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Hello from Alta Loma, Calif.

Don Baer said:
Hey Joe, I used to live n Alta Loma, lived there for 20 years before that I lived in Etiwanda.So when did you meet Sam, I went to one of his work shops at the compound the year he turned 90. Good to have ya in the Family
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Hi Don (ex neighbor)!

I was fortunate to be part of a Special Group to tour his house and get a Personal tour of his Shop by Sam himself (when the picture was taken)... just before his 90th birthday by a few months. It was THE special moment of my life except for child birth and marriage!
He was just the most down to earth "Guy" (who was a legend in his own time) I had ever talked to so casually...
We personally talked about his young wife... I told him that she was good for him... He smiled... he agreed...
I told him that I liked all of the Do-Dads that he made for his house...
Watching him cut a piece of scrap walnut on his band saw was pure poetry in motion... he was drawing through that wood as if the band saw was the pencil... he would make a cut... pick it up, look at it... and make another cut... He made some cuts that scared the crap out of me... where he had both hands... one on each side of the blade... push the wood through the blade moving it "just so". AWESOME!
I asked him if he made a rocker for JFK and his bad back... He said that "I was going to make one for him... but he got killed before I could". Sad moment.
I asked him about the scars he had on his right hand... He proceeded to tell me that it was from a stupid mistake at the end of a long day on the jointer... he described how he pushed a board into it... it SNAPPED and his hand went into the blade... an awesome description... will never forget it...
When I told him that I lived just down the road a tad, he told me to come up and visit sometime... Never did do it... I figured that I would have been cut off at the pass by Management before I could get half-way to First... I wish I had tried now...
It was a sad day for me when I saw of his passing... just like a family member...

He was a GREAT GUY... and is still missed... Very much...

Are you sorry you asked... I tend to get carried away on the subject... :)
 
Joe,

I'm sorry I didn't get back to this thread any sooner.

I graduated from Chaffey HS and got in one semester at Chaffey JC before joining the Navy (WWII). The military took over the college just after I left. They put the college offices on the mezzanine of that fanastically beautiful auditorium.

Age 86 at twenty minutes before midnight Dec. 31st 2011.

Our property was the acreage on the north-east corner of Hillside and Carnelian.

I had a tremendous number of friends in Ontario. We moved there in 1929. The town was small enough that I recognized almost everyone. I built a medical building at 525 No. Laurel Ave. It was a wonderful town. Great schools, great police, great fire department, friendly, etc. That is all leading up to---It was extremely difficult to leave. However, the smog was killing me. We moved to Fallbrook, CA and I got ten years younger.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
Hi Jim,

You've been around awhile! Good for you!

NE Hillside & Carnelian... Not sure where Hillside is... BUT, if it's really up the street, it's very close to where Maloof's house , shop, & museum are today.

Have a Happy 4th!

The smog is nowhere as bad as it used to be...
 
Joe Lyddon said:
Not sure where Hillside is... BUT, if it's really up the street, it's very close to where Maloof's house , shop, & museum are today.
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That's the one. One of my favorite photographs is one of me at about age 4 and my Grandmother walking through the walnut groves on that property.

I went to college on the same campus where dad went to high school. The college became the high school when they built the new college wayyyyy out in the middle of nowhere at the end of Haven.

When people would ask how to get to the college we would just tell them to drive east and look to thier left. As soon as they saw anything, that was the college campus. Not so anymore as you well know :rofl:
 
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