The Santa Ana Wind Returns

Last night as we watched TV the Santa Ana wind came roaring in with a big "whoosh!" I don't like the wind now because it it makes my allergies worse and gives me a headache. But, when I was a little girl living in Jurupa I delighted in the wind! I remember being on the playground at Pacific Avenue School, where I went for 2nd -5th grades,  and windy days were very exciting! Back then school playgrounds were not covered in grass. We had a dirt playground that was topped with gravel. Dirt playgrounds were much more condusive to creative play than a grass playground could ever be. My friend Myra and I loved to play house and we would dig the heels of our leather shoes (mine were purchased at Junior Shoetown) into the dirt and carefully back up, dragging our heel in a straight line to create the walls of our "house." My husband was always Bobby Sherman and Myra's was David Cassidy. But, when the wind came, that was a special day! We would grab the bottom of our jacket and pull it up behind us above our head and lean over into the wind. The jacket would catch the wind and we could lean way over! Back in the 1960s little girls wore dresses to school every day and if our moms forgot to have us wear tights the wind would blow that gravel from the playground and it would hit our legs and sting our skin and we would squeal and scream as only little girls can!   Every time the wind blows I remember the sting of that gravel.