1957 Ford Fairlane 500

As a young child I recall trips up and down the coast with my parents in their brand spanking new 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Coupe. The sleek tail fin on the right side of the car provided a great arm and head rest out of my rolled down window to view the world. As the A.M. radio blared, “Hot Ziggidy Dog Ziggidy,” I could view the world. Very few freeways had been built and we rarely traveled inland as the Pacific Coast Highway was our main drag. For some reason our world stopped where the road turned inland just beyond the sand dunes where the new highway cut behind the big rock near Pt Magu and extended down the coast to San Diego where the ocean suddenly stopped and dried up (bottom of San Diego Bay) and the road turned inland again. It would be many years later after my step father had left the family that I would have the opportunity to travel inland, beyond the San Fernando Valley. The church father and sons outing was that opportunity. The newly completed San Diego Freeway north was the route we followed until it ended at the two lane road San Fernando Road at the north end of the valley and the to the Sierra Highway and out to the camp sites on a ranch in the foothills of the Santa Clara River Valley (Later Santa Clarita). Today that same site is now a park and ride lot at the end of Newhall Avenue and the Highway #14 freeway. In order to acquire more food supplies we needed to drive 5 miles farther up the road to a store on the corner of Soledad Canyon and Sierra Highway. Nothing else was there accept the store… Now the same corner (Solemint Jct) is the site is occupied by many stores and strip malls. Eventually church and boy scout trips would proceed farther north to Lake Hughes, and then the High Sierras. The Antelope Valley Freeway was completed by then, starting at Solemint Jct. and proceeding all the way to Palmdale before it again ended at Sierra Highway and proceeded north as a two lane road all the way to the Sierras. That was a long two lane road across the desert proceeding through small towns Ricardo, Littlelake (no longer existing), Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, & Bishop, Tom’s Place. Camping on Rock Creek in the Sierras was such a treat. Hiking around a serene long lake and up the valley to prominent point and sitting on a snow pack just to observe the view of the John Muir Wilderness. Some of my most memorable moments resulted from that trip. While traveling back we passed by Lancaster and I looked around and had a warm premonition feeling this would be a great place to live. Upon arrival home that night my mother let me know that she had met a man at the singles activity that was from Lancaster and she had a date with him the next week. As fate would have it they met in July and were married in October and we moved my senior year of high school to Lancaster. I thought I had died and gone to heaven with all the open space.. I could ride my bike miles out on the desert and see no one. One never know what paths life’s travels will take them…Growing up in the city I never knew the pleasures of country living but I have made sure that my children have had the experience and opportunities to enjoy both to make their own decisions.