Back in 1945 Again

It isn't much of a story. I got lost at the beach. If I'd never been found, like the Lindbergh baby,* that would be a story. But I was found. Glad I am of it.

For my mother it was a story and, as far as she knew for that hour or so, this story might end as the more famous one had ended. Her little blond girl, a four-year-old, lost among the thousands of people celebrating the 4th of July that year, 1945, at the Santa Monica beach.

For me, I guess it was a matter of dress hems and pant legs and which to hold on to, a matter of walking along and feeling happy. That's what we were doing, and that's what I was feeling, happy. I do remember discovering that the pant legs I was holding on to were not my dad's. I don't know how that happened, but it did. Still, I don't remember feeling very frightened. Maybe I just knew they would find me.

For Mama, it was retracing steps, looking into the faces of people, asking strangers, sending Daddy running to the water's edge, more than once. This part I know from my older sister.

If I had been the mother, I would have argued against going to the beach that day. So many people. Hard enough to manage five children, one a four-year-old and one in a baby carriage, let alone keep track of another family. But my dad's brother Clyde had come from Utah, brought his wife, Fauntella, and their six kids. They would have coaxed to go to the beach, and the West Los Angeles Brimley kids, their cousins, wouldn't need much coaxing.

I'm guessing that Mama extracted promises from my older brothers and sister to look out for Carol. Maybe they forgot.

But here I am, so many years later, telling about it. See, I told you. Not much of a story.

* The kidnapping that shook the world and frightened parents. Even though it happened in 1932, it was still talked about and was still used by parents--like my mother--to warn and, yes, frighten their children. I was told many times not to talk to strangers, never to get into a car with someone I didn't know. I could be kidnapped. It did scare me, but not that day at the beach.