Penny candy

My mother had a sweet tooth. Do you remember the days of penny candy? You could get all kinds, in all sizes, and shapes and flavors. My mother's favorite penny candy was black licorice. There was a variety store near our house in Gregory Gardens that sold penny candy. In the evening my mom, Bette, would talk my dad, Bal, into a quick trip to the variety store for some black licorice. I remember Dad coming home with licorice, and sometimes other goodies in a flat brown bag. Then it was time to turn on the television set and watch Perry Mason. My mother was a mystery buff and Perry Mason was the king of mystery. He never lost a case in the court room! Through those years I too developed a love of mysteries and black licorice. Evidently, I come by it genetically!

Carol Evans Smith

Onion sandwiches

My dad loved onion sandwiches. Big, thick slices of onion with some mayonnaise between two slices of bread, had to be his favorite snack. He loved any kind of onions in his sandwich. I don't remember him eating this at meals, but I do remember him snacking on an onion sandwich many times. He must have had little bit of a strange sense of taste, because he was always eating green apricots off his parent's apricot tree. The tree was right by the driveway of the house where my grandparents lived in Oakland, so when we came to visit, he headed strait for the tree to check them out. I can remember tasting the apricots when they were only a little orange, and they were really sour, but Dad loved to eat them off the tree just to see if they were ripe yet...they never were!

Carol Evans Smith

Engagement Picture

Mom & Dad's engagement picture at the Claremont Hotel, Berkeley, California, 1946.

Lunch with Grandma

When we were younger, Grandma used to take my mom (Carol Smith), my brothers and sisters and I out to lunch at Straw Hat pizza.  I don't remember how often we would go, but it was often enough that I still remember very clearly what it was like there and I remember Grandma sitting and eating with us.  I remember standing in line as we ordered the pizza, got our big red cups (which I always filled with Root Beer) and our plates for the salad bar. The salad bar had the red imitation bacon bits that were really crunchy.  Grandma would grab a salad with a lot of different things on it.  I would grab a little lettuce, a lot of croutons, a pile of those bacon bits and some ranch dressing.  Whenever I see those imitation bacon bits at the store, or a pizza place with a red metal roof I think of going out to eat with Grandma.

Craig Smith

My father's name

My father's name was not the usual, common, Bob, William or John. No, if you knew his mother, you would know that would never do. My father was given the name of Ballif as his first name. This happened to be his mother's maiden name. He was named Ballif Howard Evans, although I actually do not know where the Howard came from. I'm sure that he had to spell it for everyone, and he was actually known as "Bal" most of his life. I love the name and have given it to my second son, Craig Ballif Smith. Now, the flamboyant mother that gave him the name...Grammie, or Zelnora Ballif Evans, was the classiest person I have even known. From the mahogany dining table with glass straws to the pink satin Christmas balls with pearls and sequins on a pink flocked tree. She was a banker's daughter through and through. She loved to wear hats and people loved to see what great thing she would turn up in on Easter Sunday. That was my grandmother, and I am grateful that she gave her son a name that I could pass along to my son.

Carol Evans Smith

Kindegarten Christmas

First, my mother's name was Elizabeth Jane, but all of her friends and family knew her as Bette. As I remember, when I was around 9 years old, she began substituting at a kindergarten class in Concord, just before you got to Clayton. She took on a long-term substituting job and at the end of the year they hired her. She taught kindergarten at Mount Diablo Elementary for 23 years before she retired. I remember helping her set up her classroom and that was fun, but the best part was when she came home at Christmas time with loads of presents from her students. We would have a mini Christmas helping her open (actually I think we did more opening than she did) presents. She had one mother that made delicious Swedish or Norwegian--I'm not sure which--Christmas cookies and we always loved to get those, made with a cookie press and decorated with chocolate and sprinkles and nuts. It seemed like for all those years she taught school, that the mother's loved her...even if they didn't have a child in kindergarten than year!

Carol Evans Smith

Grandma and Grandpa Evan's Condo

Back in 1976, my parents (Dave and Carol Smith), bought the home in Gregory Gardens that Grandma and Grandpa Evans were living in and they bought a condominium located at 376 Camelback Rd in Pleasant Hill, CA.  They lived there all throughout my growing up years until about 1991 (a year after Grandpa Evans died), after which Grandma Evans moved in with Brian and Sharlene Evans. 

The condo was located on the corner of Chilpancingo Pkwy and Camelback Rd with the back of the condo facing Chilpancingo Pkwy.

Here's a view of the back of the condo from Chilpancingo Pkwy. 

The little complex was located on a private driveway with probably 12-15 condos total. 

I believe Grandma and Grandpa lived in the second condo on the left.  They had a long, extended one car garage with a carport to the right of it.  You'd walk past the carport to get to the little front door.  The neighbors house was a mirror image of theirs and the two condos were separated by a small area with some short bushes.  The condo had two stories with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.

As you walked through the front door, if you turned around to your left you'd find a small TV room with an attached half bath.  Grandpa had a soft, light chair he would sit in as he watched TV (often tennis matches).  The TV was old and had buttons along the right hand side, one for each channel.  On top of the TV sat a Wells Fargo stage coach.  That all the grand kids loved.

Off to the right of the entry way was the small straight kitchen that had an opening looking into the dining room.  Around the dining room table was a set of sliding glass doors that led to a small patio with iron chairs and a small table.  The patio was landscaped with different kinds of small rocks, surrounded by a wooden fence that provided some privacy. 

The living room was large with a vaulted ceiling and furnished with a light couch, love seat, chair and ottoman.  As you passed the entry way on your way into the living room, off to the left was a set of switchback stairs that led to the two upstairs bedrooms.  There was a small landing at the top of the stairs before entering the bedrooms where you could overlook the living room.

The private driveway for the condos was L-shaped and contained two small walking paths, one to the right and one to the lift of the driveway, that led to the pool.  The pool was also L-shaped and grew progressively deeper until it reach 20 feet deep (or so it seemed to a 4-foot tall kid at the time).   A set of stairs connected the pool area to a building / clubhouse that had a pool table.

I remember loving going over to visit Grandma and Grandpa when they lived in that house.  Grandpa Evans died in 1990 or 1991.  Grandma Evans lived in that condo alone for about a year following Grandpa's death after which she moved in with their son and his wife, Brian and Sharlene Evans.  Grandma lived with them until she died two or three years later.

Craig Smith

New suit

Grandma Evans and Mom took me suit shopping when I was 12. We went to the Sunvalley Mall in Pleasant Hill. Grandma bought me a dark blue suit. It was also the time when I graduated from clip-on ties. That was a big day. I also learned how to properly place the suit coat on a hangar. I did it backward, and a store employee showed me how my way would wear out the coat.

I also remember Grandma buying me an orange and grey three-quarter sleeved Trans Am T-shirt for school. It was awesome before we ever started using that word.

The beginning

I remember Grandpa Evans working for Wells Fargo when I was younger. We didn't have electronic card readers or debit cards, so you would lay your credit card on a piece of carbon paper on a small metal device, then slide the handle to imprint the card number on the carbon paper. I think he gave me one of those devices when I was around seven or eight years old. I don't know what happened to it. Mom probably threw it away. That was her early practice so she could throw away my blood donation T-shirts when I was in high school. It's a well-known fact that dryers eat socks, not T-shirts.