11/9/2023 0 Comments Home and decor downeyMany residents who moved from Downey to Greater Dairy Valley, Calif., remember this private front yard Christmas train display. I distinctly remember the outdoor Christmas train set very well, that was off of Old River School Road near Rio Flora Place, just north of Firestone Boulevard. I do remember standing in rain water, wearing oversized fishing boots, trying to keep dry and still see parades pass by. My parents’ backyard garden could be very wet and boggy, if we had foot of rain in a week. Some years we had so much rain, city parks were under water because of poor drainage. Smudge pots burning made for poor air quality and very sooty and oily-smelling air. Remember, Downey still had many old orange groves, and they were hit hard by killing frosts and smudge pots, so being outside to attend Christmas lane parades was only a marginal discomfort. I also attended the Christmas parades in Huntington Park and Los Angeles during that era. Many parts of the city were serviced by open ditches with no curbs or gutters. Why? The city had very low visibility fog banks, which made it hard to see, plus Downey also had flooding streets when it rained. Sometimes Christmas parades on Firestone Boulevard and Downey Avenue were good, sometimes not so good. But then those special holiday years, (in between) Downey was home to one of the most decorated towns. Theft and vandalism was ramped up by layoffs from South Gate’s General Motors plant and Downey Rockwell, which caused mini–economic recessions in Downey. Not every year was a glamorous year, the region had some recessions, mini-electrical utility brownouts, so there was minimum Christmas decorations during those dips, plus some years we had very bad storms, and Christmas decorations displayed outdoors were thrashed or destroyed by weather elements or vandalism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |