The First Baptist Church of Bellflower -- Really Saved -- 1

This picture is of Bay View Church -- No picture of Bellflower Available

I mentioned some of the bad things about FBC Bellflower in a couple of postings -- my descent into the Belly of the Whale. But I don't know what my life would be like if it hadn't been for the church. In my title I mentioned salvation and yes, I accepted Jesus and was baptized at FBC Bellflower in 1948; I was 10 (almost 11). My cousins, Gene and Janice also accepted the Lord at the same children's evangelism service. We were baptized by Rev. Ernest Hasselblad. I will talk more about him in a later post. My baptism, not only brought me into the church but my parents also became active in the church. I may have mentioned earlier, but my parents were baptists and met at church. But throughout our years of travel, we went to church very irregularly. 

Both of my parents were there every Sunday. They both sang in the choir. I went to the children's program. I sat on the front row at worship services and I heard from my dad after church if I misbehaved. My dad actually became the Chair of the Building Committee that built the present church building. Then, in the Fall of 1949, when I was in the Seventh Grade, my Father left home. He was infatuated with his secretary. My mother fell apart and I was adrift.

Let me give a little background on my life thus far. I will only give my school years:

• First Grade 
• Galesburg, Illinois
• Oak Ridge, Tennessee
• Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- another school
• Gainesville, Georgia
• Second Grade
• Danville, California (all schools for now on are in California)
• Concord -- an all 8 grades in one room, country school
• Livermore -- same kind of school as above
• Third Grade
• Started at the same Livermore country school
• Livermore -- city school system
• Fourth Grade
• Corona 
• Oceanside
• Corona -- another school
• Fifth Grade
• Compton
• Gardena
• Bellflower -- from then on I was in Bellflower

The point of all this is to say that I didn't have a lot of "life-time" friends. I really didn't know many people from school. Then, as mentioned before, my family fell apart in 1949. I had been a quiet, intelligent child and did well in school. Then (Jr. High is bad enough when things are going well) after dad left, I began to act out in school. I was terrible in Jr. High. I also lost interest in church -- but my mother made me go. She insisted that I go to the Jr. High youth group. I did and something weird happened. They elected me President of the Group! I must admit that it never occurred to me that no one else wanted to do it. I thought I was popular. Then, Eleanor, my wife's sister, was elected as Vice President. We became life-long friends.

The youth group was strong in the church. We had a High School group of around 50 kids. Without the church I would have had no social life. I was not bullied at school and knew a lot of kids, but I didn't hang with them. It was the church that provided me with all of my friends. I was actually popular there. This is what I meant when I said that the church was my salvation. 

In my next posting I will discuss the church and my love for music. 

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.