Salton Sea - 1960

a southern california childhood included many desert scapes.

here is the Salton Sea.
In 1960 my father decided to drive my two older sisters, my mother and me to Palm Springs for a summer weekend. I think we lived in Claremont at the time. A college town near Pomona. To further his career, my father moved us to different towns frequently. My father grew up near Bethlehem, PA where his father was a career city politician and his mother inherited some money to sustain them all. He was on a PT boat in the Pacific during WWII; he was a bright man, but he wouldn't stoop to ask anyone for directions and he didn't seem to know how hot the desert is in the summer. He probably knew, and liked the lower prices hotels offered vacationing families in the dog days. All we wanted was a swimming pool. We ended up driving past Palm Springs, we took a wrong turn and began driving into nowhere. My father drove us into nowhere a lot when i was a child instilling in me a lifelong hatred of car trips. But my parents were infatuated with the romance of the open road and didnt want it tarnished with something as pedestrian as preparation or maps. So we drove  on past Palm Springs until we came upon the Salton Sea! Huddled on the edge of a saline lake, lights twinkling forlornly in the desolate darkness, it was well past midnite. there was no pool; there was a cheesy gambling casino, but it was too hot to leave the hotel room; all five of us sweltered in our tiny dark hotel room, drapes closed against the sun and the in-the-window air conditioner futilely blowing warm air full blast and dripping water on the dingy carpet, for two days. My father paced the floor emitting his false bonhomie, counting the hours until he could escape back to his job. ahh the romance of the open road when it leads to the Salton Sea...