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8. What are some special memories you have?
Tracey Magrann: When I was growing up, we only had 28 neighbors, and we all pretty much knew each other. I enjoyed going to one neighbor’s house to look at her pansies, the “faces” of which were fascinating. Another lady would always take me in, sit me up on her kitchen stool, and chat while she fed me sunflower seeds, which she always had stocked in a jar. At Halloween, they would invite the kids in and try to guess our names. One home always had caramel apples after you survived a tour of their haunted house. Whenever I would go door-to-door selling things I found in the back of comic books (raffle tickets for prizes), Girl Scout cookies, or Avon cosmetics, people would always buy stuff from me. This increased my self-esteem, so to this day I always buy whatever kids are selling!
One year, when I was 12, I saw an ad on TV that Ronald McDonald was giving out kits to help kids put on backyard Fairs for charity. I got a kit, and all the neighborhood kids and I put on a fair (all the adults HAD to come, since their kids had a part in it!). We had a magic show, a vaudeville comedy act, a ventriloquist, a gypsy palm reader, and game booths with prizes. We made $45 for charity, which seemed like a lot of money in 1972.
Tom Magrann II: One of my best memories is our 50th Wedding Anniversary party; it was even more enjoyable than the original wedding! Although our parents were not still around (and that can't be replaced), we had many friends from all over the world come, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, and relatives from the east coast came out for the week. Many of us then went to Las Vegas for the weekend afterwards. The event was held at a hotel near Disneyland. I had prepared a slideshow presentation of our life together, and we renewed our wedding vows (although Mary Jane couldn't stop laughing when the priest asked her is she would "promise to obey"). We also received letters from the Governor of California, State Senators, Cardinal Mahoney, and even the President of the United States. 50th Wedding Anniversary
Another great event was my 80th Birthday Party, which was a costume party with the theme "The Roaring 20's", which was the era I was born into. We used our Homeowner's Association clubhouse, and most of the family came dressed in great outfits of the 20's.