I rode my bike to Longden Elementaty School

Dennis at right in the back of the picture at Longden Elementary School in Temple City, California; I think the photo was taken in 1954 and I think that was our PE teacher and he was blind. I played the trombone in the school band. I think my teacher was Miss Cunningham. Knowing me It was probably the 1st day of Summer School. I remember throwing someone tennis shoes above Miss Cunningham's School Clock in the back of the room.   
I remember while riding to school from home someone yell at me and told me to go back to where I came from; I had read and heard about prejudices but I did not know what it was until that day.

In the photo below we lived near the corner of Sultana and Emperor  (on Emperor). I played in the school band for two years there (7th and 8th grade).

This is a photo of me in my Freshman year at Temple City High School. The year is 1956; that is me in my band uniform with my white bucks and trombone while Elvis sang about his Blue Suede Shoes. I had a flat top haircut (long sides-short top).

The tall palms are on Rosemead Blvd and where I'm standing is behind Emperor Ave. and Sultana Ave. Under the Tall Palm was an apricot tree which we ate all the fruit off of ripe or green.

From here is where we road our bikes to the foothills of the mountains.

While living in Temple City we decided to take a bicycle trip to the foothills of the Sierra Madre which were nearby. We decided to go to the mountains, all six of us decided to peddle our bikes up to those foot hills which were about four miles away. David and I, Diane and Sandy, Ron and Jerry, we always paired ourselves off in groups of age. We rode our bikes as far as we could peddle up Rosemead Boulevard. and headed strait to the mountains. After crossing Colorado Boulevard. We had to walk alongside our bikes the last mile. When we finally arrived at the foothills, the road ended, all that we saw was some private property. We looked for a neat place to go, there was none. We were very disappointed. When our father took us to the mountains we always had to turn and twist up the side of the mountain ending up at some wild campground or private pay park. With no park or camp ground nearby, we were disappointed, we talked and discussed our next move. Nowhere to go, it was decided to go back home. It had taken about an hour to reach the foothills. 

Coming back home was going to be a breeze, it was downhill all the way. 

We started back, our bikes started picking up speed on our downhill journey, 

I finally had to take my feet off the peddles and put them on steel brace, my peddles were moving to fast to brake or peddle. 

I flew through red lights, green lights, amber lights, I could not stop for any traffic. 

Our hair was flying in the California breeze. 

I never stopped or thought that our lives were in danger. 

I guess I was the fool 

I left everyone else behind, 

I guess that they did stop at the lights. 

I finally coasted to a stop, 

I waited and let everyone else catch up. 

We were all thrilled about our journey. 

Our parents never did say anything to us about our trip.