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Cathy Chavez Miller's avatar

Thank you Jean for sharing your parents communications through their intimate letter writings. They both had hope for better times together tempered by their long separations as your father's Merchant Marine work took him far away. I appreciate your writing about "the bootstrap mythology" regarding your parents trials in buying a 1950s Santa Cruz home. Their story would make a great movie.

Cathy

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Jean Vengua's avatar

🙏 Thank you, Cathy!

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Edward M Corpus's avatar

Very interesting. You're giving me ideas to crosscheck with the research I've done on my parents in approximately the same time period on opposite ends of this country in NY. I was born in the Philippines in September 1953 but was in NY a year and a half later. My mother was a nurse, too, and working then.

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Jean Vengua's avatar

That's great! Btw, the history of the postwar housing booms has been surprisingly interesting. Monterey County has its own versions of Levitown and Daly City. . .

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Candida Kutz's avatar

BootStrapping=BS

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Rachielle Sheffler's avatar

It’s amazing that the cable car is the only thing that has not changed much.

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Jean Vengua's avatar

Well, at least City Lights bookstore is still there and looks about the same. Also, our first apartment building is still on Stockton St., and looks pretty similar. Even the "Hotel" sign that my dad painted on the door is still there!

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Rachielle Sheffler's avatar

I love the City Lights bookstore. I stumbled on it while walking between Little Italy and Chinatown many years ago.

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