As a Lakeside resident from 1949 to 1972 . . . I knew several of the "old timers" such as Bill Keaner, Flossie Beedle, Tom La Madrid, Ray Gavin and many others. I was very active in both 4-H and the original Tumbleweed Riding Club. I lived about 3 miles north of Lakeside in the San Vicente Valley below the dam. Our old two story house still stands there, covered by trees, many of which I planted as bare twigs about as tall as I was.
  We were in to "bussing" to school in those early days (1950-1954) at Grossmont High School. The Lakeside school bus driver, Joe, picked us up in the valley (and from the Barona Reservation) and brought us to LIndo Lake where we waited about 15 minutes for the high school bus to come by from El Monte (driven by Coach Head, the football coach at Grossmont) to take us on to school.  Of course, this was reversed in the evening.  I have many, many fond memories of Lakeside and the great number of folks I knew and worked with.
  I would appreciate any information regarding . . . the Historical Society and perhaps contributing some of the history I knew including the Historical Days Parades, the Chuck Wagon Feeds, the old Rodeo Grounds and rodeos in which I use to ride Grand Entry, and any other things I can reach back into my own memory and share.

  While being hospitalized following an automobile accident, I had time to do a lot of thinking of the years past.  Some of them were of the times from 1930 to 1937 when I was going to school in Lakeside.  Most of it was clear to me except the dates.  Maybe some of you can help fill them in for me.
  I was delighted with the last months newsletter telling about the flag pole in front of the [Lakeside Middle] school.  That was one of the things that I had been thinking about!  I could not remember the date though, they left that part out of the article (The flag pole is the only thing remaining from the first school at this location.  The remembrance on the base of the pole reads: "Dedicated to the memory of Hugo Otto Marcks. Citizenship he lived for others. 1876 - 1938").  Our principal Mr. Carender lead the flag salute and dear Mrs. Miller the National Anthem.
  Another thing that rang so clearly in my memory was the time when the whole school gathered around the north-east corner of the school grounds and watched as a number of cork trees were planted.  Can any of you fill me in on what kind of cork trees they were and how many? (The trees in question were probably the old pine planted by Mrs./ Anna Wilkinson sometime between 1931 and 1934.  There are also several old beautiful old oak trees that are worth taking the time to stop and enjoy.  Farther down on Woodside Avenue were cork elms imported from Australia.  There were 100 of them planted along both sides of the road in 1893.  In the years that followed, there were numerous attempts to plant them elsewhere in Lakeside.  Unfortunately there are none of the original trees left standing.  The last of them were  destroyed in the 1960's when the Safeway store was built and Woodside Avenue was widened.)
  To top this heavy thinking and give myself a much needed laugh was the time the school bus took some of us to San Diego to visit an ice cream factory.  It seemed that we were in Mrs. Conant's or Mrs. Swink's class.  We all gathered around a huge tank that was probably ten feet tall, while a man told us how many ingredients went in the tank to fill it.  There was a spicket about two feet from the floor that was dripping and had built up a huge pile of ice cream.  Our dear little Marian Stokes did the natural thing and bent down to shut it off.  Instead, she turned it on full force!  I was standing in back of her, so you can imagine how covered we were.  I was having too much fun licking to notice if the others were covered too.
  I still have a way to go before I will be able to travel, but I am hoping to see all of you at our next Home Town Reunion [on October 28, 2001].