The heavy rain came down for days, soaking the ground until it could scarcely hold any more water. We lived in Anaheim on the corner of Broadway and Lemon in an old frame house that was built up off the ground about 7 steps. Daddy was in Los Angeles and hadn’t returned home or perhaps couldn’t get home because of the rain. Mom and I were asleep when we heard someone pounding on our front door at about 2:00 A.M.
Mom was frightened and peeked out to see my brother’s friend, Glen Claypool shouting that we had to leave. The dam had broken and the water was swirling higher and higher through Anaheim. Mom wrapped a blanket around me and Glen lifted me into his arms and told my mom to hang on tightly to his arm. Mom, in her robe and nightclothes, did as she was told and waded across Broadway with fast moving water up to her waist. We went into a building and up some stairs, Mom and Glen soaked to the skin. I don’t know whose apartment we were in, but it was crowded with other wet, sleepy people. We all sat and waited and waited. Hot coffee and cocoa was handed out and I can remember the fear in my heart. Since there was no TV, we didn’t know what might happen next.
Finally at about 6:00 A.M. the water had subsided and we walked through the muddy streets to return home. Luckily the flood never reached the top step of our home but everything in my dad’s sign shop in the garage, was muddy and ruined. It took days for my parents to shovel out the mud and go through the mess to find my dad’s sign shop supplies so he could reopen his business. But even with the loss of many of his tools, he was always positive and knew he could build again.
During the ensuing days, the women in the beauty shop talked of nothing else. Many lost their valuable possessions in the flood. We were lucky. It would have been disastrous if the flood had destroyed my mother’s beauty shop. There was no insurance and all of the equipment had been bought on credit. Mom was always a planner and I know going through the depression and this disaster made her even more careful. She knew she had to be the major breadwinner since my Dad’s sign business was a little unstable at times.
That memory has stayed in my head all these years. I learned a lot from the disaster. Even at an early age, I always knew I could count on my mom to protect and take care of me. She was a very strong and wise woman yet with a soft heart filled with love.
