Charline...what's Johnny's number over there?

 Charline...what's Johnny's number over there?



                                                                      LO-67773


     What may have seeemed maddening then has evolved into one of those delightful snippets of our youth in South Gate. The sentence itself has meaning and humor to probably five or six people. Yet, it resonates through many decades including the 1950's when the question began to be asked. I have mentioned the strange way BC and John became pals in the hallowed halls of Huntington Park High School where Mr. Sheehy was doing "post grad" work in clerical skills to insure he gained employment that did not involve working with cows. The surprising part is that BC was there since he ditched often and found his way down to the Pacific Ocean where he frolicked with fellow miscreants he kept as friends until they took their last turn in the surf of life. BC and John had many an adventure until there were tamed and settled in the dear little town of South Gate. In the 1950's both Sheehy and Creason families lived on Annetta avenue which stretched from Firestone over to Bullis road and it was an easy walk never taken for the patriarchs to visit eachother. They preferred to communicate by the telephone or drive the few blocks in a car.  There are old home movies showing the  Sheehy automobile backing out of our driveway with toddler Greggy standing in the back seat waving. By his time I believe the move had been made to a larger pad on McNerney where Grace hung on into the 21st century with the same phone number they had in 1950-something which was LO-rain 95397. Over at 9400 Annetta the Creasons had the same number from the day the lines were installed to their move to OC in 1959  That number was LO-67773 which I memorized while in first grade just as Greg and Jack knew their number over on McNerney. There were no area codes since they were not needed and the preface  LOrain pretty much stood for all of South Gate. That way you only had to remember 5 numbers. Yet, our fathers who were highly intelligent and organized men never seemed to bother memorizing the numbers since they could ask their wives who spouted the digits with a tad of irritation. At the Creason residence you would hear the question "Charline, what's Johnny's number over there?" and at the Sheehy's  you would hear "Grace, what's Ben's number over there?" This went on for 30 years! My father had many faults but he was not one to forget a birthday or anniversary. He would be able to tell you who the Rams were playing and on what date but... John Sheehy, who was Postmaster of a large operation and Mayor of the city of South Gate was the same.

                                                        

                                                                 LO-95397

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