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Ken Schwartz - My Stay at the Lark Ellen Home for Boys - 1935-=1937 My name is Kenneth Schwartz and I live in San Luis Obispo, California. I attended Lark Ellen from I believe 1935 - 1937. I am now 80 years of age and my two children, and others, have been pressuring me to set down reflections of my life - memoirs, if you will. And I have been doing that. First, I have written just hit and miss recollections here and there on varied topics. It then occurred to me that I should try to be more orderly and consider chronological order. As I proceeded down the time line from my earliest life remembrances I came to a two year period that I spent in Lark Ellen Home for Boys. To the best of my recollection the dates were 1935-37. I was in the fifth and sixth grade at Sawtelle Elementary school and that would have made me 10 - 12 years old. What an important segment in my life! I wound up writing two-three page "papers" - one, I titled, "Lark Ellen Home for Boys - Settling In" and the second, "Life at Lark Ellen." I think my recollections are fairly accurate, but just to double check, I went on the internet wondering if by chance there was any information about Lark Ellen. Sure enough, your web page came up and I want to immediately thank you for your effort. It was useful to me as a double check. I did not recognize any of the names including yours - and we appear to have lived at the home during the same era. The only names I remember are: James Laird (I think he had a brother Ed in the home as well) and Tom Box. I cannot remember names of any of the matrons sorry to say. I do, however, remember Mrs. Cassidy very well and her son Phillip. I knew that the home eventually moved to Covina. It has been interesting to read the accounts of boys who lived in the Covina Lark Ellen Home. Their accounts sound nothing like what I remember of our home in the Sawtelle area. Sad.
Thank you for your help and for your loyalty to those who shared our
experiences at Lark Ellen.
Contact: Ken Schwartz at: kschwart@calpoly.edu |