Barbara's First Memory

When I was 2 years old something very special happened and I still do remember it. I had been at my Grandma Smith's and when I went home there was a new baby in the bedroom. My dad kept saying "shshsh". I just remember that part but the baby was my sister, Betty and she had been born at home. 

Parker Memories by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

David, Bob and Dan were fishing in the river where we were camping in the Redwoods. I don't remember if they caught anything. 

David, Dan and Wayne Smith (the little boy that we babysat with) are all at Grandma Potter's house in the yard. David has a blue cast on his arm. They were all such cute little boys. David told the story about naptime. That was scarry - didn't have any idea where he was and he wouldn't come when I called him over and over. I was so glad to have him come home all I could do was love him. He didn't do it again!

Danny talked about the Christmas trees we had when he was little. This is a picture of one. We made cookies, large ones, and painted them with a paint brushand used different colors of frosting. Then we would put them our for Santa to find when he brought the tree to decorate. He hung all of the cookies on the tree and even the popcorn that we all strung. It really was a surprise to wake up on Christmas morning and find a tree all decorated with presents under it. I don't know who had the most fun- Bill and I or the three boys.

Parker Family, 1950

Bill, Barbara and baby Bob, 1950

Parker Boys Portraits and Names by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

Robert William Parker

Daniel Thomas Parker, David Lee Parker

Robert William Parker was named because if he was nicknamed I liked the name of Bob.
His middle name was after his dad. David Lee was named because we liked the name of David and how it sounded soft and manly when you said it. Dave wasn't bad either ,and I figured Dave was a good shortened version. Lee is Grampy's middle name and Bill's mothers middle name. It also made a good "door name!"
Daniel Thomas was a hard one because I liked Daniel and I liked Thomas. Dan and Tom were good shortened versions. My Aunt wanted me to name him Thomas, so we settled for Daniel and Thomas. Of course, I call him Danny and probably am the only one allowed to get away with it. To everyone else, he is Dan. We wanted regular boys' names and not some variation or unusual ones. However, I love the name of all of my grandchildren and great grandchildren and why their parents picked the names they did. 

How Bill and Barbara Parker Met by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

I met your grampy at a church camp for college age adults at Crestline California. It was love at first sight. He was so cute and had such a winning smile and great personality the I couldn't resist him and so I let him catch me. Our first kiss was, believe it or not, a few days later and from then on it was history. He was just back from the service in WWII and I was a sophmore in college. My girlfriend had her eye on him, but because he was just going to be a freshman she knew he was to young. Well, I knew better. I knew that he had been in the service for three years right out of high school and of course I didn't tell her.
He was going to attend Chapman College and I knew I had to go there too. So I talked to my grandpa and he agreed to pay my tuition. Off I went!! We were meant to be together because after about four weeks, believe it or not, we were married and moved into the quonset huts for married students on the college campus.

We did not have much of a wedding, but it was a nice one in our minister's home with our families there. We had a small wedding cake and then headed off to the mountains for our honeymoon before going back to college.

The rest is history and after 58 years, 3 boys, 13 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren we are still here and perking along at a pretty good speed.
Life is good and our children are spectactular. Love them all.

Parker boys and the new station wagon, 1957

Purchased for $2300 in 1957, the days before seat belts!

Bill Parker, MA grad at UCLA, 1952 by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

Bill and Bob in 1952.
A long time ago. An exciting day, we made it all the way through and now on to his MA at UCLA and a move from the quonset hut to the barracks on campus at Westwood. David wa just 3 months old and Bob was 2.

Bill, Barbara and boys, 1955

Barbara and Boys, 1961 by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

This was taken in 1961 of me and my very handsome sons.

William Lee Parker, Army 1946m by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

This is of Bill (William Lee Parker) in 1946 when he was in the Army Air Corps, before it was the US Air Force. He was stationed in Okinawa for two years. The war was officially over, but there was still a lot of cleanup operations to be done. There were Japanese in the caves and sniper attacks were still going on. Bill was a crew chief on the first jet squadron in the South Pacific. He was pretty handsome don't you think?

David Lee Parker with his MG, by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

This was such a special red car. The young man driving it was and is pretty special too. He worked many hours to earn enough money to buy this car and was determined to get the one he wanted. He found this MG at Joe Thrall Motors and took his dad to see it. He had just enough money and laid it all out but asked his dad for fifty cents more. His dad said no and David had to break another dollar. Bill came home and told me about it and said that he was so proud of David for doing what he did and working so hard to get what he wanted that he didn't want to take away the feeling of having done it all himself-down to the last penny. At least that is the way the story was told to me. Wish he still had that special car.

Pearl Jessie Rose, age 3

Parker boys Christmas, late 1950s by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

Christmas a long time ago with my 3 little boys. Now they are grandfathers- goodness how time flies!

Parker boys in wagon, 1963 by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

I was cleaning out some drawers and I found this old picture. They were such cute little boys. This was in front of our first house in North Torrance. We purchased it for 12,000 dollars. Times have changed!!
Can you even imagine it? Danny was four months old, David was two, and Bob was three. This was in 1953. Notice-David has a watch on. Do you think he could tell time?

Parker boys with Lauren Stephanie Britton, circa 1968, by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

Do you recognize these young kids? Of course they didn't think they were so young.

This picture must have been about 1968.  David and Lauren were seniors in high school, Bob

was going to Orange Coast College and Dan was a junior in high school. My how our family has grown

from these four to 45 or so. I need to recount the number, but is somewhere around there.

We are truly blessed.

Pearl holding Elliott Richard Parker, 1974

A picture of Pearl Jessie Rose Potter, holding her first Great-great-grandchild, Elliott Richard Parker, in the fall of 1974.

Parker Boys Camping Trip

A fishing trip with Uncle Johnny. They did catch some fish.

Milo, Pearl, Bill and Barbara, 1964

An old picture taken in 1964. Pearl (Jessie Rose Potter) and Milo (Dock Potter) are the same age here as we are now! Yes we have grown older. Bill and Barbara on the left.

by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

Bill and Barbara's First Home, by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

I have been taking a writing class on stories about our family. I started with stories about meeting Bill. One of the stories was about our first home. Yes, it was this lavish, luxurious quonset hut on the Chapman College Campus! This was also Bob and David's first home as they were both born while we lived here. You can see diapers hanging on the clothes line and the baby buggy with Bob in it. I look at this picture and see how far we have come. It was fun there, though as the other quonsets had students just like us with babies and we were all poor and knowing that it would't be that way forever.

Bill and Barbara, circa 1958 by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

We were young once! This was taken in Palm Springs where Bill was leading a conference for the Merchants and Manufactures Association in Los Angeles. So this had to be about 1958. We were living 
in Covina at the time, and Bill was driving into Los Angeles for work every day. This was about his last year of working with this Association as he found another job close to home and the opportunity was much better. He and two others started the plant project for Hoffman Electronics in El Monte. This involved building the plant, hiring the workers, etc. In other words, starting from the beginning. The plant was for the growing of solar crystals to be made into solar panels, etc. He was a very busy husband and father as the job required most of his time. It didn't last forever though.