With Father’s Day approaching, I want to take the time to share some memories of my father, Martin Relles Sr., who inspired me in ways I can’t overestimate.

Dad was born in 1915 in Chicago, but soon moved to Sacramento with his family.  He lost his dad at the age of five in the great Spanish flu epidemic.  His mother re-married soon after that.  Being a stepchild is never easy, but it proved particularly hard on dad.  His stepfather often disciplined him.  One day while he played in his front yard on 14th Avenue, his step-father became so angry, he hit dad on the back with a piece of wire.

When that happened, a doctor who lived across the street came over and said this to his stepfather, “If I see you do that again, I will have you put in jail.”  Thankfully, dad never suffered that kind of treatment again.

As with many children, sports provided a healthy outlet for dad and his older brothers, George and Ross. They preceded him at Sacramento High and excelled at football and baseball. So when dad entered high school, he had high expectations to live up to.  He took that to heart.

When he arrived at school on the first day, he wore a sweater emblazoned with the following slogan:  “Another great Relles comes to Sacramento High.”  Fortunately, he lived up to that hoopla.  We still have clippings from the Sacramento Bee describing dad’s football triumphs.

Another memory of my dad dates back to 1990.  I had just married for the second time and bought a home in College Glen.  That winter, rain came pouring through the roof. I was pretty broke, but obviously had to fix the problem, so I told mom I was coming over to Janey Way to borrow some money.

When I got there, I parked the car and came, head down, up to the house.  Mom let me in.  Dad was sitting at the table with his checkbook in hand.  As he wrote the check, he looked up with a smile and said, “I was hoping you would ask.”  My father was nothing if not generous.

My final memory is from 1999, the year my father died.  On the night of his passing, my sister and I called all of the family to let them know what happened.  Soon the aunts, uncles and cousins came over to give their condolences.  As I stood on the front porch, my aunt Leone came up, gave me a hug and said sincerely and lovingly, “he was a wonderful man.”  He was that and I am fortunate that he was my father.

A few days later, at the funeral, I stood on the altar of St. Mary’s church and eulogized my father. At the end of my speech, I looked up to the heavens and said softly, “uncle George and uncle Ross, you had better make some room up there in heaven, because there is another great Relles coming to join you.” That was 14 years ago, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about dad.  It’s another heart rending Janey Way memory.

Annie Laurie Cechini was a sullen seventh-grader when she swore she would never write again after sharing a creation that caused her classmates to laugh. She wasn’t trying to be funny.

It was a senior year English teacher at El Camino High School, however, that pushed her to nurture her natural gift for words and regain her confidence.

Today, the 1998 El Camino graduate is kicking off a new career as a full-time writer, already holding book signings for her debut novel, Liberty, a young adult work about a space captain navigating life after losing her ship and crew.

In an interview earlier this year with San Juan Unified School District’s marketing department, Chechini discussed what motivates her work, how she is a relentless self-editor and how young writers have more resources than ever to pursue their passion. Here are excerpts from the conversation:

Explain your book for us.
Liberty is about a teenage girl who has lost her family. And she’s a space captain. She’s trying really hard to be tough and run everything and find a little piece of the world that she feels safe in. And everything just keeps backfiring. She’s got bad guys chasing her for something that she feels like she has that she shouldn’t, and her friends get threatened, and it’s just a big fun mess.

Were you a sci-fi fan growing up? What inspired you to tell this story?
I’m kind of a very big geek. I had very, very long hair when I was five years old, and Return of the Jedi came out that year, so I kind of grew up thinking that I was Princess Leia. … There’s something about science and the fact that we don’t have all the answers yet that lends itself to more imaginative writing. Because there’s still just a little bit of magic in science and space – because there are so many things we still don’t understand – there’s a lot more wiggle room to do some really interesting things in science fiction.

The central character is trying to find her place and is overcoming obstacles. Did you draw on any personal experiences for inspiration?
When I wrote Liberty, I was trying to remove myself as far away from the character as I could. Some writers feel like they need to have a direct life experience that correlates, and for me, that’s just therapy that I don’t want to deal with. I would love to just leave that at the door and write interesting characters.

But inevitably what happens is little parts of you sneak in, and I think authors try really hard not to let that go completely crazy. But I know one of the things that was really hard is there’s this theme of loss in Liberty, and I know everyone has had experiences with loss, but the year that I wrote Liberty there were some pretty big losses in my life, and that kind of found its way in. I didn’t even notice it until I was talking to a writer.

This is your first novel. Had you had any other writing published before this?
When I was at El Camino, I actually tried to publish a poem I wrote, and I think it was soundly rejected for being kind of terrible.

That’s good experience, too, right?
It absolutely is a good experience, because rejection is a permanent aspect of being an author. The sooner you can learn to tolerate rejection, the better.

Was this book difficult to get published?
Yes and no. I actually tried to start writing full time in 2009, and the first novel I tried to write was a total train wreck. It was huge and cumbersome and just a disaster. Liberty I actually wrote for fun on kind of a lark. I finished writing in March and I signed a contract in January of the next year. That’s pretty quick.

Can you talk about submitting your work to publishers and what that process is like?
Just in the time that I’ve been writing, there have been incredible changes. And really good ones, too. The first manuscript, or query letter, that I ever sent out to an agent, I had to send him a big manila envelope … and now, everything is digital. And because everything is digital a lot of publishers, small presses, agents, anyone connected to the industry – they’re online, they’re on social media, they have blogs, they tell you exactly what they want. So once upon a time, you had to … try and figure out who was accepting your type of book and then figure out if they were querying or not. And sometimes they wanted manuscripts, and you would have no clue what they wanted, so you were just throwing stuff out there hoping something sticks. And it’s not very effective.

Now, you can go online and visit a site like Query Shark – it’s a blog that I love – and it will tell you what not to do in a query letter to an agent, and … you can look at agents individually and see what they’re looking for and what they represent. … There are so many great resources out there for the aspiring writer to get their career going.

Can you talk about why you dedicated Liberty to your grandfather (a former English teacher at Rio Americano)?
When I was a kid, I lost a sibling to cancer, a younger brother, and when I was 7 or 8 years old I was just an angry, angry nightmare child. My parents were going back to school, so we lived with my grandparents for a time, and my grandpa would give me grammar sheets … for me to play with. And I did, and I learned stuff.

Then I started hounding him to let me help him grade papers, and of course that was never going to fly. But he did let me help him correct text, and I just developed this fierce love of the red pen.

Do you use the red pen a lot on your own work?
Yes. I think that’s one of the best things that you can possibly develop as a writer: the ability to see your stuff, and see where it sucks, and learn how to fix it. If you’re not able to take that step back and say, “This really isn’t working,” then it’s really hard to progress as a writer. You have to be really critical of your own stuff.

This story is courtesy of the San Juan Unified School District.

Three fire investigators are looking into what caused the fire that burned down Freeport Boulevard’s Crepe Escape in the early morning hours of Monday, April 29. Restaurant owner Francesca Zawaydeh said they don’t really know what happened, but said: “Arson is harder to prove than murder. There’s not much hope finding the person who did it.”

Zawaydeh feels remorse for not only herself and her family but for the 17 employees who worked at Crepe Escape. “We left 17 people without a job. A lot of them have families. A lot of people who worked for us cried. There were a lot of tears going on … Whoever did this didn’t realize this will leave a giant hole in a lot of people’s lives,” she said.

Zawaydeh said her employees were like family. They were invited to Easter dinners birthday parties and other family celebrations. Zawaydeh feels an obligation to keep them in the loop.

She is currently looking for other locations in Land Park for Crepe Escape, but said it’s been difficult finding a place.

“All the good spots have been taken. There’s just not a whole lot in Land Park. I told one (longtime) customer we might have to leave the area and go further out. And that customer flipped out. She said, ‘you can’t leave. This restaurant is for the neighborhood.’”

In Zawaydeh’s efforts of looking for a new location, some people have offered to help her out financially. “It’s been really amazing because you see people’s true character when something like this happens. When you are running a business day to day, you don’t know how good people are. You don’t see that in the full capacity until something like this happens,” she said.

Zawaydeh’s father built the business six years ago and had someone else run it, but Zawaydeh took it over in 2009 after graduating college, she said.

Zawaydeh said her parents ran three creperies in San Francisco prior to moving to Sacramento. And it wasn’t until her brother was killed in Iraq that a move out of the city was needed as everywhere they looked reminded them of their son.

She said she’s only seen her father cry twice – once after the death of his son and secondly after the fire burned down Crepe Escape.

Zawaydeh said it’s been hard to go back to the restaurant. “I hear it’s boarded up and there’s an eviction sign. We had a lively business thriving and now there is nothing. My life is reduced to day-to-day activities. I don’t get to go to work anymore. My life revolved around that business,” she said.

As part of the South Sacramento Grandparents Support Group headed by Pearl Bolton, Greenhaven Lutheran Church members will deliver food and gift baskets to 60 families on Sunday, Dec. 16.

Children and families will get items such as gift certificates, socks, clothes, bicycles, or skates.

Additionally, GLC members have “adopted” the nearly 90 children from these families, and have been provided with their Christmas gift wish lists. The church has been doing this for more than 20 years as a part of the Adopt-A-Child Abuse Program and Pearl Bolton was the case worker at the time. This is a group that provides emotional support to grandparents who are caregivers on fixed incomes. Many are well passed retirement age.

Greenhaven Lutheran Church members have grown their adoptions from 10 to 50 families over the years. Besides making Christmas baskets, they make baskets at Easter and Thanksgiving.

Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part series regarding the history of the Antone “Tony” Luiz Silva and Joao “John” Luiz Silva families and their descendents.

Among the many early Portuguese families of the Pocket area were the Antone “Tony” Luiz Silva and Joao “John” Luiz Silva families.

Both Tony and John, who were brothers, immigrated to the United States from Topo, Sao Jorge Island in the Azores Islands of Portugal. The brothers’ original surname was Avila, but they acquired the surname, Silva, after arriving in the U.S.

Tony was the first to arrive
The first of these immigrants was Tony, who arrived in America at the age of 17, and joined his brother, Joseph, who was herding sheep in Inyo County, around Lone Pine and Bishop.

In that county, Tony worked for two separate wages. One of these wages was $1 per day and for another employer, he was paid with food. However, Tony was not content working for food and after three days, using his broken English, he asked to be paid $3. The employer responded by giving Tony three kicks in his rear and ordering him off his property.

After leaving Inyo County, Tony, who was known to sign his name, “A.L. Silva,” because of his illiteracy in English, went to Sacramento County and became employed at the Elk Grove Winery in Elk Grove.

He then went to the Grant area in today’s Carmichael area and worked on a hay bailing press and farmed hay and grain.

Tony and Mary meet
While in the Grant area, Tony met his future wife, Maria “Mary” Nevis, who was born in the Azorean island of Terceira on Aug. 5, 1881. Mary had then-recently immigrated to the Pocket with her cousin, Vera Bettencourt, and lived with one of the two Costa families of that area.

Tony and Mary were married – most likely at the St. Joseph Church in Freeport/today’s Clarksburg – in April 1899.

In about 1902, Tony and Mary moved to the Freeport area, where Tony farmed and had a small dairy, adjacent to where John also farmed and operated a dairy.

Together Tony and Mary had seven children, Mary, Joseph L., Olive, Rose, Hazel, Anthony and the first-born Rose, who died in infancy. As a father, Tony acquired the nickname, “Lavafraldas,” which indicated the “washing of diapers.”

One day, one of Tony’s friends was driving by his home and observed Tony hanging up his children’s diapers on the outside line next to his house. The friend rolled down the window of his vehicle and shouted, ‘Oh, Antone Lavafraldas.’ This name became Tony’s nickname and remained with him for the rest of his life.

Tony and Mary settle down in Pocket
Sometime after the 1904 Edwards Break, which flooded the Sacramento side of the Sacramento River, mostly south of Sutterville Road, Tony purchased 102 acres of swamp land in the Pocket.

Before Tony could even begin to farm this land, the property had to be drained of its river water seepage and cleared of tules and brush.

It was also on this property that, in 1909, Tony had a 10-room Victorian constructed for him by Manuel Valine, a contractor who was known as “Calisto.” As a protection against flooding, Calisto built the home on a knoll.

In order to continue his work as a dairyman, Tony established a dairy on his Pocket property. The property also included a large orchard and a family vegetable plot.

In about the early 1920s, Japanese families began residing in the Pocket area and, in many cases, leased land from Portuguese farmers. It was during this early period that Tony leased his Pocket property to Saichi Hironaka, who was an American citizen. Hironaka then subleased the property in three parts to the Tanaka, Ishimoto and Shirai families.

In 1934, Tony acquired an additional 100 acres from Joe Rico.

Tony passed away on Jan. 30, 1945 and his entire property remained with his family in the ownership of his widow.

What became of the property
From the early 1960s through the mid-1980s, Tony’s former property was sold at different times in individual sections for the residential redevelopment of the Pocket.

Twelve acres of Tony’s former Pocket property was donated in 1960 to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento for the construction of a new church and parochial school. These 12 acres were exchanged for a 5-acre site on Florin Road, where the church was built and named St. Anthony Church in memory of Tony.

John immigrates to America
Tony’s previously mentioned brother, John, who was born on Jan. 10, 1879, immigrated to America in 1896. He arrived in New Bedford, Mass., where two of his sisters resided and then lived with them there for some time before joining Tony in California.

John was later hired to work at the Sacramento Brick Co. on Riverside Road (now Riverside Boulevard). He maintained this employment for several years.

On Dec. 17, 1904, John married a 20-year-old, Faial, Azores Islands-born woman named Inacia “Nancy” Silva at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. For their honeymoon, the couple traveled on a riverboat to San Francisco.

After returning to the Sacramento area, John and Nancy settled on rented property that was owned by the Glide family on Babel Slough in Yolo County. On this property, John operated a dairy with his brother, Tony.

The brothers grew alfalfa for feeding their cows and potato and beans to feed their families, which included John and Inacia’s eight children who were born on this property. Altogether, John and Inacia’s family included nine children: Mary, John L., Jr., Madeline, Tony, Anna, Joaquim (“King”), Manuel, Dolores and Emily.

In 1916, John purchased about 100 acres in the Pocket area from Frank Rico. Included with this purchase were two houses, three barns and a large orchard, which was located between the houses. Orange trees were among the trees of this orchard.

Also within John’s Pocket property were various crops, including alfalfa, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, sugar beets, spinach and milo.

John farmed his property into the 1950s, at which time he retired and his sons continued the operation of the farm.

Just prior to John’s death on July 7, 1970, part of his acreage was sold to developers.
Nancy died on Dec. 3, 1976, and the remaining part of the property was sold by her family in 1979.

“A dynamically gifted person.” “She’s been my mentor for 10 years.” “An impressive lady.” “A remarkable woman.” “Kay is St. Francis.”

These are just a few of the myriad of comments by staff and alumni of St. Francis High School about Kay Gaines, who will be retiring from the school after 43 years on March 31.

“I think it’s a good time to retire – I have my health, I have my energy, so I want to move while I can still re-engage,” Gaines said about her upcoming retirement and move to Lewiston, Idaho at the end of March so she can be closer to her sister’s family, as well as her two grown sons and two 3½ year old granddaughters currently living in Colorado.

“It will be very difficult to leave my life-long friends in Sacramento, but I’ll carry wonderful memories with me,” Gaines said in a letter emailed out to St. Francis High School supporters in February. “I have good health, lots of energy and a loving family, so I’m very fortunate.”

Where it all Began

Gaines began her St. Francis High School career at literally the very beginning of 1969 – she came in to interview for a part-time social studies teacher position on Jan. 2 and started the very next day. Gaines worked part-time from 1969 to 1973, then became full-time from 1974 to 1984, and later the Social Studies Department chair from the mid-70s until 1985.

Rosemarie Bertini, a 1972 graduate of St. Francis who came back in 1997 to become an Italian instructor for the school, recalls Gaines’ reputation as teaching difficult, serious classes.

“When you’re a kid at that age, you’re just going to do anything you can to not put yourself in that position, but when we got to senior year there was no way around it – Civics was Mrs. Gaines,” Bertini said. “And I just thought, ‘Am I going to live to see the end,’ because I knew it was a lot of work!”

Reflecting on her student experience, Bertini said that although at a young age taking a class from Gaines might have been something a student would want to avoid, Gaines knew it was something her students could do. And Gaines would do what she could to keep them on track.

“In the end we were so full of accomplishment – when you left that class, you’d truly learned something and in addition you had this confidence in it,” Bertini added.

Gaines herself admits she was a really tough teacher.

“I think that students can reach very high levels if you ask them to – they can learn skills, improve their own academic knowledge,” she added. “We did a lot of writing in my history classes because that skill you’ll take with you for the rest of your life.”

St. Francis Theology Department Chair Rick Norman recalls beginning his own career at the school in 1977 when Gaines was the chair of the Social Studies Department. He said her long career has allowed her to have a real grasp of the history and vision of St. Francis as she’s managed of number of transitions the school has gone through, from changes in campus location, buildings, administration and enrollment.

“She’s had to weather all the transitions and she’s been just incredibly graceful at guiding that school academically and administratively, and supporting just so many programs at the school,” Norman said.

Also during her time as a teacher, Gaines taught the first advanced placement (AP) U.S. history course St. Francis, which is a course high school students can take for college credit. According to St. Francis AP Literature teacher Rich Weldon, the AP program Gaines started then has grown. He said of the two English AP courses the school offers, over 100 students take the junior year course, while between 60 to 80 students take the senior year course.

“The AP programs, not just in English but in other departments, have really flourished under her because she just believes they could do it and it didn’t matter if it was math or chemistry – it was kind of like move over boys, here come the girls,” Weldon said.

Nora Wehrenberg Anderson, 1983 alumna, recalls her first interaction with Gaines in August 1981 in her AP U.S. history class.

“Lucky for me, I learned so much more,” she said in a note she recently wrote to Gaines to wish her well on her retirement. “I learned how to think critically, to write well, and about how positive role models are all around us – people like you!”

Leaving a Legacy

Gaines continued to support the AP program at St. Francis as she made the move to assistant principal in 1985, followed by becoming principal in 1998. Gaines then decided to retire from the principal position in 2004 to take on her current role as director of special projects.

Gaines said her current role is a “catch-all” phrase that covers a wide variety of unrelated things, a good portion of which are connected to the school’s academic teams, many of which Gaines started during her career, including the Mock Trial, Model United Nations, and Academic Decathlon, and others she also coached, such as the school’s Robotics Team.

St. Francis Director of Admission Moira O’Brien said Gaines is the reason why they have academic teams at the school. Although Gaines ran them herself for a while, she then found staff to take on each team and stick with them.

“We were the first all-girl school to ever go to the national championship in robotics, our speech team wins so many prizes,” O’Brien explained. “It’s all Kay’s energy, she built them, and they are so successful and the girls love it.”

And Norman said the building of these academic teams is what is bringing students to St. Francis today.

“For the first time we interviewed the incoming freshmen – many students now are coming to the school for academic teams,” he said. “She was the one that really got all that rolling.”

For 2010 graduate Amy Bush, being part of the St. Francis Debate Team is what she recalls most from her time at the school.

“Participating in debate meant a lot to me because I had spent eight years in speech therapy prior to coming to St. Francis,” she recalled in a written note to Gaines. “To have St. Francis welcome me and make me feel that they were proud of me is something that has inspired me beyond measure, and still continues to.”

Another program Gaines began and currently oversees is an exchange program with a sister school in Japan. The program with Nakamura Gakuen Girls High School in Fukuoka, Japan has been ongoing for 15 years now.

St. Francis 2001 graduate Jayme Hennessy recalls the exchange program and the impact it had on her education.

“That was really neat because we were able to experience a global perspective with girls our own age from another country,” she recalled. “That was really something I remember a lot – especially as a high school student, it was pretty great.”

Saying Goodbye

With the eve of her retirement upon her, Gaines reflects back on her experience at St. Francis and a comment a colleague she had taught with for 35 years said to her one morning that while driving to school one morning, he realized he had never gone to work a day in his life.

“And I said, ‘Yup, I feel exactly the same’,” Gaines recalled. “I’ve never gone to work a day in my life. In 43 years I just came to play, and I think a lot of people here feel that way. We work really hard, we work really long hours because we wear so many hats, but it’s just such a rewarding experience.”

That constant drive has Gaines already making plans for her retirement, including involvement with the church, League of Women Voters, and schools in the area, as well as taking technology courses at the local community college.

“I don’t intend to sit,” she laughed.

When asked what she has learned the most from her experience at St. Francis, Gaines said one thing was that she grew in her own faith as a Catholic, which has become an integral part of who she is. And she also learned respect.

“Respect for my colleagues, respect for the kids and their parents,” she added.

Gaines said what she will miss the most is the community.

“This is truly a family, truly a community – people really do care about each other,” she said. “I will miss living in a truly faith-based community where it just happens so naturally and people just celebrate together and pray together.”

And her parting words for her St. Francis family? Be creative, be adventurous, and love each other.

“I’ve just had the best career that I could ever possibly have desired and in the best place,” Gaines said. “I’ve been blessed for sure.”

Learn some unique papercraft techniques and make a Valentine’s Day gift at the same time. This school-age program at the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library will be held Thursday, Feb. 9 at 2:30 p.m.

Kids ages eight and up will enjoy this special program.

The Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library is located at 7335 Gloria Drive in Sacramento. Call (916) 264-2700 or visit www.saclibrary.org.

World Heritage Student Exchange program, a public benefit organization, is seeking local host families for high school boys and girls from Spain, Germany, Thailand, China, Russia, France, the former Soviet Union countries, Denmark, Italy and more.

Host families provide room, board and guidance for a teenager living thousands of miles from home. Couples, single parents and families with and without children in the home are all encouraged to apply. You can choose to host a student for a semester or for the school year.

Each World Heritage student is fully insured, brings his or her own personal spending money and expects to bear his or her share of household responsibilities, as well as being included in normal family activities and lifestyles.

Imagine a world of peace and greater understanding. Imagine yourself as a part of the solution. Today’s teens are tomorrow’s parents, international business people and possibly even future political leaders. Share your corner of America by helping a foreign teen experience life in your area.

For more information, call (800) 9040 or email info@world-heritage.org. Also visit www.world-heritage.org.

SACRAMENTO – If you spy a snarling pirate captain in a tri-corn hat roaming the deck of the tall ship Hawaiian Chieftain, that’s probably because his mom or dad brought him down to visit on Halloween. The topsail ketch, now berthed at Old Sacramento, is inviting all youthful zombies, inspiring superheroes, glamorous princesses, and piratical minions to drop by for tricks or treats from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 31. The crew will be dressed up in their 18th-century garb enhanced with a bit of All Hallows Eve fun. Admission is free.

For kids and parents unable to visit in the evening, the ship will be open for walk-on tours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 31. Costumes are encouraged. Hawaiian Chieftain is also taking group reservations for a three-hour educational sailing experience from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Group leaders interested in the program should call (800) 200-5239. Information is also posted at www.historicalseaport.org.

The Hawaiian Chieftain has brought its living history educational programs to Sacramento for more than a decade. In each of the one-hour and three-hour educational programs, students work a number of stations set up aboard that discuss navigation, map-reading, elements of oceanography, and how 18th century mariners explored the California coast and inland waters. Launched in Hawaii in 1988, the steel-hulled vessel is 103 feet, nine inches long and 22 feet wide. Her main mast rises 75 feet off the water. She is now based in Aberdeen, Wash., and she sails to more than 40 ports a year on the west coast.

The Dalton children, Carolyn, Wayne, Donna, Bonnie and Wiley, lived with their grandmother on N Street. Their parents left them in her care early in their lives. All went fine until their grandmother died suddenly in the early 1960s. That left them without parents or a guardian. Consequently, the local Child Welfare Department contacted their Aunt Mary who lived on Janey Way. They asked her to take the five children. She agreed.

 

To accommodate the kids, Mary and her husband Richard built a dorm-like room on the back of their house. They installed bunk beds in the room where the Dalton children slept. All five children moved in and began their long path to adulthood. This must have constituted an enormous burden to Mary and her husband. They had two children of their own: Nancy and Dick. Instantly transitioning from a family of four to a family of nine must have been earth shattering. But they seemed to make the transition almost seamlessly. The entire family ate at a large dining table in the living room. They all shared one bathroom, but somehow they managed. Mary’s son Dick, who is my friend, noted, “During my whole time at Sacramento High School, all I ate for my daily lunch was a baloney sandwich and a piece of fruit. We were probably poor, but we didn’t know it, so there you go.”

 

The Dalton kids fit right in on Janey Way. Carolyn, the oldest, hung out with Joan Ducray; Wayne befriended Lou Viani and me. The girls, Donna and Bonnie, spent time with Mary Puccetti and Josie Tomassetti. Wiley, the youngest, played with Tom Hart and the Tomassetti boys. We all accepted the Daltons as full-fledged members of our gang. I remember all of us in the summer, sitting in the shade of the Puccetti’s lawn, making the kind of racket kids make when they interact. The Dalton kids had survived the death of their grandmother and fallen gently into their Aunt Mary’s loving arms.

 

One by one, the Dalton children grew up and moved off Janey Way. Carolyn got a job and found an apartment. Wayne obtained student loans and graduated from UC Davis. Sadly, he died of cancer in his thirties, one of the early losses for our gang. The younger girls moved away and married. Dick tells me they live in Portland, Ore., near the parents that had abandoned them years ago. Finally, Wiley, the youngest boy, moved out. I have heard he works and lives in Elk Grove.

 

The story of the Daltons remains one of the most touching memories of growing up on Janey Way. When they lost their grandmother, they could have ended up in the foster child merry-go-round. Instead, their Aunt Mary took them in and raised them as her own. This kind of thing happens rarely in these times. This is truly an uplifting Janey Way memory.

 

E-mail Marty Relles at marty@valcomnews.com.