My parents were a nice, pleasant middle-class couple, who eventually settled in the San Bernardino Valley in Southern California. My mother was named Valerie Jean, and was born into a military family. Her father had been in the navy before and during World War II, and spent most of that long war in a Japanese prison camp.
My father was in the Air Force, although he wasn’t a pilot. He moved around from base to base, doing his air force job, until he met my mother. They courted, and were married.
After their marriage, they continued to move around, as my dad’s career dictated. They spent some time in Alaska and the Philippines. My parents have very bad memories of the Philippines as they lost a child (Elizabeth) there due to disease.
Eventually, my dad left the Air Force and got a job as a civil servant at Norton Air Force Base (which is no longer a military base) in San Bernardino, California. He worked there full-time for the next dozen or so years as a graphics artist. His job was to prepare flip-charts, slides, and other audio-visual aids for presentations by various Air Force officers.
I was the second child born to Mr. and Mrs. Lowe. The first child was a girl named Elizabeth, who was born two years before. She died at the age of nine months, from dysentery, while my dad was stationed in the Philippines.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.