Bellflower the Friendly City

In my last two posts, I painted a rather negative picture of First Baptist Church of Bellflower and the city itself. What I report was true, but it was only part of the story. I want to correct the impression that I left. In this post I will tell what a great place Bellflower was for me in growing up. My next post will deal with the good side of First Baptist Church.

Bellflower, like many of the cities in California was once a site of old Spanish Land Grant Ranchos. As the Ranchos sold, the buyers bought for primarily agricultural reasons. It wasn't until the early 1920s that Bellflower began to develop a residential area. The impetus for building a residential section was the extension of the Red Car Railroad (Pacific Electric) to Santa Ana. The tracks went through Bellflower and a terminal was built there. The dairy industry began to grow in importance as Dutch families began to settle in the region. My earliest memories of living was there was the "pleasant" aroma of the dairies in the humid, foggy air. During the Fall and Winter, it was foggy a lot. At high school football games, we were sometimes called Smell Flower. It was an apt title. Much of the area that would soon become great shopping malls was all bean fields. It wasn't incorporated as a city until 1957.

One of my early memories brought home to me the importance of the Dutch population. I am not sure what year this was -- probably 1949 or 1950 -- Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands on her visit to the United States visited Holland, Michigan and Bellflower, California. I remember watching the parade down Bellflower Blvd. and seeing the queen waving at the people. In my last post I wrote that the town was very white, and it was, but that was not the whole story; we did have a significant Hispanic population and many Japanese also.

Well, why are my memories so positive? I was raised somewhat like a child of migrant workers for the first 10 years of my life. I was born during depression years and my father traveled to find work. When WWII started, the only construction jobs were for the military, so we traveled where the jobs were. 

• 1937-1941
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Miami, Florida
• Knoxville, Tennessee
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• 1941-Spring 1944
• Franklin, Indiana
• Leesville, Louisiana
• Galesburg, Illinois -- started school
• Oak Ridge, Tennessee
• Gainsville, Georgia -- Finished 1st Grade
• 1944 -- Moved to California
• Concord
• 1945 
• Livermore
• 1946
• Livermore
• Corona
• 1947
• Oceanside
• Corona
• Compton
• Gardena
• April, 1948 -- Finally -- Bellflower

Even though I was born in Cincinnati, Bellflower is my hometown. We finally had an actual house to live in. I mean a house that is more than one room, not a motel, not a trailer -- and it had electricity, running water and indoor plumbing. I lived at 9437 Harvard St. in Bellflower from 1948 until 1960 when I joined the Navy. This is my home of record. Unless you have grown up on the road as I did, I don't think you can understand what being rooted in one place meant to me. I could finally make friends -- and I did. I really love Bellflower. It is the place where I began to grow and flourish.

Bellflower was a quiet place. The population was around 20,000 and growing. I was able to ride my bike anywhere in town. I don't remember any crime there. Of course this was the 50s. For $0.14 you could go to the matinee at the Nubel theater -- double feature, cartoon, newsreel and a serial. Not bad. During the high school years, we used to cruise up and down Bellflower Blvd. We would hang out at the Clock drive in. Even though the film "American Graffiti" takes place in the 60s, this was the 50s in Bellflower. This was my life up until 1955. Then I began to expand my horizons. I moved on campus at UCLA, but Bellflower was still home.

Since I met my wife in Bellflower, my mom lived there, and Linda's parents lived there, we were connected to Bellflower really until their deaths. We began to feel like Chula Vista was home sometime in the late 60s and 70s.