The picture above is the China Cove home as it was originally built in 1939. It was my family's summer place where we would trek off to each spring and summer vacation and assorted weekends throughout the year. From our home in Rosemead it would take a little over an hour to get to, no freeways just surface streets. Sometimes the trip back home on Sundays would take a little longer as we would stop by Knott's Berry Farm for a nice chicken dinner. If the mood was right I could talk my folks into letting me pan for gold for a bit, but I tried to steer clear of Dead Eye Dick holed up in the jail on Main Street. That guy scared me to death. He would talk to me and he knew my name!!!!
Orange County in those early days was mostly acres and acres of farmland, long before the coming of Disneyland in the mid-fifties and later the expanded Knott's Berry Farm complete with assorted activities and thrill rides.
During the summer of 1953 the Boy Scout Jamboree came to town and 10,000 tents were pitched on the site that is now Newport Center with all its extravagant shops and bistros. What a treat it was for a teenage girl to have thousands of boys scouts scattered through the town and beaches. Talk about being a pig in clover!
I look back on this China Cove home as one of my favorite places to live and grow up. I learned to swim and sail here. Learned how to cope with the dangers of climbing rocks, stingray bites, fishing hooks stuck in a hand or foot, all little lessons of life and growing up in a world that wasn't totally protected.
I can remember the house being packed with people over Labor Day weekend, the annual get-together for my parent's bridge club. There was lots of drinking and barbecuing, I think bridge took a hiatus those few days. The house was uniquely decorated with those convertible couches and during times like this the rooms became wall to wall bedrooms. The adults all had a good time and we kids enjoyed that they had a diversion leaving us to pursue our own form devilment.
There were probably few summers that I didn't get there for a visit for at least a day or two. Even when we were living up north in Albany we would still managed to load up the kids and spend a little vacation there. I'm sure the kids all have memories of visiting there when they were tots, building sandcastles and getting sunburned backs and blistered noses.
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