who could turn him down? He was a cute, please buy my flowers kind of kid. We may have even asked for a dollar per flower - outrageous in those days and times.

I just remember making a killing in the complexes.

Eventually our parents found out that their children were basically begging for money selling worthless flowers painted gold and put an abrupt end to the enterprise.

PB The Hambly Way

Everyone has a favorite sandwich which they love to eat while growing up...

Well, in our family we were made to eat a vile combination sandwich on a regular basis - peanut butter, pickle and mayonnaise...yes, you did read it right!

My Dad would spread out half a loaf of bread on the counter - two rows. He then would take this enormous knife and dip deep into the peanut butter jar and spread the breads from left to right. This was followed by cutting the pickles into thin slices and applying them to the slabs of peanut butter bread. The other side of the bread was then spread with a large amount of mayonnaise.

Assemble and wrap in - not plastic wrap - wax paper. Put 2 - 3 "Little Gem" oatmeal raisenette cookies on top (Very inexpensive - big bag)...

Take this to school in a brown paper sack and wait until lunch time. Try to trade someone at lunch time for some decent food - difficult sales job at best. By lunch time the cookies have now made an impression in the soggy sandwich - presentation is everything....

This probably only went on for 2 - 3 years...or until we complained so loudly that the money was found for us to eat in the school cafeteria...usually not considered a blessing. :))