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"The Turbulent Years"

As I said before, the events related are not always in chronological order. It was in the summer of 1962 that the employees at Olin went on strike. Now the two things I remember learning from my dad was that I should always be honest and that scripture where it says that an elder of the church had to be a non striker, so I always voted not to strike. When they went on strike I got part time jobs. Most employers did not even want to talk to a person that was on strike let alone hire them. We had a hard time paying the mortgage and when I tried to pay only the interest the lender said no. We put a lot of our things into the garage and locked it up and left the furniture in the house. Then Fran,one-year-old Johnny and I moved into a two room kitchenette that was owned by Ken Smith that I worked with at Olin. We rented out the house to a young couple.

When Sam Starkey called me to ask me to walk picket I told him that during the daylight hours I was either working or looking for work. One Saturday I worked at four different part time jobs and went to see about another. This is how it went. From 7-noon I worked at Hinton Standard gas station. I went home for lunch and helped my landlord install a ceiling in one of the apartments for an hour. From 3-5 p.m. I worked at the Texaco on E. Main St. I then went and applied for a job selling ice cream from a scooter at Tasty Freeze. After that I went out demonstrating tape recorders. That was a busy day. I got job selling ice cream from the scooter. One of the areas that I covered at first was the town of Tilton. A daily afternoon visit by the ice-cream man was welcomed by most of the kids in the area. I found four little Winslow kids on the route and for the first four days I would give them each an ice-cream item and their mommy would ask them why the ice-cream man would give them the ice cream. They tried to tell their mommy who I was but I guess she couldn't understand. When she saw me on the fourth day she said "Oh, it's uncle John." The kids were Tina, Lee Jr., Dawn and Sally.

There was a union meeting to discuss the contract offered and even though most people were ready to reject the offer, I spoke on the subject. I recommended that we accept the contract. Only seven others voted with me. A day or two later I got a call from one of the foremen in our department and he asked if he could come over and discuss the strike problem with me. I said sure, "come on over." He asked me if I had any idea as to the real reason the union could not agree to settle. Since it seemed to me that it was not entirely a money thing and I had heard some talk from the other employees, I tried to explain the problem to him. My theory was that even though our department supervisor was a good supervisor he was sometimes very arbitrary when it came to enforcing the rules. He sometimes failed to consider extenuating circumstances when enforcing the rules. Well, somehow we were back at work in just a few days after that. We then gave notice to our renters and our land lord and we moved back into our house.

We previously talked about our dog Mike. He was a black cocker spaniel. We spent quit a bit of time playing with him and taught him a few tricks. We both cared for him a lot. Sometimes when I would try to read the paper or a book Mike would come over to me and put his paw on the paper of book and look at me as if to say, would you play with me. Sometimes I would. I was working the graveyard shift part of the time and if Fran would not keep a close watch on Mike when he was in the house he would come into the bedroom and wake me up by licking my face. Mike just loved Mr. Compton and he could hear his car coming when it was at least a block away and would go to the front window and look out to see him. At 105 Ohio the whole back yard was fenced in with the garage sitting in the corner. The garage was not in very good shape. I built a new side door for it. The car doors were in the back so they opened onto the alley. The doors were like barn doors. They opened from the side and the bottoms of the doors were beginning to rot away. On one cold, snowy day I got the car out and had to go somewhere. I guess I left the side door unlocked because while I was gone, Mike got out of the yard. We looked for him for days and after about 10 days we heard of a dog that had gotten hit by a car in the area. We took Mike's picture around to the vet that had seen the injured dog and he said he thought it was our dog but the injuries were too much and he could not save him. This was indeed a sorry time for both of us. It appeared as though somebody had found Mike and had tried to keep him but he was trying to get back home when he got hit.

I started to tear down the garage since it would need so much fixing, but a retired carpenter that lived next door to us showed me that the studs of the garage were good 2 by 6 studs and most of the rest of it was very solid. I decided to fix it. Roy and De helped me put on new siding. We used pine car siding. Yes, De put in a lot of nails too. We were working up until 9:00 one night trying to finish the siding but one of the neighbors complained about the noise and the police told us to knock off the noise. In order to replace the car door I needed to remove a fourth of the roof so I could put on a hip roof on that end. I did that too. That involved a lot of climbing ladders etc. so I did that myself. I had the overhead door company put on a door and it turned out pretty good.

Since it was hard to save money for the kids college I got the idea to try investing in real estate. We bought a 10 room apartment house at 103 Pennsylvania Street. It was right across the wide alley from us and just one door to the south. It had two 3 room apartments on the first floor and two 2 room apartments on the second but no bath on the second. Roy helped me put on new siding on the west upper part of the house and repaint it. Tom and Irene Washburn moved into the north downstairs apartment. I started fixing up the rest of the place but had a problem finding time to work on it. I tried to make a deal with Tom, that I would furnish all of the material, and if he would fix up the south downstairs apartment and rent it out, I would give him half of the rent as long as the same people lived there. Irene would not allow him to agree to this. Well, I did get it fixed up pretty good and I rented it to Pam and her kids. Later after she moved I got 500 dollars down and sold it to a family. They missed a few payments and I told them to pay up or I was going to take it back. They skipped town without notice, so the lawyer got the paper straightened out and I had the apartment again. It was never completely full while I had it but I did manage to break even on it.

As nearly everyone in the family know, Johnny and Kathy are the joys of our lives. We were so glad that they were basically healthy kids. However, kids can be very frustrating at times. On one occasion when Johnny was about 14 months old, I guess I was trying to put him to bed and he was doing something I had told him not to do. I gave him a little spanking and put him in his crib. He just would not quit doing whatever it was I had corrected him about. I spanked him a little harder. He kept it up so much that I got very angry at him and at a certain point I was so angry I realized it was time to back off, so I put him back in the crib and told his mom, "Here, you take him." I then went for a walk and stayed gone for over an hour. To this day I thank God I had the presence of mind to back away from that situation. As the kids grew older they liked to watch me as I did repairs around the house. Kathy is the one that actually learned from it, though. I haven't talked about John Allen and Kathy much in this story, but believe me, they are a very important part of our lives.

Lee was in the Air Force and Mary Ellen and the kids would sometimes go with him to the different basses. They had Tina, Lee Jr., Dawn and Sally.

In Feb. of 1964 they had Twila. Twila got cancer and she and the kids came to Danville around that time. Twila had to be operated on at a hospital at the air base is Texas and Mary needed to be with her. They "farmed" the kids out for a while. For a few months Tina was part of our family. I enjoyed having her with us and the kids seemed to like having a big sister for a while. At the Christmas party at Olin Tina held Kathy while they and Johnny got their picture taken with Santa. We had set up a little room for Tina in what had been the breakfast nook. Twila died in Dec of 1965 and that was devastating to us all.

In July of 1966 Maxine Morgan died in Mt. Vernon. Fran stayed with the kids in Danville and I went with Sonny to Mt. Vernon for the funeral. I stayed with uncle Bunk during the funeral because he was very sick at the time. On the way back from Mr. Vernon a gas station attendant put an incorrect cap onto Sonny's gas tank and by the time we got back to Danville the gas tank collapsed and he had to have the tank replaced. Just another sad part of life. Things are not always mentioned in the order that they happened, but the next thing I think of is Curt's fire at their trailer. Curt and Polly had started buying a used mobile home out west of town. He had put on a porch on the west side of it and made it strong enough to be the floor of a house. I helped him design walls and roof to go over the trailer. The plan was to build in such a way as to pull the trailer out after a while and finish the structure as a house. I helped him build the east wall. We used used lumber for part of it.

On one cold night after the roof was put on and the trailer was nearly paid for, I got a call at home. It was Polly. She said no one was hurt but their trailer was on fire and she asked me if we could bring some coats for everybody and come out and help. I called out to Fran and told her to get the kids ready to go and I got some extra coats and we went out to Curt's.

When we got there we put the kids in our station wagon and Fran watched them while I went and helped them fight the fire. I served as back up for one of the firemen and helped him hold the hose. They are hard to hold. Curt was on top of the roof in his bare-feet fighting the fire. By this time the trailer was about gone. They had a two-car garage nearby that had started burning and I told the firemen to save the garage. The trailer was too far gone to save. We did. The garage sustained very little damage. The next day I went out and helped Curt clean up the mess and in the process I disposed of the dog that died in the fire. It actually took about a week. or more to clean it all up. I helped him when I could. They fixed up the garage and lived in it for a while. The fire had started next door on the east. I had warned Curt that his wall was too close to the house next door.

Unknown to Mary, Fran and Gretchen took little George uptown and got a studio picture taken of him when he was very little. Mary Della went to hospital and had a hysterectomy. Bob and I were the only ones there with her and we think she almost died. It seemed that she had given up hope. We got the picture back from the photographer while Mary was in the hospital and we took the picture in and showed it to her. There was an almost immediate improvement in her condition. The mind, heart and body do indeed work together and love is a powerful force.

When George Wallace ran in the primary for president Fran and I would work occasionally at the headquarters on west Main Street. Sometimes in the middle of the campaign somebody did something that made the local leader of the campaign angry and she quit. At the meeting to discuss this problem I addresses the group and I reminded them that we should not be concerned with who was right so much as what is right, and I reminded them of our purpose and they all agreed that she was a good leader, so I suggested that we ask her to return and once again help us elect Wallace. My suggestion included that Mary Jane and she be co-captains for the team. That went over well and she did return. My department head at Olin was at that meeting and later when he promoted me to shift supervisor he told me then that it was at that meeting that he realized that I had some leadership abilities.

Curt and Polly later lived in a house down in grape-creek. This was a low lying part of the area. During a long rain the county Sheriff warned the area that the Westville dam was about to break so Curt and I went door to door in the area and warned the people of the danger and told them the Sheriff advised them to evacuate. As it turned out the dam was damaged very little and not one was flooded out or hurt this time.

I cannot recall the year but one afternoon I got a call from Polly and she said Curt had been in a wreck and was in the hospital in Lafayette Indiana and she did not think her car make the trip. She asked us to give her a ride over. We did. Curt was very badly hurt. His head was so enlarged that it seemed to be as wide as his shoulders. Bill and the rest of the family that saw him seemed to give up hope for his survival, but Fran and I still kept up hope. There was much prayer. It seems that Curt was on his way to deliver some parts to the car dealer in Lafayette. It was at the bottom of the hill with new cars lined up out front as they do. Well, while coming down the very steep hill the trucks drive shaft came apart and severed the brake lines. Curt was sideswiping the telephone poles in an attempt to slow the truck down and one of the gas tanks broke. The truck caught on fire. While the car dealer manager was on the phone trying to find out when Curt would get there he saw the burning truck coming down the hill. He told Curt's office that the truck was on fire coming down the hill. He immediately called the ambulance. I guess Curt's truck wiped out five new cars before it got stopped. There had been pedestrians on the sidewalk just before. When Curt got out of the truck he caught fire himself and the car dealer was there immediately with a blanket to help. The ambulance was there in just a few minutes and the hospital that happened to be one that specialized in burn victims was only a few minutes away. After Curt got some better he was transferred to Lake View in Danville there were two nurses that were fired because they would not go into his room to take care of him. The odor was very bad due to the burned skin. This whole experience was devastating to most of us that know and love Curt. Fortunately after a prolonged recovery Curt was able to work again.

Mom had diabetes for several years and in 1968 when she took a turn for the worse I was called from work and all of us but Lee were there at the hospital when she died. Lee had tried to get home but it takes a long time to come from Thailand where he was stationed. It was up to me to call Aunt Hazel in Albany and tell her. They took her to Mt. Vernon for burial next to grand dad. There was a memorial service at her church in Danville and I gave a recitation of a poem called "No time for God." I have since forgotten most of the poem. How I wish I had kept a copy of it. None of this was easy. Even three years after her death I would sometimes start to make a right turn at Fairchild when going north on Griffin St.

One time when I was out back of the house working on something Mary Della came by and when she got there some paramedics were in the house. She came out and got me. It seems that Fran had had some trouble breathing and had called the paramedics. They talked to her and had me call her Doctor. I took her in to see him and he said she had had a minor asthma attack. He advised us to move to either Colorado or Arizona.

It was in 1969 that I made my first and only trip to Albany. Aunt Hazel asked me to drive up and pull a trailer on the station wagon to move her, uncle Cecil and granddad back to Mt. Vernon. I suggested that Curt help with the driving and that is what we did. On the way up we had to drive along some highways that ran next to steep hills and it seemed that the rocks could fall on us any minute. This scared Curt. It was late at night when we got into Schenectady and since this is where Jack lived at the time we decided to spend the night at his house. It was not easy to find so we stopped and I called him on the phone to ask directions. He spent about five minutes trying to tell me how to get there and he finally said, "you can't get here from there. Wait there and I will come and get you." We did wait. He came. As I followed him home we made so many twists and turns, under this road and over that one I could see why it was hard to give directions for the trip.

The next morning Curt and I went on to Albany where granddad and folks were staying. Jack met us there. We rented a trailer and Jack helped us load it. There was perhaps enough room left after it was loaded to put on one small box of toothpicks. So, the apartment was empty and we set out for Illinois.

We got into Danville late on a Saturday night. We unloaded an antique dresser that Aunt Hazel had given Curt and he took it home. The rest of us stayed at our house that night and the next morning we got on the phone and told all those that wanted to come over, that Aunt Hazel, uncle Cecil and granddad were at our house and we would be leaving at 2:00 for Mt. Vernon. That Sunday 52 people came to our house to see them. They were not all there at once, though. That morning a stray puppy came into the yard and made friends. Fran, Johnny, Kathy, aunt Hazel, uncle Cecil, granddad, the stray dog and I headed out for Mt. Vernon. We had planned on leaving the dog with uncle Cecil but they decided not to keep him. While we were at his house in Mt. Vernon the dog jumped up in uncle Cecil's lap and uncle Cecil said "you are a happy dog." So, we named him happy. Traffic wise this was the worst part of the trip because on those narrow highways near Mt. Vernon the big trucks going in the opposite direction were awful close as we passed them. Grand dad had moved to Albany from Mt. Vernon in 1929 and he now had returned in 1969.

There was a lady in Danville that knew grand dad and she asked Mary Della to take her to see him in Mt Vernon. It was the dead of winter but she asked me to drive and we took her to Mt. Vernon for a visit. I think we traveled all night through driving snow on the return trip. Many cars were on the side of the road but we kept going.

The next time we went to Mt. Vernon it was for grand dads funeral. That was in November of 1970. Another sad chapter in life. To this day, I cannot think of any person that did not like grand dad. I was glad to meet a couple of the ministers that were from his church. All of our lives were lessened by his passing.

You might think that since I have such a wonderful family that my emotions would be in good shape, but somewhere in this time period I became quit depressed. My wife and kids were going to the First Baptist church and I was going to the Nazarene church just around the corner from our house. On one particular Sunday morning as I approached the church entrance I was greeted by a smile from Julia Parker. It was such a sincere smile and I again realized that Christians do care about the problems of others. This started me on the road to renewed joy. Julia and Wes Parker had a son little Wes and then she had Camie. When Camie was dedicated (they called it baptism) at a church ceremony they asked me to stand up with them and to be Camie's God father. In the event the parents could not train her in the Christian way, I agreed to fill in for them. Well, I did not need to do this because Wes and Julia were able to take care of that. Camie had a lot of sickness and several operations and many a night I spent in prayer for her. I really did love her so much. The first sentence I heard her say was, "I love you." She got better and when I last talked to Wes she was married and she and her husband were working with young people.

As the scene shifts back to the job we see that in late 1972 we got some computer geeks from the parent plant in North Carolina. I helped train them in our methods and they reduced my job to a series of computer programs and in Jan 1973 all of the Process Control Foreman were replaced by the computer. Our main job was that of maintaining quality product throughout the operation. I was permanently laid off. The technical superintendent argued with the plant manager in an effort to keep me on that he almost got fired The casting department supervisor that I worked with daily said that in his 30 years with the company he had never seen a more conscientious worker as I was. I got a job selling insurance. I even got my license. At the time of the lay-off I was given a six months extension on my salary as severance pay. A few years before Fran had been advised by her doctor to move to either Colorado or Arizona because of her health, so we talked it over and decided that this must be the time to do it.

We knew Colorado was much too cold for us. I purchased a few newspapers from Arizona. They said that 70% of all the jobs in Arizona were in the Phoenix to Tucson area. The plan was for me to come out to Arizona and find a job and get settled and to return after school was out for the family. Curt was looking for work at this time and he discussed going to Arizona with me to look for work. We decided on a date that I would leave which was March 9. I took the back seat out of the 63 Chevy Nova and put in a twin mattress. I told Curt that if he wanted to go with me he should be at my house to leave at 7:00 a. m. on March 9. He did not show, so at the appointed time I said my farewells and headed west. Next chapter--The First Trip West

"The First Trip West"

The title may be misleading since I did go west to California when I was in the army. This was the first time I went west to live. While selling insurance I wanted to get job so I could work and be home with the family in the evenings so I applied at Bohn Aluminum. They were talking about hiring me as a foreman. I told the boss at the insurance office and they fired (requested my resignation)me because I had applied for another job. Well, we did decide that now was the time for us to move west. I said my good byes to most of the family and to the Parkers (Camie and her family), I got the Chevy serviced and safety inspected, packed my bag, put a mattress in the back of the car and set a time to leave. Curt had talked about going with me, but since he had not committed himself, when it came time to go I only waited for about five minutes, so, with maps on hand, I said my goodbye to Fran, Johnny and Kathy and set off for the great west.
Now I do not remember the exact route I took and I do not remember why I chose the northern route, but here I go. I did sleep in the car the first night, but when I got to Wagon Wheel New Mexico it was too cold so I got a room at a motel. From here I called Fran to let her know of my progress. She told me then that the family had expected me to turn back before that time and that they did not think the car would go that far but neither of these things happened. As I continued the next day the weather became cloudy and when I got to Winslow Arizona it was raining so hard that the water in the streets was over the curbs.

I stopped for lunch and asked about the location of a library in town and I spent a couple of hours in the library researching the town history to find out about the name. I found out that history books do not agree as to who the town was named after. My best guess was Joseph Winslow, one of the Mormon leaders at the time. The rain slowed up somewhat and I continued on to the Flagstaff area. There I stayed all night in another Motel near the highway.

The next morning the light from the window woke me to a winter wonderland. There was a blanket of snow about six inches deep on the road but since the big highway was nearby I decided that it probably had been cleared so I took off. As I turned onto the ramp to the highway I found that no body had driven on this fresh snow this way. There were no tracks ahead of me. I was headed south now and downhill. All traffic without tire chains headed north had been blocked by the patrol men. A few miles down (and I do mean down) the road I went around a large delivery van that was turned sideways in the road. After an hour or two I was no longer in snow and headed on to Phoenix. In Phoenix I again stayed in a motel.

The weather was now clear but cold. I spent about three hours looking for work in Phoenix and just experiencing the traffic in this place made me decide to head south again. Just a little way past Casa Grande there was a new city being built called Arizona City. I applied for job there and they wanted to hire me as a building contractor. The job required an investment of money that I as not willing to make. Nearby there was a copper mine and I went up into the hills nearby and applied for a job at the Heckla mining company. I would not work underground and the people they were looking for had to install the shoring of the walls underground using large timbers. They said "come back later and we might have something for you." On the way down from that hill it started hailing quit hard. I continued on into Tucson. In the paper there were a lot of help wanted adds. I found one for another copper company. They had taken over the entire employment office for the evening.

There were lots of applicants. I applied for a job there and they set up a physical for me the next day at a Doctors office. It was now the 11th of march. That night I stayed in a hotel in downtown Tucson. The next morning it was snowing when I woke up. That is a rare happening in Tucson. I said to myself, "I left Danville for this?"

I went and took my physical and they told me there that they only gave part of the physical. The rest I would have to get at the company clinic in San Manuel. Now it was time to head north on highway 89. On the way to San Manuel I stopped at a roadside cafe for coffee and a burger and there I met a man that worked at Magma. I told him where I was going and my family was back east. He told me that his wife and daughter had left him. He lived in a trailer there in the trailer park. It was called Oracle Junction. He said that if I wanted to I could stay with him if I got a job. We discussed terms and I told him I would let him know.

When I got to San Manuel I went to the clinic and got the rest of the physical. They told me I could report to the personnel department to get my job assignment. Over there I had to fill out a paper or two and I offered them my resume. They said they were not interested in that since they were just hiring laborers. I got a choice of underground or surface. I told them surface and they told me to report to the refinery on day shift on March 20th. So I did.

The guy I had met at Oracle Junction and I shared his trailer for a few weeks. I would sleep on the couch and we shared grocery costs. We ate out quit a lot. For a while we worked the same shift so we took turns driving about 25 miles to work. We even shopped together sometimes and the manager at the local Sears store thought for a while we were a couple. I do not remember his name, but he was quit a character. He went with me when I was shopping for a trailer for my family and we went to several places to look and he made application to buy three different trailers.

I started work at Magma in the rod plant area and spent my first two weeks picking up 32 pound pieces of copper called crop bar and throwing them into a furnace to be melted. I had sore muscles in places I didn't even know I had places. I went to the YMCA in Tucson and got a massage. That helped a lot. The guy I was staying with decided to move and he got a cabin down by the river in Mammoth. I moved there with him for a while. In the meantime I was trying to get a room at the bunk house. That is a place in San Manuel that houses workers. I finally did get in because I was there at the time another person checked out to create an opening. I learned from the manager of the Sears store in town that my buddy had gone into the clothing store one Saturday and paid cash for 200 dollars worth of clothes and on the following Saturday he charged 400 dollars worth and then skipped town.

The bunk house was a large building with four wings with rooms on each side of the hall and a common shower for each section. We paid only a dollar a day for the room and we were not supposed to cook in the rooms but some of us did. Our room had a refrigerator. Magma was not far from the bunk house so I would often walk to work. On the way to work there was a cafe called the San Manuel Cafe. The cafe was not open at all on Sunday so that did present a problem. One of the miners that lived down the hall from me at the bunk house had a hot plate and I would sometimes buy the steak and he would cook it and we would share it. He was a tall skinny guy that had flunked out of pre med studies.

To get food at the cafe all we had to do was give them our company id number and pay them on payday. They would also sell me a brown bag lunch so that was a good thing. One evening at the cafe I ordered a burro. I thought I was ordering a sandwich made of meat from a prospectors animal. Well, it was beef and beans wrapped in a tortilla. They were good. When I first came to San Manuel you could not buy a magazine anywhere in town. When the stores closed you could not even buy a soda.

I started working evenings part of the time so I joined the American Legion so I could stop by their place after work and have a Pepsi. It was right behind the cafe in the same building. The guy that was my room mate most of the time was a real character. He would open a can of a meat item, eat half of it and put in on the table and finish it the next day. He became a straddle car driver for the tank house and long after the bunk house period he and five other guys went together and bought a house in Oracle. When the Jehovah Witnesses would come to their door he told them not to come back but when they did he answered the door completely naked carrying a shotgun. I guess they got the message that time. One time he got ptomaine poisoning as a result of his eating habits. We meet all kinds of characters in this world.

I wrote home often and was glad to get letters from Fran and the kids. I shopped for a house and even paid down fifty dollars earnest money on one in Tucson in the area of the Baptist Christian Day school but that did not pan out. In San Manuel there were two elementary schools, a high school and a middle school was opening up at the time. The high school had a music program and I attended that and also went to an open house the school had for the parents and I thought the school would be pretty good for our kids so I started looking in San Manuel for a place to stay. At first they were not taking applications for housing but they decided to do that again and they announced that on Friday morning at 8:00 they would start taking rental applications.

I got there about a quarter till eight and the line was already long. I found out later that some of the office people had told their friends and they opened up the application line at 6:00. Well, I was approved for a house for the family but it would not be ready for some time. As the houses became empty they would re-do the painting and repair what needed repaired.

It was not long before I moved up to the tank house as a laborer. We were working six days a week and there was a large turn over. I went shopping in the used furniture store in Oracle. I saw a high back couch that was strong and I bought it for 65 dollars. I tied it to the top of the Chevy and hauled it to the bunk house. The couch has since been re upholstered but we still have it.

One day while driving in Tucson the car stalled in an underpass right in traffic. It finally started after many attempts. A motor cycle was stopped behind me waiting for me to get going. When the motor started the man on the motor cycle got a face full of smoke. After I got up and out of the underpass I heard a siren. It was the cop that had been behind me when I was stalled. He gave me a repair order to get that thing fixed. It only took a carburetor overhaul to fix it.

In this chapter I have not said much about how I felt or how this all affected me. By 1972 I had been well on my way to recovery from depression but the loss of my job at Olin which I did like, the prospect of not seeing Camie anymore, and the temporary separation from Fran and the kids all had their affect on me. I became almost stoic. The letters from home and that picture of Fran and the kids that Fran sent really helped. Most of the time during this period I would go to the Baptist church in Oracle. The preacher was Gus Bogan. He was a good preacher and the Sunday school class was made up of very good people. The church meetings did help me a lot and I was looking forward to bringing the family out to San Manuel.

As the time approached for school to be out in Danville, I asked the people at the housing office when our house would be ready. They assured me that it would be ready by the middle of June. That is when I asked for a leave of absence of two weeks so I could go back to get the family. I tried to time it so I could go to Johnny's sixth grade graduation. The leave of absence was approved and I made the plane reservations and bought the ticket. I had a friend at work named Roger that lived in Mammoth which is about 12 miles from San Manuel. He lived in a small trailer with his wife who was pregnant. I packed a few things and left the car at Rogers house. Roger took me to the airport. I asked the agent at the airport to make a reservation for a car rental in Chicago for me. The flight back to Danville was uneventful but when I arrived I found out that no car reservation had been made. Try as I may, I could not find a place that would rent me a car one way. So I took the bus home and I got in home quit late.

When I went in the house the family was in bed but Johnny was quick to get up to see who was coming in the house. My face was sporting a large beard and at first if scared Johnny but after I spoke he was glad it was me. I had a good reception and we woke up the whole family. He told me about his graduation and I told him I had tried to make it back in time but could not. Next chapter - -"The Family Moves West"

"The Family Moves West"

Since I had only two weeks leave of absence from work, the first order of business after I got back home was to get ready to move. Fran had already begun packing. We made arrangements for an agent to come out to the house and hold an auction. The space behind our house was two alleys with a space between them so this was the place for the auction. I believe we sold the washer and freezer before the auction. We had to sort what to sell from what to take. Fran had a china cabinet that she sold. At that time Tom and Irene had two boys. They lived in one of our apartments in the rental across the alley from us. Tom and the boys helped with the moving of the stuff out to the alley getting ready for the auction. I gave Tom the fishing gear for him and the boys for their help. A neighbor Dale helped some to.

Fran stayed in the house with the kids during most of the auction. Delores’ ex, Eddie Bernard was there. He bought the table saw that I had built from a circular saw turned upside down. Most of the things we did not plan to take with us sold but a lot of the people wanted to bid on the house. I had a minimum price that I would accept for it and it did not sell. Bill had made a previous offer on the couch and chair so he bought them. Dale bought the window air conditioner. I guess some of the people thought we were having a distress sale and did not come prepared to make a fair offer on the house.

You already read about our dog happy that we got in 1969 but one member of the family was a dog that was mostly Johnny’s dog. When Johnny was barely old enough to talk we got a black puppy. At that time we had a reel to reel tape recorder and while I had it running I asked Johnny what he was going to name the puppy. He said, “puppy.” I then asked, what are you going to call him when he grows up. He said, “big puppy.” Well, about a month later when I was playing the tape I heard him say on the tape that he was going to call the puppy “popcorn.” That is what we called the dog. By this time though popcorn was getting old and we did not think he would survive the trip west so we took him to the humane society. We hoped someone would adopt him but really, we had a good idea what would happen to him but we did not discuss it much. That was indeed an emotional time for us all.

I went to the U-haul dealer with the Olds and picked out a trailer to load for the trip. They hooked it up and hooked up the lights and checked them. I had not driven much pulling a trailer so I had to be extra careful how I drove on the way home. My neighbor Dale helped us load. Johnny helped some but he was only 12. As we loaded the trailer I told Dale we wanted not more than 200 pounds more in front of the wheels than behind, but as we loaded it he kept insisting that it was ok to put the heavy dresser in the front along with some of the other heavy stuff. We used mattresses to sandwich the mirrors between and placed blankets around the sewing machine. We had opened the sewing machine and filled all the insides with clothes. I had given Mary Della grandmas old treadle machine. We sort of camped out in the house that night because all the beds were loaded. The next morning we finished loading, putting some of the last minute things into the 67 Olds station wagon. Some of the things we had wanted there for the trip. We had said our goodbyes the day before.

It was time to head west. Frances, Johnny, Kathy, Happy and I started out on the trip. Before we had gone two miles out of town I realized we had major problems. I thought about those two large hills we needed to travel just in the final five miles into San Manuel and right then I knew we would not make them. You see, every time I hit a little bump on the road I could feel the front end of the car go up. The trailer was loaded too heavy in the front. We went quit slow but continued on to Champaign. There we made arrangements to rent a truck. I called Delores and Curt in Danville. De and Roy brought Curt and his son Rick over to the U-haul dealer in Champaign. We transferred the load from the trailer onto the truck as well as a few things that we had put into the wagon. Rick was not old enough to drive yet but It was a long trip and Curt needed some company. Rick did help with the transfer.

Now we were a two vehicle party. We headed west. As I said before, we had said our good bys in Danville, but our Aunt Hazel lived in Mt. Vernon, so we headed there for our first overnight. De and Roy went back home. Hazel and Cecil did not even know we were coming, but they were glad to see us. Aunt Hazel was a great person and a great Aunt, but her talents in the kitchen were very limited. I bought a bucket of chicken and we had a good supper there. Cecil was glad to see Happy again too. The next morning we started out and headed west. Curt and I discussed the route and planned to go around St. Louis.

We chose the southern route because we thought it would be less mountainous. At first we tried to stay together on the trip but since that is not always possible I gave Curt some money for expenses and told him the planned route and where we could meet. Near San Manuel is a town of Oracle and that is where I had been going to church so the plan was to meet at the Baptist church in Oracle. This was in June so the weather was quite good and most of us slept at rest stops in the vehicles at night. Happy and I slept near the car. We would tie Happy to the car at night and while we were stopped for rest or sleep. We ate at truck stops and the like most of the way but sometimes we would stop at a grocery store and buy stuff for sandwiches. We went through Texas and it took about 5 days. I have not mentioned the scenery much but I was really impressed by the beautiful rest stop just inside the state of Arizona. The cacti there is really beautiful. We did meet Curt and Rick there before going on. Before coming to Arizona my idea of a desert was like what we had seen on TV about Egypt, with miles and miles of nothing but sand. That is simply not so in Arizona. The Arizona desert is loaded with many different kinds of plants and animals.

It was a little late one evening when we got to the church in Oracle and Curt and Rick were there as planned. The preacher, Gus Bogan and his wife lived in the parsonage behind the church. They invited us all to sleep that night in their house. Curt and Rick declined and slept in the truck, but we left happy tied up outdoors and the four of us slept in the house that night. The next morning I called Magma rental office to see which house they had ready for me and they said it was not ready yet. Now that was a blow. We had traveled about 1800 miles to move and now we had no place to move into. Well, the preacher let us put the furniture upstairs in the back of the church building. The building had previously been a hotel so there was room. Some of the heavy things we put on the main floor. The next order of business was to get the truck returned and put Curt and Rick on a plane for their return trip.

When I had rented the truck the dealer told me that the nearest place to return the truck was Ajo, Arizona. I had not consulted a map on that detail until we got there in Oracle. That was about a six hour drive so that idea was cancelled immediately. Curt said, “give me the keys back and I will get rid of the truck for you.” We both knew there was a dealer right there in Oracle. We had seen the trucks. We got it filled up with gas and Curt took the truck in to them and told them we did not have the gas or time to take it all the way to Ajo. I guess that dealer in Illinois did not consult a map on this. On the way to the airport to take Curt and Ricky back to Illinois, Curt remarked that he wanted to get back to where there were trees. He acted like he thought there were no trees at all out here. We took Curt and Ricky to the airport and got them on their way home to Danville. This was their first plane ride so I am sure they felt a little funny about that.

Now we had to find a place to stay. I had left my Chevrolet at Rogers trailer in Mammoth. Roger and his wife lived in a 10 by 40 mobile home. His wife was pregnant and he had only one car, so they were pleased for Fran and Kathy to stay with them because that way Fran could take Rogers wife in to the hospital if the baby would come while Roger was at work. I still had my room in the bunk house, so for a while he stayed there with me. He slept on the used couch I had purchased. Each morning after I went back to work I would get up, get ready for work and take Johnny to Rogers house then return to work. After work I would go to Rogers house (I do not remember his wife’s name.), have supper and take Johnny and return to the bunk house to sleep. I found out later that the company had rented the house they had planned to rent to us to one of the foremen. This routine lasted several weeks. We were still on a six day work week. I was very glad to have the family almost back together but this was a very trying time.

Somebody has said before and I have often agreed that no kitchen is big enough for two women. Well, after a few weeks Rogers wife and Frances started getting on each others nerves. We found a furnished apartment in Mammoth and the Winslows moved in there. We did not bother to get the gas turned on so we cooked on a hot plate and kept our milk in an ice chest. The refrigerator did not work. It was really hot down there in the valley near the dried up river. There were a lot of trees and that helped to shade us. I still kept the room at the bunk house. My couch and a few other things were still there.

I guess it was in August that I got my promotion to operator in the tank house. It was so hot on top of those copper cathodes that, if I had a dollar in my billfold the ink would get wet from sweat and run. The town site workers finally had a house ready for us to move into. We looked it over and signed the rental contract. One of the six men I hired in with at Magma with was Hector Sanchez. He had a pickup and he helped us move our stuff from the church in Oracle. When I had purchased the couch in Oracle I had hauled it on top of the Chevy to the bunk house and now I hauled it on top of the Olds from the bunk house to the house. Most of the heavy stuff we moved in the truck. When this move was completed I finally felt human again. I had a fine wife, a good son, a beautiful daughter all of whom I loved and we were all together in our own rented house and things were really looking up for us. I have tried not to brag in this story but I guess this family of mine deserves some bragging about. I almost left out Happy. He made the trip with little or no problems but he was having trouble adjusting to the heat here as were we all. We had what is known as a swamp cooler for this house. They are common here. I was surprised that the kids had not done a lot of gripping or arguing but they had made the trip with good behavior. Next chapter-Life at 103 Giffen.

"Life at 103 Giffen"

Not long after we had moved in here, one morning before work I noticed that out in the back of house, partly in the alley, there was a large pig lying on the ground. It had been shot. I had to go to work so I told Fran to keep the kids away from it while I was gone. When I got home the pig was gone except for head. It looked like it had been a clean cut. I threw the head in the garbage. Later I learned that the animal was a havalina. Our house was only two houses and a street away from the open desert and these animals are hunted in the area a lot. We called it a wild pig but it is not really a pig. It was a havalina.

We had to buy a washer but the stove and refrigerator were furnished with the house rent. It was nice to have the whole family together in one house. We got the kids registered for school. The seventh and eighth grades were grouped together and called the Middle School. This was the first year that there was any school in this middle school. It was brand new. It was about 3/4 miles from home and most of the time Johnny walked to and from school. Kathy was starting in third grade and her school was right across the street from our house. We could look out of our front window and watch her playing in the school yard during recess. I think Kathy liked the idea of living right across the street from the school. I know I liked it.

We continued going to the Baptist church in Oracle for a while but before long we switched to the Baptist church in San Manuel. It was just a little way up the street from our house. There was not much damage to the furniture during the move, but we lost a few books. Somehow my high school year-books were missing. None of the mirrors were broken, though.

It was a three bedroom with living room and a combination kitchen and dinning area. In the dinning area the light was not great. By this time Fran was enamored by anything western, so when we went shopping for a new light we choose a chandelier that was in the shape of a wagon wheel. It used five sixty watt bulbs. Those bulbs lasted for over 25 years before any of them burned out.

Johnny joined a 4h group that built their own model planes with motors and they were tethered by a wire so when they flew, they flew in circles with the handler holding on to the wire. He won first place at one of the fairs for his plane. Kathy joined a 4h club later and Fran taught a class for it. It was a cooking class. Most of the girls in the class did not know that there is a difference between butter and margarine. It is indeed strange, the misconceptions people get. The local manager of the Sears catalog store had a teenage daughter and her mom told us that her daughter was surprised when she found out that some people have kitchen sinks that do not have motors under them. We never did have one of those.

We tried to keep in contact with some of our friends and our relatives in Illinois. Lee and Ila were living in Phoenix about this time and we ate our first Christmas dinner in Arizona in our shirt sleeves on their patio. Over the years we made a lot of trips to Phoenix to visit relatives, mostly on holidays.

When we lived up on Giffen Street we had a visit from Jack and Jeannine. We were glad to see them. When they first got to town they called for directions to get to our house. I told Jack to watch for the signs that said “dip” and that he should believe the signs. Our town is built on a hillside across the road from the plant and there are very few drainage control pipes. They use the streets to direct the water downhill to the washes so there are a few dips at the intersections.

We did enjoy the visits we had with the relatives, especially on Holidays. One year Polly and Bill Jr. came out. This was after Curt and Polly split up. Jack and Jeannine divorced and Jack remarried and he moved to Phoenix with his new wife. We enjoyed visiting with them at Lee and Ila’s, and one time Bill and Mary and Wanda visited with them while we were there. Another time Aunt Iva came out and later after we had moved to our trailer Aunt Hazel came out on the bus and we picked her up in Tucson and took her home with us and the next day we took her up to Phoenix so she could visit with Jack. She also visited with Lee and Ila while she was in Phoenix. We have fine memories of most of these visits.

It took a while to adjust to life in Arizona. On one of my first trips to the grocery store in San Manuel I noticed and thought it strange that they sold packages of corn husks. These were things that most people in Illinois threw away. They are used here to wrap a food that they make out here that is called a green corn tamale. I do not know what all they put in them but we like them. Sometimes people make them and sell them. One of the guys at work would bring them in about once a month. Sometimes they have green olives in them with the seeds still there so be careful to chew them carefully. Usually they contain beef or pork and are steamed during preparation. Another strange shopping experience was that what we used to call mangos in Illinois are actually bell peppers. A mango is a fruit.

Our day to day life out here was for the most part uneventful and that part I liked. After I left Olin I was pleased to be through with working shift work most of the time. Day shift fit me just fine. I could have transferred to the lab out here but they worked shift work. It did not take long for me to get tired of the operators job that they put me on. It was called systems operator. Our job was to remove and when we could to prevent shorts from occurring between the copper cathodes and anodes in the cells. The cells were like large batteries that would move molecules of copper from the cathode and deposit them onto the anode. Each cell contained 46 anodes and 45 cathodes. It was hot up on those sections and the job was boring. I used to say that they hired 300 engineers and they spent 300 days to come up with the most boring job in the world and they came up with what they called systems operator. I was indeed glad when they asked me to be a cell repairman. That job was still hard and many times hot, but I did enjoy doing it. I also served as a relief operator for the machine that would wash the cathodes when they were harvested. I was the first person in the tank house to always wear ear plugs when doing this job. They later made it mandatory. One of the girl trainees on the washer complained to me that the boss had told her to put her shirt-tail in and she wanted to know if he had told me to also. I told her that I already knew that when working around machinery you do not wear loose fitting clothes. He did not need to tell me.

Even though the kids were too big to be read to much anymore I did enjoy helping them with their home work. We took an active interest in their education. Fran helped some but with math that was my job. We also helped organize a PTO group. However, at most of the meetings, all they wanted to talk about was helping to improve the playground facilities. The only teacher to come made it clear that she was there as a parent, not as a teacher. Overall, though I still think the schools were pretty good schools. One thing that I thought to be strange is that one of Kathy’s first teachers had been here for many years and she had never been to see the Grand Canyon.

After being here a while I saw an advertisement on a board somewhere for some camping gear. We went and looked at it and bought the whole lot. It was nearly new and the person selling it had been injured and could not use it anymore. It included a camping stove, sleeping bags, Coleman light, folding cots and a 10 by 12 tent.

We decided it was time for us to see the grand canyon so when vacation time came we packed up the station wagon and set out. Johnny and I practiced once setting up the tent in the back yard. It was about 11 o’clock at night when we got to the KVOA camp grounds up in Williams, Arizona and it was a good thing we had practiced because we managed to pitch the tent in the darkness. It was adequate for all four of us. We had some folding cots. The few times that we camped, I would usually cook breakfast. I scrambled some eggs and put in a can of corned beef hash. It was good. We got packed and left the tent at the camp because the Grand Canyon was only a few miles away. At the grand canyon we were all awe inspired by its beauty. We did not go to the north rim, though.

We returned to the same camp that night. They had shower facilities so we made use of them. There was a small store at the site and we bought a few things to fix for supper and some juice for breakfast the next morning. We took Happy along on this trip and on the second morning we headed East. We visited the large meteor hole East of Flagstaff and during the trip we visited the painted desert and the petrified forest. One night on the way back we camped in the Tonto National Forest. Here the trees were so thick and so tall Curt would have felt at home. I took some pictures and sent them to him to let him know that there are some places in Arizona where the big trees grow. Again it was dark and I was out of fuel for my Coleman light. I traded an extra wick for some fuel with another camper.

On the way back the next day we went over the Roosevelt dam. This route was narrow and winding. We were sure glad we were not pulling a trailer on this trip. Happy was a small to medium dog and at a rest stop on the way home we stopped to have lunch. There was a very large St Bernard dog there that completely filled the underneath part of one of the tables. He was just laying there minding his own business but Happy tried to challenge him. The St. Bernard just acted like he wanted to say “go away you mouse, you bother me.” This was the biggest camping trip we ever had but I think we all enjoyed it.

One of the things I missed about Illinois were the fishing trips. To go fishing here we have to drive quite a distance and we have not done that. I especially missed our fishing buddies, Roy and De. We all made new friends here but I am sure the kids and Fran missed their friends in Illinois too.

As mom used to do, Kathy would often run around barefooted. We both tried to discourage that but when Kathy was 12, I had been telling her, “do not go outdoors barefooted.” Well, one evening just after dark she went outside the door on the patio side of the house and just after she stepped out she hollered "I’ve been bitten by a snake". I went to her immediately and picked her up and placed her in a chair. I told her to relax. I called the hospital and told them we were coming down, that my daughter had been bitten by a snake. I carried her to the car and we were there in about five minutes. As the Doctor examined her he kept asking her about her symptoms. Dr. Brower told me that he had been practicing medicine in Arizona for 25 years and he had never before treated a snake bite. Hard to believe. Also, the previous week he had attended a seminar on the latest methods for treating them. Still a little unsure about how to best proceed the doctor called the University Medical Center for guidance. He determined that the snake must have been poisonous based on her symptoms. He gave her a shot of anti-venom with some benadryl for allergies, half in each arm and told me to take her to the University Hospital. The Sheriff was called and they sent a deputy to the house to search but no snakes were found. The snake had crawled out from between the house and the dog house right nearby. We believe the snake had come in from the dessert in search of water. A couple of weeks later I found and killed a small rattler in the back yard. I did it by throwing the 22 lb. railroad section onto it and then cutting it.

I laid Kathy on the floor of the back of the Olds and drove her to the hospital in Tucson. They admitted her and kept close watch on her. Each half hour they measured the swelling in her leg. If the swelling went above her knee they would have to consider taking the leg off. At least that is what I thought. Finally in the early hours the next morning the swelling stopped. They told me she would be ok. I told Kathy that I was going to go home and get mom to come up to stay with her. That took a couple of hours or so and I got a little sleep while mom sat with Kathy. Luckily she seems to have not suffered any after affects from the bite but that was indeed scary for us all.

One time we went to a festival in Mammoth. I think the PTO had a booth there to raise money for the playground equipment for Kathy’s school. For some reason I was going to go after something so I was taking the kids and leaving Fran there for a while. That was the plan. On the way to the car Kathy climbed up a sliding board. I told her to get down from there because we are fixing to go. Instead of going down the normal way she turned around and started down the ladder.

She fell to the ground, breaking her fall with her hands. She also broke her arm right near the wrist. I quickly left a message with friends at the booth that we were leaving and why. We took Kathy to the hospital in San Manuel. I was surprised at how calm she was on the way to the hospital which was in San Manuel, about 12 miles away. Somebody brought Fran to the hospital to join us. To set her arm they would need anesthesia and they had none so they sent us to St. Mary in Tucson. On the way down the cops started to pull me over and I pointed to Kathy laying in the back and hollered “St. Mary’s hospital.” They led the way and later at the hospital I thanked them and they did not ticket me for speed. Dr. Redicop was there and set the arm. It was so close to the wrist that I was concerned it might not heal properly. Strange thing about this incident is that on the same day a boy about Kathy’s age that lived across the alley from us had the same thing happen to him. Same Dr.’s and same hospital.

While high school age, during the summer Johnny started collecting cans to sell. He would go out on his bike with garbage bags and scour the neighborhood for aluminum cans. I took him in the Chevy a few times. Out at the old trailer park there was a place that had a trash pile that had some cans and while there he fell and cut the palm of his hand. I could tell immediately it needed stitches but he insisted he was going to take care of it himself. I took him home and gave him a few minutes to stop the bleeding and he finally agreed to let me take him to the Dr. They put in seven stitches. The can collecting was side tracked for a while but near the end of the summer we packed them all in the back of the Olds and took them to Tucson to sell. They sold for 80 dollars. He said that was the most money he had ever had at one time. I promised Johnny that when he graduated from high school that I would give him the Chevy. He took drivers ed in high school.

On a return from Tucson once as we passed through the Oracle area a havalina ran onto the road and even though I tried to miss him I did not. He was hit and one wheel ran over his head. The next day I had a flat on that corner and the mechanic that repaired it took out a tooth from the havalina. I cleaned it up and drilled a hole in it and put it on a necklace for Kathy. She liked it and wore it.

We usually get very little snow in San Manuel but our first Easter we left on Friday to spend the weekend at Lee and Ila’s house and on that Friday night it snowed six inches but when we got back on Monday all the snow was gone. We enjoyed visiting them. Ila is probably the best cook we ever met and Kathy really likes her uncle Lee a lot.

In 1976 I got my first 2 week vacation so we thought it was time to revisit Illinois. I asked a friend Gilbert at work if he could take care of Happy for a couple of weeks and he did. We took the dog house and some food over for him. We packed up the Olds and headed East. We did not go through Tucson this time. We took the northern route through the salt river canyon area. It was really hilly but the route cut about 200 miles off the distance. We took three days going back and camped around the car in rest stops along the way. It might have been on this trip that Johnny made the remark as we pulled into Aanville, “finally, Danville, the home of the tore up streets.”

Curt was now married to Sherry and they invited us to stay with them during the visit. They lived on the hill on East Main street across from the Catholic school. Sherry had three kids and Curt has three kids. Nearly all of them were teenagers and they also had a boarder that they had practically adopted. I do not remember her name but she was pregnant and her so-called Christian parents had kicked her out of the house because she embarrassed them because she was unmarried and pregnant. (Last sentence was an editorial.)

Count the people. Now add the four of us. We had a full house there while we were there. Curt’s Rickey and Sherry’s Rickey both went fishing together while we were there. They really had good luck that night. We watched Rick Wayne fillet some of the fish. Sherry cooked some too and they were good. One thing the boys told us was quit memorable. When they first got to the lake to fish they walked past a old man fishing and they recognized him as a regular in the area. On the way back to the car after they concluded their fishing they practically tripped over that man. He had died during the evening while fishing. Maybe he died happy, who knows. They reported it and were delayed getting home because they waited for the authorities to show up.

We got to visit with the Parkers and Camie was now six years old. I got to take her and her brother Wesley Jr. for walk while we were there. It was really a joy to see her again. Another very memorable time we had on this trip however, was the wedding. Curt’s daughter Vicky got married and we attended the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. At the reception there were two punch bowls. One was labeled “with” and the other was labeled “without” or some such thing. I had no idea what they meant but I only drank one glass of punch. Kathy went back for seconds a couple of times and when we started to leave she remarked about the rhubarb only she said “Burarb” instead. She said it in a slurred manner so I knew she must have gotten some of the “wrong” punch. It was then that I realized what the signs meant.

De and Roy had by this time moved to Phoenix, Arizona and they knew we were going back for a vacation so Roy asked me to clean up the yard at the house they had left and to bring back to Arizona the tail gate for their Dodge truck that they had left. There was also a 22 pound length of railroad that I kept. Later I used it as an anvil when I would need one and Johnny used it to smash his aluminum cans. We got to visit with most of the family while we were there. I think we spent the last night before returning with Mrs. Compton in Tilton. It was a good vacation but time passes and we had to return to Arizona so I could return to work on time. The added weight of the tailgate tied to the top of the Olds made Fran nervous but we really did not have any trouble with it. We came back the same way and in spite of the road construction we got back in three days and two nights. We took the tailgate to Roy and De in a subsequent trip to Phoenix.

Happy was really glad to see the family return. Gilbert had taken good care of him though. We did not yet have a fence built so most of the time Happy was tied up most of the time. One day a few months later while I was at work Happy got sick and Fran had a friend Molly Hatmaker take her and the kids to take Happy to the Vet in Oracle. He said Happy had a problem with his kidneys. He stayed in the animal hospital about two weeks being treated but he did not get better. We asked the vet to end it and to cremate him.

Not long after that while I was shopping at Vern’s market I overheard a conversation about some dogs. A lady from Reddington (a very small settlement not far to the east of us) was trying to find a home for a runt Australian Sheppard and Labrador mix. His siblings were working dogs on the ranch she had. We were glad to take him. Fran was really delighted and the kids also liked him. We called him Duke. It did not take long for me to put up a fence in the back yard since we suspected what had caused Happy to get sick were the red berries on the bushes in the side yard and we did not let Duke near those berries. We had him for years and he was a fine dog. While Duke was very small Kathy and I went out for a walk and on the way back to the house a young white cat began to follow us. As the family probably knows, I have never been a cat lover but when Kathy begged me to let her keep the cat I agreed that if we did not find its owner we would keep it. We did not find the owner and Kathy named the cat Candy. After we had the cat for a while I learned that Kathy was hoping that the cat would have kittens. One evening while I was petting the cat it tried to get down and, to keep it from falling, I grabbed it and in doing so my hand touched a part of the cat that prompted me to say, “This cat ain’t going to have kittens, and we have to change its name to Andy.” Kathy heard the whole thing and went to her room and cried. Andy liked to chase birds and one day he caught one. He came to door so we would let him but as he usually did. He meowed to get in. Well, imagine the dumbfounded look on his face when the bird he was holding in his mouth flew away. One morning while the cat was in the yard Fran saw a large bird swoop down and pick up the cat. It picked Andy up as high as the house top before dropping him. The bird was a neighbors pet that had escaped. Duke and Andy got along quit well together.

The kids did quit well in school. When Johnny took electronics in school the teacher made him a teachers assistant. Sometimes it gets quit windy here in San Manuel and one day on the way home from school as he walked past a neighbors house the wind picked up a metal shed that had not been secured and it blew it across the street and smashed against a neighbors house. The wind current that caused it is called a dust devil. They are common out here.

Johnny was taking auto shop in high school and we were having a few problems with the Chevy so I let him take it to school for repairs. He replaced the rear end and later I bought parts and he overhauled the engine. The teacher furnished most of the tools needed for that job. The grinding of the valves takes special tools. He did a pretty good job.

We would occasionally take the family and drive to Kearny about 35 miles away and go bowling. Johnny did like to bowl. I had to quit bowling though because it started causing my elbow to hurt. I had hurt it at Olin in a fall on the day president J. F. K. was shot. We also played the game of pool sometimes.

We were fortunate most of the time in that we did have good neighbors. Just a few doors up the street lived the pastor of the Presbyterian church in town, just next door on the left lived a security Guard at Magma with his wife. They would occasionally have their two grandkids over for a visit and our kids were about the same ages and they played and got along good. On the right of us Joe and Maria and their family. They had some kids near the same ages as Kathy and Johnny. Maria gave us a rocking chair she no longer needed. Maria said that she needed a desk for two of the kids to study at and a room divider for her dinning and kitchen area. I suggested that I could build a room divider that would serve as a desk and bookcase combined. I explained what my plans were and she said she would be glad to pay me for doing it. I built a three shelf bookcase five feet long and put on a door across the top shelf hinged at the bottom with side brackets to support it when it was opened. While I was building it Johnny did not seem to be much interested in helping. I thought he would since he had previously built a bookcase for himself. Kathy helped and she also did most of the hand sanding. I did not have a power sander.

Kathy was in middle school now and one day on the way home from school Maria and Joe’s son got beat up. The next day there was a very big fuss about the whole thing. Maria and Joe were angry at us and there were arguments about it and after about two weeks of wrangling I finally found out why they were angry at us. They kept blaming it on Kathy but since she was not involved in the fight I did not understand why. I finally found out that Kathy was supposed to have made some remark that caused their boy to get beat up. Well, they did not want to accept the desk I had made for them so we just kept it. We still use it. Kathy later took wood shop and auto shop in high school. The incident was never forgotten but it was not long before we realized we were still friends.

Sometime around 1978 Grand ma Compton started having memory problems and became unable to take care of herself. She lived in a nursing home in Danville for a while but the cost was depleting her savings fast and the care she was getting was not as good as the family would like so Melvin and Norma decided to take care of her. They did for a while but after while it became quit a while. She did not improve. We decided to try to take care of her. We started shopping for a mobile home. Melvin took grandma Compton to the plane in Indianapolis and sent her to Tucson. We met her at the airport. Grandma seemed to recognize me when we picked her up but all the time she was with us she did not recognize Frances, her daughter.

The kids were glad to see her but she never recognized them. We did not know the word Alzheimer then but that seems to have been the condition. We took her home and cared for her at the house for a while. We could not take our eyes off her for very long or she would have gotten herself in trouble somehow, for sure. Most of the time she had the idea that she was a 16 year old. The kids helped out some. We really needed different living arrangements so we did buy a used mobile home in Jan of 1979. It was already set up in a mobile home park in San Manuel. It had a fenced yard all the way around. We had to buy the fence separate. We made the down payment and moved in. We had purchased a freezer so we got a friend, Cliff Hatmaker to help us with his pickup. Joe also helped with this. Most of the stuff we moved in the Olds and by this time the kids were both old enough to help. The address was a little hard to locate and I had a hard time finding it a few times.

Life in San Manuel had been pretty good so far but it was now getting a little harder. I still missed some of the folks back home. Kathy helped me clean up the house after we moved out. Fran had to watch grandma Compton so she could not help much. Johnny was supposed to help but he did very little on this project. We got back all of our deposit though. One of the best things about the Mobile home is that it has two bathrooms. Next chapter-The Transition Period

Next chapter
"The Transition Period"





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