Столетняя Барбара Дэймерон из Ла-Холлы делится секретами долголетия и семейных традиций

Although she spent much of her early life moving from place to place, Bird Rock resident and recent centenarian Barbara Dameron just about always found a way to return to San Diego and, for nearly half of her life, La Jolla. Reflecting on a century of living and finding activities that kept her socially, mentally and spiritually sharp, Dameron discussed her life from her longtime home on La Jolla Hermosa Avenue. Dameron was born in San Francisco on July 11, 1926 and lived with older siblings Walter and Betty and her parents in central California until she was about three years old. From there, the family moved to Hollywood for one school semester, she said, before hitting the road once again. “We moved, just kind of exploring, so we went across the country and stopped in different places,” she said. “In those days, you could park on the side of the road and spend the night, so that’s what we did.” One of those stops when Dameron was about five or six years old was in Houston, Texas, where the family settled for about one year. “We were on our way back (driving) to San Francisco, but we stopped in San Diego … and my dad said, ‘let’s stay here for a little while,’” she said with a laugh. “And we’ve been here ever since.” Her family first moved into a house in Little Italy, near where her parents operated a grocery store and did other jobs. During her youth, Dameron attended Catholic schools in the San Diego area until high school. Soon after her graduation, World War II broke out. Dameron quickly joined the USO to assist in the war effort, working as a draftsman for the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation (later known as Convair). “We worked on airplane parts and when one of the planes had a problem, we fixed parts however we were told to,” she said. That translated to a career in the Navy after the war. While simultaneously going to school to become an accountant and working as a draftsman for the Navy, she met the man who would become her husband in Joe Dameron. “They met on a USO hayride and the following day, there was a beach party, and he picked her up and lifted her over his head,” Dameron’s daughter Elizabeth Eade said. “She was smitten from that day on.” During their courtship, the two would climb up billboard posts and sit on the edge of billboards near the San Diego International Airport to watch the planes depart and land. “He was tall and handsome and he made me laugh,” Dameron said of Joe. The two wed on May 11, 1946 in San Diego, and spent their honeymoon at the Hotel Del Coronado. At that time, the Coronado Bridge had not yet been built, so they took the ferry across the bay and the streetcar that operated on Coronado to get to their hotel. For a short while after their marriage, the two lived in Oklahoma, where they both attended college for a year. “I got a job at the telephone company there, thinking I would be connecting calls, but when they heard I was a draftsman, they hired me right away to do that work, so I was right back to being a draftsman,” she said. After a little more than a year, Dameron had her first child, Terry, followed by twin boys Mark and Dan, and then son Ricky. But because work was more available to military veterans in San Diego than Oklahoma, the family of six soon moved back. From there, Joe practiced architecture in the area. In the years following her arrival in San Diego, Dameron welcomed children Kate, Chris, Ann, Joe and Elizabeth. While residing in San Diego, Dameron lived near her siblings, who had six children each. “We would have these big parties and large Sunday dinners,” Eade said. “We would all get together often.” Dameron said this era “was a wonderful time.” In 1957, the family bought the Bird Rock house in which Dameron still lives. Now settled down in La Jolla, Dameron became active at the Mary, Star of the Sea Church in The Village, serving in the ladies guild, playing bridge and singing in the choir. “Because of my background, I enjoyed being part of the church, and I made good friends,” she said. “My mother was a strict Catholic and raised us to be devout. … I think the fact that you could still be yourself in the faith was important to me.” That connection to her faith became a source of guiding principles for Dameron’s life. “She has always been steady in life because her faith backed her up,” Eade said. “She knew things would always work out, no matter what happened, she always had a strength that she could draw from … anything I have seen her go through she keeps calm and powers through, and that comes from her faith.” Now a grandmother and great-grandmother, Dameron once again hosts big family gatherings at her Bird Rock home. And while Dameron said she doesn’t “have a clue” as to what had led to her longevity, she said a healthy combination of having a social circle of family and friends, maintaining physical activity, engaging in mental activities such as singing in the choir and playing bridge, and her spirituality may have played a part. As to what she would like to pass on to future generations, she said, “Keep on keeping on. Don’t give up and put in the work. You have to put your nose to the grindstone, especially when it’s hard. That’s what mama told you to do.”