Welcome to my blog about Long Beach and the surrounding area. I am passionate about this area and look forward to sharing stories and observations with you.
My credentials to write about Long Beach?
I was born in Long Beach, in St. Mary's Hospital at 10th and Atlantic. My paternal grandmother worked at St. Mary's at the time. In fact, my parents met there while my mother was volunteering at the hospital and my grandmother wanted her to meet her son. My parents were married in St. Anthony Parish on Olive Avenue. My mother graduated from Wilson High School here in Long Beach, as did my nephew, 60 years later.
My father worked at Douglas Aircraft on Lakewood before joining the Orange County Sheriff's Office. My mother worked for McDonnell Douglas Automation for a while in the 1970's.
Both of my brothers were born at Community Hospital, just above the traffic circle. My maternal grandmother was a nurse there. I'll have a story about my two grandmothers, both nurses, who worked in two different Long Beach hospitals. One of my brothers graduated from Long Beach State aka CSULB.
Although I moved from Long Beach when I was just 5 months old, to a brand new house waaaaaay far away in Westminster, I lived here again from 1996-1998. At that time I rented a house in the South of Conant neighborhood. In 2005 my husband and I purchased our home in the La Marina Estates neighborhood, where we still live. I'll tell you about the neighborhoods of Long Beach later, too.
I am a REALTOR(r) focusing on the East Long Beach/West Orange County area and I know Long Beach. I'll be sharing bits of history, local school stories, anecdotes and just some rambling thoughts on life here.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
I'll be following this one closely!! I have a question for you. We all spent the day at the Aquarium on Saturday. It was FANTASTIC!!! however, we were all heading (in our minds) to that big circular building with the aquatic life mural painted on it, and were all quite surprised (pleasantly) by it's real physical form and location. So, what IS that other building? I see it in your photo here. xx
ReplyDeleteGreat question, Tamara! Thank you for asking it. Many people think that's the aquarium, but it's the Long Beach Arena. It has hosted ice hockey teams, roller derby, the volleyball events of the 1984 Olympics, concerts and I even saw the Dalai Lama speak here in 2006. The exterior paintings are by environmental artist Robert Wyland and the whole of it is called "Planet Ocean", depicting the gray whales and other aquatic life that can be found off the coast of Long Beach.
ReplyDeletethank you, we were wondering how many other visitors had been fooled by it. they should keep a count at the car park attendant of how many cars they turn around and send to the correct car park. :)
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