It is amazing to me that my father, Hartwell Russell George Hillier, turned out to be a fairly stable person. He lived with seven different families and changed schools twenty times. One day I asked him to write down all the schools he'd attended. I just came across that list. Some things are abbreviated so I'll apologized in advance for any errors in interpretation. I will also apologize for my dad if his memory wasn't perfect. He was about 80 years old when he wrote this down for me. All locations are in California.
His parents separated when he was about 4 years old so, at age 5, he was living with his paternal grandmother, his father, and two bachelor uncles in Pomona. He attended kindergarten at 5th Street School. He was still living there when he started first grade at Kaufman School.
He did the second half of first grade at a private school. He couldn't remember the name but it was located in South Pasadena where he was living with his dad and his Aunt Mabel and Uncle Charlie.
He was living with two different foster families during the week in second grade. He couldn't remember what school he attended while with the first family. The second family home schooled him. Then he was with a third family (yes, all in one year!) who sent him to Claremont Grammar School.
Then he lived with his dad again in third grade and attended Walnut Street School in Pasadena. Before third grade was over, he went to live with his mother and attended McKinley School in Pomona.
He lived with his mother most of the time after this. However, he spent most of his summers with his maternal grandparents in Fallbrook and even did a little bit of one school year there.
In fourth grade they were living in Pomona and he attended Lincoln School for part of the year. Then they moved to Claremont and he went to Claremont Grammar School.
In fifth grade, he was back at Lincoln School in Pomona until they moved to Stockton, where he spent the rest of the year at Fair Oak School.
Then they moved back to Pomona where he spent the 6th through 9th grades at Central School and Gary Junior High School.
In the tenth grade they moved to Anahiem where he attended Anahiem High School for half of the year. Then they moved back to Stockton where he attended Stockton High School for a year and a half.
During what would have been his senior year, they were migrating so he did not attend school. At age nineteen, he returned to Stockton High School and graduated at age 20. Whew!
The family continued to live in Stockton and he went off to Modesto Junior College for two years. Then he took a year off and worked at P.G.and E. in Stockton to help support his family.
He went to UC Berkeley for one year -- his junior year of college at age 23. He didn't ever get to finish. He had to quit to help support the family again -- working again at P.G. and E. (His step-father didn't seem to be able to hold a job for long.)
Then the family moved to Santa Monica and he began his career as a mechanical engineer -- which was his major before he had to quit school.
Note: I've fallen behind again -- not getting one of these published every week. I may have to give up on that if I can't get caught up.
