BILL CURREN, FORD SCHOOL GRADES 2-5

BILL CURREN, FORD SCHOOL GRADES 2-5 (grade 5 in 1954/55)

Bill read the post that Mike sent.

Mike Johnson, class rep for the class of ’58, sent an email about the owner of the Hillside Drive-In when many alums were in school:

John Eckels was a special guest of the class of ‘58 when they hosted the Pow Wow.(See the original obit for John Eckels by using this hot link or by reading a reprint at the end of all of the emails from Bill Curren below.)

http://fuhs-all-alumni.blogspot.com/2013_04_01_archive.html

Click on each page to enlarge.

EMAILS FROM WILLIAM CURREN  IN MAY 2015

Hi "Cvanhorn"!
I just ran across your interesting post of 4/3/13 regarding the demise of Hillside Drive-In's owner. Quite a piece of nostalgia for us that remember the place! Maybe I'm the only one with an original copy of the Hillside Drive-In Menu? My sister, who attended FUHS in the early 50's, was a carhop there for quite awhile. The prices on the menu are really interesting, but putting them with context with the times so was gas at nineteen cents per gallon. Personally, I sold the Herald Express newspaper between 1952 and 1955 on the corner of Commonwealth and Spadra.
Best Wishes,
Bill Curren

o

To William Curren

May 22 at 10:10 AM

I didn't read my email yesterday, so I'm catching up today. 

Your messages are interesting because many attended Ford School and might remember you and your sisters and all of us like to remember the "good old times".  I attended Ford in the 6th grade when my mother and I moved to Fullerton from South Dakota. That 6th grade teacher moved on to teach at the Jr. High and became a fellow teacher and mentor when I started teaching at Wilshire Jr. High years later.

Let me know if it's OK to post your messages.

Connie, FUHS '53

Good Morning  Mrs. Van Horn [or "Connie", if I may],
Thank you for the prompt response! I don't think my comment is blog-worthy due to its brevity. It's obvious that my brevity led to some misconceptions but I didn't delve into minutia since I didn't know the little barb would develop into two-way communication.
So, for clarification, our family moved to Fullerton in 1952 across the street from Cottage Hospital, our address being 705 N. Spadra. We lived there from '52 to '55 and moved to Garden Grove when the new area was under development to upgrade from a three- to a four-bedroom home for a family of six and also because my mother had completed her Registered Nursing program at Fullerton Junior College. 
My oldest sister, the carhop, was born in '37 and the second-oldest sister in '38, Mary and Marilyn, respectively. They both attended FUHS. Mary dropped out and finished night school; Marilyn may or may not have graduated from FUHS - I'll have to do the math... Or Garden Grove High School. So, either one of them might be found in an archived yearbook, I don't know. I could probably locate a hokie ;^) photo of them at about that age. As for me, I was attending Ford Elementary School from the second to fifth grades at that time. I spent many a day at the Fullerton High "Plunge" [what the local kids called the swimming pool] for a whopping 10 cents for the day and at Moore's Malt Shop since they (along with Hillcrest Park) were within easy walking distance. I could go on and on about Penny Market and Roy Rogers programs at the Fox Theatre but I won't.
My wife, Lois, graduated near where you are currently: Villa Park High School and I graduated from Rancho Alamitos in Garden Grove. She worked at Disneyland and I worked at Knott's Berry Farm but not simultaneously since she's just a baby ;^)... Class of '68.
Well, you asked for the time and I built you a clock. Sorry for being verbose but I can't help it: Those were good days!
Sincerely, (I know that's old school, pardon me!)
Bill

Don't feel bad about not reading your email "yesterday", sometimes I go up to a week without checking mine! In this case it was just over the holiday weekend. I was able to talk on the telephone with my carhop sister "Mary" and she finds all this Hillside talk very interesting. She said she had taken Maude (sp?) home after the night closing at Hillside several times to her home in Sunny Hills. I'm presuming "Maude" is John's wife and managed Hillside. Mary said that Maude wasn't her first name but probably her middle name or a nickname. Mary said also that she and my next oldest sister, Marilyn, should be pictured in the 1953 FUHS yearbook.
The mention of Wilshire Jr. High brought to my recollection that I was bused there from Ford Elementary once or twice a week for trumpet lessons during my fifth grade year (1954/55) under the expert instruction of "Miss Deming". [Like the Hillside Drive-In menu, I still have that trumpet!] My fifth grade teacher at Ford Elementary was Mrs. Helen Walker: When I moved to Garden Grove I wrote a letter to the class and evidently she gave my colleagues the task of individually writing me back! [I still have those letters and my "Word Mastery Speller" books from the primary grades at Ford - most sane persons would have trashed such items decades ago!]

I don't mind if you post my messages if the posting would be interesting to someone in "cyberland". Let me know where you post your items of interest and I'll peruse the writings.

Respectfully Yours,

Bill

Connie’s web and blog:

http://fuhs53.homestead.com/index.html

(The email addresses for Pat and Connie shown on this web page have changed. My email address is shown on my blogs.)

http://fuhs-all-alumni.blogspot.com/  

(Click on “View my complete profile” to find many blogs with pics from prior luncheons.)

Again, my original blog post about John Eckels:

http://fuhs-all-alumni.blogspot.com/2013_04_01_archive.html

Eckels, John, 95, passed away March 15, 2013. John was born on April 12, 1917, in Kansas. He moved to Fullerton, California, when he was 17 years old and lived there for the remainder of his life. For over 30 years, John was the proud owner of the Hillside Drive-In. He was preceded in death by his wife Anna. He is survived by his only son, Ed, Ed's wife Janice, grandchildren Heather and Casey, their respective spouses Freddie and Christy, his 5 great grandchildren: Brendan, Madelyn, Morissa,  Kellie, and Ethan, and his great, great granddaughter, Trinyttie. At John's request, there will be no services. He will be laid to rest with his wife at Loma Vista Memorial Park in Fullerton, California.