Memoir of Dora Bedell Bowers 1935

My Take

DiVoran Lites

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Dora Bedell Bowers, my mother.

1935, San Diego, California

My brother Don, a career Navy man invited me to come to California when I graduated from High School in Canon City, Colorado. I graduated at eighteen, but I needed money for the trip. I went from one end of town to the other asking for work in every business. Sometimes people were rude and wouldn’t talk much except to say, “Why would we hire you when the fathers of families are out of work?”

I finally reached the Hotel Canon and they needed a chamber maid. That was lowly work, not suited to a pure, young thing, but I took it. I’m sure my father was embarrassed, but I made a dollar a day. Some days another maid and I would clean twenty-one rooms. I got a dime tip once.

When I had saved $30.00, I bought a ticket to San Diego which cost about $20.00. I was on my way. It was good to go to my brother, Don. We had always cared a great deal for one another.

Rose, Don’s wife, was O. K. too, but not what I was used to. She was slightly built, about my height and she had dark hair, but she shaved her eyebrows off and lined them in every day when she put on her make-up. It always took her three hours to iron an outfit to go anyplace. She was a late nighter and a late sleeper in the morning.

I took a job at Kresses, (a dime store). I was supposed to be at work at eleven am, but the best I could ever do was to be one minute late on the time clock because of the bus schedule.

Well, Don took me for a one hour tour of a submarine. He told me so much about it that I could assimilate no more. He warned me before we went that I was not to wear high heels because the sailors would think I was a chippie.

I needed a church, not only to worship in, but to give Don and Rose some privacy. I went to the Christian Science Church just blocks away. My Baptist background kept me from praying to their beloved Mary Baker Eddie-(equivalent to Brigham Young for the Mormons.)

I can’t recall how I happened to go see Aimee Semple McPherson, but I remember being there in the third balcony with 6,000 people. That was a lot of people all in one place for a small town girl like me.

As we looked down we could see a huge chess board that took up most of the vast stage. On the right was the devil. He was red with a forked tail and horns. On the left was an angel or maybe it was God. They played out their game of wits arguing for the souls of men. Aimee was a young, blonde directing the play. The people loved it. I found out later that she had become a nationally famous evangelist.

I dated an ordinary, safe, dull guy that Don approved of. We went to movies and sometime for a wicked, “Singapore Sling.” Another sailor I went with was a bit harder to handle.

Once I left a dance with my date just for a few minutes. We went to check the mail, but when we returned Don was in a panic. It’s pretty hard riding herd on a young lady surrounded by sailors. Rose had a very wild party once when Don was out to sea and I sneaked off to bed to keep from being compromised.

It rained a lot in San Diego that year. I didn’t like rain much, so after five months of it, I decided to go home. I bought beautiful gifts for the family. For Dad I bought a comb and brush, and for Mother a silver sailing ship on a mirror. I don’t remember what I bought for my older brother, Smithy, or for my little sister, Judy.

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

Tags: 1935 Memoir