ON THE TOWN:A job offer my family just had to refuse

In 1963, my father got an offer he could not refuse and our family moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. We had no family in L.A. and no friends. It was a cold start.

We were not the first family then to leave our Hyde Park neighborhood, nor were we the last. A few months before we left in the spring that year, a neighbor named Angie moved to California with her family.

Angie ran a small candy store that was a meeting place for the kids in the neighborhood. I suppose it was not much different than the way kids today might hang out in front of a convenience store.

My Chicago friends and I were poor, and the money we had to buy candy was usually scraped together by doing small, odd jobs or by turning in soda bottles for deposit money.

It’s funny that long before there was a concept of recycling, kids picked up empty bottles for their own self-interests.

We moved to California not long after Angie, and a while later, my best friend and his family moved to California. I have tried a number of times to track down Roy Redlich, without success.

Back then, it seemed that everyone was moving to California, and perhaps they were. But now, there is a boomerang effect and it seems as if everyone is leaving the state.

Over the past year or so, Costa Mesa lost two good families — the Redmonds and the Barrs — to Oregon and Texas.

Now, the mom in another family in Newport Beach has informed me that due to a job change, her family will be moving out of state.

Maybe these things come in groups. I don’t know.

What I do know is that the Smiths just came very close to being a part of that group.

Last Monday, I turned down a preliminary offer on a job that would have taken our family out of state but would also have paid me considerably more than I am now earning.

It was an absurd amount of money, so much so that my wife and I thought the unthinkable: We seriously considered leaving California.

During a discussion last weekend, we agreed to move. Then we had lunch on Monday and decided, once and for all, to stay.

The deciding factors were the kids and the relatives we’d leave behind. Our daughter is 16 and entering the phase when she is getting serious about college. And as much as I hate to admit it, one of the best schools for her likely major is UCLA. Taking her out of her high school, where she is performing far beyond our expectations, would have been devastating.

Our son is 14, and although he does not yet have college on his mind, he loves his extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, all of whom he sees regularly.

And I don’t mind telling you that another factor in our decision to stay was my involvement with this newspaper and the privilege of writing this column twice a week.

I can honestly say what many working people cannot: I look forward to going to work each day.

I may never earn what I could if I were more flexible in my employment decisions. But money isn’t everything, and I defy anyone to show me someone who has more personal and professional satisfaction than I do.

This is not a judgment of the families who have left. Our situation is not the same as any of the three I mentioned, and I respect each decision to leave. Frankly, beyond missing each of them, their decisions are none of my business.

The job offer I turned down had one benefit for the Smiths. It settled any future debate over whether we are leaving the area before our kids are grown and gone.

So to the fine Newport Beach family that is leaving soon, thanks for the memories and best wishes.

To everyone else who is staying, sorry, but you’re stuck with me for a while longer.

John Crean was on my short list of locals I always wanted to meet. I almost got that chance last month when I expected to attend a fundraiser at his home. But at the last minute, I got called out of town and never made the event.

My wife had met Crean on several occasions and confirmed what I always believed — that he was a very nice man.

I was very sorry to hear of his death Thursday, and I wish his family well. The community has lost a very good man.