| Kelly Fitzgerald-Holland | Email |
05/20/20
Where do you live now? Sacramento, California
How many years were you in the desert? 18
Are you willing to help with pictures? Yes
Are you willing to help with stories? Yes
Comments:
I was born and raised in Ridgecrest (1970 - 1990s), and moved away for college after high school. My mom and her family moved to China Lake in the 1940s; she still lives there. My dad moved there after he finished college in the 1960s; he passed away last year and is buried there. I still visit my mom regularly.
Ridgecrest is filled with fond memories, but it was definitely a small town that I looked forward to leaving after high school. Growing up there in the 1970s and 1980s, I saw a little town grow up really fast. I remember going to the shopping center at Norma/Ward to get groceries at Fozzios (now Albertsons) and stop in at the Montgomery Wards outlet store so that my mom could place an order for clothes and supplies. Maybe we'd shop at the KMart and then stop in at a health food store in the same complex to buy an early iteration of frozen yogurt. I'd play at the "Old Park" (south of Church Ave.) and at the "New Park" (aka Rocket Park) with the tall rocket slide and metal helicopter structure. We sometimes eat at Clanceys. I would go to the Pinnafore store on Balsam Street with my mom and my sisters for school clothes. We watched E.T. in the drive in and saw Star Wars at the base theater. In the 1980s, I watched the desert across the street from my house develop into Heritage Village. My family was excited when the Pepto Bis Mall opened at China Lake Blvd/Drummond, and suddenly we had so many options for shopping. As a kid, I remember taking swim lessons at Pinney Pool and later training for swim team in the enormous indoor base pool. In junior high, my friend and I rode our bikes on to the base to the tennis courts near Murray to take tennis lessons. I graduated from Murray and then Burroughs. As I teen, i enjoyed the Windjammer, but was otherwise bored into trouble by how few activities were available for teens. I left town the summer after I graduated and didn't return to live. But it remains a place that I enjoy visiting, particularly for its access to outdoor activities.
01/18/20
Where do you live now? qatar
How many years were you in the desert? 5
Are you willing to help with pictures? no
Are you willing to help with stories? no
Comments:
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12/31/19
Where do you live now? Seabeck, Washington
How many years were you in the desert? 2
Are you willing to help with pictures? Yes
Are you willing to help with stories? Yes
Comments:
Thanks for providing a place to memorialize experiences in the Ridgecrest area. I lived on the base at 509B Saratoga Street, immedately across the street from the dry (sometimes wet) lake, as a young boy from 1958 to the summer of 1960. I still have many fond memories of the area and have enjoyed reading the memories others have left here. Thanks again.
11/20/19
Where do you live now? Agua Dulce
How many years were you in the desert? 12
Are you willing to help with pictures? Yes
Are you willing to help with stories? Yes
Comments:
I'm born and raised in Sitka Alaska. It will forever be my home. But in the mean, I've come to love the desert 💖
07/06/19
Where do you live now? Hooper, CO
How many years were you in the desert? 4
Are you willing to help with pictures? My dad has hundreds
Are you willing to help with stories? Sure
Comments:
Lived at 343 Robalo Street from '54 - '58. Went to Vieweg for kindergarten and first grade circa '56 - '57. My aunt Arileen Butcher was a teacher when I was there, but I had Pat Olson. Fell off my bike trying to catch the bigger kids, got ko'd and woke up to Doc Drummond staring at me. Remember Corny's ponies and his shoe store, Western Auto, base pool, movie theater, trips to the mountains and the ocean and the desert and Disneyland. My dad was a civilian who worked for the Navy -- he loved it there. My mom loathed it. She won, and in the summer of '58 we moved back to the frozen tundra.
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