I think short moves have to be the absolute worst. You think nothing could possibly get broken in a few short blocks, so you end up piling everything in the back seat of the car instead of packing anything at all. That being said the move did go well and despite being very pregnant I still could help move the refrigerator out and down the stairs of the old place and up the steps of the new place.
Susan and soon-to-be new baby Linda got a newly painted girly-pink room and Mark of course had a deep boy-blue décor. We were excited with our little three bedroom one bath home. Later we would remodel the bathroom and kitchen and we were in pig heaven. The two-car garage was unattached and at the back of the property on the alley. Within the first year Dick would take on his first (and probably last) building project. He turned the backyard into this massive deck, complete with built-in planters. That deck was so sturdy I bet it is still standing today.
The location was perfect, the kids had a short and safe walk to their elementary school and we were only five blocks from the beach. There was a community park also within walking distance for the kids, and the park was also the home for Little League baseball games and Cub Scout flag football. The Boy Scout House was also located there as well and shared by both the Boy and Girl Scouts.
I was a Cub Scout Mom and enjoyed welcoming about six little Cubs weekly to my home. We made candles molded in old milk cartons and really neat Indian masks that were made out of recycled Baskin-Robbins ice cream cartons. A couple of years later I would be Girl Scout leader for Susan's twenty-three member troop. While I put my foot down at camping out I was fortunate to have another mom who took on that role for me, so everything worked out great.
Manhattan Beach has this great badminton club that we were lucky enough to be able to join. The main focus was of course playing badminton in this large indoor facility and we saw some really top level play during our time there. There was a social side to the club that worked as a vehicle to raise additional money for the club. It was mandatory for each member to serve on the committee for one formal party and one casual party. That entailed decorating the club, preparing and serving the food and doing the after party clean-up. Serving on the committee was almost as much fun as the party itself. At one event Dick made gazpacho for 400 people.
We packed a lot into those four years in Manhattan Beach. There was George, the hamster, with his very own penthouse attached to Mark's bedroom window. Susan had Kitty Jo, who became the mother of four cute kittens. We kept one of the kittens, Elmer, who if he were still with us, could write his own book. I became involved in the Goldwater campaign, working closely with a woman who ran the local Goldwater office. She took me under her wing and I became active with the South Bay Republican Women's Club after the election and even later was appointed to the Republican State Central Committee by our assemblyman. Dick was encouraged to run for the Manhattan Beach school board, he lost a very close election, by something like one vote per precinct. Had he won the next step would have been for city councilman. Dick left Mattel Toys and went to work for TRW Systems, which opened the door to his eventual renowned computer career.
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