BIG TUJUNGA CANYON RD, WILDWOOD, AND ANGELES FOREST HWY

I was up on Angeles Crest Highway this morning, looking for the old campground that Jack Pullman dropped me, Tom, Joe, John, and Charlie at when we were boys to go camping and rough it. It was time. It was a growing-up experience.  We were scheduled to be up there for one week but we ran out of food by Day 4.  Before Day 4, we had a blast.  We hiked the local trails and fire roads.  We found a pond about a half mile in where a young couple, living out of their van, were skinny dipping.  That is what people did in the 60s.  And as we came upon them, they slowly made their way out of the pool and back to their van and covered themselves.  As a group of 5, we were intrusive and either didn't know better or didn't care.  Even at our young age, we could have been perceived as a threat to the young couple trying to find some privacy in the remote back hills of Tujunga.

I drove up to the Big Tujunga Canyon, turning left at the Clear Creek Information Center and onto Angeles Forest Highway, past the Pines Picnic Site, past the Clear Creek Outdoor Education Center, past Big Tujunga Canyon Road, through the Hidden Springs Tunnel where there used to be an old country store.  I know because it was there where me and Charlie walked to out of our campground from up in Hidden Springs to get food.  But past that Tunnel further up is Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road.  I am almost certain that we did not drive up that road to get to our campground.  About a mille north and past the Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Rd. turn off is a campground called Monte Cristo Campground.  

And from inside that campground or adjacent to it is a fire road that Jack may have took to drive us up to Hidden Springs.  Anyway, I wasn't able to find it, so I drove back down the mountain, south on Angeles Forest Hwy and turned right onto Big Tujunga Canyon Rd.  This road veers down into the canyon, creating dramatic peaks of the Tujunga ridge above.  I found a campground called, Wildwood.  Never been here before, least not as I can remember, and so I took a few shots with my phone seen here:

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Monrovia.  I never knew that the property upon which the church sits was donated by Bradbury.

The property of our church was donated by the Bradbury family in memory of their mother, Simona Martinez Bradbury.

Yes, she is of THAT Bradbury fame.  My cousin, Chuck Pullman, would have been delighted to learn of all of the jockeys and trainers associated with Santa Anita Race Track who have lived in Bradbury.

I spent a lot of time here.  I started school here.  After being baptized at the Mission in San Gabriel, I went through the early sacraments here at Immaculate Conception--receiving holy communion or the Eurcharist, my Confirmation, and Reconciliation or confession.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is only absolution from the sins one commits against God, not against my father and mother, siblings, friends, neighbors, or the larger community.  Those sins are settled in court or if I am lucky in the chambers of one's heart.

This is helpful and interesting. 

The crucifix is a prominent religious symbol in Christianity and is seen in religious art, architecture, jewelry and clothing. The symbol represents the suffering of Jesus Christ and his subsequent resurrection. The layout of the typical Catholic Church stems from the shape of the crucifix and is laid out in what is known as the cruciform plan. The plan is present in Catholic churches throughout the world and serves as a sense of continuity within the Catholic faith.

I remember being instructed to kneel here on the step of this grotto and pray to the Virgin Mary.   

A few more terms to help you understand what goes on inside the Catholic Church.  

This is the north transept.  Wikipedia explains

A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the edifice.^[1] In churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building within the Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architectural traditions. Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept.^[1]

And this

Upon its four piers, the crossing may support a spire (e.g., Salisbury Cathedral), a central tower (e.g., Gloucester Cathedral) or a crossing dome (e.g., St Paul's Cathedral). Since the altar is usually located at the east end of a church, a transept extends to the north and south. The north and south end walls often hold decorated windows of stained glass, such as rose windows, in stone tracery.

I love this following photo for it reminds me of the time I was in the first grade and I had forgotten my school book at home.  The nun, I can't remember her name, lifted me out of my desk by my ear and had me stand in the closet in shame and out of view from the rest of the class.  The humiliation didn't end there.  Instead of eating during lunch, I was put on trash duty, where I walked around the 1st and 2nd grade playground area [pictured above] with a trash can picking up trash and wrappers that the other kids had tossed on the ground.  It didn't bother me then; it doesn't bother me now.  In fact, I knew what it meant and accepted the lesson and guess what?  I never forgot my book again.  And my attention for almost everything else in school went through the roof.  

I took this shot for a picture of what is missing, and what is missing are the summer evening volleyball nets for teenagers from around the neighborhood to come and play.  The church grounds were for everyone.  That is the Catholic way.  Not only the volleyball nets were raised but there was always the summer festival where booths lined the perimeter of the courtyard.  It was the first time that I met Norma Parker outside of her home.  She was volunteering at a booth that prepared sausages, bell peppers and onions on a roll.  It was incredible.  She is an excellent cook.  

Will never forget this water fountain.  It was there when I went to school here and it was there when I went to watch Antoinnette and Susan Bradley and a third friend of theirs sing and dance the song from the Go-Go's, featuring Belinda Carlisle, "We Got the Beat."

That picture above is of the Youth Fellowship Hut.  It’s where the basketball and referee equipment were stored.  Alphonso Madrigal used to coach an 8th grade La Salle intermural team but hold practice here at the courts just to the right there of the Youth Fellowship Hut.  Al asked me to referee a few times and I did.  It was fun.  I gave rides to a few games for some of the kids and Al.  One time my car died on the 210 offramp at Mt. Olive.  I told the kids to stay in the car while I go get help.  They did.  I was back within the hour.  Kids were still there.  No harm, no foul.  But those days of the early 80s were much different from today’s climate.

I did love the serenity of this garden alcove with the statue of the Virgin Mary.  The church has her namesake, so you’ll find lots of statues of the Virgin Mary around it.  

What’s interesting about this grotto is that it used to be surrounded by a row of medium-sized trees.  I remember because my brothers and I used to weave in and out of the trees as my mother finshed her conversation with other parishioners after completely the stations of the cross.

The same grotto as above but denuded.  There used to be a row of evergreen spears behind the grotto.

I took this shot because I remember exiting school here reflecting on Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery  or an excerpt we'd read in class before my mind went to thinking about visiting my 2nd grade friend, George, at the same time taking in my appreciation for how wide Colorado Boulevard, shown in this picture, was compared to so many other streets in the area.  In fact, I came to love wide streets, like Las Tunas in Temple City and San Gabriel between Rosemead and San Gabriel Blvd. and this section here of Colorado Blvd.  That's what I thought about as I stood there as a 7-year old looking west.  

This is a statue of Rachel mourning.  

On this pic, I simply liked the angles and the sign to the right of the door “Library Downstairs."  

And I would be remiss if I had forgotten to include a picture and a comment about this old Flying A, Mobile gas station across the street from Immaculate Conception that still sits at the corner of Shamrock and East Walnut.  The address is actually 623 East Walnut Avenue, Monrovia.  And there was an adjacent store just north of the pumps where Sally and Mary would take me before school started and get a Chunkie candy bar and a hot chocolate.  There are few moments in the world when I've felt safer than that.  Here is another shot of it.

from The Source.metro.net.  Their description calls this station "defunct."  I don't know.  It may be out of business but it still stands as a memory for simpler times.

Across the street to the south is a structure that's been there for years.  It was both a grocery store and gas station.  

Filed for Historic Landmark in Monrovia, it is an "L" shaped building that began as a fruit stand and home back in the early 1920s. The service station was added in 1926, just when Route 66 was created. In 1942 its gasoline filling island was demolished and the building became a small industry making military equipment during World War II, and in 1945 it was purchased by Halliburton.