“Take good care of her.”
“You know I will.” Carolyn and Oma answered at the same time.
Mom looked sort of sad. “Well, you two have a good time together.” Turning away, she lifted her hand in good-bye and headed back to the house.
Traveling with Oma turned out to be even more fun than Carolyn expected. Oma drove fast with the windows all rolled down. She stopped twice before they even reached the outskirts of Tracy. “I’ve got to stretch these old legs.”
When they arrived at Uncle Bernhard’s nursery south of Sacramento, he took them on a tour through the rows of fruit trees in five-gallon buckets, Cousin Eddie trailing along behind. He stood a foot taller than Carolyn and had more muscle than Charlie. Aunt Elizabeth made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and steamed corn for dinner. They had an extra bedroom for Oma and Carolyn to share.
The next morning, Oma said it was time to be off to Murietta. Everyone hugged and kissed. “Don’t make it so long between visits, Mama. Any chance you could get Hildie and Trip over here? We haven’t seen them in a couple of years. Charlie’s probably half-grown by now.”
“They’re building.”
Uncle Bernie laughed. “Well, we know all about that.”
After a couple of days at the farm, where Oma talked business with Hitch and Donna Martin, they drove to Hollywood to visit Aunt Clotilde. She was tall and thin and dressed in narrow black pants and a bulky white sweater. She talked fast and laughed a lot. She took Carolyn and Oma to the movie studio where she worked in the costume department. Garments lined the walls, and sewing machines whirred as half a dozen people sat bent over pieces of fabric. Clotilde gaily called for everyone’s attention and introduced Oma and Carolyn. “Okay, folks. Back to work.” She laughed. “You have to see the back lot, Mama. It’s fantastic!” She led Oma and Carolyn out. She knew everyone: makeup artists, set designers, directors, gaffers and grips, and even a few movie stars who, out of makeup and costume, looked like ordinary people.
One man looked Carolyn over with interest. “I didn’t know you had such a pretty niece, Cloe.”
“I didn’t either!” Aunt Clotilde grinned and draped her arm around Carolyn’s shoulders. “She’s grown up since the last time I saw her. I’ve been asking my mother how my plain-Jane sister could come by such a pretty, willowy, blue-eyed little blonde.”
Oma grunted. “Hildemara is pretty enough.”
“Oh, Mama. I didn’t mean anything by it. You know how much I love Hildie, but look at Carolyn. She’s pretty enough to be in the movies.”
Oma and Clotilde talked far into the night, quiet murmurs. In the morning, the three of them shared yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast. Clotilde hugged and kissed Oma good-bye. “Come back again soon, Mama.” Oma promised she would. Aunt Clotilde brushed Carolyn’s cheek with her fingers and smiled. Leaning down, she kissed her on the cheek. “Give your mother my love. She’s very special. Just like you.” Pulling her robe more fully around herself, she crossed her arms and stood at the door as they left.
Oma didn’t head north. “Since we’ve come all the way down here to Hollywood, we might as well go a little farther and see Disneyland.”
Carolyn couldn’t believe her good luck. “Charlie is going to be so mad he didn’t come along.”
“We’re not going to say anything about it. It’s not like I planned it. We don’t want him feeling left out.”
They checked into a hotel next to an orange grove and arrived at the gates of Disneyland as they opened the next morning. “We’re going to beat the crowd to the train ride.”
After they’d taken the grand circle tour, her grandmother took her hand and pulled her along, another destination already set in her mind. When Carolyn saw what it was, she gulped. “A rocket!”
“We’re going. It’s the closest we’ll ever get to the moon.” Caught up in Oma’s excitement, Carolyn lost her fear and began to enjoy herself. Later, Oma took her on the riverboat ride, then to a racetrack, and even a stagecoach. They saw a movie called A Tour of the West at the Circarama theater and an exhibit based on one of Oma’s favorite books, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
That night, Oma gave her fair warning before calling Mom and Dad. “Not a word about Disneyland. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.” But Mom didn’t even ask to talk to Carolyn. Oma talked about Aunt Clotilde and the costume workroom and the back lot. “We’re on our way home. I’m driving up the coast. The Central Valley is too hot. Two days, I think, maybe three.”
On the drive north, Oma talked about the author John Steinbeck and the story he’d written about the Okies who had left the dust bowl and come west to California’s Central Valley. “Good, hardworking people like the Martins. I’m blessed to have them. You should read The Grapes of Wrath when you’re older. Find out what times were like when your mother was growing up in Murietta.”
They arrived home in time for dinner. Charlie bragged about spending every day of the last week at the Alameda County Fair with his best friend, Mitch Hastings. Oma winked at Carolyn and talked about Uncle Bernie, Aunt Elizabeth, and Aunt Clotilde.
Charlie tapped on Carolyn’s bedroom door after Mom and Dad went to bed. “I didn’t mean to rub it in about the fair.” He flopped down beside her and explained how Mom had given him money for admission and meals. “She dropped me off every morning on her way to work.” He stayed until Dad or Mitch’s father picked them up just before closing. “It got pretty boring after the first couple days.” He gave her a sly grin. “Can you keep a secret?”
Carolyn knew all about keeping secrets.
“Mitch and I snuck into the grandstands and watched the horse races.” They’d made friends with a jockey while hanging around the stables. “He broke the rules and let Mitch ride his horse. I didn’t have the guts.” Charlie and Mitch had shared a pilfered beer and gone on the carnival rides with a couple of girls they picked up. “So, what’d you and Oma do?”
“Went to Uncle Bernie and Aunt Elizabeth’s.”
“How’s Eddie?”
“Bigger.”
“I thought you were going to the farm.”
“We did. Then we went down to see Aunt Clotilde.”
“See any movie stars?”
Nobody she recognized. She didn’t mention that Aunt Clotilde said she was pretty enough to be in movies, or Disneyland, or any of the other stops up the coast of California.
“Boy, am I glad I stayed home.” Charlie stretched. “I’m sorry you missed the fair.”
Carolyn couldn’t imagine anything worse than being dropped off in the morning and spending twelve to fourteen hours wandering alone among crowds of strangers.
7
1961
The summer before Carolyn entered high school brought back nightmares she never thought to have again. Mom and Dad focused on Charlie, who had only one year left before he’d launch into the wild blue yonder of college, hopefully on an academic or football scholarship. Oma mounted her own campaign for Carolyn to think about college, too. Why shouldn’t a girl have the same opportunities her brother did? Her mother had gone to nurses’ training, hadn’t she?
Carolyn spent the summer alone. Sometimes Mitch Hastings came by to ask her brother if he wanted to do something. She hardly saw Charlie. He had a summer job at Kohl’s Furniture Store. Even when he was home, they hardly talked. He’d eat and take off with Mitch. They’d go to the movies or the Gay 90s. At the end of the summer, Mitch came over on a motorcycle and took Charlie for a ride. Charlie talked about the motorcycle at dinner that night. He wanted one, too, and figured he could afford to buy one with what he’d saved from his summer job. Dad told him to hold off and think a little more about it. Mom said Charlie would need that money for school.