In Memory of the Girl Next Door

This is the cover of the photo album I had made while I was  in the navy.
The cover is leather; the decorations were burned onto it.
You'll see my name, La Grande High School (in blue and white, now quite faded).
the Navy symbol in the lower right corner.
In the lower left is a reel of movie film; if I could have scanned the whole thing
you would see "Granada" under that.
You'll also note "Blues in the Night."
Then there are all those initials ---each standing for girls I knew.
In the upper left corner note the initials --H J T.
That stands for Hazel Jean Trollinger, the girl I have known all my life.

You might say she was my first "girlfriend" --but at this age it was  more like
a girl who was a friend.
I lived at 1806 Washington; Hazel Jean lived at 1802 Washington
with her mother Carrie and father Al (but everyone called him "Trolly").
The Trollingers, along with all but one other family for blocks around,
were "railroad people" --the fathers all worked for the UP Railroad.

Hazel Jean, her  mom and dad, "Dickie Boy" and his mom.

The Trollingers had a car and Carrie would quite often take my mom and me
and some others out to Cove to go swimming, or to Wallowa Lake.
I don't know what the occasion was here, but the photo was
taken some time in the late 1920s

Back row: Carrie Trollinger, Celestine Cook.
Front row: Loretta Cook, Yours Truly, and Hazel Jean.

The Cooks lived across the street and were also railroaders.
This was taken some time in the 1930s.

Dick, Howard Reeder, Julia Hiatt, Hazel Jean, Howard's little
sister and Mrs. Reeder having a picnic.
around 1936

The caption under this picture in my album says
"The Girl Next Door ---WOW"

Bobby Warner (who lived at 1804 Washington), Hazel  Jean,
Dick, Mary ???, and Richard Miller.
Some time around 1942.

Hazel Jean attended Eastern Oregon College for a year
and starred in Al Kaiser's production of "Bell, Book and Candle"
By that time I was in the navy, so I missed her stage debut.
She then transferred to the University of Oregon (I think.)
Came back to La Grande, married John Ferdinandsen (who died way too early)
and raised a family.

John Ferdinandsen in 1947,
when we all called him "Bud".

Hazel Jean and I would run into each other from time to time over the years,
in Bi-Mart or somewhere on Adams Avenue.
and I noted as time went by how very pretty she still was,
especially when her hair turned white.
In later years, I would call her on her birthday, and we would
talk briefly about how long we had known each other
and what great memories we had of growing up
on the 1800 block of Washington Avenue.
It gives your life a sense of continuity when someone you have known and liked
for as long as you can remember is still around.
That feeling of "all is well" was weakened considerably last week
when I got an email from Hazel Jean's daughter, telling me that her mother
had passed away shortly before Christmas.
I felt as if their had been a death in my family,and, in a broad sense, there has been.
I am now the only survivor of the Washington Avenue family.
It will seem like a different world without Hazel Jean.

A memorial for her will be held in August at the cabin at Wallowa Lke
that Carrie had built and Hazel Jean enjoyed so much with her
children and grandchildren.
I'll be there in spirit.

Note: She was Hazel Ferdinandsen to everyone who knew her,
but she was "Hazel Jean Trollinger" in my memories.