Chapter 10 High School Highlights by Mimi Lozano

CARS IN THE LIFE OF A TEENAGER

When I think of high school highlights, the first memory that comes to me, did not happen, but IF it would have happened, it would changed my whole life. It would have crippled me. It would have been a tragedy.

However, the accident, incident, that almost happened did change my life. It was a very real and dramatic moment whose importance has grown over the years: I know that there are spiritual beings watching over us, caring for us, all the time. We are never ever entirely alone.

My sister, Tania and I were driving between Stockton and Manteca on Highway 99. My dad, although he did not know where we were living, had given us a
'38 Chevy. Our Uncle Oscar had driven it up from Los Angeles for us. Tania, had taught herself to drive. It was a hot summer day. She was driving. I rolled the window all the way down on the passenger side, and stuck my arm out the window, leaving my arm hanging down the outside of the car door.

Suddenly a voice from within my head ordered me to get my arm back inside the car. Puzzled, really confused I asked myself What? Then a second command came . . . NOW !! Not thinking, I immediately reacted and instantly yanked my arm inside.

At that very moment, when I pulled my arm in, a car sideswiped the car door on my side . . . just where my arm had been seconds before. Shocked by my near miss, neither of us spoke. The driver did not stop or even slow down. We drove home in silence. We quietly viewed the damage when we arrived home. The crushed-in door, its indentations, and the scrapings on the passenger side spoke of would have happened. The obvious was very clear, My arm would have been, ripped off at the shoulder.

My entire life would have been different, if not for the voice that ordered, commanded me, with such much authority, to put my arm in the car immediately, What if I had not responded? Slowly over the years, I've learned, with increasingly more eagerness to listen to the commanding voice, which I now recognize as the Holy Spirit or my guardian angel.

There were many other incidents with cars, some are funny, but some were dumb, like when a group of about 10 cars filled with couples decided to drive from Manteca to Stockton on a foggy Tule Fog night.

[[Tule fog /ˈtuːliː/ is a thick ground fog that settles in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento Valley areas of California's Great Central Valley. Tule fog forms from late fall through early spring (California's rainy season) after the first significant rainfall. The official time frame for tule fog to form is from November 1 to March 31. This phenomenon is named after the tule grass wetlands (tulares) of the Central Valley. Tule fog is the leading cause of weather-related accidents in California.^[1]Visibility in tule fog is usually less than an eighth of a mile (about 600 ft or 200 m). Visibility can vary rapidly; in only a few feet, visibility can go from 10 feet (3.0 m) to near zero.^[4]^]]

It was after a football game in the fall. We were following close behind each other, guided by fog lights of the person in front of us. Then the person leading the pack, turned onto a side street. We all dutifully following him. However, we found we were all going in the wrong direction. It turned that a line of cars coming from the opposite direction had signaled him to stop. He said the fact that there were so many cars going in one direction, the wrong direction, had caused a lot of confusion. Fortunately, we were not involved with any accidents that night.

Two other incidences having to do with teenagers and cars, could've been tragedies for many young people. We piled into a car to go to an away game. It was common for passenger in overloaded cars to sit in the trunk. You rode sitting with your legs hanging over the bumper. Three girls were inside the car and three boys were sitting in the trunk. Just as we were coming to a stop light in the middle of the neighboring town of either Ripon, all of a sudden I started shouting to the boys, get off. Get off. Get off !! I don't know why, but I kept saying hurry, get off. As soon as the boys got to the sidewalk, a huge truck plowed into the back of our car. It did not do any harm to us in the car, but it would surely have taken the boys legs off. I didn't remember much about the game or even how everyone got home . . but I still remember the near miss for all of us.

Another car incident which did take the lives of some teenagers, at least I think it must have. It was the spring semester. We had an assignment, turn in a Wildflower notebook of fresh, pressed flowers.  A few of us decided to go together, and collect wildflowers in the mountains around Sonora. We would be able to get a varied selection.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and the roads were pretty clear. The wild fields were sparkly with different colored of flowers. We would stop and gather from various locations. The day was magical. We decided to drive up a little further . As we were driving up the rather narrow mountain roads, a car of teenagers pulled up next to us, making it clear that they wanted to race up the mountain.   We girls begged the boys not to take the challenge. Fortunately they listened to our pleas and turned down the dare. The other car with some jeers and hand messages from the boys zoomed ahead.

Relieved we stopped again, leisurely gathered a few more specimens, and then continued driving. However up ahead, cars had pulled off the road, on both sides. People were carefully peering over the ledge. We were curious, stopped and got out of the car too.

When we looked down, at the bottom of the ravine was the car that about half an hour ago had wanted to race with us situated at the bottom of the routine. It had gone off the road, rolled over quite a few times. There did not appear to be any movement inside the car.   It seemed isolated, but we were informed that the police were on their way.

We decided it was time to go home.   We had our bouquets of radiant flowers, and the unforgettable image of the mangled car, upside down at the bottom of that very steep mountain.   Quite a contrast.    Quite a lesson.

I particularly enjoyed participating in our community/city musical vaudeville productions, and the high school talent shows. Some years we took our talent shows numbers to other schools.

This photo was a tap dance number, as little girls. I am wearing the plaid skirt.
As I remember, we were carrying stuffed bears, and Pat Hardin on my right was playing a mischievous little boy trying to take our bears.

One year I recall singing duet, "Dearie, Do You Remember When?" We were costumed in 1890 period dress. I was wearing a huge hat, with an even larger feather.   During rehearsals, we practiced a sequence in which he threw a punch and I was supposed to duck "no one ducked from Sullivan's left?"

However, we evidently were standing closer than we rehearsed, because on the line, I ducked, but my football player partner, Bob Williamson connected with my chin and set the feather bouncing.   It startled me, but not enough to prevent me from finishing the song. Bob was so apologetic, but I thought it was funny. I bet most of the audience thought it was fake. We bowed and walked off, Bob holding me under my elbow and me holding my plumbed hat in place. It was fun singing in our school talent shows, at sock hops, plus playing roles in our school plays.

One year, I was a narrator for a Mother-Daughter fashion show of items made by the students. Some of the girls were very skilled, members of the 4-H Club. Tania had picked up Mom's seamstress skill. Mom worked for Adrian the dress designer in Hollywood. She did fine finishing work, techniques she learned from dad.    Tania eventually become a dress designer and studied in the Wolfe's School of Design in Los Angeles. Tania gave me some suitable vocabulary to use as the narrator. However I did make up colors as we went along. It was funny to hear what came out of my mouth, but everyone played along.

Second: Our Social Committee received requests to hold an All-Day Play-Day. Apparently it had been done, but had been discontinued. We presented the idea to the staff, who decided to allow us to hold one all-day event with no classes held. However, we were warned, if students ditched school, "We would be held personally responsible" I wasn't actually sure what that meant, but decided to structure it in such a way that if an individual didn't show up to participate, he/she would look bad.

After we decided on the competitive games that would be played, we assigned everyone to a specific team or competition.   We set up the roster so that we had individuals from all the various social cliques playing at different times and on different teams, so the cliques could support each other, We posted the playing schedule on the bulletin boards older the buildings, to make sure no one missed reading the times.

It was such fun to see the excitement and the giggles Setting up the teams and distributing the players had been a bit of a puzzle, but it was a very successful day. Not one student was absent.

When we moved to Manteca, I had never had a real date.  Being the new girls in town attracted a little attention.

I remember clearly one of my first dates. The event of the evening established who I was, in the strength of my self-determination.

It was a double date. His friend was driving. We were just driving around town in the back of a Black Model A Ford. When the incident took place we were in the industrial area of town. It was Saturday night and everything was dark.

Then they parked. I guess it was a high school make-out area. They were obviously familiar with the location. I was not. Suddenly, my date put his hand on my knee.  I moved his hand, and told him, I did like that. It makes me uncomfortable. He laughed, and again put his hand on my knee. I yanked it off and told him to stop. He laughed again, "What are you going to do, . . . get out?"   I said "Yes," I opened the door, stepped out, and walked quickly away from the car. My move obviously surprised them. They paused, probably deciding what they were going to do, and then drove off.

I thought they would come back and were just playing a very bad joke. It was dark and scary, I didn't see any moving figures and was not frightened by the dark; I decided to teach my date a lesson.

I quickly climbed over an 8-foot fence, enclosing the closest industrial property whose fence I was sure I could climb. The isolation and darkness, did not scare me but something else definitely did, the moment I hit the ground, a really loud howling alarm went on. I had triggered off their alarm.

I looked around expecting to see some guard dogs being released, but gratefully no movement. I saw their car start to turn around and come back. I hid behind some containers until they passed. Then I climbed up and over, quickly, and started walking slowly, where the street light would give me visibility, and make it easy for them to see me. They did and circled back.

They pulled the car up-close beside me. I kept walking toward town. My date opened the door and quietly asked me to please get in. I did, and nothing more was said. I never again had to get out of the car. My date, Ray D. ultimately became my boyfriend, and for most of my high school years, Ray was my protector and a good friend.

I remember one very specific incident in which Ray presence protected me. I joined the city's summer Girls' softball team, like my sister and most of my friends. Towards the end of the season, the coach and his wife both approached me after a game, separate from everyone else, out on the field. They wanted to know if I would be interested in being photographed in the nude.

I was totally shocked by the request. I couldn't believe that they would think I would be interested. His wife assured me that she would be present the whole time, as if that would make a difference. I could not figure out where they were coming from. They lived in the community. Maybe they thought I would be an easy prey - - two young girls, high school age, living alone. I said no, absolutely not.

Ray must have read my body language and started walking towards me. They left as they saw Ray walking towards us. Ray looked at my face, and asked me immediately what was wrong. I told him. I don't know what Ray did, or who he talked to because neither the coach, nor his wife ever got close to me again, not within 8 feet, during the rest of the season. Ray was athletic and very popular. He lettered in three-sports: football/quarterback, baseball/short-stop, basketball/forward, and played football in the army. Perhaps a warning from Ray was enough. Besides Ray, I think my sister was the only other person I told. Fearing how gossip spreads, which is usually inaccurately, I surely did not want my name connected to any whispers of nude photos.

Graduation

Class years in the Los Angeles School District is divided into two submit semesters, whereas the class advancement in Manteca were made yearly. Circumstances resulted in Tania and me I graduating in the same year, which was a lots of fun.

In spite of a full schedule of activities, and two part time jobs, as movie usherette and soda fountain "jerk," I maintained my grades and was also active with the California Scholarship Federation. Miss Romilda Puccinelli, the Spanish teacher was the Club sponsor.

Miss Puccinelli went through all my school records and discovered that I should be recognized for my grades. During graduation, I was given a different colored tassel to wear, and was seated in a special location, one of three students. The Vice-Principal, Grace Rhoads had called me into her office and told me that my SAT scores were exceptionally high and that I should go to a university and a not a Junior College. UCLA seemed the right choice because Mom was living in Los Angeles and Tania was going to attend the Wolfe's School of Design in Los Angeles.

Manteca High School California Scholarship Federation Chapter 1950-51

Mimi
Miss Puccinelli on the far right helped me apply to UCLA and also helped me
apply and receive a scholastic scholarship, which covered my first year of tuition, books/supplies.