Family, the BEST
Having grown up on a dairy farm in Chino California was a wonderful experience. One that is hard to describe. As a child the earliest memories was of playing with potsand pans at my Nana’s and being sucked on by calves at the dairy. Never stopping, washing down the milk barn got to be more fun once I could handle the water pressure. Cutting wires on the hay bales, removing the wire and then pitching the hay to the cows (350 milk cows, 100 dry cows, several hundred of heifers.) Feeding calves
As Dad took very few days off from working all of our cousins came to the dairy to visit and help with the chores. I have lots of cousins and I know all there names. Their children also, grandkids, most. but fail with the cousins kids kids.
Oh well here…Kathy, Eddi, Sharon, Me, Tara, Mark, Paul, Jackie, Matt, Steve. Spouses : David, Kathleen, Marty, Nicki, Susanne, Joyce, Vickie. Cousins: Joe, Jim, John, Rocky, Kevin, Kelly, Robin, Rose, Ron, Rae Lynn, Danny, Kevin, Renee, Rosann, Michael, Ryan, Others: Lots of them. As can be seen in the above picture. As much as we tried not all family members are pictured or could not be there. Missed.
We had a weekend event and I think we fed about 125 people on that Saturday eve. But, as most people who read this will notice several of those mentioned are now gone. Yes gone but, never forgotten.
This picture is the dairy farm I called home for 19 years. We all had fun there. It was a place that all of our cousins enjoyed. We grew up in the three bed, two bathroom house in the front (the Silva Dozen). In back of it was a house about the same size where both uncle David’s family and Aunt Rosemary’s family lived at different times.
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Oh yah. Tree houses, forts in our hay stacks. A new one every year. Some forts at the neighbors hay stacks. Eddi fell from a stack of hay broke his collar bone.
Mark had an accident with a small motorcycle, I think it was a Honda 70cc. Three kids were riding it, ooops. A dog came after them and Mark lost control. An accident happened and fortunately they all walked home. The bike had badly bent handle bars. That was all.
Here is some of the things we did: Clime trees, Shoot guns (BB Gun, Pellet Gun, 22s, Shot Guns. Nearly shot my neighbor Mike with that old 410 Shot Gun.
But, did not.
Once Kathy was sick with something. Mom for days put Kathy in the bath tub to cool her down… She got better. Kathy was the only one of us to have a horse, Misty. She liked to nip a person if you let her. Misty was kept behind an old box car. Before the cow corrals started.
Box Car, Wow. We used the old box car that somehow was on the dairy for many things. Part of it became Eddi’s Fort For Older Kids. A large part of the space in it was used for storing some nice furniture of my Dad’s folks.
Then Jackie and Paul playing with fire caught the old box car on fire destroying all that was in it. No one was hurt, but, all the things inside were ruined including Eddi’s fort and everything he had there. The one at our place was white washed and insulated.
Aunt Rosemary’s husband, Butch raised chickens in the backyard of the back house. The chickens were not tame and therefor hard to catch. As kids we would take turns trying to catch a chicken.
There was a large walnut tree in the backyard. As kids one of the things we did for fun was to feed the birds the walnut meat. Of course they ate it. Silly how us kids got a big kick out of that simple event.
At first in the back house were Rosalie, Ron and Rae Lynn. Then Danny, Kevin and Renee. All cousins and all lots of fun for the Silva Dozen. Rosanne never lived at the dairy as she was born later when Aunt Rosemary lived in Chino. The girls played with dolls and the boys played outside with Tonka, trees, guns, bicycles and motorcycles….WOW
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THEN I DISCOVERED GIRLS
WOW AGAIN
My sister, Tara, just one year younger than me, has always suffered from Asthma. Born about five weeks early and always trying to keep up.
The alfalfa dust was really brutal. Just going near the hay lane, as we called it, caused problems for Tara. She often had a breather with her.
As it was the boys helped Dad with the outside chores and the girls helped Mom in the house. I think of Tara as one of my best friends.
Once on a date with a friend of Tara’s, Lorna. Tara and my other sister, Sharon, who died in 2016. It was an OMAC dance held at the Pomona Fairgrounds. There I was met by several people who wanted to kick my butt.
One of the group threw a punch at my face. The punch did not connect well then I quickly grabbed the person that tried to hit me in the parking lot and put him between me and the ground and told the group that if they did not start walking away I would grind that person’s head into ground beef.
When I was Highschool, (Damien Boys School) I went to my first Rock Concert, James Taylor. My first trip to that concert that I was taken with my friend Tom and his foxy sister foxy 
. I forgot her name.
Well I was hooked on concerts. The 70s was a good time for me. I may have attended 40 concerts. Having started relief milking for my Dad. Money was always in my pocket.
MOTOTCYCLES, CONCERTS and FOOTBALL
Once I took Ron and Paul to see Led Zeppelin over in Los Angles. We did have FUN…
My life seemed pretty good then. I had all three of my favorite things. Life was good till one morning when I was riding my bike, motorcycle to school. I had mover up to a Honda 350cc.
Suddenly on Mountain Avenue a Datsun pickup ran a stop sign and hit me. Remembering seeing the truck, blue sky then sitting on a tailgate seeing the smashed up right leg. Life changed.
II was sent to Pomona Valley Hospital. were I was born. Four hours later I was stitched up and sent home with that years football season, that open up the next day, were over. I could hardly believe it. No motorcycle, no football, where I worked hard to be a Junior starter having beat some Seniors for a defensive end position. Gone
I came home with Mom and slept. Upon waking I was surrounded by a room full of the people, mostly girls. Wow again. That was nice to see so many of the people I have known from my grade school and high school. I could hardly move. My leg was hurting, though the drugs I was on did help. Mostly what I thought about was peeing.
Once I was able to run again I began running daily. I got some ankle weights to help me improve. I went from being in the middle of the pack to leading it. I intensified my weight lifting at that recovery time too. Soon I was the top bench press and military press person at my school. I got into great shape to be ready for the next season. Bring it on.
After the accident and I was able to get around I went back to school. No ride of my own so I was dropped off at Damien by Sharon an Tara. In the afternoon I rode the Damien bus to the Pomona Catholic Girls School (PC). There I would wait till my sisters were ready to go home.
The Junior class at PC was working on a Snoopy play at the time. Many of the girls in the play I knew from grade school. in fact the director was Terri. I did kind of like her so being there was ok with me.
Then one day as fate would have it. Another friend locked her car key in her Nova. Modern cars wont let a person lock their keys up to become hostage. During one play practice I had asked another friend, Nancy, who the girl was with the round framed glasses.
Living in New Mexico from 1984 till 1998. That experience was great for our family. We made some good friends for life. I use to play some golf.
I played a couple times. Jim was fun. He only brought with him a 3 iron… It did not bother him to only use one club. It’s probably more simple than luging all the other clubs.
Eddi was the oldest son of my parents. Second born. He Struggled with life. Married Florett for a while and had a son Brian. Great guy.
Growing up Eddi was a PRICK.. He would be mean to me at every turn. One time when Eddi was in junior high he brought home a friend, Joey. They proceeded in using me for a punching bag. When we were younger and Eddi got his first bicycle . Eddi would promise me a ride if I followed him running. Foolishly I ran behind him what seemed like for months.
We were fortunate to have been raised on a Dairy Farm in Southern California. As a result both Eddi and I did relief milking. About a week before my parents 25 anniversary party Eddi and I were both milking. Eddi being Eddi would not stop teasing me. I had had enough. A fist fight broke out. We both said that we had won. I went to my parents party with two black eyes’.
My Aunt Angi and her friends were into Muscle Cars when I was young. Talk about cool. I went for what could be called a thrill ride. More like scared…
A short note about us, just my family.
Richard, our son and Jennifer got a new boat. They keep it docked at Lewisville Lake and go there weekly. I think Lewisville is the largest lake in the state of Texas. They need it… Both Corben and Camden are working and schooling in IT and Love.
Courtney, daughter 1, is always busy on something. She is doing all the USA PR for an Australian Boot maker. Joey is working for a firm working on digital transactions dealing with online banking. Brigid is also home schooled by her Mom and Dad.
Joan, daughter 2, the US Navy is sending Colin, her husband, to ‘nuclear school’. They are moving into a 40’ travel trailer this week. Colin’s training will be Charleston and in several other locations, so home schooling and moving several times will not be much of an issue. Amelia and Jane are sure in for an adventure. They will be far away and missed dearly here on the west coast.
Ann, daughter 3, is the local USO queen and Scott works in IT for a firm nearby. Their family is expecting a new baby in May 2021. We are lucky enough to have their son Spencer several times a week as both parents are busy working in this crazy world. They opened their own Board and Brush franchise and hope to get remarkably busy in the New Year.
Kathleen and I, with Kathleen’s Dad, Joe (90 years old) are OK. Kathleen never stops. Helping Ann & Scott with B/b, and several other gigs including helping at Off to The Farmhouse, a learning experience for kids. I am working hard at internet marketing. I built a web site called thefuntown.com So far about 60 short stories and articles in the blog part. Interesting… Check it out.
To say this year has been odd is an understatement. The suffering many people are facing is sad. Please try to turn negatives into positives. The new goodbye is
BE SAFE!
Rick
When I think of Family I first think of our children and their families. What fun they are all having. I also think about all the Aunts and Uncles cousins and their families and it keeps growing.
Us kids always waited till a College Football game halftime on the TV to play outside Once cousin Jim was playing football with everyone.
Let’s see, there was Joe, Jim, John, Eddi, Me, Mark, Mike, Mitch, Ellis, and another Jim. We Played on Uncle David’s grass at the Dairy. He tripped on a sprinkler and cut a gash on his calf. Aunt Edna and Uncle Frank were not happy.
Stiches were needed and our game that day was over.
Uncle David’s grass then became Aunt Rosemary’s lawn, but it still was a good place to play football.
