Sons of the Pioneers 1969

The little girl in the yellow is my young sister Debra, surrounded by The Sons of the Pioneers. That good lookin' fella in the center with his hands on Debra's shoulders is "Trail Boss" Dale Warren. Dale and his wife Margie lived next door to us in Simi Valley, CA. Margie was in show business too, known as "Fiddlin' Kate". They were nice people, nice neighbors. They had a daughter slightly older than me named Gayle who often gave me a ride to school in her Rambler station wagon that was converted from an automatic transmission to a four-on-the-floor.

Did you know that The Sons of the Pioneers were designated as a National Treasure by the Smithsonian? How about that, we lived next door to a National Treasure - and there's Debra, surrounded by a National Treasure. That's cool, cool like "Cool Water", cool like "Tumbling Tumbleweeds".

Debra's Birthday 1968

The little girl in the blue gingham dress is my younger sister Debra. That's me in the yellow dress with my pettipants showing. I used to iron my hair then. I'm looking at Debra's gifts and I see "Silly Sand", some sort of canister with Bat Man on it, and a doll that has the word "Pucci" on the packaging. I also see a strand of gum balls or jaw breakers hanging down from the fireplace mantel. She had a nice birthday party with some of her friends there at our house in Simi Valley, CA.

The month before Debra's birthday, my parents' divorce was finalized and my father was already involved with someone else. Only a year and three months before that, we had been uprooted from our home and friends and family in Illinois to come to California for my dad's job. We had a lot of adjusting ahead of us.

Debra's most recent birthday was last Saturday, I crocheted her a beautiful shawl and she loved it. Happy Birthday, Debra - it's been a long haul!