Marin City memories -- Jeff McCreary

I have really enjoyed reading everyone's childhood stories even though I
have not been sharing. I just could not pass on American Bandstand. One of
my college roommates at Cal was from Philadelphia and helped move the show
out of town. He ended up with the original record on the board with which
every program started. He gave me the mounted record for letting him borrow
my motorcycle. I had the record for twenty years until a blind relative
living next to Janis Joplin in Larkspur put it in the fire place to warm up
his house.
Since Marin City has not been mentioned let me share a little from my past.
When I was in Kindergarten we moved to the middle hill, the 300's, since my
dad had just gotten a new job building the little green houses around San
Quentin. Each day he would check out prisoners and tools and show them how
to construct each house. It was a steady job so we were able to buy the only
television on the whole hill. After school all the kids on the hill were at
my house. Those were great years. Each stilt house was divided in half with
a family on both sides. My house had an oil burner right in the middle. It
felt so good on hot nights. I would snuggle up to the base of the heater and
play with toy cars all night. To this day whether I am home in Orinda or at
my house at Lake Tahoe if it is cold outside I always start a fire. There is
nothing like a good book and a glass of red wine on a stormy night. My house
had the best storms. We faced Richardson Bay and were at the very top of the
hill. The two story quickly built wooden structure would move with the wind
with lightening and thunder so loud that one would hardly notice the pots on
the floor catching water from the flat tar roof. Mom was always home and I
still remember her warm bed. As a school principal I often wish some of my
students could have what I had.
We never had a phone (Still no cell phone for me). Our kitchen stove was
kerosene and twice a week I would walk several blocks in order to have empty
gallon containers filled. When I was younger the ice house was only three
blocks away but I still remember the day we no longer needed blocks of ice.
In Marin City marbles, flipping cards, yo-yos, tents and guns were in. At
one point I had over 5000 marbles. Wonderful nights were spent outside in
tents reading comic books, telling jokes and trying to out fart each other.
Maybe it is just a guy thing but I can still fell the fresh cold air with
all of our faces outside the tent and big smiles on our faces. We were
friends for life. During the day it was the wide open spaces behind my house
with tree forts and be-be gun fights. Cardboard sliding hill were
everywhere. On Sunday there was the church next to the firehouse. We would
really sing and if lucky there would be Bazooka gum as a prize under your
chair. My dad liked the community barbeque in the park by the store. A good
barbeque with friends is still my idea of a great meal.

For me things changed when I started Tam. I joined sea scouts and Conrad
Breece and I took turns being made fun of by the older scouts. It was
especially nice when it was Conrad's turn. Dennis Gustafson and I continued
our Marin City friendship and it became stronger at Tam. He is still a great
friend. Tam meant everything to me. Gus started me swimming and the teachers
gave me the skills to get into Berkley. I graduated from Cal with a decent
education and captain of the swim team with six varsity letters( swimming
and water polo). P.S. For me Marin City was never about Black and White
it was more about what to do when you were around all of those wealthy kids.
It was not about not having money. It was about learning how to deal with
kids with money. I enjoyed the e-mail about Chip being invited to a party.
To my Marin City friends and I we always liked Chip but we pretty much
considered him white. GO TAM See you at the reunion.......Jeff