I would like to go back......

and write about what it was like growing up as a boy. In California we lived in modern homes with bathrooms and kitchens with running water and electricity. I don't recall any hot water heaters except at the Mosier place in Delano. It was equipped with a 1930 roof solar water heater. It was a box about 4' x 6', glass covered and filled with black water pipes. This would give us one tub of warm water. Any other hot water needs were taken care of with heating the water on the stove. Bathing was a Saturday night even (whether you needed it or not). Everyone used the same water, so one would hope that they weren't last.

Most of our homes were 2 bedroom. We always had a garden and Mom had chickens when she could. The hens for the eggs and pullets to raise for fried chicken. When we could, we would have a cow to give us milk and butter. We kids always had various duties. Hazel, Bill and I had the job of cleaning up after meals, washing, drying and putting away the dishes and pots and pans. Hazel washed, Bill drief and I put away and generally tidied up. We all had to help with the house cleaning, washing and ironing. I did the flat items. Mom baked bread three times a week and biscuits for breakfast. Our main meal was usually potatoes with gravy, vegetables and beans. We usually had meat on Sunday (dinner held at lunch time). It was either fried chicken, chicken fried steak or pot roast beef. We didn't get eggs to eat - they had to be saved to take to the store on our Saturday shopping trips where we sold them to keep the cost down. We would leave with two or three large bags of groceries for $1 to $2. Gasoline was 16 to 21 cents/gallon.

The typical Saturday shopping trip started at about 1pm and went on to 4 or 5pm. The men would hang around the sidewalks and the parked cars and visit - nobody special, just anybody that was there that wanted to talk. We kids were given 2 or 3 pennies and turned loose to shop. The five and ten cent stores had a lot of things for a penny or two - candy bars, crackerjacks, small cars, marbles and toys. It usually took a long time to figure out what to buy.

Compared to Oklahoma living, California was living 'high on the hog'. In Oklahoma we had no electricity, we had to draw our water from a backyard well and carry it in. There were no bathrooms - only paths leading to the 'privies'. We learned what old Sears and Roebuck catalogues were good for. We had one, two and even three hole privies. The schools were equipped with them also.

In the fifth grade in Tulsa we lived about a mile from downtown, the local store and the postoffice. Dad was working in Tulsa and used the only car we had so all our errands and shopping was done on foot. I was selected to do the shopping and since we didn't have a bank account, I would also buy the money orders and mail them to our creditors. Postage stamps were 3 cents.

This time period was the coming of age so to speak for me. One Saturday Dad got the day off and took us all to downtown Tulsa. He took us to a Restaurant and told Hazel, Bill and I we could order anything we wanted - not just a hamburger. We all three ordered a rib steak and piles of french fries. We were unable to eat it all. Jerry and Louise had a hamburger and milkshake (5 cents). Mom liked to have a fit - the steaks cost 35 cents each! The family took in a movie that night - Charlie McCarthy in "Looking who's Laughing". Another biggie for the family as Mom did not believe in allowing us to go to the movies.

Times were good at times, and other times very rough and it should be remembered there was nothing to fall back on in those days. No unemployment payments, no food stamps - charity came from your church and your fellow man.

London Days

I'm sitting here realizing that there is no way I have the ability as a writer to put in words what it was like to be a teenager living and working in London. Living in this day and age and thinking in terms of my grandchildren at that age, and great-grandchildren for that matter, it seems totally unreal that being two weeks short of 17, I would get on a train in Llandudno, saying goodbye to my mother and father, and heading to the 'big city'. My parents had arranged for me to take lodgings with Gordon's wife's father and mother in Hayes (a suburb) and I had their address safely in my purse. Gordon and Irene were living in Canada by then. I arrived at the huge Euston Station feeling very grown up and went to the ticket office asking for a bus ticket and routing to Hayes. Hayes Surrey or Hayes Middlesex said the agent. Suddenly I was very young, very afraid and totally bewildered. I had no idea and they didn't have a phone. Neither did my parents. Thanks to God who was obviously watching over me, this elderly man came up and asked if I was Margaret Thomas. It was Irene's father.

I lived with them for a year, then took lodgings closer to work with another couple of families briefly and finally ended up in a house run by a widow who rented out two of her rooms to single girls. We had a room each and shared the use of the kitchen. This was cheaper for me than paying full room and board. My cooking skilled were very varied. Baked Beans on Toast. Baked Beans with little sausages on Toast. Canned tomatoes on Toast. And as a big splurge occasionally, sardines on Toast. I worked two years with Her Majesty Inspector of Taxes, then six months with Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals and ended up with the Gillette Corporation until I went to Canada.

They say that three times a bridesmaid, never a bride - but I am living proof that isn't true. I was bridesmaid three times while I was in London:

First for my best friend Sylvia:


Then for my brother Gerald, when he married Kitty. Gerald was in the Royal Navy and it was a beautiful naval wedding.

And the third for Mair when she married Norman. This photo shows Mam and Dad all dressed up too.

Mair and I had our photos taken together at this time. I cherish this photograph - she was (and is) a wonderful sister.

But London - aaaah London. I loved the shows - spent every spare penny on them. The London stores were amazing and Oxford Street at Christmas time was a sight to be seen. It seems I played constant tourist, never passing up an opportunity to go to one of the historial sites - Trafalger Square, Picadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral. Went to the museums (and only scratched the surface of them). Went to an Ireland versus Wales rugby match with an Irish boyfriend and ten of his friends. I was drowned out. Saw the Oxford/Cambridge annual boat race. Saw Roger Bannister break the four minute mile at Wembley Stadium for the second time. Joined five thousand Welsh people living in London at the Royal Albert Hall for their annual Gymanfa Ganu (community hymn singing). Went to Petticoat Lane on Sunday mornings for the street market, went to Hyde Park Corner to hear the speeches. Walked the magnificent Hyde Park and Regent Park.

I lived, I dated, I danced and I dreamed of more adventure.........

Thus 3-1/2 years after arriving in London, I decided to join Gordon and Irene in Canada...

This photo was taken on the wall at Llandudno during one of my vacations home.

Dick and Sue continued...

I was still working construction and the three of us took off the Spring of 52 to visit Sue's mother Jane and her husband in Minnesota. When we got back, we bought our first trailer (from Bill and Frances). It was an 18'trailer. Later we moved up to a 23 foot trailer which allowed us to move to our jobs in central California and in Nevada.

Summer of /52 Hazel and Fred Helm married. Hazel had worked with Fred in the meat market for over five years. Fred's wife had plasma type A anemia and had died a couple of years earlier. So when Hazel married Fred, he came with an instant family with Mel and Brad.

Louise married Orbie Carver September of '56 and she also started her family life with two step children, Debbie and Ken.

Katrina started school in 1956, so we stopped following the job and Sue remained in Fresno. We got a new 35' 2-bedroom trailer and paid $6,900 for it. I was doing well at this time, working steadily and making $3.00 an hour, but my eyes were looking at other things. I learned of the C.H.P. exam coming up and I registered for the written test in Feb. '56. Later that month took the physical and the oral test. 12,000 people took the written test, 2,000 passed, but there were only 758 left after the physical and oral. Of those 275 were hired. Considering that all veterans received an extra 10 points added to their score, I was happy to just be one of the 275.

I received my appointment and entered 'boot camp' (CHP Academy in Sacramento) on January 2, 1957 and graduated March 1. I was assigned to Bakersfield and served there until I resigned in the spring of 1961. This was a good experience for me - but some sad times too with the passing of my father on Labor Day 1957. I left the force thinking I would go into business but that didn't work out and I became a sanitation engineer! That is a salesman selling soap, cleaners, wax, paperproducts and equipment to commercial accounts. I left this to become an assistant manager of a motel in Paso Robles, Calif. Shortly after this I hooked up with Motel 6 at a time when they were building their first two motels in Santa Barbara. One just off the beach (54 units) and one downtown on State Street (62 units). State Street location was next to the main office and Sue and I managed this motel. In early 63 I was made Operations Director and wrote the operations manual, and set up all the operating systems of the motel. Up until we had five motels I was doing this on top of managing the one unit, but after that I was full time supervising the operation of the existing motels. Checking the motels under construction and furnishing them was also my responsibility and by the spring of 1965 I needed help and hired a secretary to assist me in the office. By this time we were operating 14 motels and had 4 under construction. My new secretary was Margaret Marsh.

Dick and Sue

I first became aware of Sue during my second year at Caruthers High. She sat behind me in our business math class. I had a part time girl friend at the time - Ann Whitener, shown below. Sue was engaged to an older man and it was known that she was going to get married that summer. She was living with her father in a farm tenant house. My only involvement that year was the fact that I had done none of the homework required in my class work book (bad boy!). Sue offered to do it for me and she copied her answers to my book. She did such a good job - I received an "A" and she only got a "B". (The teacher was my coach!!). Sue was back in school the following fall, so apparently the wedding bells didn't ring. There was still no involvement with Sue, as my part time girl friend was now a full time girl friend and we continued this way until the December of our senior year when Ann and I split up.

I was on the basketball team and we used to play at Riverdale High School Gym. The school bus would take me to the game, but since I lived out of the district it could only take me to within two miles of my home, so on game nights I walked. Sue and her three girl friends came to the games (her father's car) and Sue offered to take me home if I could crowd in. This contact grew to a monthly date

After graduation, Sue moved in with Frances and Roy. She worked at Gottschalks downtown. On Christmas Eve I proposed. She said yes. We tied the knot in the Carson City, Nevada, Court House. We were married by a judge with two witnesses attending on March 29, 1950.

We went to San Francisco for a five day honeymoon and then rented an apartment on M Street in Fresno. We later lived in three other locations around Fresno

November 30, 1950, Katrina was born and we were now a family of three.......................and we remained that way. Sue had a very difficult pregnancy and was sick the whole time, even into the delivery room. She didn't want to consider another child, until Katrina was about five, but by then I felt that a six year spread was not good, so we stayed the family of three.

It's impossible to equate Dick's High School Days with mine. His would involve a young man in his late teens, whereas my 'higher school' - called the Grammar School to me, began when I was 10 and finished at 16. The school itself covered seven years of schooling. Forms 1 through 5 were the normal school time and you could graduate (or what we called matriculate) at that time, but then you could go on to what was known as the Lower 6th and the Upper 6th.
These would be the equivalent of the first two years of college here. Mine was slightly different in that I actually went there six years, but the last year was forced by the fact that I had reached this at the age of 15 instead of the compulsory 16, so I was not allowed to take the exams that would have allowed me to matriculate. Instead, I had to hang around the school for a full year and take the exams at the end of it. They did play around with my courses though to an extent and I was able to take some of the lower 6th courses.

The above are my two ventures into the dramatics. I would love to tell you how great I was, but unfortunately in the Student Prince, I was supposed to be the lead and I chickened out and ended up in the 'band'. I did slightly better in the Spinsters of Lush, but I was the only one who forgot their lines once in the middle! Obviously a career on the stage was not in my future.

Sylvia was my best friend. She and I were very close and did everything together. Sylvia came from a broken home and liked the solidarity of my family life. She came from a town in England and we didn't meet up until our first year at John Bright Grammar School. The system of the time was to take all the students who had passed the scholarship I talked about in another blog, and they divided those into three groups according to the scores on the test. The top one third were known as the A group, the next as the Alpha group and the next as the Beta group. Each semester (we called them terms) you would be shuffled up and down depending on the grades you maintained, so you were always been taught at the level of your peers . The A's would be given harder classes than the Alphas and they harder than the Betas.

Sylvia and I were both in the A's and stayed there throughout our years in school.

During one of the school holidays in my last year, I went to London on vacation with my parents. We met up with Mair while she was there on a work loan program with her job with the civil service. I fell in love with London and knew one day I would end up there, but didn't know how.

The final exams were rough. No matter how well (or poorly) you had done in the years leading up to them, none of it counted towards the final matriculation. It was three weeks of examinations - covering all the subjects you had taken - History, Geography, whichever science you had pursued (Biology in my case), Art history and appreciation, French, Latin, English, English Literature, Math, Algebra, Geometry and Calculus. History for instance would be tested on the five years of learning - in our case 1066 to the present time - and there was no knowing in advance which period the questions would cover. Each exam was 2 to 3 hours long. I think the American system is much easier to handle where once you pass something, you can move on to the next!! But I made it, and I was a young lady of 16 now looking to what I wanted to do with myself. I would have liked to have gone on to college, and actually had two of the top 'masters' at the school come to my house unexpectedly to try to persuade my father that I should go to college, but my father was adament. Going to college was a 'waste of time for a woman' - she did that and then married, stayed home and raised babies. So I didn't go - instead I tried to get a job locally, and in the mean time took the Civil Service exam. I passed and was placed in the standings to be hired by Her Majesty Inspector of Taxes. I got the news in November, and I was told that I could wait until the following spring when they expected a position to be vacant in Llandudno, or I could go to London and start in the January! Guess what I did...............

Owning a farm for the first time....

For the first time our family owned some property. An abandoned 40 acre farm (20 acres on each side of Blythe Avenue, Caruthers). There was a trashed four room house, with a path to the outhouse, and an old barn. The land was rolling. Dad bought it for $6,500 but only got $1,500 credit on his $2,000 note. So here we were farmers, and set about clearing and planting approx. 35 acres of cotton and 5 acres of sweet corn. Within a month we had torn down the barn and used the lumber to expand the house. We added one large bedroom for Mom and Dad, and enclosed the front porch for another bedroom for Bill and I. We were still very short of money- all we had was a pickup for transportation. Hazel rode up front with Mom and Dad, and the rest of us Bill, Louise, Jerry and I rode in the back. We had an old John Deere tractor with steel wheels and lugs that we used to plow, and bought a team of horses to cultivate the rows with. The seed was supplied by the cotton gin with a lien on the crop. I was given the job of irrigation. With the open ditch and rolling terrain, it was a difficult job and during the two days when we were allocated to have the water, it was night and day work. The sweet corn did well and we sold it at the Farmers Market. When the grape harvest started the entire family picked grapes to raise money for school clothes, etc. In those days school didn't start until the grapes were picked.

From the time I was 13 and Bill was 15, Dad always included us in any decision making for the family. He would sit us all down and we would all have our say. It was a family decision and we all felt responsible for the outcome, good or bad. This time we decided to sell the farm including the cotton crop and we got $10,500 for it. With this we bought a 9 acre plot with a house and a large chicken house on the corner of Elm and Springfield. One acre had already been sold off prior on the corner.
Bill and I were enrolled in Caruthers High School, but in actual fact we lived in the Easton district. Hazel had graduated by now and had gone to work at J.S. Anderson's market in Caruthers. This gave Bill and I transportation to school and back. As a result the two schools agreed to swap 2 students (a boy and a girl attending Caruthers to go to Easton), so that Bill and I could stay at Caruthers. That year we tore down the chicken house and used that lumber to build a one bedroom house on our property. Our next project was a metal auto repair shop building. The plan was to rent it out to a local mechanic on a percentage basis. This didn't work out too well, so we split the acreage. A 3 acre plot with the shop and another 3 acre piece where we had built another small home. The original small house we had built was sold with one acre and we stayed on the remaining two acres with the home.

Bill graduated the summer of 1947 and I am heading to being a Junior. We both got a summer job with the High School working with the newly hired coach Cook (75 cents an hour). The job was to install and set up into classrooms and shop, three Army surplus buildings from Lemore Airforce Base. This included setting the foundation, supplying water and sewer (i.e. digging septic hole and sesspads). I became very good friends with this coach and he played a big part in my next two years. Bill then joined the union and became an ironworker. Dad had gone into this shortly before.

I'm back at school and I went to work for the JS Anderson market for 2 hours after school.

The above photo shows me (left back row) and in front of me is Hazel and next to her, Fred Helm who was the butcher there and who became Hazel's husband. I also worked 8 hours on Saturday and received 75 Cents/hour. For this I worked in the store, delivered dairy feed and installed the new appliances that were sold. This gave me about $50 a month. Gasoline cost 27 cents/gallon. Hazel was now working in the meat department and receiving $225 a month, and was still providing me with the transportation I needed.

Summer of 48, we were still living in the same place and that summer Bill and Frances married. I started my apprenticeship as an iron worker, and that summer worked as a rivot punk in the steel erection and rivot gangs. I carried and supplied the workers with the rivots they needed (which they heated to red hot) and also kept them supplied with water and other supplies. I worked on the Fresno Veterans Hospital on Blackstone. My boss was known as Iron Horse Charlie. He was rough on help, making them work or go back to the hiring hall. But we took me under his wing and kept fitting me into all levels of the work to get experience. He was a good fellow. I was 70 years old, watching the history channel about the building of the Golden Gate Bridge when I learned that Iron Horse Charlie was chosen to drive in the last rivot on the job (the Golden Rivot).

I'm now a senior (Fall 48) and late that winter or early spring Dad sold our place and bought one in North Fresno - 1044 San Jose Street. Ten acres. Now Hazel and I had to drive 24 miles each way to work and school (picture above with her newer car). We made it through the school year and I graduated in June - and went back to ironworking.

Dad was unhappy with our new property. The soil was very heavy with hardpan and he couldn't farm anything. He traded his equity for a housetrailer valued about $1500. For those not familiar with 1044 San Jose Street in Fresno, this is basically where the shopping center is!!!

We moved out by Selma on a rented farm where we were still living when Sue and I got married - but more about that, my houseschool days, and memories of my Dad, etc. later......

My War Years

Grandpa mentioned World War II in his last blog, which got me thinking about some other things that I hadn't shared in earlier writings. I told you about the German planes coming over and how we would pull the blackout curtains tight and wait for the 'all clear', and for the most part it was simply the eerie sound of the planes going overhead. A couple of bombs were dropped nearby, it was believed by German planes trying to get away from the British fighter planes and lightening their load. None of them hit the town. The war for us went from 1939 to 1945, so I was only 2 when it started and 8 when it was over, so I certainly wasn't affected in the same way my elders were, but I have strong memories of some of the events. The government moved into Llandudno, took over all the hotels and converted them to Civil Service offices and each house was given its allocation of London workers. We had a German lady and her mother for a short time, but they were taken away to the internment camps and they were replaced by three sisters, a Jewish family, all of whom worked for the civil service. We also had an elderly couple (or so I thought!) throughout the war and she had the plate on her wall that I loved - a pastoral scene of a sherpherdess and lambs, and the plate had holes around it. She would promise me that plate when the war was over, and she kept her word. I still have it - along with many similar plates I have collected over the years with the same holes around the edges.

I was thoroughly spoiled by the three sisters - Maisie, Doris and Barbara, and we all became one big family really. My mother and Mrs. Hayes became very good friends, and the sisters were all about the same age as my sister. In fact Mair and I met up with Barbara when I was in London a few years ago and it was incredible. We picked up where we had left off - some 60 years later.

My father was 35 when the war started and having a family and working for a public works, he was never called up, but he was a volunteer fireman and was called to Liverpool occasionally to help with the awful fires after the bombings.

My older brother Gordon went to work (for EMI, His Masters Voice) in 1943 - he was given a great opportunity by a cousin of our uncle to join the company as an apprentice engineer and go to university there on a work program. It was very hard for my father to let him go - he was only 16 and the full 'blitz' was hitting London. Bombings almost every night and what they called 'doodle-bugs' (unmanned bombs) coming over nightly and dropping. For the past three or four years, Gordon had been playing in the town band. The regular players were mostly away fighting the war and Gordon was allowed to join early. He played trumpet and cornet and was very good and once in London he hooked up with a few other guys and they started playing music in the air raid shelter they went to most nights when the sirens sounded. He got a bit of a reputation for his band and was invited to another air raid shelter one night and he and his friends went over there and played while the people danced. His regular shelter took a direct hit and no one survived. Apparently God had other plans for him.

One look back to a time after the war - I grew up in a household where prejudice was not in the vocabulary, so I was never really aware that the three sisters were Jewish, other than I do remember that there was a time every year where they didn't eat for twenty-four hours and I wasn't allowed to go and spend time with them during that time. But when I was about 13, we were shown the films of the British army finding and rescuing the Jews from the Belson camp and others. These were the actual films and they horrified me - as they still do. And it came to me how it must be for my three friends to see that, and know that hatred was aimed at them. To this day, I think those films should be required viewing for all young people, so that it will show them what hatred, bigotry and prejudice can lead to.

California, Here we Come

This is my 8th grade picture, and the one with Bill and Jerry

was taken in Petaluma, after our Oklahoma trip.

My last blog left off when we were leaving

Oklahoma and you will remember my

father stayed behind to finish up the job

at the bomber plant. We hired a private

operator with a 1940 Chevrolet. 1,700 miles non stop - took about 32 to 38 hours, and at times my mother took over the driving. We arrived at Uncle Lee and Aunt Luella's house in Petaluma safe and 'almost sound'! That was a long trip.

Uncle Lee only had one arm. He had lost his arm back in the 20's while working on the bridge in Ripley, Oklahoma. My father was working with him. They had a two-story rented house, and we were given the four upstairs rooms.

Mom and Hazel (age 14 at the time) got work at the local Laundry. Bill (13) went to work in a creamery and I (at 11) was the babysitter after school. I also worked hand-setting pins at the local bowling alley. I received 8cents a line, which translated into about 64 cents for approx. 1-1/2 hours work. Pretty good wages in those war years. Later that summer I mowed lawns for 35 cents/hour and every Saturday worked for Mrs. Bank President Isaacs mowing their lawn and mopping floors, etc.

Dad rejoined us the spring of 1943 and we moved into our own quarters, an apartment over a closed down saloon and dance hall. Mom and Hazel were able to quit work, but Bill and I continued to contribute to the family. That summer, the whole family worked in the Napa Valley fields picking pears and prunes. 60 cents an hour - WOW. We were able to rent a nicer home - not fancy, just nicer. Dad took a job as a driller in the shipyards at Vallejo, Calif. This was about 50 miles away and with the gas rationing (4 gals/week), Dad had to board there, so was gone most of the time. He hated this job so he pulled up stakes again and returned to the Delano area working tractor driving. While he was there he met a Mr. Orfino, a NY millionaire who wanted to own a lot of vineyards and build a winery. He hired Dad to do this for him, with good pay and lots of big promises. The goal was to clear, level and plant 1,000 acres of grapes that spring. It was December at that time.

The family moved to a farm about 10 miles NE of Delano - into an old, and NOT modern house. Louise, Jerry and I enrolled in the Richgrove school (Bill and Hazel were in H.S. by now). Richgrove had three grades per room. Dad was able to plant almost 980 acres, but as often happens with employers and their 'promises', Mr. Orfino's memory was short - so once again we were on the move. This time back to Delano and the Mosier place, where Dad leased some land and we were in the farming business for ourselves. So I am back in the Cecil Ave school, a good year for me and I graduated from the 8th grade. The War in Europe ended that June, and Japan surrendered in August. We were at Peace.

Sept. 1, I started high school at Delano High School. But things didn't work our well with the farm lease, we made and harvested the crop but Mr. Mosier got the funds and withheld $2,000 with a note to be paid later. This made it very difficult for us to manage, so Dad used the note as a downpayment on an old abandoned 40 acre farm located on Blythe Ave, between Kamm and Conejo, so February 15th 1946 I started attending Caruthers High School...

My early school days

Dick went to 19 different elementary schools - I went to ONE!. Lloyd Street School. Apart from the private catholic school, there was only one other public school and that actually was around the corner from where we lived on Dyffryn Road. But my parents had moved into this house three months after I was born and my older sister and two brothers had all attended Lloyd Street. Lloyd Street school was in the 'better' end of town, and my mother was horrified at my going to the local school (since is was in the 'not so classy' end of town), so she used the fact that it was important for me to follow in my sibling's footsteps and apparently they bought the story. The standard age for going to school (what you would consider first grade in this country) was 5, but I actually started when I was four. Again this was the influence of my parents - my father this time. Having the older brothers and sister, who I think saw me as a new 'toy', I learned to read at a very early age and because of this I was allowed to go to school earlier. My father loved to show me off - as I could read the news from the newspaper before starting school. When it was an opportunity to advance my learning, my dad was always there to fight the cause. He got me into the public library system at 4 instead of the customary 6, and then when I had read every book in the children's library, got me into the adult section at the age of 7 instead of the customary 10!

Lloyd Street school was about 3/4 mile from where we lived and I used to walk it alone every day. I find it amazing now looking back when I realize just how young I was. My father's sister Lily lived across from the school, so I went there at lunch time instead of walking home and back.

I was six years at Lloyd Street School and at the end of the sixth year, took what was known as the 'Scholarship'. Passing or failing this exam meant the difference between going to what was known as the Grammar School (higher education which would eventually lead to the sciences, higher english and math, etc), or going to the Central School (which would be the equivalent of a trade school here). There would be the profunctory English, Math, etc. but the boys would have machinery, woodworking, etc. and the girls would have Home Economics, Bookkeeping and Typing. If you failed the exam you could elect to go to the Grammar School, but you had to pay fees, so it was almost never done, except by the very wealthy.

The six years at this school all blend together in my mind and I have no idea when I learned specific things. This is so different from Louise and Dick, and we talked about that one day, realizing that they could tie a thing learned to a specific school (town) and so could pinpoint the grade. I and my one school, simply became one long experience and I can't split one year from the other.

The above pictures show my first with my Dad and sister Mair, and brothers Gordon and Gerald taken outside our house. The other one is just of the four of us and the oh-so-serious face is my first school picture.

I'm Back.....

After almost two weeks of battling computer problems and then photo problems, here we are back again reminiscing about our past. This is grandpa's turn and is talking about his elementary school days:

19 different elementary schools (followed by two high schools), show the moves the family made. Grade one was in two different schools in Delano followed by two different schools in Porterville, then yet another school (Keystone) in the L.A. area. Grade 2 was two more schools in the L.A. area (Torrence and Lameda) and the year finished out in two different schools in Porterville. 3rd grade was Delano again, and that started the 4th grade - but then on to Watts, Ripley and Pawnee Oklahoma. 5th grade was in Ripley, OK and then Dawson OK. 6th grade saw three more schools - New Britany, Oklahoma City in OK and then to Petaluma, Calif. 7th grade started in Petaluma and finished in Rich Grove. 8th grade had us back at Delano, where I started high school (9th grade) before finishing my education with 10th, 11th and 12th at Caruthers, Ca.

The First grade year started out a good one for the family financially. Dad had a good paying job, a new 1937 Pontiac, we had a great Christmas with lots of good toys, etc. The one negative during this time was I almost died of pneumonia. My parents even called a doctor (almost unheard of in those days). But the job ran out and we moved to Keystone. Out of work, the car was repossessed, Dad had to walk looking for work and one time we were down to our last meal. That night there was a knock on the door, but when we opened there was no one there, but three large bags of groceries. Things turned around after that and Dad found work and we moved to the Torrence/Lameda area.

But about four months into the second grade, that job ran out and we moved back to Porterville on the north side of town. Later moved to B street downtown and things turned sour again. There was little or no work and Bill and I covered the business district for cardboard boxes, then taking them to the bakery to get day old items just before they molded.

To raise extra money, Mom would bake donuts and I (known as little Dickie boy) would peddle them from door to door. A seven year old salesman made better money than the bigger kids.

Brother Jerry was born in a house one block from downtown and Aunt Edith came and helped take care of Mom She also helped financially. Grandpa Topper died at this time and my father felt badly that he could not return for the funeral but money was just too tight. Grandpa and Grandma Topper are shown in the photo above sitting side by side in the garden.

The third grade in Delano was a quiet 'normal' year. We paid no rent on the Mosier place, working the farm to offset it. We started the 4th grade there, but my mother had a strong sense that her 54 year old mother was dying. A hard working farmer's wife and mother of 13, they didn't live too long in those days. We all moved to Oklahoma . We arrived at Thanksgiving, at Watts Oklahoma where they lived (photo of their place is above). Also a photo of Grandpa and Grandma Craig. Grandma died within a few days of our arrival and we stayed for 3 to 4 weeks, then we moved to Ripley, Oklahoma - this was the area where both Mom and Dad had grown up and where many relatives still lived (see the group picture above).

Jobs were scarce so we moved up to Pawnee where my dad's brother Charles lived. To put food on the table and a roof over our heads Dad went to work for Uncle Charlie for $1.00 a day, sun up to sun down. Early summer saw us back in Ripley and Dad went north to the Dakotas to work in the grain harvest. The work started in the Dakotas and worked south, ending up around the end of July. He received his food, bed and $3.00/day - working from dawn to dark. But that was Big Money and Dad returned late summer with money left over.

I started 5th grade in Ripley Junior High, but late September dad got a job helping construct the Tulsa Bomber Plant. So off we went again, moving to Dawson, Oklahom (N. Tulsa). An 8 hour a day job and $1.30 an hour. WOW, we were rich!! For the first time I was able to get rid of the bib overalls and wear saddle pants. (See the photo of me above).

December 7th, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US was in the war for real. Before this we were just giving aid to Britain and Russia. I started the 6th grade in Dawson (the above photo is of my cousin Howard and I at this time), but within a few weeks the bomber plant was finished and all the workers moved to the Oklahoma City area for the new bomber plant. We wound up in New Brittany, then moved into Oklahoma City. But in late October the decision was made that the whole family (except Dad) would return to California and Dad would follow later.

See you later with the rest of the story.................